@stanselm cs december 2013 charity
TRANSCRIPT
ST. ANSELM CATHOLIC SCHOOL
182 Bessborough Drive, Toronto, Ontario
M4G 4H5
TEL: (416) 393-5243
FAX: (416) 397-6320
www.tcdsb.org/stanselm
@stanselm_cs
DECEMBER 2013
Principal Mr. R. Walo
Administrative Support Staff Mrs. C. Bright Mrs. J. Fraser
Superintendent
Mr. J. Shanahan (416) 222-8282 ext.5371
Trustee
Angela Kennedy (416) 512-3411
CSAC Chair Mr. L. Corkery
Email: [email protected]
Parishes
St. Anselm Catholic School 1 MacNaughton Road
(416) 485-1792
Pastor: Fr. B. Clough
St. Edith Stein Catholic Church
16 Thorncliffe Pk. Drive (416) 696-8427
Pastor: Fr. Keays
School Hours 2013-2014
8:30 to 3:00 p.m.
A.M. kindergarten: 8:30 –
11:05
P.M. kindergarten: 12:35 –
3:00
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE As we enter the season of Advent to prepare our hearts for the birth of Jesus, it
is fitting that this month‟s virtue is CHARITY. As many of us start our Christmas
shopping, let us be mindful of the fact that charity is not always about giving mate-
rial things. The St. Anselm quote for the month is “Where charity and love are, God is there”. A former Parish pastor of mine would often urge the congregation at
Christmas Mass to reach out to a friend or family member whom they haven‟t spo-
ken to for some time and make amends with them during the Christmas season.
This ‟non-material‟ act of giving can really have a profound impact on our lives and on
the lives of others at this time of year.
During the month of December, our students will be involved in a number of Chari-
table acts. Our Me-To-We team will be kicking off their Adopt-a-Family Christmas
program in partnership with the CCAS to assist 3 families in need in the city of To-
ronto. We will be collecting clothing and non-perishable food items for families in
our community who have loved ones in the Philippines who have suffered from the
devastating Typhoon. Our students will also be participating in the CTV Toy Moun-
tain drive. These are some of the „material‟ ways our community is giving to those
less fortunate.
Classroom teachers will be very busy during the month of December getting our
students for the coming of Jesus‟ birth. Many teachers are preparing daily/weekly
Advent celebrations in their classrooms with their students to further their under-
standing of the birth of Jesus. Furthermore, teachers will be working with their
students in preparation for the Advent Celebration on December 18th. We invite
all families to join us for this wonderful community event.
On behalf of the staff at St. Anselm Catholic School, I‟d like to express a heart-
felt thank you for all you do and for the amazing gift that your family is to our
school. Our wish is that you may know the joy, hope, and peace of the Nativity of
Jesus this Christmas Season. We wish everyone a Happy New Year!
Sincerely,
Richard Walo
Principal
VIRTUE OF THE MONTH:
CHARITY
FULL DAY
KINDERGARTEN
REGISTRATION (FDK)
The time has finally ar-
rived!!! As you may know, every publicly
funded school in Ontario will have the Full
Day Early Learning Program in September
2014 for 4 and 5 year olds. St. Anselm‟s will
be beginning the program in September 2014.
Spots are limited and we strongly encourage
parents with a child entering into Junior Kin-
dergarten in September 2014 to contact the
office in order to obtain a Registration package
before January 6th. Registration opens to the
public on January 6th and there is an extended
registration evening on January 8th from 5-7 pm.
There will be a Kindergarten Open House and Par-
ent Information session on Wednesay, January
29th from 6-7 pm. New to FDK parents will be
able to obtain more specific information on the
program on this evening. RAZ KIDS READING PROGRAM Is an online leveled book reading program for stu-
dents in Kindergarten to
Grade 3. The school has
purchased a membership
for every student in these
grades. Each classroom has
its own unique account and every student has
their individual login and username. The program
is designed to foster the development of reading
by listening for modeled fluency, reading for
practice, recording their reading and checking
comprehension with quizzes. Teachers are able to
track student progress and change the level of
difficulty for their students. We encourage all
parents with students in Kindergarten to Grade 3
to use this excellent resource each night to fur-
ther develop your child‟s decoding and reading
comprehension skills. You may visit online at
www.raz-kids.com.
