Sacred Heart Catholic Elementary School
180 Grandville Circle, Paris, ON
519-442-4443
Principal: Ms. K. Mitchell
N3L 0A9
Secretary: Mrs. C. Devereux
www.sacredheartparis.ca
Sacred Heart School’s purpose is to recognize that each student is unique.
We strive to motivate all students to achieve their academic, personal and spiritual potential.
March 2015
Newsletter
From the Principal’s Desk
PRINCIPALS MESSAGE:
The promise of spring is around the corner but it does not feel that way just yet! Our one sure
sign of spring is Lent. In our Catholic Church Lent is a time to focus on our relationship with
God.
Lent is a 40-day period of preparation for the Easter Sunday and one of the major seasons of
the Catholic Church. It is a penitential season marked by prayer, fasting and abstinence, and
almsgiving.
Special points of interest
We are now part way though Lent and now is the time to ask “How am I doing with my
Lenten promise?”
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From Your Principal’s Desk
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Lottery Calendar Draw
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From Your Pastor’s Desk
Please take the time during this Lenten season to spiritually enhance your relationship with
God. Our children are working on Christian Meditation in our classrooms. You may wish to
ask your child how they feel about Meditation and even ask them to lead your family in a
meditation.
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Note from Your School
Public Health Nurse
I trust this Lenten season will strengthen your relationship with God. Just as winter promises
us spring, God promises hope in the resurrection of his Son.
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March Calendar
May your Lenten season bring you closer to God.
K Mitchell
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Mentoring Club
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Intro to Painting
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Volunteer Thank you
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Kindergarten Registration
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RCPIC Symposium Survey
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Donate our ZINC
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Free Public Skate
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Autism Awareness Day
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Pedometer Challenge
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Helping your Child in Math
Lottery Calendar Draw
Back by popular demand! Sacred Heart School is excited to hold a Lottery Calendar
draw for 2015. This lottery draw will be supporting the purchase of new technology in the
classrooms, updating our literacy initiatives, providing recreational equipment and assisting
with various other projects for our school community. We are hopeful that each family will
sell a minimum of five calendars at $5.00 a piece.
The calendar draw will run for the entire month of May. The last draw of the month
will consist of all entries, even those that have previously won a prize in the month. Please
contact the school office if additional calendars are required.
Calendars will be sent home the last week of March to the youngest and only
students. All monies and unsold calendars need to be returned to the school by Monday,
April 27th, 2015 as this is a licensed lottery and all calendars must
be accounted for. Please make cheques payable to “Sacred Heart
School Lottery Trust Account.”
Thanking everyone for their support and school spirit. We
are a community that supports education!
Sacred Heart School Council
From The Pastor’s Desk
As we continue our journey through Lent, I hope each one of us will try to
deepen our friendship with Jesus through our efforts at prayer, through a
sacrifice we may have chosen to make or through trying to do a little more
to show our love and friendship for others.
Our grade 2 children are now into their preparation for First Holy Communion and our grade 7 students are preparing for Confirmation. Let us
help them in our prayer.
Parish Information
Sacred Heart Catholic Church
Pastor: Father Michael Bennett
17 Washington St.,
Paris, ON
519-442-2465
On March 25th at 7 p.m. in the Church, I look forward to our meeting with
the parents of our Confirmation candidates. The teacher will share what is
being done in class and I will share what you can do at home for your son
or daughter.
We rejoice in Gods love given through these sacraments.
Masses
Tuesday - Friday: 9:00 a.m.
Saturday: 5:00 p.m.
Sunday: 9:00 a.m. and 11 a.m.
Father Michael Bennett
April 1 7:00 p.m. Parents Meeting for Confirmation
May 3
First Communion Mass -2 p.m.
May 6
Confirmation with grade 7 students , 6:30-8:30
p.m.
June 22 Grad Mass, 2:00 p.m. at the Church
First Reconciliation
Warmest congratulations are extended to the grade 2
students who celebrated their First Reconciliation at
Sacred Heart Church on Wednesday, February 25th.
This Sacrament is an important part of their Faith
journey.
