Precious Blood School

Volume 4 Issue 3

P.B.S. Express!April 2014

Precious Blood Catholic School 1035 Pharmacy AvenueScarborough, Ontario M1C 1Z9416-393-5258

N. D’AvellaSuperintendent

J. Del GrandeTrustee - Ward 7

M. RossiPrincipal

J. PasiaVice-Principal

R. GreenawaySecretary

Clerk Typist

F. LoprestiO. AldayCaretakers

Virtue of the Month - Justice

Charity cannot take the placeof justice unfairly withheld.PiusXI, Quadragesimo Anno no. 137

Precious Blood Parish1737 Lawrence Ave. East Scarborough, ON M1R 2X7 416-751-2661www.preciousblood.ca

The Principal’s Message

Dear Parents/Guardians:Thank you to all the staff, students, community partners and families for supporting our school endeavours! We thank our pastor, Father Ed Murphy, at Precious Blood Parish for celebrating school masses with us. Our Precious Blood staff and parish remain dedicated to enriching the lives of our chil-dren as they grow spiritually, emotionally, intellectually and physically. As we continue to journey into our 21st Century learning environment we look forward to continue building learning skills as they relate to Collaboration, Real-World Problem-Solving, Innovation, Digital Literacy, Careers and Skilled Communication! We are excited to meet with parents and families during our upcoming parent engagement events:May 2, 2014- Family Mathematics Night at Mary Ward Secondary SchoolJune 12, 2014- Student Led Learning Walk at Precious Blood Catholic School –GymnasiumMay 21, 2014- Welcome to Kindergarten at Precious Blood Catholic School –GymnasiumCatholic School Advisory Committee - We value your voice, opinion and input and invite you to consider joining our CSAC. Our next meeting will take place on Monday, May 12, 2014 at 7:00 PM. All are welcome! A special note of gratitude to our CSAC parents and volunteers who help make our school a strong and vibrant learning community!Thank you to our French Department Teachers and school staff for a successful Carna-val week! The spring launches us into Track &Field, Class Excursions, EQAO, The Sacraments of First Holy Communion, Confirmation, Graduation and… much more. Kindly refer to our school calendar for more details!Virtue for April is...JUSTICE- JUSTICE IS OUR VIRTUE OF THE MONTH: Let Justice flow like a stream, and righteousness like a river that never goes dry. Amos 5:24Virtue for May is...COMPASSION- Lord, help us to remember that others don’t always see the way we do, hear what we hear, feel what we feel, or understand things the way we’ve come to understand them. Give us the compassion you want us to have, Lord, and teach us to embrace each other with compassionate arms, no matter what our age, color, creed, his-tory, or belief. Help us to remember that you are life itself, and that you are using every one of our unique gifts to bring us together with you once again.Full-Day Early Learning Kindergarten - Registration for new students into our Full-Day Early Learning Kindergarten Program continues! MAPLE SYRUP: Our maple trees are tapped and the sap is beginning to run…..we hope to yield enough sap to make our own maple syrup! The ‘Emergency Lock-Down Drill’ that was held on February 19, 2014 was successfully executed by staff and students. Well done! We are committed to keeping our kids safe! Our hope for this school year is that we continue to have many opportunities to demon-strate and share our learning and celebrate who we are as a Catholic learning community.We wish everyone a successful and productive spring full of creativity, innovation and inspiration!

May God bless you all,

Ms. M. Rossi Mr. J. PasiaPrincipal Vice Principal

Obitary: In your prayers you are kindly requested to remember Michelle Baskie, the sister of our School Secre-tary Rose Greenaway, who passed away recently in Ajax, Ontario.

Catholic Graduate Expectation -- I HAVE RESPONSIBILITIESA Responsible Citizen Who:

• Acts morally and legally as a person formed in Catholic traditions. OCSGE 7(a)

• Accepts accountability for one's own actions. OCSGE 7(b) • Seeks and grants forgiveness. OCSGE 7(c) • Promotes the sacredness of life. OCSGE 7(d) • Witnesses Catholic social teaching by promoting equality, democ-

racy, and solidarity for a just, peaceful and compassionate society. OCSGE 7(e)

• Respects and affirms the diversity and interde-pendence of the world's peoples and cultures. OCSGE 7(f)

• Respects and understands the history, cultural heritage and pluralism of today's contempo-rary society. OCSGE 7(g)

• Exercises the rights and responsibilities of Canadian citizenship. OCSGE 7(h)

