On March 25, St. Raphael students in Mrs. Low’s grade one class were wishing for spring by making beautiful kites in an array of colours.

Mrs.Visentin’s junior kindergarten students at St.Francis celebrated St. Patrick’s Day before their March break and students wore green clothing to school and their leprechaun hats to wish a “top of the morning” to all. The students made leprechaun puppets, dramatized rhymes, listened to Irish music and even did a little jig to celebrate the luck of the Irish. Students also learned about St. Patrick and how the saint taught the people of Ireland about God many years ago.

Mrs. Boudreau’s class is in charge of the St. Raphael Conservation program this year and as part of their efforts, they are trying to reduce lunch waste, divert dead batteries from our landfills and reduce electricity by reminding people to turn their lights off when they are not in use.

The program is part of the school board “SCDSB Conservation Challenge” and the winning school can win up to 15-hundred dollars for re-greening the school landscape.

Shrove Tuesday with more than 800 pancakes drizzled with syrup…

Shrove Tuesday
Fat Tuesday
Fettisdagen
Mardi Gras
Fastnacht
Sprengidagur
Apocreas

It doesn’t matter what you call it, it was definitely a morning to fatten up heading into Lent at St. Raphael School. All the students packed into the gymnasium to enjoy pancakes dripping with syrup.

On Wednesday, students will celebrate the first day of Lent with an Ash Wednesday Service with Deacon Steve Callaghan and the St. Charles College Choir.

Students in Miss O’Reilly’s grade two class are showcasing their book reports this week in the form of “book floats”.  The students are presenting a book they read in a more three-dimensional way known as story dioramas. 
 
Miss. O’Reilly says that lots of the other students at St. Raphael’s have been busy working on bridge projects, science fair projects, and heritage fair projects and her kids wanted to take something big on and feel a sense of ownership too. 
 

St. Charles College hosted the SCC Cards Classic 7/8 Boys Basketball tournament recently.
The St. Francis A team came in 1st, 2nd place went to Felix Ricard, 3rd place went to MacDonald Cartier and in 4th place was St. Charles Elementary.

Congratulations goes out to all participants!

Students from St. Mary Catholic Elementary School and Marymount Academy took part in the 15th Annual Professional Engineers Ontario Bridge Building Competition this past week. St. Mary was represented with eight teams and Marymount Academy had four teams registered for the competition. For several of the students, this was their first time taking part in such an event and were excited to see their bridges put to the test. The students’ bridges were put to the test to see how much of a load they could take before they broke, which for some, was the most exciting part of the whole event. Top results for the two schools include Nathan Paul and Riley Talbot from St. Mary who placed fourth and Victoria Dryland from Marymount Academy who placed fifth. Congratulations to all the teams for your efforts and creativity!

With the launch of Full-Day Early Learning Kindergarten programs across Ontario this past fall, administration at the Sudbury Catholic felt it was important to link the Board’s commitment to technology to the new Early Learning Environments set up for the 4 and 5 year old students. As established by the Ministry of Education, the goals of the Full Day Early Learning program are to establish a strong foundation for the early years through a play-based learning environment as well as to improve a child’s prospect for success in school and beyond. Nicole Snow, Superintendent of School Effectiveness spearheaded an iPad pilot project for the Sudbury Catholic Early Learning classrooms. It was felt that the iPads in the classroom allow for the teachers and Early Childhood Educators to work together to set the students on a very positive trajectory for learning.
“This project has a two pronged approach with a focus on student learning as well as teacher/ECE efficacy,” Snow stated. “Not only will the students have an excellent opportunity to learn while playing – one of the six fundamental principals of the ELKP, the teachers and ECE’s will also have an important tool that helps track assessments, data and growth for each of the students.” Snow also explains that through the use of the iPads, the teachers and ECEs will have the opportunity to expose their students to a unique way to explore, discover and grow while being able to evaluate and assess the child’s progress.
Catherine McCullough, Director of Education for the Board strongly supports this project and feels that it is an exceptional opportunity for both the students as well as the staff. “This iPad pilot project allows our young students to develop curiosity, creativity and confidence through technology which speaks to the whole Early Learning philosophy of play-based learning,” McCullough stated. “I am proud that our Board supports our strategic commitment of living a culture of technology and this project is an outstanding example of putting the needs and successes of our students first.”
Each Sudbury Catholic Early Learning classroom will be equipped with a set of iPads, a MacBook, a printer and a digital camera as well as having access to wireless Internet. All of the ipads have been set up with numerous apps that will allow for maximum student learning as well as for teacher/ECE assessment purposes.
All Sudbury Catholic Early Learning Teachers and ECE’s were in-serviced on the iPads and will begin to implement them in their classes as early as March 2. For more information on this pilot program, please contact the Sudbury Catholic District School Board at (705) 673-5620.