During the month of May, grade 3 and 4 students from St. Francis Catholic Elementary School are celebrating the Month of Mary. Students are learning about Jesus’ mother Mary and the special role she had in His life. Each student was given their own rosary from their teacher, Ms. Graziella Visentin, to keep and use during daily morning prayers on the announcements and prayer after lunch in class. Students are developing an appreciation of the rosary as a special way of praying to God that honours Mary, the Mother of Jesus. As students recite the prayers of the rosary, students will reflect on certain stories in the lives of Jesus and Mary. The class is developing a greater awareness that Jesus will be with them in the joyful times of their lives and in times that are sorrowful. The events from the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries are reminders of this as students learn that the rosary can also be used to pray during Advent, Lent and during Ordinary Time in the liturgical year.
Celebrating Catholic Education Week
At St. Francis Catholic Elementary School, the students and staff have embraced this year’s theme “Growing Together in Faith” in a very creative way. To bring the school community together as one, teachers Christina Bedoya and Lise Malette took all of the student photos and designed a “growing tree of life” which included a picture of every single student and staff member, including teachers, EAs ECEs, the custodian, administrators and the parish priest, Father Larry – all are all part of the tree. The arrangement was created to match the poster for Catholic Education Week. School vice-principal Krista Sarmatiuk was very proud of their creation. “What a wonderful tribute to our school and our faith,” Sarmatiuk stated. “This tree of life represents us as a school, and as part of the Catholic family – it is a wonderful embodiment of us as the St. Francis community – rooted in our faith!”
What’s Inside My Computer?
Teacher Karen Healy and Early Childhood Educator Angela Ross’ class use forms of technology everyday, but how does that technology work? Through hands-on investigation, the full day kindergarten class at St. Francis Catholic Elementary School was able to dismantle a computer tower and a laptop to get a closer look at what is inside. Students Aiden Galloway took apart the CPU fan to get a closer look and Violet Smith tried to figure out where the memory chip goes on the motherboard. When Aiden was finished he said, “I can’t believe I took out a piece of the computer!”