NELSON MATH
WEBSITE Many of our stu-
dents are using the
Nelson Math Com-
panion site in order to gain a deeper understand-
ing of math concepts taught in class. We encour-
age students to visit www.mathk8.nelson.com for
extra practice. When you enter the site, simply
click on Student Center and then select Try it
Out questions. All of the Chapter lessons are
posted, with accompanying questions, to enable
students to further develop their understanding.
There will be a Nelson Math Parent Information
Session on Monday, January 20th . More details
to follow….
FOREST OF READING PROGRAM We are extremely excited to
announce that we will be run-
ning our Forest of Reading pro-
gram for Junior (Silver Birch
Gr 3-6) and Intermediate Stu-
dents (Red Maple Gr 7-8) be-
ginning the first week of De-
cember. The Reading Club will meet once each
week until the Spring. The hope is that students
will read all 10 titles in the series by May 1st.
Each child in the program will have the opportu-
nity to „borrow‟ a new book for a 2 week period.
Students will meet for 1 hour each week to dis-
cuss what they have read in a Literature Circle
format. This year‟s Nominated books and further
information about the program may be found
online at www.accessola.com/reading. The gift of
a book is always a nice Christmas present or
stocking stuffer!
We thank CSAC for funding this Reading Program
for our students!
St. Anselm PAGE 2
CURRICULUM HIGHLIGHTS Mrs. Terrana JK/SK
“Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all The Way” into Mrs. Terrana‟s Kindergarten class.
December has arrived and the students are filled with so much excitement for a fun
filled month of songs, poems, prayers and all activities related around Christmas! The
Junior and Senior Kindergarten students will be busy preparing for the upcoming school
Christmas Concert. Shh, it‟s a surprise. You will have to wait until that evening to see
how much hard work all the students put in to this wonderful performance.
We will continue with our Animated Language Program and work on the letters d, g and o this month.
In Mathematics, the students will be learning about measurement. They will be measuring items
around the classroom using string, snap cubes, paper clips, blocks, erasers and crayons. The students
will learn to use math words such as “longer and shorter”. In Science, we will discuss the seasonal
changes and create a list of the clothing appropriate to wear during the upcoming winter months. Fi-
nally, the Kindergarten students will celebrate their last day with their friends in our annual Pajama/
Movie Day. A festive way to end the year before we welcome 2014.
Miss Mazzuca‟s SK Class It's almost Christmas and Santa and his elves are busily working in the North Pole.
At St. Anselm Catholic School, the Kindergarten students will also be preparing for
Christmas and working very hard on a number of 'Christmas Theme' activities. Letter
writing will be explored as the students write letters to Santa and then take pictures
with Santa himself. The daily living center has been transformed into a Christmas Shop
where the students can play act 'shopping for Christmas'. Other Language Arts expectations will in-
clude learning the D, G, and O letters sounds and building family of words with the 'et' pattern. Stu-
dents will continue to participate in guided reading lessons with their teacher and read developmen-
tally appropriate books from their book bins.
During Religion lessons, the true meaning of Christmas will be understood as the children learn about
the birth of Jesus and the Christmas Story. The significance of Advent will also be discussed. Using
the Inquiry Approach, the focus in Science will be Winter. Students will form questions about winter
and animals in winter. These questions will be the basis from which their learning will be constructed.
In Math, the students will develop an understanding of basic spatial relationships and movements.
They will use vocabulary such as above/below, near/far, in/out to describe mathematical thinking. Us-
ing the SMARTboard, the students will participate in playing math games which support the math unit.
Fun Note: The Kindergarten students will be practising for the Christmas Concert. We're keeping the
songs a secret until performance night. Don't forget to keep checking the Kindergarten website at
www.missmazzuca.yolasite.com for weekly updates. Wishing families a Blessed and Merry Christmas.
