Pius XII Catholic Elementary School celebrate National Flag Day. Flag Day is marked annually February 15, ever since the flag first flew over Parliament Hill in Ottawa in 1965. As part of Spirit Week, the students and staff entered the school wearing red, white and maple leafs, representing the Canadian flag. Vice Principal, Tina Timpano says that ‘we just want people to take a moment and recognize the flag, a sign that gives us peace and unity and to be proud Canadians.” A special thank you to Private Scott Barbe, who brought a Canadian Flag to Pius school to be displayed at the main office.
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National Flag Day at St. Andrew
The staff and students of St. Andrew School celebrated National Flay Day on February 15. On this date in 1965 the Canadian flag was first raised over Parliament Hill. Everyone at St. Andrew Catholic Elementary School showed their pride in their flag and country by wearing read and white. At 1pm all viewed a beautiful slide show of Canadian scenes and sang a rousing rendition of O’ Canada.
St. David Students Learn About the Lenten Season
To mark the start of Lent, St. David Catholic Elementary School Grade 1 students, Zach Munoz and Isabelle Fraser, took part in an Ash Wednesday service by being marked with the symbolic sign of the cross. Teacher Jennifer Gran’s grade 4/5 class organized and helped prepare the celebration. According to Grade 6 student, Katie MacLean, “Today’s Ash Wednesday celebration helped me better understand how important it is remember the sacrifices Jesus made for us. I think it is important that we learn how to treat one another with kindness and respect and appreciate how much we have.”
During the Lenten season, students at St. David Catholic Elementary School will be participating in reflective activities and lessons about who they really are as growing Catholic citizens. The ashes serve as a reminder of actions they are sorry for and of the importance of making good choices. Father Brendan Doherty, from Christ the King Parish, conducted the celebration for the school and local community members. Father Brendan spoke about how Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent and that it is a season of penance, reflection, and fasting which prepares us for Christ’s Resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Celebrating Mardi Gras at St. Bernadette
The Grades 4 and 5/6 classes at St. Bernadette Catholic Elementary School celebrated Mardi Gras on Tuesday, February 12th. These French Immersion students discussed the history of the celebration, and its importance to their French Catholic culture. Students took part in the celebration by creating their very own Mardi Gras masks and partaking in a feast of homemade pancakes before beginning a fast for Lent.
98…99…100 Days of School Celebrated at St. Raphael
On Friday, February 8, 2013, many students at St. Raphael Catholic Elementary School celebrated the 100th day of school. Students took part in a variety of activities that demonstrated the importance of the day. Some of these activities included counting to 100, writing 100 words from around the classroom, crafting with 100 items, investigating collections of 100 items, eating 100 food choices and many others. Both students and staff felt that it was truly a great day!
100 Days of School Celebration at St. Paul Catholic Elementary
Students in teacher Lisa Wright’s French Immersion Senior Kindergarten class at St. Paul Catholic Elementary School celebrated the 100th day of school in a BIG way on Thursday, February 7th! Several children and Mme Wright came to school dressed as centenarians. The afternoon was spent with special guests , moms, dads, grandmas and grandpas. A lot of fun was had at each of the 100th day centres which included:
1) Working as a team to stack 100 plastic cups
2) Roll the dice to 100 game
3) Making a portrait of what they will look like at 100 years old.
4) Making a 100th Day party hat
5) Snack bag of 100 “goodies”.
Students were disappointed to learn that the school year ends before the 200th day. They were looking forward to another big celebration.
Jeans for Teens at MMA
Through the organization dosomething.org, the Aeropostale clothing company has initiated a competition for Canadian secondary schools. Trying to make a difference for homeless teens, Aeropostale is challenging schools to collect the most number of jeans to support the teen clientele at homeless shelters across the nation. According to the website dosomething.org, the number one requested item at homeless shelters by teens is jeans. Marymount student Brooke Debassige who works at the Sudbury Aeropostale store was inspired by this contest and knew that her school would step up and take part in this initiative. After talking to both her principal Lucie Cullen and vice principal Lori Holden, the school launched its own Jeans for Teens collection. “It is the least we can do for others who are less fortunate in our local and surrounding communities,” Debassige stated. “At Marymount we are always encouraged to support each other and give back to the community, and I knew this was something that we should definitely be a part of – plus, it just feels good to do something good for others.”
Principal Lucie Cullen was inspired by Debassige’s idea. “Brooke came to us right away with this idea and we knew immediately that it was something that we would support as a school,” Cullen stated. “Marymount strives to support social justice initiatives and we are very proud of Brooke for bringing this forward so that we could participate as a school.”
After counting the jeans already collected on Friday, February 8th, Marymount Academy had over 600 pairs of jeans for donation. The Jeans for Teens collection will be ongoing until February 25, 2013 and the school is asking the community to help them with their collection and to drop off any new or gently used jeans to Marymount Academy located at 165 D’Youville St. before February 25, 2013.
The winning school will receive a $10,000 prize, Aeropostale hoodies with the school logo, and a party for the students.
100 Days Smarter at Pius XII Catholic Elementary School
The Care and Development and Kindergarten students, parade the hallways of Pius XII Catholic Elementary School and sing ‘We Made It’ as they celebrated 100 Days of School. While parading, Kindergarten student, Emma Lafontaine says ‘I can’t believe I’m 100 days smarter today’! During this day, the students focus on activities with the number 100 — math, reading and physical activity games.
Marymount Academy Part of Successful World Record Attempt
Students and staff from Marymount Academy received word the last week of January that their participation in the attempt to set the World Record for the Largest Practical Science Lesson at Multiple Venues this past October was a success. The event had a record number of participants – over 17,000 Canadians at 121 different locations across the country taking part in the science lesson. After reviewing all the information, data and video submitted, Guinness has confirmed that the record was in fact set and the attempt was successful. As some events and data were exempt, the official total of participants is 12, 701 and 88 different locations. Students at Marymount Academy had the opportunity to participate and teacher Lise Callahan organized the event for the grade 7,8,10 and 12 students.
“It was a really unique event for our students,” Callahan stated. “Just at the school level, our students really jumped on board and had a lot of fun working through the experiments and applying their science knowledge. Having learned that Marymount Academy’s participation in such a large record setting attempt was successful, it makes our the event even that much more exciting on a much, much bigger scale! Working through all of the set up, organization and follow-up, being a part of the inclusion into the Guinness Book of World Records definitely makes it all worth while!”