Blood Drive

The Staff at St. Anne are organizing a blood drive to help support Ms. Devine. Each student will have received a cookie with information about the blood drive. Please keep Ms Devine in your prayers as she is undergoing her scheduled surgery today.

Below is a note from Ms. Devine regarding the blood drive.

January 2014 I received my first call to supply teach for the Ottawa Catholic School Board. I taught kindergarten that day. The staff and students were wonderful and this quickly became my main school to work at. I loved it at St. Anne. Every time I was there I learned something new, whether it was from a teacher sharing their knowledge, the set up of a classroom, or the students themselves. I enjoyed every minute in that school.

The day after hearing that I had a tumour I received a phone call to supply at St. Anne and sadly had to turn it down. My mom saw the devastation in my eyes as we waited in the doctors office.  When the doctor asked "do you have any other questions" my mom asked "can she go to work during this time". The doctor was shocked that I had been working at all the last 4 months, so no... no working for me.

Yet, St. Anne didn't give up on me...  they stood behind me every single day of this fight. Whether it was fundraising for me, emailing me, visiting me... they have never let me feel alone.

And still, after everything they have done... they still want to do more. They changed my life, and now they are going to save other peoples lives.

During my journey I have received 4 bags of blood, this blood allowed me to continue my fight. I have met so many patients who have also been given blood that literally saved their lives. St. Anne is holding a blood drive on Wednesday May 25th from3:30-7:30 at 1575 Carling. Together we can make a difference.

For those giving blood...

Step 1 register at blood.ca.

Step 2 Do the eligibility quiz under the Blood tab.

Step 3 Under find a clinic, put 1575 Carling Avenue then put the dates as May 25 and find a clinic

Step 4 Click the tabs for time of day and then choose a time

Step 5 Update this doc so we know when you’re going

Eqao practice

This week we will be doing a dry run of the EQAO assesments as a practice for the Assessments which will begin on May 31. Students are asked to ensure that they have pencil and eraser for the Language practice assessment tomorrow and the a pencil, calculator and eraser for the Math practice assessment Wednesday. 

Confirmation information letters will be handed out this week, reminding students of our Confirmation date as well as other info. 

Permission letters will also be handed out for students attending the Entrepreneurial Adventure Showcase on May 30. We are in need of 2-3 parent volunteers to come with us on the trip. Students will take part in the showcase as well as a brief tour of the Museum of History where the showcase takes place. There is a cost of $6.50 yo take a tour of the museum. Students are also advised to bring a lunch. This will be an exciting opportunity to showcase what our class has accomplished through the Devine Snack Shack. 

Baby Chicks

We have received our Confirmation date from the parish. Our confirmation date for Mr. Spindler' class and Mrs Bontes' class is June 1 at 7:00 at St Patrick's Fallowfield. 

Yesterday we had an opportunity to visit the Baby chicks that the grade 1 students have been taking care of. Our students were able to learn about how to properly hold a chick so that they are not distressed.

We were able to visit the chicks for about 10 minutes at the end of our language block.

Book Fair Sale

A reminder to students that tomorrow is our day to buy items from the book fair. Please make sure that you have your money for the books you wish to buy.

A big thank you to all the parents who showed up to the open house today. It was great to have you in our classroom.

Upcoming events

We are looking at a very busy next two weeks in Mr. Spindler's class.

Yesterday permission forms went home regarding the Catholic Education Week Mass at St Patrick's parish on Monday May 2. Permission is required to bus students to and from the church. Please have your child return the form by Friday April 29.

We will also be hosting an Open House at the school on Tuesday May 3 from 9:00 to 10:30. Parents are invited into the classroom to take part in the lesson for the first block and see the amazing things we do in the classroom. Please let me know if you are able to attend so that I can make sure there are enough materials for everyone.

Next week is the St. Anne Scholastic Book Fair. Students will be able to preview books to buy this Friday and be able to purchase books next week on May 4. Please make sure that your child brings their money on that day as the book fair is quite popular and there will be little time outside of our scheduled class visit to buy any books.

In Math this week we will explore creating triangles, rectangles, and parallelograms with the same area using geoboards and elastics. We also discovered the need for a standard order of operations when dealing with questions with more than one operation such as 14x17-12/6+3. We will continue to consolidate our Math learning this week and next week.

In Language we will complete our poetry unit. The students have a goal to create at least 3 poems and pick their best one to revise and display. We also completed an EQAO reading called "The Discombobulator" which helped us read and analyze poetry.

We will be holding our Jump rope for Heart fundraiser this Thursday afternoon. Thank you to all who have donated to this worthy cause. The school is very close to reaching our goal of $11000. It is not too late to sign up.

Our class also brought in over 700 batteries during Earth Week and won the prize for bringing in the most batteries. The school will still accept used batteries to be recycled until the end of the month.

Lastly, the Devine Snack Shack raised over $1400 to help Ms. Devine as she receives treatment for cancer. What an excellent way to show Ms. Devine our support and build community!

Poetic forms

This week we have received a lot of forms to fill out and return. I would like to thank parents for their patience and understanding. The confirmation form is due by April 29. The grade 6 year end information form is due as soon as possible. If you have not yet done so please submit the earth week parade permission for and cleaning up the capital. for these form it would be great if we could have some parent volunteers help for these events. 

Next week is earth week. There are many activities that will be taking place at school and in the classroom. Students can participate in daily trivia questions to win a prize. We will also be participating in a garbage can challenge where the garbage cans will be replaced with a small paper bag. Students are encouraged to not bring in packaged foods. If they do bring in packaged foods they are encouraged to bring any non recyclable waste home to minimize our use of the garbage can. This activity is to increase awareness about the amount of waste that we generate. 

We will be participating in a crayolacylce challenge where students are encouraged to bring in any used markers from home to be recycled and reused by Crayola. The used markers can be from any brand. 

We are also participating in a battery recycling drive. Batteries contain toxic materials that should be properly disposed of. Any batteries can also be brought to school to be properly recycled. 

There will be a prize for the class that brings in the most used batteries and markers. I think that Mr. Spindler' class will rise to the challenge. 

Also a reminder that students will be attending the transition day on April 22. 

Next week we will be looking at measurement relationships in math and poetry in language. Students will begin to compose their own poetry by the end of the week. 

Have a great weekend. 

Grade 6 news and events

This week we will be holding our final Devine Snack Shack event. We will be holding our bake sale Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

We are writing a fable in Language to help further our learning in our synthesizing unit. Students learn to synthesize by first explaining the main message of a story like the moral in a fable.

In Math we are identifying geometric patterns through using a graphical organizer called input output machine which can help organize the different steps in a mathematical pattern.

There has also been some letters regarding various grade 6 events. The first letter is from St Patrick's Fallowfield regarding Confirmation. The confirmation dates have been set for June 1st and 2nd. Parents are asked to complete the confirmation form and return it to the school by April 29. Parents will need to locate a copy of their child's baptismal certificate if their child will be confirmed at St Patrick's Fallowfield this year and attach it to the confirmation form. We will be discussing choosing a sponsor for this week's Religion class.

An information letter also went out regarding the transition day at Holy Trinity on April 22. Please contact me if you have any questions about that day. There is also a parent information night at Holy Trinity this Thursday April 7 at 7:00 at Holy Trinity. More information can be found at the Holy Trinity website.