Sudbury Catholic District School Board

Category: Parents/Parent Involvement

Family Literacy Day Brings Families into Schools

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Family Literacy Day centres around having fun while learning. To celebrate, the Junior Kindergarten students at St. David Catholic School read books and drew pictures of their favorite characters with their families. All families read, laughed and enjoyed each other’s company while talking about literacy and better developing oral language skills.

Pictured is four year old Kadin Demers reading his favorite story with his dad Matt. When asked about the best part of Family Literacy Day, Kadin excitedly responded, “reading the melting story with Daddy, having hot chocolate and wearing my pajama’s to school”!

After the children read with their parents, they had the opportunity to show their family members their performance portfolios which contain all their “best work”. The students were able to explain why they chose those pieces for their portfolios.

Lindsay Michel, junior kindergarten teacher states, “It was beautiful to see families reading their favorite books and hearing the students using terms like ‘author’ and ‘illustrator’. The students were very excited to share their hard work in their performance portfolios and speak with their families about what they have been learning. Today, it was a wonderful to see the students and their families share in the joy and appreciation of learning literacy. You could feel that real sense of community that we have at St. David – I was very proud of our students and truly enjoyed the positive relationship building opportunity Family Literacy Day offers schools”.

Breaking Bread – B.A.C.C.S.S. Annual Breakfast Club with Parents

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For the second year in a row, students and staff of Bishop Alexander Carter Catholic Secondary School invited parents and community partners to join them at the school’s morning breakfast club program on December 9th, 2010 to see how the program is growing in leaps and bounds. The school’s chaplain, Jennifer Geddes helps with the set up, cooking and clean-up for the program and is enthusiastic about its growth. “Compared to last year, the breakfast programs now feeds approximately 1/4 of the school each and every day.” Geddes stated. B.A.C.C.S.S. teacher Dennis Duchaine really feels it is making a different in the performance of many of the students. “I see big changes in a lot of the kids, “Duchaine said. “ They are more alert and are participating so much more because they are no longer tired and hungry – having the breakfast available to them makes it easy to fuel themselves in order for them to learn. Even teacher participation has grown and staff are often found in the breakfast club room, helping out and ‘breaking bread’ with students and fellow co-workers.” The school invited parents and community partners in to show them how positively the program impacts the students and allows them to see the difference it is making for the school.

Pyjama Day at St. Bernadette

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It was a day of comfort and fun for the students and staff of St. Bernadette Catholic Elementary School as Friday, November 12 was pyjama day. Students were encouraged to come to school in their comfiest pyjamas for the St. Bernadette spirit day as well as to promote bedtime reading. “What better way to celebrate and promote bedtime reading for the students with their parents than with a pyjama day?” asked Diana Salvador, Principal of the school. “We always encourage students to read with their parents and guardians at home and know that the students really benefit when this shared reading takes place.” When asked if they enjoyed the day, several students responded that they wished everyday was pyjama day!

St. Mary Students Take Part in Health Awareness Workshop

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Students at St. Mary Catholic Elementary School had the opportunity to attend a Health Awareness Workshop on Friday, November 12, 2010. With flu season here, Gen Waszczylo, Principal of the school felt that it was important for her students to be reminded of healthy hygiene practices. “We want to instill in the students proper hygiene habits and are very fortunate to have established community partnerships with experts in this field, willing to share with us their knowledge.” Waszczylo said. Ashley Laperriere, a Public Health Inspector with the Sudbury and District Health Unit spoke to the students about avoiding germs as well as the importance of proper handwashing. As well, Sheryl Sasseville, owner of Sudbury Dental Hygiene demonstrated the technique for correct tooth brushing. At the end of the presentation, all of the students receive a “goodie bag” of personal hygiene products promoting all that they had learned from the two demonstrations.