St. Anselm PAGE 3
Miss Messner‟s Grade 1 Class In December the virtue of the month we will be celebrating is charity. In Relig-ion we will be learning about the Advent season and the coming of Jesus Christ and the Christmas story. We will also continue to learn about relationships and families. On Wed. Dec. 18th in the evening, the Grade 1 students will be pre-forming songs at the Christmas concert. In Language Arts the students will continue to participate in the daily 5 activities, shared and interactive reading and writing and our weekly word study. In Math we will be focusing on Linear
Measurement using non-standard units (e.g. math cubes, paper clips, toothpicks) and continuing on with addition and subtraction, through games and various activities. In Science we will con-tinue to explore and learn about daily and seasonal changes. On Dec. 12th we will be going on a field trip to Harbourfront Centre for two half day programs. Wishing all the families of St. Anselm a wonderful and joyous Christmas season!!! Mrs. Whyte‟s Grade 1/2 Class November was another eventful month in Grade 1/2! We enjoyed more virtual guest speakers and skypes with our friends from our world community. We learned strategies to make friends and to prevent conflict. We also acted out the play Jack and the Beanstalk for our friends in the primary grades. We made our Christmas lists and wrote to the big guy himself, Santa! We were challenged to reduce our impact on the environment from marine biologists Maya Plass, live from the United Kingdom, and Jillian Morris (a.k.a. Shark Girl) from Miami, Florida. We have begun to reduce the amount of garbage we gen-erate, so that we can reduce our carbon footprint! In December, the virtue is CHARITY. We will show charity by giving much needed items to one of the families that our school is sponsoring this Christmas. We are going to Harbourfront Cen-tre to participate in Clay Mask Making and Hip Hop . We are skyping with our friends from New Zealand, France, Ireland and Malta about our communities, seasonal changes and Christmas tra-ditions. In Math, we are studying Place Value and 2-D Geometry. Please continue to review the math activities on the math website ixl to reinforce the concepts and skills that we are focusing on this month. In Language, we are writing stories. You are encouraged to continue to log your child onto vocabularyspellingcity.com, for weekly word lists and activities, as well as Raz Kids for hundreds of wonderful stories for your children to enjoy and use to develop their reading and comprehension strategies. Remember to check your email for Remind101 messages with frequent updates on our class activities! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
St. Anselm PAGE 4
Ms. McMahon‟s Grade 2 This month Ms. McMahon and her Grade 2s have enjoyed expanding their knowl-edge about Media Literacy, and learning about the many forms of media in our eve-ryday lives. We were riveted to the large screen in our school-wide Remembrance Day assembly as we learned about Veteran Jock William‟s life before, during and af-ter WWII. This experience reminded us of the importance of a clear message and strong visuals when making our own Remembrance Day posters. With help from our Reading Buddies, we enjoyed researching animal species via computer or net book. We‟ve had tremendous fun skyping with Mrs. Whyte‟s class and reaching out to authors, sci-entists and even other school children from as far away as Florida, England and Chile! We have had real-time discussions about animal life and endangered species, student life and anti-bullying, and how we are truly connected on this great planet Earth. As we move into December and the holy season of Advent, we are looking forward to the daily ceremony with the Jesse Tree and the many symbols from the rich traditions of our faith. We consider the heart in our TCDSB logo and how it connects us to the virtue of the month: charity. With reminders in the form of P.A. announcements and face-to-face visits, Grade 7s and 8s have spread the word about St. Anselm‟s Christmas charity helping families in need. As the weather changes quite drastically, we are reminded to wear appropriate outdoor clothing, including a hat and mitts. As the busy-ness of the festive season can overtake us and our families, we are asked not to forget the devastation of the Philippines, nor the local plight of the homeless and our community‟s invisible poor. Christmas is a time of giving. Though we may have cold hands, we can all have warm hearts. We are excited to see Santa, yet we eagerly await the birth of Jesus in our hearts.
Miss McLoughlin‟s Grade 2 Class
The students have been eagerly anticipating the Christmas season since Santa Claus came to town in November. December 1st marks the start of Advent. The students will mark the days and weeks before Christmas by participating in a daily Advent wreath ceremony focusing on the true meaning of Christmas. The joy in giving to others will also be realized through St. Anselm School‟s participation in the Hope for Children Christmas Fund. The primary division classes are sponsor-ing a family in need this Christmas.