• Respects the environment and uses resources wisely. OCSGE 7(i)

• Contributes to the common good. OCSGE 7(j)

Justice

April, with its celebration of Easter, has been assigned the virtue of JUSTICE. At this time we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus who is the Just One

who died for the sake of the unjust, that He might lead people back to God. But justice is also an important part of Catholic teaching beyond Christ’s Death and Resurrection. The need to do justice comes from the obligation to respect the dignity of every human person. This dignity comes from being created in God’s image. Failing to respect human dignity, including failing to do justice, is a failure to respect the image of God in others. As in this month’s quote, “Let justice flow like a stream, and righteousness like a river that never goes dry.” Amos 5:24, at Precious Blood we will be working towards justice in the following ways; Contrib-uting to the Archdiocesan Share Life Program and prayers for the peoples of the world seeking justice.

Catholic Social Teaching

Human beings contribute to jus-tice in our day-to-day actions at home, school, work, com-munity and society at large. (Common Good)The call to justice is about improving human welfare through works of mercy and justice. (Human Dignity)Justice addresses the social problems of our times, eco-nomic inequity, conflict and war, the environment, and how human dignity is affected

by our actions.

Monthly Update from the TCDSB

MYSP Report Card

In support of the articulated Min-istry of Education and TCDSB

priority of Inspiring Public Confi-dence, the Multi-Year Strategic Plan (MYSP) Report Card recognizes the importance of effective commu-nication and consultation with all stakeholder groups. The purpose of said consultation would be to gain a wide spectrum of feedback to help meet the dual goal of assessing our work to date and of informing any future iterations of the MYSP, as we begin preparations for a new plan-ning and implementation cycle. In consultation with the Educational Research Department a parental report card was developed for distribution with the February 2014 student report cards – both elemen-tary and secondary. This distribu-

tion was intentionally chosen to help maximize exposure to the invitation to complete the report card and allow for a more fulsome response from parents. The MYSP Report Card is based upon a survey used in the fall of 2012, but has been refined to be further stream-lined and accessible in parent friendly language. It has beenmade available in electronic form and in hard copy, as well as in 16 differ-ent languages. It is the same report card tool which is intended to be used with all stakeholder groups to ensure a consistent framework for analysis of results. A report is to come back to the Board with the results of the survey in late May/early June.

The Budget Process 2014-2015

The Budget process is an important planning tool for the development of

an effective and balanced budget in order to provide a range of necessaryresources, supports and programs to our students. Students are always our primary focus and TCDSB is commit-ted to offering programs and services which challenge all students to achieve their personal best. TCDSB also makes efficient, effective, and innovative use of resources, based on sound planning, and the best available information. The budget allocates available resources to address student needs.

OCSTA Conference

TCDSB has agreed to co-host the 2015 OCSTA conference. The Board will be responsible for coordinating the open-ing liturgy and for selecting a student choir or music ensemble to participate in the closing Mass with Cardinal Col-lins or his designate.

News from Precious Blood Parish

Congratulations to the New Altar Servers:

The following students recently completed their training for the Altar Servers Ministry: Dominic Enriquez, Eric Francia, Angelica Herrera, Matt Santos, Aaron Val-lada and Julius Palalon.

HOLY WEEK SCHEDULEApril 14 – April 20, 2014Monday 8:00 am – Mass7:00 pm - MassTuesday 8:00 am – Mass7:00 pm - MassWednesday 8:00 am - Mass7:00 pm – MassHoly Thursday 7:00 pm – Mass of the Lord’s Supper and Washing of the Feet followed by Adoration in the Church Hall till 10 pmGood Friday (Day of Fast & Absti-nence)3:00 pm – celebration of the Lord’s Passion, Holy Communion, Venera-tion of the CrossAnd Divine Mercy Novena7:00 pm – Stations of the Cross (Youth)Holy Saturday 3:00 pm – Divine Mercy Novena7:00 pm – Solemn Easter VigilEaster Sunday 8:30 am, 10:am & 12 noon Masses1:00 pm – Divine Mercy Novena

Day of Fasting and AbstinenceGood Friday is a day of Fasting (binds those 18 to 59 years) and Ab-stinence from meat (binds those 14 years and older). Fasting means one regular meal and two smaller than normal meals and no snacking.

Lenten ConfessionsThere will be Lenten Confessions following the 7:00 pm mass on Thursday April 10. Several priests will be available.

