St. Denis Catholic School News

December 2016

Toronto Catholic District School Board Trustee 2016-2017

1. Joseph Martino 8. Gary Tanuan 2. Ann Andrachuk 9. Jo-Ann Davis 3. Sal Piccininni 10. Barbara Poplawski 4. Patrizia Bottoni 11. Angela Kennedy, Chair 5. Maria Rizzo 12. Nancy Crawford 6. Frank D’Amico, vice-Chair Karina Dubrovskaya, Student Trustee 7. Michael Del Grande, Rhea Carlisle, Student Trustee

Dear Families:

As we enter the season of Advent to prepare our hearts for the birth of Jesus, it is rather suitable that this month’s virtue is CHARITY. Many of us are already engaging in the mad rush to purchase gifts to put under the tree on the 25th, but let us be mindful of the fact that charity is not always about giving material things. Our quote for the month is, “Where charity and love are, God is there”. As St. Thomas Aquinas described it, “Charity is friendship first with God and secondly with all who belong to God." (2a2ae, 25,4).

*

This

Christmas

End a quarrel.

Seek out a forgotten

Friend. Dismiss suspicion,

And replace it with trust…

Write a love letter. Share some

Treasure. Give a soft answer. En-

Courage youth. Manifest your loyalty

In word and deed. Keep a promise. Find the

Time. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Listen.

Apologize if you were wrong. Try to understand.

Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone

Else. Appreciate. Be kind; be gentle. Laugh a little. Laugh

A little more. Deserve confidence. Take issue against malice.

Express your gratitude. Go to church. Welcome a stranger. Gladden

The heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth.

Speak your love.

Speak it again.

Speak it still

Once again.

Peace and love begin

With simple kindness,

And joy to the world happens

One heart at a time.

Merry Christmas to you and your families.

Serving you In Catholic Education,

D. Comacchio

Principal

St. Denis Catholic School

67 Balsam Avenue Toronto, Ontario

M4E 3B8

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Principal: Mr. D. Comacchio

Secretary: Mrs. J. Mallia

Superintendent: Mr. J. Shanahan 416-222-8282

Angela Gauthier Director of Education

Website: www.tcdsb.org

Community Parishes:

St. John Church 416-698-1105

Corpus Christi Church 416-694-0382

CSAC Chair Sara Andino David Toto

CPIC (Parent Engagement-TCDSB)

www.tcdsb.org/cpic

OAPCE Toronto (Provincial Voice for Parents)

www.tcdsb.org/oapce-toronto

Enrolment: 294

Hours of Operation: 8:15 a.m.—3:15 p.m.

Lunch Hour: 11:35 a.m. - 12:35 p.m.

__________________

Catch the spirit!

portant initiatives this month is the Art of Giving. This year, the event will take place on Tues-day, December 20th. Parents are encouraged to bring items to the school that will be later pur-chased by students as gifts for family and friends. All the money raised will go to a school in the TCDSB. We look for-ward to this amazing and community building events! A huge thank you in advance to all the parents that help to make the Art of Giving the success that it is.

CSPC invites you to our next CSPC meet-ing on Wednesday February 4th, 2015. Please visit https://www.tcdsb.org/schools/stdenis/ForParents/Pages/default.aspx for information related to St. Denis CSPC.

LOST AND FOUND ITEMS

Please be aware that there are a number of items in our lost and found boxes in the Atri-

um. We ask that these items get picked up by December 16th. Any items left behind will be sent to a needy charity.

Kindergarten Registration Starts January 18, 2016

Children born in 2013 or earlier and who will be enrolling in Kinder-garten, have the opportunity to apply on-line us- ing the “Student On-line Admission and Reg-istration platform know as S.O.A.R. and found at the following link http://soar.tcdsb.org

Registration will begin for all Elementary School on Wednesday, January 18, 2017 at 10am.

WINTER CLOTHING

Winter weather is upon us. Parents are reminded to ensure that their children have hats, gloves, boots, scarves and warm winter coats. We also ask that the students bring a pair of indoor shoes for school during the snowy days. Please have these items labeled.

A reminder that all students are required to be outdoors during morning, lunch and afternoon recess. The school’s policy maintains that students who are not well enough to go outdoors should be kept at home. Children will be kept indoors only during inclement weather or when the wind chill factor is high. We thank you in

REPORTING OF CANCELLATIONS OR CLOSURES DUE TO

INCLEMENT WEATHER

With the approach of win-ter, please note that should it become neces-sary to cancel school bus

transportation or close schools due to inclement weather, the Communications Department and Toronto Student Trans-portation Group will provide updates through the following vehicles:

-News releases to all media outlets in Toronto (Note: although the news re-lease is provided to the media outlets, there is no guarantee that all television and radio stations will broadcast the information in a timely fashion.)