In Mathematics, the students continue to build important foundation skills. We will be working on Linear Measurement and Place Value units in December. In reading, retell, relate, and reflect skills are being practised in conjunction with the novel, Friendship According to Humphrey. En-riching the students‟ writing through descriptive word choice is an ongoing goal this month. We will soon begin a new Science unit on simple machines and mechanisms. The Arts will also be a fo-cus in December. The students will regale you with song in the Advent/Christmas concert,. On our excursion to Harbourfront Centre on December 12th the students will practise their dance moves in a Hip Hop workshop and make beautiful paper masks. December will be very busy, in-deed! We thank you for your support and wish you a joyous Christmas season.
St. Anselm PAGE 5
Mrs. Connally‟s Grade 3 Class December ushers in the season of Advent in Mrs. Connally‟s classroom as the grade three students await Christmas with anticipation. We will begin our days with an Advent celebration that introduces the students to many of Jesus‟ an-cestors through a focus on the Jesse Tree. Look out for the seasonal celebra-tion to make an appearance at home in the coming weeks! In addition, we will fo-cus on the virtue of charity as we contribute to the Me to We Christmas Drive and read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. In Language, we will focus on responding to reading. We will include evidence from the text in support of our ideas. In Math, we will work on Addition and Subtraction. The students will learn more strategies for problem solving and will use them in a variety of investigations. In Science, we will conclude our study of soil. We learned a lot from Scientist Tarja and have a new appreciation for the importance of soil to our planet and in our lives. We look forward to the fun of singing Christmas carols, polishing our dance steps for the Christ-mas concert and making seasonal crafts in art class. Mrs. Connally‟s grade three class wishes all St. Anselm families a holy, happy and safe Christmas. Mr. Chittick‟s Grade 3 Class With only a few short weeks remaining until the Christmas holidays, Mr. Chittick‟s class will spend December working toward completing various units of study. In Science, we will study the topic Soil. In Mathematics, students will explore problem solving us-ing addition and subtraction. We have set a goal of beginning introductory work in Measurement just before the Christmas break. In Language, students will work toward using a dictionary and thesaurus more often to explore word meaning, pronunciation, and spelling when independently working on writing. Christmas classroom activities will include the daily lighting of the Advent candles where stu-dents will have opportunities to read scripture, lead the class in prayer, and reflect on the mean-ing of Advent. Visual Arts and writing activities based on the Christmas theme will be enjoyed by all for sure! Prayerful good wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
St. Anselm PAGE 6
Mrs. Holden‟s Grade 3/4 Class As the Advent and Christmas season approaches, the grade 3/4class has a number of activities planned for December. In Advent, we will follow Jesus‟ ancestry by praying the Jesse tree daily. In preparation for the Christmas Concert (Dec. 18), students will be singing the Christmas carol, “Joy to the World” in Spanish. Students will bring home the words so that they can practise in front of a willing audience at home! In Language, students will read a variety of children‟s Christmas picture books and choose one to report about. If you could assist your child by selecting and bringing to class Christmas picture books that could be shared with others, it would be greatly appreciated. In Mathematics, the grade 4 class will follow chapter four from Nelson Mathematics: Addition and Subtraction. In Social Studies, grade 4 students will create a picture book representing a province or territory of Canada. Students will take home their assignment sheet at the end of November. Ms. D‟Souza's Grade 4/5 Class
As we countdown to Christmas, the Grade 4/5 class will be concluding our Lan-guage unit on Newspapers by creating their very own class newspaper. Students will become school reporters and apply what they have learned to produce their own ar-ticles. In November, we also began using Edmodo to share interesting articles we have found online and in local newspapers. Stay tuned for a link to our finished class newspaper! In Reading, our class will continue to identify the Big Idea of the texts we read and work on making connections. Students are encouraged to con-
tinue completing their daily Reading Logs. In Fully Alive, we finished our theme “Created and Loved by God.” We learned that, although we are alike and different in many ways, we are all connected because we are human. Therefore, this month we will show the virtue of charity by giving with a generous heart to our adopted families. In Math, the Grade 4‟s will be completing Chapter 4 on Adding and Subtracting 4-digit numbers. In this unit, we enjoyed using our iPad and projector to show how we can add and subtract using different strategies such as mental math and estimating. As we begin Chapter 5 on Measuring Length and Time we continue to focus on using math language and models to explain our under-standing. In Social Studies, the Grade 4‟s have taken a closer look at Canada‟s political and physi-cal regions. Through web research in class, we have explored the physical characteristics, climate and natural resources of these regions. We are excited to be creating a Prezi for our Province project.