Share-Life ProgramLast year, over 345,000 services were provided to over 96,000 people in our Archdiocese in more than 20 languag-es and countless others were assisted through outreach programs around the world. You are invited to contribute to the Share-Life Program during this season of Lent.

Student-Led Learning Walk

Students with their parents/families had the opportunity on Carnaval Night (February 27) to observe Knowledge-Construc-tion (21st C. Learning Competen-cy)designs from JK/SK to Grade Eight. Students in collaboration with their classmates and teach-ers had created constructions based on Geometry (Math) and Structures (Science). Besides parents and families in atten-dance, other educators from the TCDSB during the day visited the Precious Blood to view the display of the Students’ work.

Intermediates’ Contribution to the Student-Led Learn-ing Walk

On February 26-28, Precious Blood held the 3rd Student Led Learning Walk for the school year. We, the grade eights, collected 2L cartons to make a Carnival themed Castle. We taped and wrapped the cartons (rectangular prisms) so they resembled bricks. Using the 21st century pillars, we all collabo-rated, communicated, created and did critical thinking to build the cas-tle. It took a long time to build, but it paid off in the end. For the bridge we used mechanisms such as wedges, pulleys, inclined planes, and other mechanisms. Also, we created platonic solids such as tet-rahedrons, cubes, and other solids for the kids to play with. During the Student Led Learning Walk, adults saw our castle and gave great feedback. Also, the stu-dents got to see Bonhomme. Overall, the Student Led Learning Walk was a great success!

By Jeremy C.

The Spirt of Carnaval at the Student-Led Learning Walk

For the first time, families of stu-dents participated in one of the events of Carnaval by attending the evening of the Student-Led Learning Walk.

What is Carnaval? It is a very exciting time of the school year. There are so many fun things to do! Play Day is so much fun, which included so many games such as skiing, hockey, speed skating and Bonhomme toss. However, the best station would have to be the hot chocolate station. Another fun awaited day was Shrove Tuesday where the smell of freshly-made pan-cakes was unbelievable. Salut is a game that we played at the end of the day, and prizes were awarded for the winning classes. The final event was the Student-Led Learning Walk where Bonhomme greeted the visitors and many photos were taken.

Sadly, Carnaval came to an end. On behalf of the French Department, I would like to thank all the staff, students and parents involved in Carnaval for all their hard work and effort into making it a very enjoyable Carnaval.

By Roneze P.End of Year Student-Led Learning Walk

All parents/guardians are in-vited to attend and share the final Student-Led Learning Walk with their children in June. More details will be provided in due course.

Excellence in Equity Conference

On Friday, March 28th, our Camp Olympia Team went to the Catho-

lic Education Centre to learn about “Excellence in Equity”. We learned that there is a difference between equity and equality. Equality is when people treat everyone equally, no matter what race, gender or age. Equity is when people treat others based on their needs.

Throughout the presentation vari-ous speakers shared their personal stories, information and opinions on equity and equality.

As an activity, we had to make a video, collage, drawing or an announcement about what equity feels, sounds and looks like. We were given the task to show what equity sounds like to us. Then, we decided to represent it using a video. From there, we displayed what equity looks like without using words but using visuals. Now, we pass on this task for others. How can you show equality or equity throughout the school and our community?

By Lauren B. and Amanda Mc.

February was a Busy Month for the Grade 3’s

Our Trip to the ROMOur class visited the Royal Ontario Museum on February 7. We saw mummies, bat caves, dinosaur bones, clothes worn by people long ago. My favourite was the bat caves. We got to go inside the caves. My group visited the caves three times!by Theresa Millo

Life in the 1780’s - A Class Presentation on PioneersA volunteer came to visit our class on February 13 and gave us a special presentation on what life was like in Ontario in the 1780’s. Mrs. Tuskin dressed up like a pioneer . She told us that her ancestors were one of the United Empire Loyalists who came as refugees to Canada because of fighting in the United States. Life was very difficult because they had to cut down many trees to build a place to live and to farm. Mrs. Tuskin also showed us the clothes pioneer men and women wore, the kind of shelters they build to protect themselves from the weather when they first arrived, and how they built a house. We cannot believe that each pioneer person only had one set of clothes to wear! Then we watched a movie on pioneers. The best part was at the end of the morning. Mrs. Tuskin brought in some pioneer toys. One of the toys was called the Jacob’s Ladder. They were all made of wood. We played in different groups. We also got to write a letter to someone with a kind of pen that we had to keep dipping into a bottle of ink. It was really hard to do. We all enjoyed the pioneer lady’s visit very much.by Mejor Kirushnapillai

