Grade 7 and 8 students from four local Catholic Schools have been busy preparing for a hectic spring concert series. The 56 member Sudbury Catholic Elementary Band will perform Sunday night at the Grace Hartman amphitheatre to kick off the City of Sudbury’s 17th Annual Bell Park Concert Series.
In the coming weeks, the group will also travel to each of their home schools (St. Anne, St. Benedict, St. Raphael and Piux XII) to put on concerts for elementary school students and teachers. The last leg of their tour will take them to Mother St. Bride School in North Bay for a joint concert with the host school’s band. Afterwards, the band members will tour lake Nipissing aboard the Chief Commanda II.
The Sudbury Catholic Band had a very successful school year, taking home Gold and Silver awards at local festivals, and performing numerous concerts, including a surprise performance for the board’s retiring director, Catherine McCullough.
Sunday night’s concert begins at 7 pm and everyone is welcome. In the event of rain, the concert will be re-located to the CNIB building at 303 York Street.
First-time Author Visits St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School
On Monday April 28, St. Benedict students from Grade 7 and 8 as well the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) class were treated to a visit from Joanne Levy, the author of Small medium at large. This book is the author’s first published novel, and it was one of the titles included in this year’s list for the Red Maple Reading Program that was run at St. Benedict. Prior to her visit, several of the classes were able to read the novel in class in preparation for her visit.
In her presentation, Joanne Levy gave a brief introduction of herself and then outlined the journey from writing a book to having it published. The presentation included several interesting facts from her own experiences with writing. In the question period that followed, students eagerly posed a variety of questions about the writing process, the inspiration for this novel, and her previous unsuccessful novels. Following the presentation, Joanne visited each elementary class, and the ASD class, to distribute signed bookmarks to all the students and staff.
In the afternoon, Joanne visited Holy Cross and gave two presentations to the Grade 5 and 6 students. Although Small medium at large is written for an older audience, the Holy Cross students were interested to ask how the book came into being and what inspired her. However, the most popular topic for questions was her pets.
Young Poets Read at Chapters
On Tuesday, May 6th, the Grades 3 to 6 French Immersion classes from Holy Cross Catholic Elementary School brought their poetic flair out into the community. Gathering along with friends and family at Chapters, the young poets took to the microphone and read excerpts from their poetry anthologies. They also spent time in small groups, sharing their poems and talking about their writing, and explored the many wonderful books available to read in the store. Parents, grandparents, friends and families all enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate these young poets. Teachers Mme Sarmatiuk, Mme Toivonen and Mme Blais-Callaway were humbled by the energy and enthusiasm that the students brought to this writing experience, and look forward to reading more wonderful work from their students in the future.