Blog

October Success Stories

Thanksgiving Mass was Awesome. Students and Staff organized a great mass. The music was “way cool.”

SDE students participated in the Cross Country run. Congratulations to all those participating. A special cheer goes out to Simon Radke who finished 1st out of 144 runners!

We had a great Bus Safety presentation October 26th. Students got to get on a real school bus and practicing the safety rules!

St. Dominic September Success Stories

St. Dominic opened the school year with an assembly on the first day of school. We celebrated last year and cheered the start of this school year with a video presentation introducing staff to our students.

St. Dominic is excited about our Peace Patrol program this year. This is a new program for students in Grades 4 to 6. Our Peace Patrollers go outside on the K-3 playground for our morning, lunch and afternoon recesses. Their role is to engage students in play, help them solve small problems and learn how to play cooperatively with others. They assist children in working through disagreements using Kelso’s Choices; a problem solving method offering 9 different strategies to resolve the problem.

Our Peace Patrollers are role models for our younger students. They model the skills and virtues of our Moral Intelligence Program. The program is so successful that we had 35 Grade 5 and 6 students complete application forms to be Peace Patrol members. With such a fantastic interest, unfortunately we had to limit the program to Grade 5 and 6 students and created a waiting list for grade 4 students. Thank you to all those students committed to helping St. Dominic School be the best we can be. AWESOME!

Well, our first week of school is exciting and energetic. It is great to see the faces of the students as they come into the school on the first day of class. The smiles and hugs are energizing. We have so many great things planned this year! Our first big event is the Vancouver Aquarium Aqua Van is coming September 15, 2011. What a wonderful opportunity for our students to experience ocean life!

I would like to thank parents and students for attending our Parent Information Evening August 31, 2011. It was a great success. Thank you to the staff for preparing informative presentations about grade level curriculum, classroom expectations, student and parent expectations for the year. We are going to have a great year!

Great news - St. Dominic School is offering a full 5 day per week Kindergarten program. It is not mandatory for students to attend 5 days per week. Students can still attend 4 days per week or we can provide flexible programming for your child. For more information or to arrange a tour of the school call Patti @ 780 815-0052.

April was full of exciting events. We had our Easter Celebrations and Spring Break.

Lenten Social Justice Projects

Leprosy Mission of Canada

Thank you for the generation donations for Leprosy. Your donations go to providing the very costly medication needed to cure the Leprosy bacteria.

The final total raised by students, staff and parents was $1073. 21.

As another Lenten project, some of our Grade 5/6 students made and sold crafts (bracelets, no sew dolls, and friendship pins) for the Cold Lake Humane Society and Cancer research. The final total for was $578.05. This each organization received $289.03

Mme Jose’s Grade 5/6 I class donated $394.01 to the Cold Lake Humane Society.

God has blessed each of us with many gifts. Thank you for your support of these very worthy causes.

Canadian Parents for French

The chapter of CPF held a Family Dance, Friday April 29, 2011. The dance was a great success. Thank you to all the volunteers that worked to make the evening so wonderful!

Merci!!!!!!!

Well, we made it through some awful cold weather in January. Hopefully we won’t see much of that again. The cold weather opened my eyes to the spirit of St. Dominic School. I witnessed our students, parents, and staff remain upbeat and positive in very trying times. This speaks to the character of our family. Our MIP focus for January was self-control and wow, did we ever work hard. Students were respectful and tolerant of each other as we spent a great deal of time couped up inside. I am blessed to be a part of just a great community.

Alvin Law came to St. Dominic school to talk to our students about treating others with respect, acceptance, and bullying. Alvin was born without arms. He has lived his life to the fullest and says he is blessed. He never had arms so he told us that he never missed them. He learned to use his feet and toes just as we would use our arms and hands. Now, at 50 years old, he has a great message - Love yourself, Be yourself, and know that you are blessed for being you. GOD DOESN'T MAKE MISTAKES!

His message about BULLYING is a simple one..... DON'T

November flew by like a snowflake in a snowstorm! Thank you to all the parents for attending our Student Led Conferences this month. We had 89.1 % of our parents attend!

Check out some of the other cool things that happened this month.

Our Preschool Classes made volcanoes while they were learning about dinosaurs.

We have had a very busy September. I would like to thank all the students, parents and staff for making a busy month go smoothly. The St. Dominic Family is amazing.

Welcome to Mr. Mike Cramer who joins us as our Head Custodian, Miss Emily MacDonald, and Ms. Heather Audet. Emily is teaching Kindergarten English and Heather is our grade 3/4 teacher.

I would also like to thank all the parents that attended our Thanksgiving Mass. We had over 20 parents able to join us Friday morning. Please take a minute and look at our October Newsletter. There are a great many things happening this month.

Welcome back!!!!

The 2010/2011 school year is about to start and we can't wait! We have some exciting news for this coming school year. We would like to welcome some new faces to St. Dominic School. Mme Jasmine Dupuis will be teaching our Kindergarten Immersion class this year. Ms. Patti Cust joins us in our Immersion Program. As well, Miss Emily MacDonald and Miss Heather Audet join us in our English Program. Ms. Cynthia Ball joins us as our 3 and 4 year old preschool teacher.

We have a new face in the office this year. Mrs. Margaret Froning joins us as our Head Secretary.

