This year’s Battle of the Books competition resulted in Sudbury Catholic Schools taking two of the top three spots! Corpus Christi succeeded in capturing First place and St. Christopher finished in Third place. Congratulations to all of our schools that participated!
Category: Topic
St. David Holds Welcome to Kindergarten Event
New registrant Bella and her mother learned all about letters and numbers at St. David Catholic School’s annual Welcome to Kindergarten event. Parents and the future St. David’s graduating class of 2019 had the opportunity to take a school bus ride, read books together, make a craft and practice writing their names during this introduction to a day in the life of a JK student. Starting in September JK will be offered full time every day and new registrations are always accepted at any of the Sudbury Catholic District School Board’s elementary schools.
Sudbury Star Photographer Visits Corpus Christi
Sudbury Star photographer Gino Donato was invited to visit the Gr. 2 students at Corpus Christi school in order to help students gain a better understanding of the importance of the 5 W’s when writing an interesting newspaper article. He also taught the class that a good photo adds good details. His daughter Livea, posed with him. Livea is holding up her own newspaper article in which she wrote about a bear in her backyard. Gino Donato, her dad had brought in a portfolio filled with his work. He managed to find a very special photo. He held up his photo in which he captured the very same bear in his backyard. What a team!
St. Andrew Hosts Esso Family Math Night
Two primary classrooms were buzzing with activity recently as the St. Andrew School Council hosted an ESSO Math Night for the families of children from grades JK to 3. Over 65 people were in attendance. Each child worked with a parent, grandparent or aunt to complete fun “math activities”. Mrs. Emily Sheppard, the vice chair of the St. Andrew Catholic School Council, researched, organized and prepared everything for the evening. Several volunteers from Academic Services and 2 from the New Sudbury Best Start Hub led everyone in the activities. At the end of the evening each child left with a generous gift bag filled with math manipulatives and instructions of activities to do at home.
MMA Flag Football Teams Played Strong in Toronto Tournament
It was a great two days of football for the Marymount A and B teams on May 13 and 14 as they took part in the 2010 Danny Bob Invitational Girls Flag Football Tournament in Toronto. Despite the teams’ football season already being over in November, the girls ran a few practices at the beginning of May and headed to Toronto to take part in this tournament for the second year in a row. The Marymount A team included senior girls and the B team was comprised mostly of Grades 8, 9, and 10 girls. Twenty teams took part in the two days of football and other Sudbury teams included girls from Lasalle Secondary and Notre Dame College. At the end of the tournament, the Marymount A team finished strong and took home the Second place trophy. Danny Bob, organizer of the event was thrilled with the Marymount contingent and told the Regals’ coach, Matthew Wiecha that he was impressed with the strength of the A team and the spirit and work ethic of the B team. He also invited some of the Marymount players to join him for tournaments in Florida, the Domenican and other parts of the USA as he coaches a traveling girls flag football team that is made up of players from all over the province. Coach Matthew Wiecha was thrilled with the teams’ performances againstt all of the teams and is already looking forward to next year’s tournament.
Retired SCDSB Teacher Looking for a Challenge
Retired teacher Peter Stankiewicz is doing just that on June 12 &13th. He will be biking 200 km from Toronto to Niagara Falls in The Ride to Conquer Cancer. “This trek is nothing like the challenge to battle cancer,” Stankiewicz says, “but through this ride I can do my part in this fight againstt a killer disease that has taken so many lives including those of many fellow teachers over the years as well as taking many teachers out of the classroom as they battle this disease.”
Training for the Physical Challenge
Peter is biking 30-50 km each day and occasionally rides 65 km plus. However it is the challenge of fundraising that is equally daunting. Peter needs to raise $2500 in donations before embarking on the Ride to Conquer Cancer. All proceeds will be going to The Princess Margaret which is one of the top 5 cancer research centres in the world. It is estimated that 1 out of every 4 Canadians will die from cancer and 40% of women and 45% of men in Canada will develop cancer in their lifetime. Those that wish to can help him to meet this challenge by contributing to the cause where the money will be used to help support critical cancer research. Donations may be placed at www.conquercancer.ca by clicking on donate now then typing in his name then click on the name when it appears which will take you to his home page. Receipts will be issued for donations of $10 or more.
A Day in the Life… at SCDSB
The following is the reflection of French Catholic Student Keenan Lachance who had the opportunity to spend some time with SCDSB staff “job-shadowing” on Friday, May 14, 2010.
My day Job Shadowing Gina Tullio (communications officer) and Jennifer Connelly (technology integration mentor) was a great experience! The job kept me busy,interested and on the move all day long. There was never a dull moment! We got to visit St. David’s and St. Raphael’s to take pictures for a stop-motion video of the “Seven Grandfather Teachings”. Many tasks were assigned to me, like taking pictures and making slideshows, which allowed me to get great hands on experience with technology. Both Jennifer and Gina were positive, spirited and generous in sharing their duties with me. I’m very grateful that I chose to shadow them and if the opportunity to visit them should arise again, I would definitely go for another day. A big thanks to all Sudbury Catholic District School Board employees who made my “shadow”experience so memorable.
Keenan Lachance, 7th grade student at St-Paul, Lively
SCDSB Participates in “Triple P” Training
Educators from the Sudbury Catholic District School Board took part in Triple P Training (Positive Parenting Program) recently which provides participants with an overview of the nature and significance of child behaviour problems. The training also familiarizes participants with the principles of effective parent consultation. Educators were also guided though an exercise to assist in the identification of available and effective parenting services and resources in their communities as a starting point for increasing support networks.
Knit One, Purl Two… Learning New Skills at S.C.C.
“I’m a knitting machine,” student Andrea Van Bekkum exclaimed when asked about her new found skill. The St. Charles College Lifeskills class invited teacher Elizabeth Szilva’s mother, Betty Szilva in to teach the students the skill of knitting. “In conversation with my mother, I got the idea that knitting might be a great experience for the kids,” Szilva said. “It is a lost art – and can be a great way to work on the students’ fine motor skills, expand their socialization skills and also learn how to deal with frustration.” They then came up with a class project to create a “crazy quilt”. Each student works on their individual piece and then Mrs.(Betty) Szilva takes the finished pieces home and crochets them together. For those that can, the students sit around in a knitting circle and their teacher explains that this is also a great exercise in working on their conversation skills. For other in the class, different adaptions are made to allow them to participate in the knitting, for instance those that need arm support sit in front of a desk in order to better support their arms. Students who require even more assistance dictate their knitting instructions to the teacher or educational assistant working with them and the staff member carries out their knitting task. Mrs. (Betty) Szilva inspired some of the more reluctant boys to start knitting by telling them the story of famous Montreal Canadian goalie Jacques Plante who learned to knit from his mother and later used this skill to relax himself between games. The students are allowed to take their piece home to work on and have recruited help from their mothers and grandmothers. With a huge grin, student Brandon Brown laughed when asked about his new-found skills. “I like knittin’,” Brown replied, and continued on with his needles and wool, eager to continue on his project.