A Note From Your School Public Health Nurse…
Making Lunches Nutritious and Delicious
Lunches are an important part of your child’s growth and development. The foods that you pack in your child’s
lunch bag should be ones that will help them stay energized throughout the school day and will give them the
nutrients that they need to grow healthy and strong.
Making lunches that suit not only picky eaters but also meet the balanced school day criteria can sometimes
be tricky. Keep these helpful tips in mind to make packing lunches a breeze:
Head out the door with the mighty 4: A healthy lunch includes foods from at least 3 of the 4 food groups. If
your child is on a balanced school day, the only thing that changes is the timing of when their food is eaten; so
pack foods from 3 of the 4 food groups for each break and include 2 drinks as well – one for each break
Include everyone: Include your kids in planning/packing their food for the school day. They may be more
willing to eat their lunch if they helped to make it
Pack lunches safely: Teach children to wash their hands before eating. Use an insulated lunch bag to keep
cold foods cold and a thermos to keep hot foods hot. Wash all fruits and veggies before packing them
March is Nutrition Month across Canada – why not try some of the kid-tested and approved healthy lunch
ideas at www.eatrightontario.ca
Wed. March 4
Pasta Day
Mad Science
Wed. March 11
Subway day
Mad Science
Thurs. March 12
Mass at the school– Lent
Mar. 16-20
March Break, no school
Tues. March 17
Happy St. Patrick’s Day
Mon. March 23
App’s Mill for Grade 3/4 and Gr. 6 FSL class
Wed. March 25
Mad Science
Thurs. March 26
Pizza day
Tues. March 31
Grad Photos for Grade 8’s and SK’s
Wed. April 1
Mad Science
Fri. April 3
Good Friday– No School
Mon. April 6
Easter Monday– No School
Wed. April 8
Easter Mass at Church, 9:15
Mentoring Club
Sacred Heart now has a mentoring club. Once a week during
Nutrition break, we will be having a mentoring club. The
purpose of the club is for students to meet and help each other
with assignments, organization and to do team building
activities. Mr. DeKeers will supervise the club.
MENTORING IS A BRAIN TO PICK, AN EAR TO LISTEN,
AND A PUSH IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.
INTRO TO PAINTING
Grades 6-8
A special thank you to our School Council
and our parent volunteers for co-ordinating
a very successful and enjoyable Shrove
Tuesday, pasta days and our annual Thanksgiving dinner for out students. Without the
help of our volunteers, these events would
not be possible. Please continue to volunteer
when possible, it means so much to our
students.
A BIG THANK YOU!
A step by step class will be taught by a Torontobased artist , filmmaker and designer here at
Sacred Heart School on April 14th. During this 2
hour split session (nutrition breaks), students will learn the
basic techniques used with acrylic painting from set up,
supplies, brush types, colour mixing and at the end of the class
they will get to take home their masterpiece on a 12” x 16”
stretched canvas! Materials will be included with the cost of
$20 per student. The class will have a maximum of 10 students.
Registration forms will be sent home at the end of March. A
second class may be added.
Kindergarten Registration
Registration for kindergarten and all other grades is taking place now. Parents are asked to visit or contact their
local Catholic school and arrange an appointment to register their childr en. If you ar e unsur e of the school
your child will attend, our Home School Locator will assist you in determining the Catholic school closest to your
home.
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Junior Kindergarten - Children must be 4 years old by Dec.31 of the year registering, Senior KindergartenChildren must be 5 years old by Dec. 31 of the year registering.
To give each child the best start possible, our Kindergarten program provides a variety of learning opportunities and experiences delivered in a Catholic environment. We also offer comprehensive programs for children
with special needs.
To register your child, please bring the following:
a birth certificate or other government document to show proof of age; and
a Roman Catholic baptismal certificate for either the child OR parent.
Let’s THINK and donate our ZINC?
Do you have any used batteries around your house? The Sacred Heart Green Team needs your help. There is a
problem and we can be the solution. 400 000 kids die a year. It is ZINC deficiency. Surprised? Most people are.
