October 1, 2014 Virtue of the Month: Gratitude

Administration

V. Tanzini - Principal

A. Tamburino - Secretary

J. Shain - Superintendent

M. Rizzo - Trustee

D. Goulet - CSAC Chairperson

T. Mehari - Head Caretaker

Fr. Damian Young-Sam-You

pastor St. Monica Church

(416) 483—1513

St. Monica

Catholic school

October 2014 Newsletter

& Calendar

Our welcome back mass, held on Sept. 16, was hosted by the students in Ms. Clarke’s grade 3 / 4 class and the preparation and leading/singing of hymns was lead by Mr. Stock. After mass, Fr. Damian high-fived students as they left our church for their participation in a beautiful mass. Upon reflection, the St. Monica community is one of great character, commitment and caring. This was recently evidenced with a record-breaking donation, for us, to The Terry Fox Foundation. Collectively we raised $1135.62 and a cheque in that amount (see below) was mailed to the Foundation this past week. This donation was extremely gener-

ous for a school of our size. As principal, I would like to thank our staff, students and parents for their gener-osity and courageous efforts in helping oth-ers. Thank you to a great start to the school year!

School Population = 259

To see this publication, the TCDSB Monthly Update and other important school documents, please

visit our school website at: http://www.tcdsb.org/schools/stmonica/

October Newsletter 14 Broadway ave.

Toronto, Ontario M4P 1T4

Principal’s Message

Gratitude

The Virtue for the month of Octo-ber is GRATITUDE. Whenever we gather as a faith community to wor-ship, we offer thanks to our God.

The blessings of food, friends, fami-ly and freedom are all gifts from our Creator God. As we prepare for the celebration of Thanksgiving, we are urged to take some time to remem-ber our blessings and give thanks.

Artwork completed by Kreggin D’Souza in Ms. Seminara’s gr. 4 class.

International Walk to School Day is Wednesday Oct. 8, 2014. Let’s all walk!

Zoe Diaz and Alyanna Santos holding a Terry Fox banner.

On Friday Sept. 19, students walked approx. 2 km around Eglinton Park. Teachers ensured that students walked safely when crossing streets. In addition, all JK, SK and gr.1 students were paired off with an intermediate stu-dent. Below: Riley, Camer-

on, and Myron. Above: Mark, Sara, and Elohra.

Right: Samantha, Eliza-beth, and Luella.

the 13th century and in 1470, Blessed Alan of Rupe, a Dominican preacher, founded the first Rosary confraternity. At Lourdes and Fatima, Our Lady en-couraged the children to pray the Rosary often. The fifteen mysteries of the Ro-sary focused on incidents in the lives of Jesus Christ and Mary. On October 16th, 2002, Pope John Paul II marked the 24th anniversary of his election by signing the apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, “The Rosary of the Virgin Mary” in which

The Word rosary is from the Latin rosarium, or “rose gar-den.” The Rosary is a prayer-ful reflection on the life of Jesus, which involves con-templating certain Gospel scenes, the “mysteries”, in the company of Mary. For Pope John Paul II, “The Rosary, precisely because it starts with Mary’s own expe-rience, is an exquisitely contem-plative prayer.” (Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 12).The Rosary is the most popular of all the Marian devotions. It was revealed to St. Domi-nic by the Blessed Mother in

he suggested five new “Mysteries of Light,” or Lu-minous Mysteries as follows: 1. The Baptism of Jesus 2. The Wedding at Cana 3. The Proclamation of The Kingdom of God 4. The Transfiguration 5. The Insti-tution of the Holy Eucharist The complete Rosary now consists of twenty decades divided into four distinct parts, the Joyful, the Luminous, the Sorrowful, and the Glorious Mysteries, each containing five decades and one mystery per decade.

Terry Fox Walk 2014

October 7th—Rosary Day

operation and prompt action on the part of the parents and school staff will help reduce inconvenience to the children. You are encour-aged to look at your child’s hair on a regular basis. When checking for nits (eggs), the hair should be dry. A convenient time for a visual check may be just be-fore washing your child’s

hair. If you find lice or nits, obtain and use, a medicated shampoo or medicated cream rinse from the phar-macist, and contact the school to inform us your child has been treated. Find-ing and treating head lice early will stop your child from getting a severe case and stop the spread of head lice to others.