We welcome the 2010/2011 SDE staff members:

Patti Chalut - Principal

Cindy Ball - Preschool

Jasmine Evans - KI

Emily MacDonald - KE

Isabelle Rioux Gr. 1I

Louise Shipman - Gr.1E

Pam Yochim - Gr. 2I

Annette LaBrash - Gr. 2/3E

Joanie Levasseur - Gr. 3I

Lorraine Hawkins - CST/Gr. 2/3E

Heather Audet - Gr. 3/4E

Julianne Cool Gr. 4/5I

Rose Lanteigne - Gr. 5/6I

Jose Lapointe - Gr. 5/6I/Vice Principal

Mel Skriptsky - Gr. 5/6E

Louise Baker - English Language Arts

Leeor Beley - Library Tech.

Louisette Gardner - Student Assistant

Ashley White - Student Assistant

Rebecca Sakowich - Student Assistant

Margaret Froning - Head Secretary

Margaret Newman - Assistant Custodian

Mike Cramer - Head Custodian

We have some new and exciting things planned for this year. St. Dominic School opened a Music room last year and this coming year we are creating an Art room and a Science room. This will allow students to deepen their experiences in the Arts and Sciences.

We are planning to offer several new opportunities for students to participate in.

• Chess/Backgammon Club,
• Drama Club
• Book Club
• Computer Club
• Swimming lessons to grade 1 and 2 students
• Skating for grade 3
• Skiing to grade 4-6 students
• Special activity days (ie. Wacky Scientist day, Robert Munch day, Summer in January day, 100th day of School, Le Carnaval, Christmas Concert, Year End Fun Day, Famous Artist day, Musical Mayhem day)

We are looking for parents to join us in sharing their talents with these and other activities we may offer.

The school opens for registration and tours August 16, 2010. If you wish information about the school or the upcoming year, please contact Patti Chalut - Principal @ 780 639-3520 or 780 815-0052.

WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO AN AWESOME YEAR! SEE YOU SOON!

Thank you to all those parents that braved our wonderful weather to join us in the celebration of your child's learning. We enjoy sharing all the great things happening at St. Dominic Elementary with you.

For those parents that unfortunately we not able to join us, please call your child's teacher to set up a time for an interview or just to chat about your child's progress.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, QUEST TIME!

Kids at St. Dominic School Learn How to Act

By Jennifer G. and Lissette G.

On Monday, March 1st, 2010, the talented actors from Quest Theater came to the young students of St. Dominic’s Elementary School. The workshop team members of Ellen, Harvey, Cheryl and Claire found talent. Each eager class took part in the concert that was held the afternoon of Friday, March 5. There was a wide range of plays from Medieval Times to zoos to beach days. The K Imm. class gave a “bug”-tastic performance in their Bug Idol themed play, while the Grade 6 English class showed the importance of using everyday math. They also showed the value of giving and sharing. The theme of the weeklong acting workshop was “Mathemagics,” which dovetailed drama skills with math concepts.

Taylor, a fellow Grade 5/6 Imm. student, was asked, “What did you think of the concert?” She replied, “I loved it; everyone did great!” Teacher and VP, Mme Jose Lapointe, when asked the same question, replied, “It was a very creative production, letting students use their imagination to create a skit. Its always wonderful having Quest Theatre come to our school.”

To sum it up, it looks like it was a great success.

On Wednesday, February 10, the Grade 3 Immersion class at St. Dominic School, were visited by Ron Mikolas from Cold Lake Fish and Wildlife. The students were learning about owls while reading Farley Mowat’s Canadian classic, Owls in the Family. Mr. Mikolas brought in a stuffed owl which the students got to touch as they learned about different characteristics of our provincial bird. One interesting fact was the filament on the back wings that make is a silent flyer.

Saint Dominic School Helps Haiti

By Chelsey S.

Grade 6 St. Dominic School

At exactly 1:53 p.m. on January 12, 2010, a disastrous earthquake hit Haiti along its fault line. Approximately 3 million people were affected and an estimated 100,000 people died. Haiti’s capital city, Port-au-Prince, is one of the cities situated on the fault line.

St. Dominic School has raised $3, 257.00 to help the people in Haiti recover from the devastation of this earthquake. Any money donated to Haiti will be going to the Red Cross to buy medical equipment, food, water and other supplies the people in Haiti might need.

One student in Grade 1 English, Noah Moore, brought in an entire can of coins to help the people in need. Our prayers also go to helping the people suffering from this massive earthquake. Pictured below is the Youth Liturgical Team of Chelsey , Andrew, Jordan, Drew and our facilitator, Madame Rose Lanteigne.

Dominic left Iqaluit headed to Dawson City, Yukon. He met some interesting people and enjoyed learning about the Gold Rush! From here is is off to Vancouver for the Olympics. GO CANADA!

Last week Dominic traveled to Iqaluit, NU. He had a great time visiting with the children and watching the Northern Lights dance across the night sky.

SDE students read enough books last week to send Dominic from Niagara Falls to Peggy's Cove. He enjoyed the beauty of Nova Scotia.

Our students have been working hard to help Dominic travel around the world. He has been seeing the sights in Canada before going to the Olympics. He recently went to Niagara Falls.