Zinc is crucial for our growth and brain development and helps fight dangerous infections. We get ZINC naturally in
our diets, but not everyone is so lucky. Many kids in places like Africa and Asia are dying because their foods
doesn’t contain enough ZINC. The good news is that a simple treatment of ZINC tablets and rehydration therapy
will cure most cases. Just 1 AA battery can save 6 children. By donating used batteries, we are also reducing our
ecological footprint by keeping our batteries out of our landfill sites.
Our goal is to collect 1000 batteries in the month of March. TOGETHER we can MAKE THE CHANGE!
Learn more about this global issue, together we can help save lives at www.zincsaveslives.com.
World Autism Awareness Day is April 2nd!
FREE PUBLIC
SKATE
Our school community is committed to helping others
understand what Autism is all about. In doing this, we are
bringing our school community together to celebrate
Autism Awareness Day. Autism Ontario has invited
schools across Ontario to raise funds for the “Raise the
Flag” campaign, which is a power ful way to help
students, parents, school staff, and the entire community
learn more about Autism. A VERY BIG THANK YOU
goes out to our Sacred Heart Student Council for generously donating a portion of their Spirit Day money to the
“Raise the Flag” campaign. With this money, Sacred
Heart School becomes a registered school participant. We
will receive a flag to fly on April 2nd and a toolkit full of
ideas and resources designed to bring our school community together in raising awareness about Autism. But this
is just the beginning of our fundraising effort! Our Sacred
Heart school community is committed to raising more
funds and broadening Autism awareness. Our Student
Buy-Out Day on April 2nd will make this happen. For a
toonie, students can purchase a “buy-out-of-class” pass to
participate in a student-teacher fun volleyball game—a
great way to raise money, awareness, and school spirit!
More information will come your way over the next few
weeks.
SACRED HEART – SPRING INTO SPRING
PEDOMETER CHALLENGE INFORMATION SHEET
Physical activity, such as walking and active play, can be incorporated into everyday life and costs very little to do. While children require 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day to achieve maximum health benefits, only 7% of
children 5 – 11 years old and 4% of youth aged 12 – 17 meet these current guidelines.
Holding a pedometer challenge at your school is a great way to raise awareness about the importance of regular physical activity and to promote healthy and active living among students during the school day. A friendly challenge between classes is a fun
way to motivate students to move more.
Who Can Participate:
Students in Gr. 3/4 – Gr. 7/8 : Mr. Pettifer’s, Ms. Porter’s, Ms. Robertson’s, Mrs. Fernandez-Hamad’s
& Mrs. Bell’s classes
Two student leaders from each of these classes will be helping with organization and tracking the steps
count
Date of Challenge:
Pedometer challenge will run during the month of April 2015. Spring is a great time to think about
getting outside and becoming more active
We will hold a kick-off event and 20 minute outdoor walk for all five classes on before the event
followed by 4 weekly Walking Wednesdays between April 8 and 29th.
Instructions:
Each classroom will receive a class set of pedometers for the challenge period. Three sets will be on
loan from the Health Unit and 1 set will be for the school to keep after the challenge.
Students will each receive a working pedometer at the beginning of the school day and will hand it
back to their teacher at the end of the school day (additional pedometers and batteries will be
included in the packages for those that are lost/stop working).
On each challenge day before the dismissal bell rings, students should log the total number of steps
taken on that day on their “Steps Log Sheet” (1 copy provided for each student).
There are no rules as to how much or how little a student walks during the school day in order to
participate. Students can be encouraged to set personal goals to increase their weekly steps
count but any participation is valued.
Student leaders will collect the “Steps Log Sheet” after each Walking Wednesday and update the
tracking Tally Chart to show the progress of each participating class.
How Can I Help My Child In Math
Games are great ways to building stamina as they allow children to explore mathematical
thinking and apply reasoning. During the freezing temperatures in February, we stayed
warm inside and had fun as we http://www.thelearningpartnership.ca/what-we-do/studentprograms/welcome-to-kindergarten
discovered our favourite math games. Listed below are games from our top ten list. Hint if
How Can I Help My Child In Math
Our focus in number talks supports mathematical thinking in three key
areas:
·
·
·
Accuracy
Efficiency
Flexibly
1. Accuracy denotes the ability to produce an accurate answer;
2. Efficiency denotes the ability to choose an appropriate, expedient
strategy for a specific computation problem;
3. Flexibility refers to the ability to use number relationships with ease
in computation
Addition Strategy: Making tens
One of core foundations of our number system is the
ability to recognize and use groups of ten. Looking
for “ quick tens” in computation is one of the first
things you want to establish as a cornerstone strategy in computation.