-Information will be shared electroni-cally with E-News subscribers (Note: If you do not already subscribe to E-News, but wish to do so, please visit our web-site at www.tcdsb.org and click on the E-News icon on the top right hand side of the homepage)

-Twitter will also be used to provide updates throughout the day. Follow TCDSB on twitter.

-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 Board’s website at www.tcdsb.org as an alert—this will appear on the home page of the website as well as all school pages.

-The Transportation Department will post this information on its website at http://www.schoolbus.to/c_home.asp

Christmas Baskets— St. Vincent de Paul

Society

By now you have re-ceived a letter asking you to consider making

Christmas special for a less fortunate family, through the St. John /St. Vin-cent de Paul Society. Your gift, food or food voucher is greatly appreciated. Our December virtue is charity and this is a wonderful opportunity as a family to demonstrate this virtue. It is an oppor-tunity of showing that it is better to give than to receive. Each year, the St. Vincent de Paul Society has told us how overwhelmed and incredibly grateful the families have been to receive our bas-kets. A reminder that the items should be sent to the school by Friday, Decem-ber 9th. Thank you in advance for your generosity.

ART OF GIVING

In keeping with December’s virtue of the month, Charity, one of our most im-

advance for your cooperation and support in this matter.

Ms Mohan’s Grade 3/4 Class

It has been a busy autumn full on hands on learning in our classroom. For Remembrance Day, we composed Post-cards for Peace to our veterans that were hand delivered to Sunnybrook Veterans centre. Grade Four students have just completed the Swim to Survive program where we learned new swimming skills and had a lot of fun! Artist Sheila Frost came in to do a work-shop on using pastel colours to create Hai-da inspired totem pole images. Mr. Greg Stevens came in to do a presen-tation on critical thinking in media literacy, giving us new ways to interpret messages in the media. Now that the season of Advent is upon us, we are focusing on the virtue of charity and will increase our understanding and practice of charity through the Christmas basket program while reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Jesus and new hope for the world.

Intermediate Boys’ Volleyball

On Tues. Nov. 8th, the intermediate boys’ volley-ball team competed in our

divisional tournament. At 8:15am that morning, the team departed for St. Mary’s of Portugal Square to play against three hard and competitive teams. The boys couldn’t have had more fun, as we played together as a solid team. Every game was a tough battle, coming as close as a three point difference! Although we didn’t move on to the next round, we can certainly hold our heads high because we played from the heart. On our way back to school, we stopped in to the BEACHER CAFÉ where we were all treated to an awesome lunch. THANK YOU BEACHER CAFÉ! Finally, the intermediate boys’ volleyball team would like to thank Ms. Clarke for her caring support she had given us along the way and to the parents who came out to cheer us on. By: Kai Martineau

Halloween Dance-A-thon

Thank you to all parents for your contribu-tions for this year’s Halloween Dance A Thon. The students dressed up in amazing costumes and they had a wonderful time dancing. We want to send a special Thank

You to Mr. Reid Patterson for donating the lights for the gym for the dance.

STUDENTS OF THE MONTH

The Student of the Month Award is to rec-ognize students’ positive characteristics and actions towards other students, staff and parents in our school community. We would like to congratulate the following students who were chosen as recipients of the Virtue of the Month for October—Gratitude & November - Peacemaking.

October’s virtue was GRATITUDE

Ms. Martins

Ms. Perciasepe Ryder DaCosta Siena Lamie Ms. Power Julia Stevens Ms. Richea Olivia Rae Skyes Everett Andino Ms. Lo Rory Thornton Harrison O’Farrell Ms. Pinsonneault Colin Malcolm Andreas Nilsson Ms. Mohan Graham Moorehouse Mrs. Manzer Jacob Apap Nathan Lopez Ava Varga

Mr. Gordon Mrs. Sala Maya Jose Ms. Van Wyck Beth Armstrong Luca Pizzuti Ms. Clarke Julia Doyle James Bunga Owen Carey-Griffin

November’s virtue is PEACEMAKING

Ms. Martins

Ms. Perciasepe Adrian Domurat Miranda Breen Ms. Power Will Fox Ms. Richea Ella Deveaux Reid Cryer Ms. Lo Ava Tabata Vincent Murphy Ms. Pinsonneault Will Pittard Mason McIlmoyle Ms. Mohan Skye MacLean Ryan Nelson Mrs. Manzer Johnathon Armstrong Julia Plant Russell Tabata Mr. Gordon Mrs. Sala Nathan Yousefzadeh Ms. Van Wyck Bianca Hoang Charlotte MacDougall Ms. Clarke Jack Beverly Jonathan Nilsson Shannon Dobbin

The virtue for December is Charity.

