As part of their Catholic Education Week activities, students from St. Benedict’s outdoor education program hit the water on Silver Lake early to practice some of their canoing skills on May 5, 2011. In order to prepare for their four day canoe trip later in the month, the St. Ben’s students manned their canoes and worked on their paddling techniques around the lake. Eighteen students will be traveling to Kukagami Lake for their four day trip and Outdoor Education teacher Pat Morris makes sure that each student is confident in their abilities before they leave embark on their excursion. Morris explained how the outdoor education program at St. Benedict really allows students to connect to the outdoor world, and the students learn to become cognizant of their impact on the environment through this program. “ When we are working on our outdoor ed. skills, we look at what we bring to the space and what we leave behind,” Morris stated. “Even when we come to Silver Lake to practice, we do a garbage clean up of the launch site before we hit the water, and make sure that when we leave, the space is exactly as it should be – nothing left behind – this way our students develop a deep respect for our earth.” Catherine McCullough visited the students as they practiced canoeing and spoke to the strength of the program at St. Benedict and its impact on the school and community. “These students really understand the importance of being stewards of the earth,” McCullough said. “This program really develops our students as leaders in the environment, and it is a connection that they bring to the community and beyond.”

Students in Mrs. Low’s grade one class coloured and constructed a map of Canada as part of their Catholic Education Week activities.
 
Many students had parents and grandparents on hand to assist with the decorating.
 
Students also entertained the crowd with a class concert comprised of their hit songs from music class such as “Baby Bumblebee” and “On Top of Spaghetti”.

On Wednesday May 4, the Grade 3 students from St. Theresa Catholic School went to Chapter’s/Starbucks to recite their recently individually composed poems. Many parents and family members were in attendance and enjoyed the reading done by the students. These students will have fond memories of this outing for years to come.

Recently students at Corpus Christi Catholic Elementary School wore green to support the Board’s Gift of Life initiative.

Staff and students at St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School held a Gift of Life day to support the Board’s Gift of Life initiative. T-shirts with “Life Life then Give Life” are being sold to raise awareness about the importance of organ donation.

Students in the Early Learning Kindergarten Program at St. Raphael School professed their love of their mothers with a show stopping performance on May 3rd. The students sang songs and recited poems in honour of their dear mommies. Afterwards they sipped on tea and munched on snacks together. Some students were fortunate enough to have generations of moms together in the room – with grandmothers, and even great grandmothers in attendance.

The presentations left many moms with tears of joy. No one left empty-handed as there were many special crafts and tokens of appreciation.

St. David Catholic School learned “it’s OK to learn in a different way” today when the Learning Disabilities Association of Sudbury did school wide presentations to the staff and students. Angie DeMarco, community outreach worker for the Association, based her primary grade presentation on the Warner Bros. movie “Happy Feet”. “Students were provided with messages of understanding, tolerance and appreciation of their peers who learn a different way”, stated Learning Resource Teacher and presentation organizer, Cathy Dore. Dore also stated that throughout the presentations “were messages about bullying and respecting the unique and special characteristics each of us possesses”.

St. David School is celebrating the value of empathy this month and the presentations complimented the school’s daily messages of appreciation for each others special gifts and talents. The intermediate grades participated in an interactive workshop, presented by DeMarco, that not only provided awareness about learning disabilities, it also had students experience processing challenges that increase empathy and understanding. It is through the exposure to the many quirky experiences that students arrive at the conclusion that, “a different way of learning can lead to success”.

Students in Miss O’Reilly’s grade two class at St. Raphael School had a Poetry Café to celebrate their writing achievements this year.
 
Every student had an opportunity to stand up and be heard at the microphone.
 
Here is a sample of one student’s work on “How to Heal a Broken Heart”:
 
If you want to heal a broken heart,
First you need to give it some love to heal the first crack.
Next you need a hug to make the person happy.
That’s another way to heal a crack.
Then you can make a card to cheer them up.
It also heals a crack.
Of course, you need to be polite to the person or they will not like you.
That definitely heals a crack.
 
By:  Sabrina Folz

Grade 2 students at St. John Catholic School recently made their math thinking visible during a Three Part Math Lesson. The lesson structure actively engaged students in their learning and allowed for the development of mathematics in their classroom community.
To get started students activated their prior knowledge by arranging various coins from least to greatest. Groups of students were then challenged to solve the following problem: Mrs. Roque has five coins in her pocket. Mrs. Smith has six coins in her pocket. Mrs. Roque has more money than Mrs. Smith but neither has more than 100 cents. How much money could each teacher have? Students were encouraged to use a variety of strategies to justify their solutions and communicate their thinking so that others would understand their answers. St. John Principal, Tricia Dowdall-Cerilli recognizes the importance of hands-on learning and sees value in having the students work with a variety of learning tools. “In order for students to really make that connection, we know that it is so important to have many learning options available for our students – as not every student learns in the same way,” Dowdall-Cerilli stated. “By providing these options, we are supporting the success of our learners.”