Virtue of the month:

Charity

December 2013

September08 2006 St. Anthony Catholic School

News Administrator’s Message

We are presently in one of the most beautiful times of the year in our liturgical calendar. The season of Advent is that time when we celebrate and anticipate the birth of Jesus. We are waiting for His birth and prepare for the arrival with a great deal of excitement and energy. During this season, we reflect on God’s greatest gift to us – the Saviour of the world. Advent is a time of quiet, joyful preparation for the celebration of Jesus’ birth. In this season that is filled with giving, it is fitting that our virtue of the month is charity. Our quote for the month is “Where charity and love are, God is there”. St. Anthony’s will be practicing charity and generosity with several initiatives. Once again we are inviting each student to bring in a new pair of mittens or gloves which will decorate our school’s Christmas tree in the Atrium. All mittens and gloves will be donated to a local women’s shelter. We thank everyone for their generosity and commitment to the virtues of hope and charity as we offered our assistance, through the Toonie Tuesday inititative and children’s clothing to the Philippine Relief Efforts. We raised over $900.00! We invite you to join us as we celebrate the spirit of the season with several special events; our annual Christmas concert, “Christmas Superstars” on December 11 @ 7:00 and our Advent Mass on December 17 @ 9:30.

Wishing everyone a Christmas filled with peace, love and joy!

Catholic School Advisory Council

We have many exciting events planned for the new year and encourage all parents to attend our next CSAC meeting January 8, 2014 at 6:30 for further information. Please send along any comments or suggestions to csac.stanthony@tcdsb.org If you require babysitting during the meeting, please call the school at least a day in advance.

Kindergarten Registration

Registration for Junior Kindergarten children for the school year September 2014- June 2015 will begin in the new year. Extended hours for registration will be held on Wednesday, January 15 from 5:30-7:30. Children registering for Junior Kindergarten in September must be four years of age by December 31, 2014 (born in 2010) and children registering for Senior Kindergarten, who are new to our school must be five years of age by December 31, 2014 (born in 2009). Documents required for registration include: Baptismal certificate Birth Certificate Immunization records Landed Immigration Status (if born outside of Canada) Children’s Health Card Number

St. Anthony Catholic

School

130 Shanly Street Toronto Ontario

M6H 1L9 Telephone 416-393-5210

Fax 416-393-5793

Principal: Beverly Pavan

Superintendent: Dr. Jim Saraco

Trustee:

Barbara Poplawski

Parish: St. Anthony Catholic Church

1041 Bloor Street West Toronto, Ontario

M6H 1M4 Phone 416-536-3333

Enrollment:

365

Hours of Operation: 8:30 – 3:30

Lunch Hour: 11:35-12:35

_____________________________

Cold Weather Reminders

With the approach of winter, please note that should it become necessary to cancel school bus transportation or close schools due to inclement weather, the Communications Department and Toronto Student Transportation Group will endeavor to provide updates through the following vehicles:

News releases to radio and television outlets in Toronto

An email to all staff, trustees and CSAC chairs to advise them of any cancellations or closures

Notification E-News subscribers Updates will also be posted on the Board’s 24-hour

information line, 416-222-8282, extension 2873 The information will also be posted on the

homepage of the Board’s website at www.tcdsb.org

The Toronto Student Transportation Group will post this information on its website at http://www.schoolbus.to/c_home.asp

Volunteers

Offering our service to others is a basic tenet of the gospel of Jesus; thus volunteering our time, talents and energy is a vital and vibrant aspect of our Christian community. Volunteers can assist teachers in the classroom, in the library, class excursions and sporting events. If you or anyone you know would like to volunteer at our school please speak to your child’s teacher or Mrs. Pavan. We would be happy to discuss any volunteer opportunities.

The Royal Winter Fair

On November 6, Ms Macdonald and Ms. Benkoe took the city to the country. Our classes visited the Royal Winter Fair. For many students, this was a first time experience. Our adventure at The Royal began with the “President’s Choice Superdogs Show” Here dogs of different breeds competed in a variety of obstacle course races. One Superdog actually competed in a spelling bee with a member of the audience. We then made our way to the “Pizza Pizza Petting Farm”. We were greeted by goats, geese, rabbits, and Alpacas-they look like llamas, only smaller and with finer fleece. For $2, students could purchase a cup of animal treats. Many times, the animals helped themselves to the treats and to the cup for that matter. There was so much to see and so little time to see it all in. While making our way to the Ricoh Coliseum, we crossed the “For the Love of Food Exhibit”. This is an exhibit where farmers displayed their prize crops. One cabbage was approximately the same width as 3 of our students. The “Butter Sculpturing Contest” stopped us in our tracks. Through a glass we saw clumps of butter transformed into beautiful creations, like unicorns and swans.