Dancing Like A Star At St. Denis

When we first met Ms Julia and she said that we would be dancing with girls/boys everybody was screaming in shock. In the first lesson everyone was so nervous and weirded out but by the end it was fun but still weird. Every lesson it got less awkward and we all got better at the dancing. When

we learned the tango at the part where we promenade we all got very silly and punched each other. It was very funny, but then we got in trouble. But then all of the sudden Ms. Julia was announcing the dance teams. Right before the big announcement every-body was so stressed out. After the teams were announced some of the people who weren't picked got very sad. The team members from Mr. Gordon's class ended up to be foxtrot: Mira/Raymond, Tango: Emma/Holden, Swing: Lilah/Nate, coach; Maya, B. Finally the big the day the show-case, In the hallway everyone was so nerv-ous and excited. Once we got in the gym everybody calmed down and just danced. On behalf of the class we loved dancing in front of all the people. It was great. Some of us will see Ms. Julia again but for the others it was very sad. By: Nate & Lilah

Join the Dance

Back in September, Mr. Gordon’s and Mrs. Manzer’s classes were introduced to a ball-room dancing teacher, Ms. Julia. We found out that we were to spend the next 10 weeks learning to dance! Some of us were not happy with the thought of having to hold someone else’s hand! Fortunately we all began to love ballroom dancing. We learnt how to merengue, foxtrot, rumba, tango swing and waltz. We all loved to swing! Finally, after 10 weeks, both classes participated in a showcase for our parents, performing all we had learnt. Some of us are sorry the lessons are over as we loved learning to dance. By: River & Matthew

Grade 4 Swim to Survive

This year I am in Grade 4. I love all the new activities that we can now do, but my favourite would be “Swim to Survive”. Even though it was tiring, I learned that you really need to push the limit for it to work. At first you go into which level you think you are. I went in the middle group, but then I got moved to the highest level. We did multiple laps of front crawl, back crawl and breaststroke. We went for three lessons, and there we were at lesson three. This time we didn’t do as much tiring stuff.

In fact we were able to play “octopus”! Over all this was a really fun experi-ence. By: Sarah

KIDS 4 KIDS Bake Sale

On Wednesday November 16 and Thursday November 17 we had a bake sale during Parent-teacher interviews. Our goal was to raise $1000 to be able to make a wig for someone in need. We raised $1045.50 selling our baked goods.! All of the money raised is going to the Angel Hair Foundation to make wigs for people with cancer and other diseases that cause hair loss. Thank you to everyone who baked delicious treats for this special event including Nova Era Bakery for the delicious Portuguese tarts. A special thank you goes out to Ian Sinclair for donating the coffee. We had so much fun bak-ing together and selling these goodies. Look out for more Kids 4 Kids initia-tives throughout the year. Lets see how many wigs we can make! If you are interested in donating your hair to help make a wig (we need 20-30 pony-tails) please talk to someone in Kids 4 Kids. By: Shannon and Kat

Parent Surveys for Before and After School Programs

As of January 18, 2017, parents, of currently-enrolled Year 1/Junior Kin-dergarten students, will be provided with a survey to indicate interest for a Before and After School Licensed Child Care Program to potentially open. A minimum of 20 positive surveys and then 20 registrations will be needed in order to consider a program. During that same week, parents of currently-enrolled children from the ages of 6 -12 will be able to access a Before and After School survey online through the following link:

https://soar.tcdsb.org/soarsurvey2/schoolagesurvey.aspx

A minimum of 25 positive surveys and then 25 registrations will be needed in order to consider a school-age pro-gram for 6 – 12 year olds. Before and After/After School Pro-grams generally operate on a cost-recovery basis therefore minimum numbers are required in order to be financially-viable. Completed surveys (whether online or paper copies) are due by Friday, Feb-ruary 17, 2017. For school sites that have an existing Before and After School and or just After School Program (authorized recreation), parents are still welcome to complete the surveys to show inter-est in a program that may not current-ly be available in the school. Note that every effort will be made to open programs where there is sufficient interest. This is contingent upon iden-tifying a qualified third party agency that accepts the opportunity to open a program within a school site.

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