St. Anselm PAGE 7
Mrs. Angelone‟s Grade 5/6 December will be an exciting month in which we prepare for the Christmas sea-son. Our class will be focussing on the Jesse Tree and will be participating in many activates that centre around Advent. In Math, the grade five students are com-pleting Chapter Four: Addition and Subtraction. Next we will be learning about Measurement. Students will relate units of length to each other, and measure time and relate time to distance. As well, in Social Studies the grades fives are learning about the roles and key responsibilities of Canadian citizens and of the
different levels of government. In Language, our class is working on the literary genre Suspense. Students have read and will read many stories that illustrate suspense. We will learn the characteristics of this genre and will write stories. We will continue to work on reading strategies, including making connections and infer-ring. Mrs. Gundy‟s Grade 6/7 Class With the holiday season upon us, Mrs. Gundy‟s grade 6/7 class will be focussing on the virtue of charity. The class has already generously donated a number of items for the Hope for Children Christmas Fund through our Me-to-We initiative. Let‟s keep those donations coming. In language arts, the students continue to read Maniac Magee. We have completed Part I and the students are wrapping up a journal assignment written from the perspective of another charac-ter. As part of the Christmas season, the class will read an adapted version of Charles Dickens‟ A Christmas Carol. The grade 6s will write their own Christmas story, while the grade 7s will write a script dealing with the theme of Christmas and perform for the class. In math, the grade 6‟s will continue to work on Chapter 4: Addition and Subtraction. They will be focussing on adding and subtracting whole numbers and decimals. We will also be completing Chapter 5: Measuring Length, before the holiday. In science, the grade 6 students will begin a new unit on Electricity. Hopefully they will get a real charge out of this unit. While in social studies, the students continue to work on their global event project with the goal of presenting the first two weeks of December. Keep up all the great work and enjoy your holiday. I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
St. Anselm PAGE 8
Ms. Korczynski' s Grade 7 Class Another month over! And here is your 60 second update for Decem-ber: In Language Arts, we have started our next unit: persuasive writ-ing and the media. Our focus will be on message delivery, target audi-ence, identifying point of view and analyzing media elements. In Mathematics, we are finishing data management, and entering the
world of patterns and relationships. In History, as promised, we are turning our attention over to British North America and examining both British and North American influences on our French colonies. In Science, students have started their next unit on interactions within ecosys-tems; we are continuing to explore the various levels of life, how organisms interact, how one minor event can lead to major change within the environment and how to keep Earth‟s systems going. Last but not least, the virtue for the month of December is charity and our grade 7/8 Me to We students have taken on a leadership role in the "Hope for Children Christmas Fund" through the Catholic Children's Aid Society of Toronto, by “adopting” 3 families in need of our help. This is a Christmas assistance program where we support families in need, through the collection of various donations that will help them get through this time of year. I am very proud of our Me to We Team for taking on such a tremendous responsibility! Mr. Pedra‟s Grade 8 Class Season‟s greetings from room 305. With the Advent season upon us the grade 8‟s will be turning their attention towards charity and the spirit of giv-ing. We will be visiting the Good Shepherd Refuge for two afternoons on December 10th and 12th (15 students will go per visit) to assist with food sort-ing and serving lunch to those most in need in our city. I would like to also take this time to thank the many grade 8 students who are a part of the Me to We Team. The effort put forth regarding the collection and sorting of donated goods for the Hope for Chil-dren Christmas Fund has been admirable and deserves commendation (the same goes for the grade 7‟s on the Me to We Team as well). In math we will continue with our study of algebra for the first part of the month. The focus in math will then turn towards geometry, specifically working with Cartesian grids and communi-cating that information using mathematical language. In language arts we will begin planning/producing some (very) short films that centre upon a water issue. This activity ties into both me-dia studies and science and is a natural follow-up to the Prezi presentations the students re-cently completed. The students will also examine editorials which will serve as an introduction to persuasive writing (to be covered in January). In geography we will begin our second unit of study which deals with global inequality and social justice. In science we will be studying fluids and investigating the properties of viscosity, density and buoyancy. Lastly, I would like to wish all students, staff and friends a very blessed Christmas (yes that even includes Mrs. Gundy).
