School Council—Conseil de l’école

Co-Chairpersons/Co-Présidents: Nigel Hope and Carrie Anne Clancy-Quish

Board Administration—Administration du conseil Director of Education/Directeur d’éducation: Bruce MacPherson Superintendent/Surintendante: Catherine Montreuil Trustee/Commissionaire: Bev Eckensweiler

Principal/Directrice: Francine Pilon Head Teacher/Professeur en charge: Office Administrator/Administratrice du bureau : Lynn Hahn Priest/Prêtre: Father Stephen Lacroix

Our next newsletter will be sent home the week of March 1st 2012.

Notre prochain bulletin sera la semaine du 1 mars 2012.

Formosa, Ontario N0G 1W0 Phone/Téléphone:(519)367-2900

Wednesday February 1st, 2012

Mercredi le premier Fevrier 2012

Bulletin de l’École Immaculate Conception

School Newsletter

BRUCE GREY CATHOLIC DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD – VISION STATEMENT

Committed to a vibrant Catholic education, we ensure quality learning experiences through community partnerships that nurture each student in mind, body and spirit and embrace the

teachings of Christ, giving witness to Gospel values.

Dear God,

We believe that You always listen to us lovingly, and for this we praise You. Teach us to be like You and listen with our ears and our hearts to understand others. Guide us to commit ourselves to resolve the suffering of others. Help

us to walk in the Spirit of Jesus, as we learn about, and respond to, the many needs of our world.

Amen

It is with great pleasure that the Bruce-Grey Catholic District School Board has announced that Principal, Francine Pilon has been chosen as one of Canada’s Outstanding Principals for 2012. The Bruce Grey Catholic District School Board is ex-

tremely proud of the excellent work and efforts of our Catholic principals who provide authentic leadership within our schools on a daily basis. The community of Immaculate Conception School is proud of our Principal, Mme Pilon, who was selected for this prestigious award. This esteemed honour is in recognition of Mme Pilon’s leadership within our school and throughout our Board. Mme Pilon demonstrates “faith in action” through her work with staff to provide students with a faith filled educational experience. By living the virtues of deep caring, and setting an example, Mme Pilon helps to make our school a wonderful place to be! Congratulations Mme Pilon! Well deserved!

Bruce-Grey Catholic District School Board “Proclaiming the Work of Your Love”

“We are a Catholic Faith Community committed to developing and maintaining a love of life long learning, nurturing self-esteem and respect for all creation.”

FAMILY LITERACY

DAY Family Literacy Day is a national awareness initiative created by ABC Life Literacy Canada in 1999 and held annually on January 27 to raise

awareness of the importance of reading and engaging in other literacy related activities as a family. More than 1.5 million Canadians have already participated in the initiative since its debut. Taking time every day to read or do a learning activity with children is crucial to a child’s development. Even just 15 minutes a day can improve a child’s literacy skills dramatically, and can help a parent improve their skills as well. Family liter-acy programs focus on parents as the means to improve the reading and writing skills of all family members. By reading to children and engaging in fun literacy activi-ties, parents are actively keeping their own skills sharp while at the same time strengthening the relationship between the family which, in turn, encourages lifelong learning. There are many ways to strengthen your fam-ily’s literacy skills—all it takes is practicing for 15 min-utes every day by reading, writing, playing a game, fol-lowing a recipe or even singing a song. For more information please go to the Family Literacy Day link at abclifeliteracy.ca

SHROVE TUESDAY PANCAKE DAY

February 21st 2012 Our school will be celebrating the last day before Lent with a special lunch sponsored by the Parent Council. There is no charge to enjoy the pancakes, but donations for the food bank will be collected and appreciated. Please send a plate and cutlery with your child. Please let us know if your child will be participating and if you are able to help with the cooking or serving. In order for this pancake lunch to run smoothly, we need 8 volunteers between 8:30 & 1:30, if you are able to help for some or all of the morning, please call the school. 519 367 2900 Please consider joining us!

First Holy Communion

Sunday, May 6th 11:00 a.m.

