By Kirsten Smawley
Welcome back students, parents, and teachers!
It has been a whirlwind of a first month at Theresetta. The teachers and returning students have been finding their way back into a the school routine, while the 13 new students welcomed into the Theresetta community have been settling in quite nicely. The school feels fuller, and everyone at Theresetta is so happy to have so many new, smiling faces to get to know.
To start the year with some fun, Theresetta planned a trip to Edmonton to watch the Labour Day Rematch between the Edmonton Eskimos and the Calgary Stampeders. A group of 40 students, parents, and staff, traveled up for the day to take in the game and the atmosphere of the stadium. It was a great game, for Eskimos fans, but all who went seemed to enjoy the trip no matter what team they were cheering for.
This year the school’s theme is “Building our Faith Community through Relationships.” As Theresetta is a Leader in Me school, students and staff have set a focus this year to build up their faith community by taking leadership opportunities when they come up. Whether that means helping at a school assembly, being a source of knowledge for a new student, or helping out younger students at recess; this year is all about relationships, leadership, and growing.
With a new school year, comes a new batch of students getting trained to run the Junior ATB program at Theresetta. After two productive training days, there are now 11 employees from Grades 3 and 4, poised to take in the student’s deposits starting at the grand opening on Oct. 4. Theresetta so enjoys having this program in the school as it offers all students a chance to all become responsible, independent savers, while learning the basics of money management.
The Theresetta elementary music classes are going to begin their monthly visits to the lodge and long-term care in October. Kindergarten to Grade 2 will perform at Long-term care every second Thursday of the month, and Grades 3-4 will be at the Lodge every first Monday of the month. This is such a great opportunity for the students to practice their performance skills. If you happen to be there on the day of a performance, be sure to check them out!
The Grade 1-2 class has had a busy, yet successful start of their school year getting into a daily routine. The Grade 1s are excited that they have increased their independent reading stamina to up to 10 minutes without interruptions! The Grade 1-2’s are also enjoying our Science Colour Unit, since they have been doing a lot of painting with primary and secondary colours.
On Sept. 20 all Theresetta students and staff participated in the annual Terry Fox Run. Before heading out, the students met for an assembly where we all took some time to reflect on the life, challenges, fortitude, and perseverance of one of Canada’s greatest Canadians, Terry Fox.
Students had a discussion of the run’s intention and watched a video outlining the details of Terry’s Marathon of Hope and his battle with cancer. Knowing Terry’s wish, students left the assembly ready to take on the run for Terry and all the people in the Theresetta and Castor community affected by cancer. Gus Wetter hosted us in a chilly, but fun, colour run. The students ran along a path from Gus Wetter, north to the beach road, and east to the cemetery, where the younger kids took the cut across route and the 5-9 students ran around the far side of the cemetery before everyone finished by crossing the creek bridge and looping back to Gus Wetter to enjoy a hot lunch together. Some students opted to stay clean and paint free, while others enjoyed being coloured along the path at the many paint stations. It was a great run and many students put in a great effort to run and walk the path while thinking about Terry Fox and all the people the run is in support of. Thankyou to all that donated pledges to Theresetta students, the students are very proud of the $2,728 in pledges that they raised to go towards cancer research.
Both the girls and boys junior high volleyball teams hosted Gus Wetter for their first league game on Sept., 19. The girls worked hard and came out successful winning all five of the sets. Players commented saying it was fun game and nice to have all their hard work at practices pay off.
The boys also were successful in their first league showing as well, winning their games against the Gus Wetter team. The Knights had a wide variety of grades on the court at any one time, with players ranging from grades 6 to Grade 9, with some Grade 5 boys helping on the bench and score table. The Theresetta boys showed amazing progress in how smoothly they played together as a team and cooperated. Well done to both Knights teams.
Over the weekend of Sept. 21 - 22, both the girls and boys volleyball teams travelled to Red Deer college for the annual Fall Classic Tournament. The boys competed against older, higher level teams, and they demonstrated a great development in their skills already since the beginning of the season. As their first Saturday game wasn’t until early afternoon, the boys got to tour the RDC college campus and had an eye opening experience in the Makerspace lab of the college library. Makerspace is a commonly occuring CTS course at Theresetta so the boys really enjoyed seeing what their studies now, could turn into down the road if they continue with it. In the afternoon, the boys made it into the B side semi final, and took the game to very close, nail-biting, third set. Way to go boys, what a great start to your season.
The girls also had a great showing at the RDC tournament. They won 4 of their 7 games against some very tough, experienced teams. The Knights played teams from Donalda, Lacombe, Red Deer and Rocky Mountain House. They played very well for their first tournament of the year, along with have 16 players getting equal playing time and many new players playing for their first tournament. It was a very encouraging start and looks like it will be an entertaining season. The girls worked hard to earn themselves a spot in the B side final game which they lost in a very close match against St. Thomas Aquinas from Red Deer with scores of 25-22 and 25-23. Well done Knights.
On Sept. 26, the girls volleyball team travelled to Coronation for their second league game and left victorious. The girls played well and came away winning all 5 sets which is encouraging for the players as they head into their home tournament this weekend. Good luck girls.
The junior high religion class already made their first trip to the long-term care and lodge, something they regularly do during the school year. Some students prepared a craft to work on with the residents at long-term care, while the others visited the lodge to play board games and visit with the residents.
Looking ahead, Theresetta would like to invite you to their annual awards night on Thursday, Oct. 11, at 7 p.m. in the school’s gymnasium. All the students attend and get awarded for their great effort during the 2017-18 school year. Please come out and help Theresetta congratulate their hard working students.