Example:
2+6+8+3+4=
9+3+1+5+5=
4+8+6+2+7=
16+4+25+5=
33+7+ 26+4=
Making Doubles:
To foster the doubles/near doubles strategy, initially select
numbers that are one away from doubles that students often
use such as: 5+5, 25+25, and 150+150. If one addend is the
targeted double and the other addend is just one away from
that double students will begin to notice this relationship:
Example:
100+100=
99+99=
98+99=
97+99=
125+125=
124+126=
126+127=
124+128+
+
250+250=
249+249=
249+248=
248+248=
+
How Can I Help My Child In Math
Compensation:
The goal of compensation is to manipulate the numbers to easier friendly numbers to add. The goal is to
remove a specific amount from one addend and give
that exact amount to the other addend.
Example:
116+118=
242+ 158=
343+ 157=
654+336=
Adding Up in Chunks:
This strategy is similar to breaking each number into its place
value strategy expect the focus is on keeping one addend whole
and adding the second number in easy-to-use chunks. This strategy is slightly more efficient than the breaking each number
into its place value strategy, since you are not breaking apart
each number
Example:
116+118=
116+(100+10+4+4)
116+100=216
216+10=226
226+4=230
230+4=234
Open Number Line:
A number line can be an important tool for discussing and modeling a strategy in addition and subtraction. It allows the students to
visualize the action of the operation and the magnitude of the
numbers and the distance moved.
How would you use a number line to model: 18+9=
Did you use a strategy to make this efficient?
Did you do this without counting by ones?
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33
Try these strings at home:
29+10=
29+15=
29+20=
29+24=
57+10=
57+14=
57+30=
57+36=
45+30=
45+38=
45+40=
45+46=
73+30=
73+38=
73+50=
73+58=
How Can I Help My Child In Math
Learning to Count
When children are learning to count, they like to touch,
point to and move objects as they say the number aloud –
so encourage them to!
•Have your child count toys, kitchen utensils, items of
clothing as they come out of the dryer, collections (such
as stickers, buttons or rocks) and any other items your
child shows interest in counting.
•Mix it up! Have your child count a set of objects but
start at different places in the set (for example, start
counting in the middle of the set rather than at the beginning). This helps to develop the idea that the counting of
objects can begin with any object in a set and the total
will still be the same.
•Sing counting songs and use counting in meaningful
ways in games, such as Hide-and-Seek. Counting games,
rhymes and songs exist in every culture. Some counting
songs and rhymes help children to count forward and
backward as well.
•Have your child skip count (counting by twos, fives or
tens) to count larger groups of items quickly. Use such
objects as blocks, pasta pieces, toothpicks or buttons.
•Develop your child’s awareness of the symbols used to
represent numbers by making it a game. Look for number
symbols in your home and neighborhood: on the television
remote, on the microwave, on the telephone keypad, in
flyers and media, on signs and on team sweaters.
•Play a number version of I Spy. For example, “I spy
something that has the number five on it,” or “I spy something in this room that there are three of.”
•Ask for your child’s help to count items in your home. “I
wonder how many chairs we have around the table? In this
room? In the house?” Count windows, light switches,
lamps or beds. You might record “how many” by using a
combination of numbers and pictures.
Math Website:
Mathies.ca
Mathies.ca, hosted by Ontario Association for Mathematics
Education (OAME), is designed for Ontario K – 12 students
and parents. This website includes games, learning tools,
activities, and additional supports for students to explore,
build and enhance their mathematical thinking. A parent
‘Frequently Asked Questions’ section includes: “How can I
help with the learning of mathematics?”, “What mathematics activities can we do together?”, “What digital supports
are available?” and “What additional support is available?”
http://oame.on.ca/mathies/