Immaculate Conception Church

BIRTHDAY CLUB

Happy Birthday to the following students who celebrate their birthday in

FEBRUARY

Gil Schumacher Michael Dirven Kassidy Fischer Mark Dirven Samuel Young Reagan Bujold Patrick McArthur Caleb Chamberlain Aidan Quish Michelle Bester Nathan Schmidt Mischa Weppler Nathan Diemert Abby Folmer Kaitlyn Lowes Zach Girdler

Our next School

Mass will be Ash

Wednesday, February

22nd at 9:10 am at

Immaculate Conception

Church

Immaculate Conception School— Formosa

“We are a Catholic Faith Community committed to developing and maintaining a love of life long learning, nurturing self-esteem and respect for all creation.”

Free Throw Basketball The students and staff at Immaculate Conception would like to congratulate the following students who represented our school at the Knights of Columbus Free Throw Competition on Saturday January 21st in Walkerton.

Well done ICS Mason Stroeder Jose McGlynn Sophie Borho Rhys Martin Dawson Fahrer Lucas Slosser McLean Brennan Wagner Hannah Plumstead Dominic Borho Ben Fleischauer Aidan Quish Keaton Rich Ryan Bester Brooklyn Patton Chloe Kuntz Sidney Reinhart Andrea Bell Bester Krista Konecny Claudia Weppler Dallas Fischer Congratulations to Dominic, Mason, Rhys, Brennan, Brooklyn, Sidney, Krista and Dallas who placed first and will be representing ICS at the District meet in Arthur in February. Good Luck students, we are proud of you!

PD Day Friday February 3rd

JANUARY/FEBRUARY VIRTUE ASSEMBLY

Please join us for our school assembly on

Wednesday, February 29th,

Everyone is welcome!

BREAKFAST PROGRAM Thank you! Thank you!

We wish to thank the parents who have kindly donated money towards our breakfast program. The students appreciate the delicious items that are made for them. Donations help to keep this program in place for our students. Thank you to the volunteers for your time and creativity.

Bruce-Grey Catholic District School Board “Proclaiming the Work of Your Love”

“We are a Catholic Faith Community committed to developing and maintaining a love of life long learning, nurturing self-esteem and respect for all creation.”

Encourage thankfulness in your child

with the compliment game Children tend to think of themselves as the cen-ter of the universe. Here’s a game that can get them to focus on the contributions other people make to their lives. Each evening at dinner, play the compliment game. One by one, family members either offer a compliment to someone else or thank someone else. “I’d like to thank mom for making this delicious dinner.” or “ I’d like to compliment Ryan. I couldn’t find my gym shoes this morning. He helped me look for them until I found them.” If you do this each day, your children will be-gin to pay attention. They’ll notice the nice things others do for them. Your compliments will have an effect on your children. You will also see them repeat the behavior so you can compliment them again! Source: Rafe Esquith, Lighting their Fires: Raising Extraordi-nary Children in a Mixed up, Muddles Up, Shook Up World. ISBN 9780-6700-2108-6, Viking

Skiing Dates at Talisman A reminder that our ski dates for this year are Friday, February 10th Thursday ,February 23rd

Our next School Council meeting will be Thursday, February 16th at 6:30 pm

Senior Girls Volleyball Team Thank you Mlle Turcotte for coaching our Senior Girls Volleyball team. They had a great day at the Board tournament. The girls demonstrated a positive attitude and good sportsmanship. Well done ICS! Team members:

Veronica McGlynn Ally Busby Sophie Borho Alli Meyer Brooklyn Weber Anna Lennox Dallas Fischer Rachel Stroeder Jerri McGlynn Julia Bailey Krista Konecny Michelle Bester

“We are a Catholic Faith Community committed to developing and maintaining a love of life long learning, nurturing self-esteem and respect for all creation.”

