That’s why Sudbury Catholic Schools is pleased to invite you to register for our upcoming wellness webinar in January. At this webinar, two outstanding guest presenters will tackle this topic and provide coping strategies for dealing with stress.
Alina Rukkila MSW, RSW and Jessie Jones CYW will lead us through an engaging session on dealing with the different types of stress and provide helpful strategies and tips we can incorporate to help us manage it when it happens.
We all know that not all types of stress are bad. Good types of stress can help you focus, ensure you meet your daily challenges, and encourage you to reach specific goals you have for yourself. However, it’s essential to understand the difference between good and harmful types of stress. Over time, a continued strain on the body put on from stress can get the best of you. It’s paramount to identify the causes of daily stress and manage the intensity of these feelings. By knowing healthy coping strategies, we can enjoy life and learn happily.
November 1-7 is Treaties Recognition Week, an important time of year where Ontario students acknowledge and learn about treaties as well as the histories, perspectives, and contributions of First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples.
The Sudbury Catholic District School Board (SCDSB) is celebrating its participation in Treaties Recognition Week. This year, we honour Indigenous histories, perspectives, and contributions through meaningful lessons, presentations, readings, events and celebrations for students and staff at all our schools.
School Highlights
St. John
At St. John Catholic Elementary School, students in Mrs. Galipeau’s class learned about wampum belts in an activity where they could make their own belts out of Lego. Students in Grade 5 and 6 created the 1764 Treaty of Niagara wampum belt. Pictured are Nathan and Olivia, Jaguar students proudly showcasing their class’s completed belt. Wampum belts represent agreements and promises that last “as long as the sun shines and rivers flow”.
On Nov. 2nd, Grade 2 students in Mrs. Child’s class at St. Charles Catholic Elementary School read “Dakota Talks About Treaties.” Afterwards, they created a word web to describe what the word “treaty” means. Also, reading a story was Ms. Trudeau and Ms. D’Angelo’s class! “A Family Cookout” was read to help students explore measuring objects. Afterwards, Ms. Trudeau led an engaging lesson on making bannock where students used their knowledge in a real-life context. However, reading wasn’t the only popular activity. Mrs. Blakely’s grade 1 class learned all about the medicine wheel, smudged, made wampum belts and created their very own classroom treaty.
At St. David, a school-wide activity was implemented in preparation for the week. The Grade 5 class mapped the forested area in an educational exercise that touched on Indigenous identity, history, and ways of being. In an abundance of activities, students learned about treaties, promises, wampum belts and what it means to be indigenous. The school listened to “The Drum Calls Softly” and students created versions of the artwork in the video.
Over at Pius, Treaty Recognition Week was in full force. The school’s Grade 6 students took part in a lesson that included constructing their own Wampum commitment string. Wampum commitment string symbolizes an agreement of respect and peace. Collectively, all the strings will attach and form a family circle to honour Treaty Week.
To commemorate Treaty Week, the students in Grade 2/3 FI at St. James explored the significance of wampum belts as representations of promises that were made to last. They recreated the Treaty of Niagara wampum belt with Legos and other materials and mapped out some of our province’s treaties.
St. Benedict’s kicked off Treaty Recognition Week with Smudging available to students and staff. Classes participated in the Treaty Awareness dialogue. For example, Treaty is ‘Legally Binding’ and that there is also a ‘Sacred Element’ to the agreements. In addition, the school’s Life Skills Class learned and designed a Wampum Treaty Belt of their choosing. Tobacco was offered to our Indigenous Support Worker, Ms. Agowissa, for knowledge sharing. “We Are All Treaty People and are in the Robinson Huron Treaty region.”
Other highlights included secondary students participating in the Robinson Huron Treaty “Treaty Talks with Tomorrow’s Leaders”. Students were able to listen to different Ogimaak/Chiefs from RHT communities share treaty knowledge past, present and future about ‘Gweksijigewin’ (making things right). This knowledge was applied on Friday, Nov. 5th, with presentations from the students.
It truly is very exciting to see what beautiful things our schools are doing to honour this essential part of the learning experience. Thank you to all our staff and community leaders, who took the time to capture and share some of the many wonderful things they were able to participate in this week. For more school activity updates, check out Indigenous Education SCDSB.
They just submitted their video to smash a world record!
Skills Ontario is excited to announce a new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS attempt event. We would like to invite everyone to participate in making history by helping them to break the record for Largest Online Video Chain of People Passing and Using a Screwdriver!
The call went out yesterday to Sudbury Catholic staff and students to help Skills Ontario. Both staff and students have been eagerly participating. Kent MacNeill, remote learning teacher assigned the challenge to all his grade 7 & 8 science students!
Anyone of any age, across the province can join the fun! Skills Ontario’s minimum goal is to receive 251 individual video submissions.
All participants must sign a photo/video release form when uploading their video. Participants 18 years and younger must have a parent/guardian sign the form.
All participants will be added into a draw for a chance to win 1 of 20 $50 prizes!
Congratulations to Mrs. Beaton and her Kindergarten class for their grant proposal being accepted by WWF-Canada! Pius XII School has been awarded one of WWF-Canada’s Go Wild School Grants. This Spring, the school will work towards transforming their courtyard into an outdoor learning space where the Pius community can connect with nature and nurture Indigenous teachings!
Stay tuned to hear more about how the Kindergarten class is helping nature thrive with #WWFGoWild!
Students at Sudbury Catholic Schools completed another year of summer learning this month! 60 students from Kindergarten to Grade 3 completed the three-week Summer Learning Program at St. David School from July 8 – July 26, 2019.
Students participated in a literacy and numeracy program, which supported students in improving their skills at their own pace. The program also featured various activities centered around Indigenous culture. The program was led by both classroom teachers and camp counsellors, providing a full educational team to participating students. Through the online tool and app Lexia, teachers and counsellors were able to provide a visual experience for both the literacy and numeracy components, and students are able to continue to access their account from home throughout the summer.
As in past years, each morning began with a physical activity which helped to energize students and build confidence so that they were ready to learn. This year, the group participated in Zumba sessions provided by Zumba Vibe.
The Board is thrilled with student participation in this year’s Summer Learning Program.
“The work and effort that goes into making the summer learning program a success each year is truly inspiring,” said Joanne Bénard, Director of Education at the Sudbury Catholic District School Board. “With the right tools, support and amazing staff, participating students were able to improve their skills and enjoy the experience along the way!”
The Summer Learning Program is a Ministry funded program which aims to promote literacy and numeracy learning for students during the summer months in fun and engaging ways.
Sudbury Catholic Schools and the Attendance Counsellors held the annual poster contest in October. In order to engage students from FDK to Grade 12, the poster contest promoted the importance of regular school attendance. It was a huge success with nearly 500 students participating!
Congratulations to this year’s winners!
1st Place: Tyson Kirk – St. Charles College 1st Place: Meah Sauve – St. Paul School 2nd Place: Ariel Groves – Bishop Alexander Carter C.S.S 2nd Place: Ciara Hamelin – Pius XII School 3rd Place: Anna Nguyen – St. Charles College C.S.S 3rd place: Peyton Desjardins – St. Charles Chelmsford
First place posters will be reproduced and hung to promote attendance awareness!
attempt event. We would like to invite everyone to participate in making history by helping them to break the record for Largest Online Video Chain of People Passing and Using a Screwdriver!
