Dr. Charles Pascal visited Sudbury on May 20th and stopped in to see the St. Francis Best Start Hub. Dr. Pascal was appointed by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to be his special advisor on early learning in November 2007 and was asked to recommend the best way to implement full-day learning for four- and five-year-olds.
On June 15, 2009, Dr. Pascal presented his report, “With Our Best Future in Mind: Implementing Early Learning in Ontario”. The report contains 20 recommendations on how to introduce full-day learning to Ontario students, how to improve education for children up to 12 and how to increase supports for young families. Dr. Pascal interacted with the families at the St. Francis hub and also dropped into one of the senior kindergarten classes to participate in the circle time and story. He visited a number of other Hubs in Sudbury, including Pius XII Best Start Hub as he was in town to see the many great initiatives that support early learning within schools.
St. Francis S.K’s Sing Ole
The French Immersion Senior Kindergarten class at St. Francis Catholic Elementary School recently participated in a group activity in which they learned the e sound. The students learned a song that incorporated this sound – the song “Ole ” As well, they reviewed the letter C and the letter H. In order to review all of these lessons, their teacher, Lise Mallette thought that they could pull all of these together by supporting a great Canadian Hockey team – the Montreal Canadians. The students also integrated, cutting, pasting writing, singing and drama by decorating Montreal Canadian headbands and then visiting a few classes to perform what they had learned.
St. Francis Hosts Fun Fair
St. Francis held a Spring Fair on Thursday, May 6th in the evening. A great time was had by all who attended. All the feeder schools to St. Francis were invited as well. Estelle Scappatura allowed herself to be placed in our “St. Francis Jail” for a few minutes as part of the fun!! There were various games and activities to participate in.