Holy Cross Catholic Elementary School

Holy Cross Students Energized by Class Visit from Energy Minister

The grade 5/6 class at Holy Cross had many questions for MPP and Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault when he visited their class on October 11 to talk to them. Keen students emailed Thibeault two weeks ago with questions they had after studying electricity and energy conservation in science class. They were hoping that they would get an email response but were surprised when he offered to answer in person.

The students wanted to know about how we get electricity in Sudbury and Mr. Thibeault showed them an app called Grid Watch that shows energy consumption across the province in real time. He further elaborated that we get our electricity from a variety of sources but largely from the hydro-electric dams here in the north.

He addressed the students concerns about the safety of nuclear energy by explaining the many safety features he had seen in person at the power plants in southern Ontario. Many of the students are Simpsons fans and were relieved to hear that the plants we have do not resemble where Homer Simpson works at all.

There were further questions about what Members of Provincial Parliament do and what the responsibilities of and Energy Minister entail, prompting graded 5 student Woodrow Crowder to ask Thibeault how he manages such a large workload. Thibeault explained that he has many hard-working employees on his staff and that it takes a team to accomplish great things.

Lake Laurentian Excursion

Cloudy skies cleared quickly and the sun appeared for the Grade 1 and 2 students at Holy Cross School so that they could spend a wonderful day at the Lake Laurentian Conservation Area. The children went out hiking, carried out a pond study and played various games outdoors to gain a better understanding of the needs and adaptations of animals in Northern Ontario, and how we can do our part to protect them.

Bears Teach Cubs About Electricity

On Tuesday, October 4, the grade 5/6 class at Holy Cross had the chance to visit Michael Sipos’ science lab at St. Benedict to learn more about circuits and energy. Mr. Sipos arranged stations with different types of circuits for the students to build to help them to better understand the Electricity unit for the grade 6’s and the Conservation of Energy unit for the grade 5’s. They enjoyed putting the theories they had been studying in class into action and they were all thrilled when they managed to to get their buzzers to sound or their lights to turn on to show that they had completed their work correctly.

The most hair-raising part of the lab was when Mr. Sipos brought out the static energy generator to show the students how electrons could be created through friction to run through their bodies.
Students enjoyed walking across the campus to learn in a different environment and to experience what daily life is like at St. Benedict in this engaging transition activity.

Professional Development Day

On Friday September 30, the staff at Holy Cross worked with David George, a consultant with Franklin Covey, who worked with us as we continue our journey with “The Leader In Me” using the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. David is a former principal and implemented the “7 Habits” at his school, leading them to become the first “Leader In Me” school in Canada. He took our staff through the process of working with and setting “Wildly Important Goals” for our school and with our students. Staff explored Academic and Leadership Goals for Holy Cross and learned a process for bringing the School Improvement Goals to the classroom and then to each child in the class. What a motivating, useful and thought-provoking day!

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