On Friday January 27, Family Literacy Day, staff, students, and parents at St. Raphael School participated in a variety of literacy workshops. Each workshop was linked to the importance of being able to read by such presenters as Roger Nash, Sudbury Poet Laureate, Mark Gentili, Managing Editor of the Northern Life, Emily MacMillan, Nickel District Conservation Authority, and Darren MacDonald of the Sudbury Star. Pictured is Brad Blackwell from Killarney-Shebanoning Outdoor Education Centre whose presentation was entitled “If Trees Could Talk”.
Category: Topic
Wild About Reading At St. Francis
St. Francis Catholic Elementary School took the time to highlight literacy within the building on January 27 to celebrate Family Literacy Day. Students had the opportunity to read to others during the day emphasizing that reading is an important skill and reading everyday helps to improve student achievement.
Mrs. Healy’s Full Day Kindergarten program read the book “Where the Wild Things Are?”. They worked on a illustration based on the story, watched the film about the movie and re-told the story to each other. St. Francis students are WILD about reading!
IXL Parent Lunch at St. Raphael Catholic Elementary School
Parents joined Grade 2 and 3 students at St Raphael School on January 24th for math stations, including practice together using IXL, a web-based math tool that both classes have home and school access to, as part of an action research project this year. Students and parents engaged in math talk and shared a pizza lunch.
St. Charles Catholic Elementary Take Part in the Knights Of Columbus Free Throw Competition
St. Charles Catholic Elementary School held the Knights of Columbus District Free Throw Competition this past weekend. Pictured are the first place winners from St. Charles Catholic Elementary who will advance to the Regional Competition in February for their age category. Congratulations and good luck at Regionals!
St. Anne Angels Become Gators for the Day
Five students from St. Anne Catholic School in Hanmer had an opportunity to see their future, and wear a Bishop Alexander Carter Secondary School Gator jersey at a recent feeder school event. BAC invited grade 8 students from St. Anne School to watch a spirit building hockey game at Centennial Arena, where their boys and girls hockey teams played againstt one another. It was an exciting and close game,finishing with a score of 3 – 2 for the boys hockey team.
St. David School and Better “B” Kids After School Program Make Composting a Regular Part of Their Day
St. David Catholic School students not only compost during their school day, but also continue the green initiative at the Better Beginnings After School Program. Originally, this composting initiative started in September 2010 by a small group of students and their teacher at St. David. Today, the students, staff and community members all work together to make composting a daily part of the school day.
The children learn about the value of composting in their classrooms and through Destination Conservation and Green initiative presentations. Food waste that is thrown out is trucked to the dump, and then incinerated, releasing toxic gasses into the atmosphere. By composting your waste you not only prevent this pollution, but create rich soil, which will be used at in the school’s community garden project.
“Composting is a topic that addresses a real-world issue and helps to instill a sense of environmental stewardship in our youth. It can be used for a wide range of scientific projects or experiments and can help students to see the interconnections between science and healthy lifestyle choices”, explains Terri Lynn Lepage, Destination Conservation lead teacher at St. David School.
St. David School Successfully Collaborates as a Interdisciplinary Team
St. David School staff collaboratively works as a team with support from school board personal, Jennifer Connelly, assistive technology teacher, on using assistive technology to support student achievement. The school teachers, principal, educational assistants, secretary and child and youth worker all attended an in-service on a new exciting computer program called Word Q. Word Q helps students develop confidence, improve productivity, increase self-esteem and foster a spirit of inclusion. The program assists by predicting words and providing speech feedback that allows students to hear their mistakes. “I appreciate its simplicity”, said Nancy Costanzi, resource teacher at St. David Catholic School and new WordQ expert.
St. Paul Says Good-bye to Bishop Simard
St. Paul the Apostle School celebrated the Eucharist with Bishop Noel Simard on Thursday January 19th in the the school gym. The school was fortunate to celebrate with the Bishop one last time before he leaves our diocese to become the Bishop of Valleyfield Quebec.The staff and students prepared small farewell gifts for Bishop Simard which he was thrilled to receive. He told everyone that he will cherish his memories of his time as the auxiliary Bishop and especially his time visiting schools and working together to promote Catholic Education.
A Place to Play, Learn, Laugh and Grow Together!
Immaculate Conception School has been chosen as a new site for the Valley East Outreach – Carrefour meilleur départ Hanmer Best Start program. On Monday, January 16th, Valley East Outreach hosted its kick-off event “Free Family Zumba” at Immaculate Conception School. Many families, toddlers to grandparents, came dressed and ready to “zumba-cise” with Zumba instructor, Chantale. All the parents, grandparents and children went home smiling and fully eneregized by the experience.
Carrefour Meilleur départ Hanmer hopes to get the word out to everyone that Immaculate Conception School will be offering new Valley East Outreach programs. The program will be delivered in English, however some French language activities will be offered during the outreach session.
Beginning on Thursday, February 2nd from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. the Valley East Outreach site at Immaculate Conception School will open its doors to families and offer Play Group activities. A variety of early learning activities will be offered to children and their parents/care givers. Parents/care givers will appreciate the opportunity to network with other parents and learn simple literacy and numeracy activities to play with their children at home. In addition, a wide variety of free workshops, programs and services will also be offered to parents/caregivers at this site. The Valley East Outreach site will offer families a place to meet, learn, grow and have fun together. If you are interested in learning more about the Valley East Outreach program, please contact Kim MacDonald, Carrefour practitioner, at 705-969-8888 and Louisa Bianchin, Principal, at 705-897-4483.