St. Anselm PAGE 9
Mrs. De Nicolais‟ Special Education Class November was a busy month in the M.E. room! Students participated in a variety of Remembrance Day activities and created a beautiful peace dove wreath that was presented during the school assembly. Our class bulletin board showcases the student‟s outstanding and touching representations of peace through writ-ing, artwork, and crafts. This month‟s literacy focus will be on reading compre-hension and re-telling stories through various activities including role play, “first,
then” graphic organizers and creating cartoons on the Smartboard using the Bit Strips program. Students have been thoroughly enjoying listening to the chapter book „The Best Worst Christ-mas Present Ever‟ by Canadian author Budge Wilson and will be posting a book review on the Scholastic website when they have finished the novel. Functional Numeracy practice continues with focus on addition and subtraction equations and coin identification and value. Students look forward to attending the trip to the Habourfront Centre this month and participating in exciting winter activities! We are having lots of fun prac-ticing Christmas songs and co-ordinating dances with Ms. Lontos and, along with friends from various grades, will be participating in the Christmas concert this month. The M.E. class will also be helping to fill the school with festive cheer by decorating the Christmas tree in the front lobby and the evergreen tree outside the school office. Have a blessed month of Decem-ber, we wish you love, peace and happiness throughout the Christmas season. Ms. Lontos ESL/Music/Physical Education After a successful participation at the Remembrance Day Memorial in the month of November, St. Anselm‟s choir is preparing to sing for the Leaside100 Community Celebration. The event is taking place on Sunday, December 1, in the William Lee Room at Leaside Memorial Gardens. In addition to this upcoming event, all grade levels have been working hard on preparing for the Christmas concert. The theme for this year‟s concert is "Around The World Christmas” where the children will be singing songs in different languages such as Tagalog, Spanish, Italian etc. Students are working hard on learning these new songs and various movement/dance cho-reographies in their classes. Furthermore, the ESL classroom students during the month of December will be focusing on the Virtue of charity in various reading and writing activities. Discussions in the class will focus on the recent tragedy in the Philippines.
St. Anselm PAGE 10
Mme. Marrelli - French For this month Mme. Marrelli‟s grades 3/4 and 4/5 classes will be beginning their unit on “Mon animal imaginaire”. Inspired by Jacquot‟s song by the same title, the students will be creating, describing and writing about their own imaginary animal. Grades 3 and 4 will be learning articles, sentence starters and verb structures. Grade 5s will build on these grammar concepts while including the negative structure. Here‟s to having some fun with our imagination…and French!!
M. Morishita-Miki‟s French Class
The view from grades 1 and 2...Salut! This month I will be talking about Mrs. Whyte‟s grade 1 and 2 class. It is truly amazing how much new vocabulary the stu-dents have been able to learn through the first few months of school! During the month of December, the children will continue to enrich their ever growing French vocabulary. We will be learning about classroom objects this month
(le stylo, le crayon, le papier etc.). In addition to this, our class will be preparing a French song along with Ms. Messner‟s grade 1 class for the Christmas concert. We hope you can all attend!
MS. Dalla Giustina - Physical Education We are right on target! During our unit on throwing, aim and accuracy, the primary grades have done a great job developing their throwing skills, while playing games like Human Battleship and Target Tic-Tac-Toe. They are learning to self assess by asking questions such as, "Did I follow-through to the target?" and "Did I step with the opposite foot before throwing my object?" We will continue with this unit until early December and then switch to net and wall activities be-fore our Christmas break. Have fun during the break and keep active!
St. Anselm PAGE 11
SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS FRAMEWORK—
ST. ANSELM DISTRICT REVIEW On Tuesday, December 3rd a team
comprised of Ministry of Education
officials, Superintendents of Edu-
cation and Administrators from the
TCDSB will be conducting a ‟walk
through‟ at our school. The purpose
of the Review is to promote reflec-
tion, collaborative inquiry an ultimately improved
student learning.