Bruce-Grey Catholic District School Board “Proclaiming the Work of Your Love”

PUBLIC SPEAKING There were 23 talented Immaculate Conception School students on the stage Tuesday, January 31st. Delaney Mitchell, Andrea Barry, Katelyn Schnurr, Isaac Mulvey, Emma Fortney, Madison Begon, Dawson Urbanek, Janelle Gies, Mason Stroeder, Billie Martin, Travis Rawn, Sophie Borho, Jacob Mattingly, Darren Rich, Dallas Fischer, Courtney Schmidt, Joe Harper, Lucas Slosser-McLean, Esther Boersma, Ronin Remers, Alli Meyer, Rachel Stroeder, Brennan Wagner. Congratulations to all students who participated. These are the speech winners: Primary Winners

First Place: Delaney Mitchell Runner Up: Andrea Barry Runner Up: Katelyn Schnurr Junior Winners

First Place: Darren Rich Runner Up: Travis Rawn Runner Up: Janelle Gies Senior Winners

First Place: Alli Meyer Runner Up: Esther Boersma Runner Up: Lucas Slosser McLean Honourable Mention: Ronin Remers First Place Winners advance to the Legion competition to be held at the Walkerton Legion on Saturday, Feb.4th at 1 p.m. (Weather date Sunday, Feb. 12th at 1 p.m.)

“Let the same

character

be in you that was in

Christ Jesus” Philippians 2.5

Character Education

Is a way of life and being

February Virtue Empathy

Empathy is being able to identify with, and feel the concerns, feelings and needs of another person. A person of empathy is able to listen sensitively, under-stand and lovingly “be with” another person. Empa-thy is at the heart of the ministry of Jesus who first sought to love and understand the people he later healed, and empathy is also at the heart of disciple-ship.

“The first step to wisdom is silence; the second is

listening.”

You can reinforce the virtue of Empathy by using our Catholic Culture of Deep Caring Calendar

Week One

•I believe that God listens lovingly to me.

Week Two

•Like Jesus, I notice when someone is hurt and needs a friend.

Week Three

•I listen with my ears and my heart to under-stand and encourage others.

Week Four

•I learn about the needs in our world and commit myself to helping all who are

suffering.

SAFE ARRIVAL / DISMISSAL

We ask that all absences be communicated through the office using our 24 hour mes-sage machine or by calling the school at 367 2900 and leaving a message.

Thank you for using our Voice Mail 367-5283.

Immaculate Conception School— Formosa

FEBRUARY LEARNING SKILL HOMEWORK COMPLETION

Work habits: – follows directions and completes homework on time and with care – puts forth a consistent effort – shows attention to detail – demonstrates interest in and enthusiasm for homework assignments – organizes materials and equipment for effec-tive use – begins work promptly – follows directions and completes tasks – chooses and uses materials and equipment correctly, safely, and creatively – uses time efficiently – perseveres with complex projects that require sustained effort – attends to the task at hand – demonstrates flexibility and adaptability.

Junior Volleyball Skills Competition

Some of our students from grades 4-6 participated in a volleyball workshop

on Fri., Jan. 27th at SHHS. The workshop is designed to help students develop skills, polish techniques and practice good sportsmanship. The following students represented our school: Brooklyn Patton Meredith Legace Pilar Dietrich Janelle Gies Lauren Dillon Chloe Kuntz Ben Fleischauer Justin Rogers Mitchell Dirven Matthew Bruder Travis Rawn Dawson Urbanek

Volunteers

Needed

Thank you to the people who have given

generously of their time to help with our

Tuesday Lunch Program.

We are in need of more volunteers to fill in some spaces from April

until June. Volunteers are needed from 9:30 until 12:30. If you

can’t come for the whole time, an hour or 2 will be helpful. Please

call the school at 519 367 2900 or Christie Schumacher at 519 392

6218 if you are able to volunteer some time. Merci!

FEBRUARY 2012

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 Sr Boys Volleyball

2 3 PD Day

4

5 Empathy

6 7 Chess Mac and Cheese

8 9 10 Kdgn B Ski Day

11

12 Caring

13 14 Wraps 15 16 School Council meeting 6:30 PM

17 Kdgn A

18

19 20 Family Day

21 Pancake Day

22 Ash Wednes-day Mass at 9:10

23 Ski Day

24 Kdgn A

25

26 27 28 Grilled Cheese

29 Virtue Assembly

“We are a Catholic Faith Community committed to developing and maintaining a love of life long learning, nurturing self-esteem and respect for all creation.”

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION SCHOOL

Empathy is identifying another person’s feelings and concerns. It is walking like Jesus who sought to love and understand all people.