Grade 3 and 4 students showcased their writing and story telling skills during March at St. Anne Catholic Elementary School. Each child wrote, illustrated and published a book and then read it to younger students. The “authors” were excited to share their hard work and the audience was thrilled to listen to the stories and see that even kids can be authors.

“They loved us!” commented Hayden Rainville, after he presented his book to a grade 1 French Immersion class. “They couldn’t stop laughing.” Students enjoyed their time in the limelight so much that they’re anxious to write and tell other stories. Move over Robert Muncsh. There is steep competition at St. Anne Catholic School!

The Full Day Kindergarten classes at St. Anne Catholic Elementary School in Hanmer got a great surprise on a regular Wednesday afternoon. Cameron O’Daiskey, FDK French Immersion student, brought her new goats to her class for her inquiry . Her fellow students were thrilled to touch and asked many questions about her new friends. How big will they get? Why is one brown and one black if they are siblings? What wonderful inquiry questions! The Kindergarten staff at St. Anne Catholic School strives to provide real world experiences to their early learners. By providing the students with these opportunities to learn, the students tap into their higher order thinking skills all while exploring the world around them.

On February 14th 2013, Mrs. Troscinski’s Grade 6 class at St. Anne Catholic Elementary School took part in a Science North e-Workshop: UP! Discovering Flight in the comfort of their own classroom.

The e-Workshop was delivered to the classroom from Science North via Skype where students had an opportunity to interact, design, and build the basic structure of an airfoil (airplane wing) and make use of it during a live e-workshop.

Students had two pre-workshops prior to the lesson and will be having a post workshop where they will extend their experience by designing and building hot-air balloons.

It was a great experience for the class to gain a greater understanding of the science of flight!

Recently, students in grade 8 at St. Anne Catholic Elementary School in Hanmer participated in their annual “Dragon’s Den” science fair and became inventors for the day. Grade 8 students displayed their inventions for the entire school community to view and ten groups were selected to present their inventions to the panel of Dragons in the afternoon. The dragons consisted of Guy Mathieu, Principal of St. Anne Catholic Elementary School, Jennifer Connelly, Curriculum Coordinator at Sudbury Catholic Schools, Kirk McKee, teacher at Bishop Alexander Carter Catholic Secondary School, and Ms. McNicoll, registered nurse and community member.

Students worked extremely hard over the past 3 weeks planning, constructing, interviewing, testing, and marketing their new inventions. Their final products demonstrated the development and evaluation of innovative devices, models, techniques and approaches in technology and engineering. With the help of their teachers Julie Caissie, Jody O’Daiskey, and Jules Guenette, students integrated several technologies, inventions, or designs and constructed technological systems that could have human and commercial benefits.

St. Anne Angels created highly original products that demonstrated resourcefulness and creativity in design. Some of the top products were the “Purf”, created by Robyn Gagne and Coral Brabant, which transforms a scarf to a purse, as well as the “Kibble Katcher”, created by Alexander Gardner, which helps keep pet food from being scattered across the floor. The Sudbury Catholic District School Board will be holding a board wide science fair on March 6th, and seven projects from St. Anne Catholic School in Hanmer will be among those featured.