The steps in the District Process include:
1) Review of data and progress from the School
Self-Assessment;
2) Determination of the scope of the review;
3) Collection, data analysis and preparation of
summary report with recommendations;
4) Support for school planning and implementa-
tion of improvement strategies;
5) Capacity building for the professional learning
community
Each school in the TCDSB undergoes the District
Review Process and the Board is now in its final
year of reviews. The Review team visits each
class in the school for approximately 15 minutes
and may ask your child to tell them about what
they are learning.
We thank all of the staff for all of their hard
work in preparing for the visit and I know that
the team is going to be so amazed by the incredi-
ble teaching and learning at St. Anselm‟s!
PHILIPPINE RELIEF FUND We thank all of our families for
their incredible generosity
through your financial support
for of our Philippine Relief Fund.
Our students raised $1,132 for families in the
Philippines through Dress Down for Charity days,
Toonie Tuesday and Pop and Chip sales.
The CSAC executive contributed an additional $368
to bring our total donations to $1,500. Thank you
to CSAC and all of the families for your very gener-
ous financial donations!
The cheque has been forwarded to the St. Anselm
Parish - Philippine Relief Fund. The donation will be
part of the Archdiocese of Toronto aid fund.
CLOTHING DONATIONS FOR THE PHILIPPINES There are a number of families in
our school community who have rela-
tives and family in the Philippines
who experienced extreme displace-
ment by the recent disaster.
Anyone interested in donating additional clothing
and food items to those affected, may do so at the
school. A donation box has been placed in the front
foyer and we will be accepting donations until Mon-
day, December 16th.
A group of parent volunteers will be putting boxes
of food and clothing items together to send to the
Philippines. Please contact the office if you would
like a package sent to your family members af-
fected by the disaster. Thank you to Mrs. Mader
for organizing this project!
‘GENTLY USED’ CLOTHING DONATIONS Thank you to all of our families who have donated
their gently used Navy Blue and
White Clothing. Over the past two
months, we were able to collect
over 50 clothing items! The uni-
forms were shipped to another
school in the city. The parents of the school were
extremely grateful. We will continue to collect
items and send them to various schools across To-
ronto. Thank you to Mrs. Scandiffio for organizing
this very worthwhile initiative!
St. Anselm PAGE 12
ME–TO-WE CLUB ‘ADOPT-A-FAMILY’
INITIATIVE (CCAS) The Me-To-We team has begun its Christmas ini-
tiative to help families in need around the city of
Toronto. The families that we are sponsoring are
in need of our help for various reasons, some of
which include job loss, illness, abuse, or lack of
support within the family. We are seeking Gift
Certificates to Wal-Mart and No Frills, toys,
clothing and other gifts that will make their
Christmas more memorable. We will continue to
collect items for the families until December
12th.
Family/Youth/Current Situation #1: This is a
blended family with two adults and four children. Family/Youth/Current Situation #2: The family
needs to provide financial support for medical
costs. Mother recently gave birth to twins and
has a pre-teen child.
Family/Youth/Current Situation #3: This is a
single mother of three young children currently
living in a shelter.
Thank you to Mr. Pedra, Miss Korczynski and the
Me-to-We Team for organizing this initiative.
BOOK FAIR AT ST. ANSELM’S Thank you for supporting our St.
Anselm Book Fair! A portion of
the proceeds from the book sales
is given back to our school which is
used to purchase additional books
for our library. This year, we received approxi-
mately $1000 to be used toward our library! A
special thank you to Mrs. Harding and all of the
parent volunteers who assisted!
COLD WEATHER As we encounter the cooler temperatures in
December, please ensure that your child comes
to school with the appropriate winter clothing.
CHRISTMAS CONCERT We would like to take this op-
portunity to formally invite all
families to our Advent Para-
Liturgy Mass and „Christmas
around the World‟ Concert on
December 18th at 7pm.
We kindly ask that you drop off your children at
the Church Hall at 6:30 pm. You will then be asked
to proceed to the Church proper for the Mass. At
the conclusion of the concert, your child will meet
you at your seats in the Church.