We continued down one of the many aisles, entered a second building, and saw that the “Dairy Cattle Milking” demonstration had just begun. Much to our surprise, we were told that the brown cow does not give us chocolate milk. Some of us still beg to differ. We finally reached The Ricoh Coliseum where the “Royal Horse Show” was about to begin. One by one, luxurious coaches pulled by magnificent Clydesdale horses entered the arena. They trotted in unison and mirrored the elegance and sophistication of their riders. It was a beautiful performance. This is where our wonderful and unique country adventure ended. As we headed north on Bus #29, we shared our most memorable moments at the Royal Winter Fair. Maybe we didn’t agree on the best performance or competition, but we all certainly agreed on trying to make our trip to The Royal Winter Fair an annual tradition.

Holiday Treats

As Christmas approaches we would like to remind you that there are allergic children in the school. Please do not send in any foods (in particular any items containing nuts) to school without consulting the classroom teacher. The extra vigilance needed at Christmas will be greatly appreciated by the allergic children, their families and school staff. We thank you for your continued vigilance and cooperation.

St. Anthony Code of Conduct

Our students are continually reminded of the rules and routines which are expected of all students at all times. Conveniently, a copy of our code of conduct has been inserted into our student agendas which all families were asked to read and sign off on in early September. Students are reminded of the following rules:

Personal body space must be respected at all times. Inappropriate touching or closeness of a sexual nature is unacceptable and will be dealt with accordingly.

Violence of any kind will not be tolerated. Fighting – including ‘play fighting’ is unacceptable at any time. Students must keep their hands and feet to themselves.

Emotional abuse, intimidation, bullying or threatening of any type, including cyber bullying is very serious and could result in suspension from school.

Christmas Silent Auction

Our CSAC is sponsoring a silent auction to run the week of December 9-13. We are accepting donations (new items, gift cards, baskets, toys, etc.) in the office. Please be sure to drop by the week of the auction and plan to do some Christmas Shopping.

Remembrance Day Ceremony at Old City Hall Teaches Students the Importance of Peace

(The following was reprinted by permission from the publication

Skedline.com)

Every November 11 for the past 15 years, students from

Saint Anthony’s Catholic School have gathered at Old City

Hall to honour fallen soldiers. Almost two hours before the

Remembrance Day Ceremony began on Monday, students

had gathered in the biting, drizzling rain – and guarding

their front-row vantage point from the thousands of

onlookers. “These students have been here since 9 am.

You’ll have to find somewhere else to stand,” said a woman

in the crowd, defending the student’s spots from a video-

journalist trying to pass through. The ceremony, attended

by Mayor Rob Ford, who addressed the crowd, drew in

thousands of people. The tradition of attending the

ceremony was started by one of the elder teachers more

than 15 years ago. Ms. Maiolo continued it when she

transferred to the school. Although seventh-grade-student

Kevin says attending the ceremony is just a part of the

curriculum, Catherine Maiolo, a teacher at St. Anthony’s

School, says she makes her students attend the ceremony

“to keep the idea of remembrance in their hearts.”

The school celebrates a different virtue every month and this month it is peace. The school’s November newsletter quotes Pope John Paul II. “Peace is not just the absence of war. It involves mutual respect and confidence between peoples and nations.”

Ms. Maiolo says peace is also connected with anti-bullying in the school, “all the way into what bullying can lead to if we don’t stop and remember how to be peaceful people.” Maiolo tries to instill this virtue in her students as well as a practical idea of what war-time life was like.

Last year, Ms. Maiolo’s class made a war-time cake which was made only of ingredients that could be sent overseas. The cake had to be made without milk or eggs, which didn’t yield the best results.

“The cake was as good as it could be,” she says, with a laugh.

FRENCH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

Bonjour, This month students will be learning all about “Noël” in their French classes. They will learn new vocabulary, read stories and even sing some Christmas songs in French. Joyeux Noël! NOVEMBER’S ISSUE: FRENCH FUN FACT ANSWER According to Statistics Canada, approximately how many Canadians are able to conduct a conversation in French?

b) 10 million FRENCH FUN FACT How do you say “Christmas tree” in French?

a) l’arbre de Noël b) le sapin c) les lumières

See next month’s copy of the newsletter for the answer. Au revoir!

Do the Math We all have math memories, good and bad. Correct computations are and will always be important, but having good number sense means much more. The emphasis is now on finding efficient and alternative ways of performing calculations and knowing when and how to estimate and get approximate answers. Confidence in using mental math helps children improve their abilities to problem solve and to estimate the reasonableness of answers. You can support this learning by encouraging your child to:

Count things in the room Work with addition or subtraction Organize and compare groups of objects (more

than/less than) Examine many ways that a number can be

expressed Talk about numbers in daily life Solve everyday problems (How long? How many?

How much?) Involve numbers in a variety of ways (How large is

a million? How small is one one-millionth?) Discuss solution strategies – they may be different!

A proven way to develop numerical skills is to play games. Playing cards, dice games and favourite board games such as Snakes and Ladders and Monopoly provide rich opportunities for families to play together while strengthening computational skills at the same time.

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