MMA Hosts Second Annual Parent Breakfast

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The gym was filled to capacity as Marymount Academy hosted its second annual Parent Breakfast on October 27, 2010. From 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. students and parents/guardians had the opportunity to enjoy breakfast, meet staff and learn a bit more about different MMA initiatives. The breakfast was put on by the school’s parent council and staff and allowed parents to meet some of their daughters’ teachers as well as talk to some of the students who are involved in school programs such as Student Council, Girls Athletic Association and Marymount Catholic Charities Council. Also on hand were members of the Parent Council who had several support books on hand for interested parents looking to read more about school and family related issues. School mascot A-Roar-a made an appearance and the morning proved to be “a-roar-ing” success!

New Life at St. James School

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Students at St. James Catholic Elementary school had the unique opportunity this past month to witness the hatching of baby ducks. Grade 5 student, Danielle Battistelli has a love for ducks so her family offered the school a whole kit including eggs, an incubator and all supplies and equipment needed in order to hatch some duck eggs. The school jumped at this chance to show students the miracle of new life and within a few weeks time the first batch of eggs hatched. Everyday at lunch, Battistelli and her friends set up a demonstration and are available to answer questions regarding the new hatchlings. As well, these students contribute to the morning announcements calling themselves “The Hatchers” and give daily updates on the ducklings. There have been eight ducks born so far and some students were lucky enough to witness the eggs cracking and seeing the ducks emerge. All of the new ducklings have been named and some of these names include Bubbles, Twitter and Chezabell. The Battistelli’s have contributed a few more eggs and when the first set of ducklings are ready to bring back to their house to be raised as pets, there will be a whole new set of ducklings for the students to observe. Grade One teacher Sarah Pappin found her students to be positively amazed by the whole process. “My students were absolutely awestruck when they saw the eggs hatch,” Pappin said. “They were speechless at first, and then couldn’t stop talking about how excited they were to see real baby ducks hatch.” Pappin explained that this was a fantastic opportunity for all the students at St. James to work with community partners, and families and have a hands on experience with new life.

St. Anne’s Parent Going Above and Beyond to Support School Community

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At all of the schools at the Sudbury Catholic District School Board, one can find many parents who go that extra mile to ensure that the students and staff have all that they need for great, fun, safe school days. One such parent that fits this bill is Todd Connors. Connors is a parent of a grade 8 student at St. Anne Catholic Elementary School in Hanmer and is the Regional Operations Manager of Perkins Restaurants. Todd is continuously supporting St. Anne not only with different supplies, but also by finding time to fit volunteering at the school in his busy schedule. As Regional Operations Manger of Perkins, he often donates many different food supplies to the school including pancake mix, muffin mix, crackers, soups, juice etc and in large enough quantities to feed the entire school! As well, he has donated season tickets to the Sudbury Wolves games for the school to enhance their student recognition programs such as “I caught you doing something good”. Laura Stirrett, Vice Principal of the school feels that Connors is an excellent example of positive parent involvement as well as a great example of how community can work together with schools building strong partnerships. “Mr. Connors is an important part of our school.” said Stirrett. “With his generous donations, he has helped eased some of the fund-raising burdens on students especially during these difficult financial times. We are very grateful for all that Mr. Connors has done and does for our school!” Cheryl Macrury, the JK/SK teacher at the school had her students write a letter to Mr. Connors on behalf of the school to express their gratitude for all that he has done for them. St. Anne’s would like to thank Mr. Connors and Perkins Restaurant for really making a difference in their school community.

The letter includes these lines from the JK/SK students:

Dear Mr. Connors,
Thank you for the pancake mix and syrup
for our pancake breakfast. They were EXCELLENT!!
They tasted YUMMY!!! You always give us awesome
treats for our special celebrations. We wan to thank
you for everything you do for our class and for our school.
We love it and we love YOU!

Love,
JK-SK

St. Christopher Holds Successful Family Literacy Night & Book Fair

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On Thursday, February 25th/10 St. Christopher School held its annual Family Literacy Night and Book Fair. Thanks to the efforts of staff and students, the evening was a resounding success. In particular, St. Christopher’s would like to acknowledge the efforts of Mr. Dumont’s Grade 6 class who read and dramatized various stories with great flair. Also, a special thank you to Mrs. Zilio for co-ordinating and organizing the Book Fair and to the many parents who gave of their time to volunteer and assist.

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