SKATING PROGRAM In the New Year, we will be
taking our Grade 1-8 stu-
dents to skate as part of
their physical education
program. This year, we will
be skating at Leaside Memorial Gardens. The
skating dates are as follows: Friday, January
17th; Friday, January 24th; Friday, February
14th; Friday, February 21st. The students will
be skating in 2 shifts: Grades 1 –4 and Grades 5-8.
The Grade 1-4s will skate from 12:30 - 1:30 and the
Grade 5-8s will skate from 1:30 - 2:30.
Our aim is to have every child included in this activ-
ity. We kindly ask parents to purchase skates and a
CSA approved helmet for your child. If your child
requires skates, please contact the office and we‟ll
do our best to find them a pair of used skates. We will gladly accept skate donations.
SANTA IS VISITING ST. ANSELM’S!! We have just received news from
the North Pole that Santa is
scheduled to visit our school on
Monday, December 16th between
9 and 11:30 a.m.
Students in Kindergarten to Grade
5 will have the opportunity to meet Santa and have
a picture taken with him! Thank you to CSAC for
your generosity!
St. Anselm PAGE 13
St. Anselm
TRUSTEES 2013 – 2014
Wards
1. Peter Jakovcic 5. Maria Rizzo 9. Jo-Ann Davis, Chair 2. Ann Andrachuk 6. Frank D‘Amico 10. Barbara Poplawski 3. Sal Piccininni 7. John Del Grande 11. Angela Kennedy 4. Patrizia Bottoni 8. Garry Tanuan 12. Nancy Crawford, Vice Chair William Lawrence, Student Trustee Enrique Olivo, Student Trustee
Angela Gauthier, Director of Education 80 Sheppard Ave. E., Toronto, ON ∙ Website: www.tcdsb.org
STUDENT COUNCIL UPDATE St. Anselm‟s School Council Executive has officially
kicked off its Mascot Competition! Each class is
being asked to submit 1 idea (which is voted on by
students in the class) and a rationale on why it
should be our school mascot. The Executive Coun-
cil, along with school staff will then vote on the
„winning‟ mascot. The official winning announce-
ment will be made in the New Year! Thank you to
Mr. Pedra, Mrs. Terrana, Miss Korczynski and to
the Student Council for organizing this contest!
STAFF APPRECIATION LUNCHEON We would like to take this opportunity
to thank parents for their generosity
for providing teachers with a Christ-
mas Luncheon on Friday, December
13th!
VIRTUE OF THE MONTH LEADERS Congratulations to the following Peace-
keepers for November: Ester N, Kyle S, Ewan F, Gigi G, Aiden A, Adam A, Alexander E, Stella-Marie P, Keira F, Rowan N, Rachelie C, Daniel G, Julia G,
Thomas L, Laura R, Finn C, Cali V, Sophia V, Johna-thon M, Emma L, Thierry N, Matthew D, Lauren S, Christine M, Marcella V, Gabriel A.
TECHNOLOGY UPDATE We would like to thank CSAC,
through the generosity of all
the families at St. Anselm, for
purchasing 8 new Laptops and LCD projectors for
our classrooms. This purchase has enabled every
teacher to now have this extremely worthwhile
technology in their classrooms.
In addition, CSAC has approved to make an addi-
tional purchase of 10 iPad‟s for teachers to use in
their classrooms. This additional technology in the
classroom will allow teachers to use educational
apps to further enhance the learning experience
for all of the students. CSAC has also approved the
purchase of 6 computers and a ceiling mounted LCD
Projector for our Library.
FLU SEASON Some tips for staying healthy
during Flu Season:
- Avoid close contact with people
who are coughing and sneezing;
- Wash hands frequently;
- Cover your cough. cough into
your upper sleeve;
- If you have flu symptoms, stay home from school
SUBWAY LUNCHES Beginning in January, we will be offer-
ing students the option of purchasing
Subway sandwiches on the 3rd Friday of the month. Please note that Order Forms will be sent home during the first week of December.
Newsletter Contest—Entry Form
Our family would like to be entered into the draw for the
monthly “reading” award/ prize. The two prizes include a
$10 Gift Card to use at Chapters!
Student Name:________________ Grade:_____
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