This past September we have had some students contract-ing head lice. Head lice are a common problem that can affect anyone. They are a nuisance, but they do not cause other health risks. Please check your child’s hair and obtain the medicated treatment if necessary. Pre-vention of head lice is every-one’s responsibility. Co-

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Pediculosis Prevention

We recently signed up to use an exciting new educational game called Prodigy™. The game is a fun way for your child to practice their math skills in class and at home!

Learn at home!

Have you ever wished your child was as addicted to learning as they are to video-games? With Prodigy, your child can continue their learning at home, exactly where they left off at school. It takes less than 2 minutes to get started:

V i s i t www.ProdigyGame.com, and click on the orange “Start for Free” button

Enter your information to create a free Parent account

Click on the orange “+ Add Child” button and select “My child has an account from school”.

Enter your child’s username and password (ask your child for this)

Click on the orange

“Play Now” button in the top right to access the game

Real-time Reports

Prodigy provides you rich, real-time reports on what your child is learning. This makes it easy to track what math skill they’ve mastered, and where they may need help. To access reports:

Click on the blue “Teacher/Parent Login” b u t t o n o n www.ProdigyGame.com to access your parent

On Sept. 23rd, our Intermediate girls’ soft-ball team travelled to Amesbury Park to com-pete in their Divisional tournament. After a long, hot day of play, the girls were rewarded with our first pennant of the year– 1st place. Congratulations to Ni-

cole Ordonez, Kianna Me-gino, Tamrah Spring, Court-ney Duran, Marina Santos-Silva, Rachel Draper, Eliza-beth Bocsa, Natasha Cock-ett, Alecca Rimondo, Isabel Marimon, Marilyn Lutala, and Amalia Marimon. A special thank you to Ms. Seminara for coaching the girls to a first place finish.

Prodigy—A new math tool for school & home

Girls’ Softball Team wins Pennant

World Teachers’ Day– Oct. 5, 2014 work throughout the year at special events, school litur-gies, classroom retreats, clubs and teams, as well as field trips. We celebrate their successes in academics, ath-letics and the arts, which all contribute to the dynamic and exciting learning envi-ronments that our students enjoy.A school is only a building, but the people who inhabit a school bring it to life and transform that build-ing into a caring, vibrant and thriving educational commu-nity. We thank our educators for their continued commitment

to Catholic education, and their passion for serving students of all ages. We take great pride in your successes, no matter how big or how small. We pray for God’s blessing that you will contin-ue to find inspiration and strength from the support of your colleagues, and from the teachings of the Gospel. We wish you all a happy World Teachers’ Day, and continued success in the year ahead. - Angela Gauthier (Director of Education) - Jo-Ann Davis (Chair of the Board)

The words of Pope Francis remind us that we all have an important role to play in the creation of faith-filled, hopeful and loving commu-nities. In our Catholic school com-munities, it is our teachers, our administrators and our support staff who together with our parents and parish-es, provide mentorship, lead-ership and inspiration to the students that we are privi-leged to serve. Our young people look to the adults in their lives to show them what it means to follow the example of Jesus—to serve those entrusted to us, to protect all of God’s creation and to love and accept each and every person for their unique talents. On this World Teachers’ Day, we thank our educa-tors for their commitment to the students in our class-rooms, and for participat-ing fully in the life of their school communities. We see the talent and dedica-tion of our teachers at

Faith is truly a good for

everyone; it is a common

good. Its light does not

simply brighten the

interior of the Church,

nor does it serve solely

to build

an eternal city in the

hereafter; it helps us

build our societies in such

a way that they can

journey towards a future

of hope.—Pope Francis

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account (see ‘Learn at Home’ above)

Click on the “Reports” tab

Beginning this month, students in grades 1 through to grade 8 can ob-tain passwords from their homeroom teachers.

Page 4 October Newsletter