Scientists at the SchoolThe scientist at the school came in to teach us about structures. We learned about dif-ferent kinds of structures. Something new that we learned was that structures could be natural or man-made. With our elbow partners we discussed the structures that were made by nature. We also learned that the triangle is the strongest 2-D shape, and the cylinder is the strongest 3-D shape. The scientist taught us three important words for structures. They are contain, support and span. The best part of the day was when we worked in groups to build structures out of newspapers and then test to see how strong they were by piling many books on them. by Angeline Olivo

Quebec and Montreal

On March 3-6 2014, the grade eights went on a trip to Quebec City. We left on March 3rd 2014 at around 6:30 am for a long bus ride to Quebec City. During the bus ride we did a lot of things such as sleeping, listen-ing to music and singing with our bus driver, Al and tour guide, Stepha-nie. When we arrived in Quebec, we did various things such as visiting beautiful churches, tours around the city, tobogganing, snow tubing, a dance and some even learned to ice skate! On the last day of our trip, we stopped by Montreal and visited the Notre Dame church where Celine Dion got married. Overall, the Que- bec trip was a great learning experience and a fun way to bond with my peers.

By Leila S.

Office Procedures

Parents are reminded that all entry into the school is via the front door on Pharmacy, and then go directly to the office.

For absences you are required to call the school after 8:00 am to let the office staff know about your son or daughter being away.

French Public Speaking Contest

On April 1st, 2014, two students represented Precious Blood at the French Public Speaking Con-test that was held at the CEC. The name of the contest is “Les Concours d’Arts Oritoires”. The contestants were required to write a speech that was three to seven minutes about any topic. The judges would then choose a winner from the TCDSB contes-tants.

This year Daniela V. (Gr.7) and Juvhan K. (Gr.5) competed and were awarded third and second places respectively. It was a great experience and a fun-filled day.

By Juvhan K.

Congratulations to Our Principal Ms. Mirella Rossi

PBS is thrilled to be under the guidance of Mirella Rossi, one of Canada’s Outstanding Principals. Ms. Rossi was recognized by The Learning Partnership earlier this year for her outstanding contributions to Catholic educa-tion. We would like to thank Ms. Rossi for her efforts to create a faith-centred, inclusive, learning environment, which fosters best-practices, natural inquiry and collaboration, and assists in ad-vancing student achievement and well-being. We are very proud of Ms. Rossi’s achievements and look forward to working in com-munity with her. Congratulations on a job well done!

Ms. Monaco

Little Mermaid Production

The students of Grades 1, 2, 3 & 4 presented Disney’s musical “The Little Mermaid” on April 2nd & 3rd, 2014. The lead roles were played by the students of Grade 2 on Wednesday and by the students of Grade 4 on Thursday.The students of Grades 5, 6, 7 & 8 helped with their beautiful art work to create some of our amazing costumes. Mention needs to be given to Jasmine King and Shaelynn Tacata of Grade 6 and Zhisang Chen and Rob-ert Santibanze of Grade 8 who helped backstage with scene and set changes and music. It was a delight to hear the stu-dent audience who had been involved in our senior production of “The Little Mermaid “in the previous year, singing along with our little actors on stage.Once again, A Great Big ‘Thank You” to all the parents who supported us with your presence. We do appreciate your help to keep the “Arts” alive.PBS for the Arts!Ms. Soraine

TCDSB CPIC is proud to present an evening with

Stuart Shanker

Fostering Resiliency through Self- Regulation

Date: Wednesday May 14, 2014Time: 7:00 pm – 9:00 pmLocation: Catholic Education Cen-tre, 80 Sheppard Ave. E. (Yonge and Sheppard)Free Underground Parking (enter at east side of building)Register: On-line at: http://surveys.tcdsb.org/s/stuart-shanker/ By e-mail: Mary De Rango at mary.derango@tcdsb.org By Telephone: 416-222-8282 Ext: 2374 or Fax: 416-512-3380

Grade 6 Tubing Trip

The Grade 6 Tubing experience was full of happy and cheerful faces wanting to go down the large hill again and again. Many of the Grade 6 students enjoyed their first experi-ence at tubing and wanted to return for another day, including myself. I could say that this trip was one of the best fun-filled days that I have ever had, and I would definitely recommend this to the next Grade 6 class. By Matt S.