Principal's Weekly Update

Dear Families,

We had the opportunity to be the Principal for the Day, and we had the best time! The St. Mary's administrative team kept us so busy, and we were exhausted by the end of the day. We had no idea how much time and effort they put to provide us with the best education and a happy and safe environment. We visited every classroom, helped with office work, lead staff meetings and morning/afternoon announcements, and even gifted all the students with a dress-down day on March 16th! Please come to school wearing a "wee bit of green!"

Dr. Nadjarian asked us why we love St. Mary's. I (Principal Sofia) said that I love St. Mary's because it looks like a castle since it is so big and has a tower! I (Principal Liam) said that I love St. Mary's because learning is fun, and I have a lot of fun with my friends.

Here are some pictures of what our busy day looked like. Have a wonderful weekend!

Sincerely,

Principal Liam and Principal Sofia

Please support our Lenten Annual Fund Appeal! Your generosity and commitment to our school mission is vital to the success of our school. To give please visit our giving page found here.

I am happy to report that we have zero cases of Covid to report this week.

My daughter and I are hosting an after-school club this spring for girls in grades 5-8. The description of the club is below.

Girls Group is a safe space for girls in grades 5-8 to get together in a fun and relaxed environment. In this club, there will be discussions about self-love, how to develop healthy friendships, build self-confidence or discuss whatever’s on their minds. We will also have snacks and weekly activities. This club is organized by Nurse Wu and her daughter Ellen Wu, a junior at Boston Latin School who is also an alumna of the Boston Public Health Commission's Peer Leadership Institute.

If you have any questions about the club pleases let me know.

Enjoy your weekend,

Nurse Catherine

March 11th:

• Girls’ Basketball Game 2 pm at Saint Columbkille

March 12th:

• Girls Basketball Game 4 pm at Saint Theresa of Avila

March 13th:

• Extra Band Day, Band students in K2-8 must bring their instruments

• Spring Club Registration Opens

March 15th:

• Extra Band Day, Violins only in K2-8 must bring their instruments

March 16th:

• Wear a wee bit o’green for Saint Patrick’s Day

• Pizza Thursday or Home Lunch, no Brookline Lunches Served

March 17th:

• No School - Pastor’s Day

March 20th:

• Mass for the Solemnity of Saint Joseph at 8 am (K2-8)

March 22nd:

• Walk Around Wednesday 9 am

March 24th:

• Stations of the Cross at 1:15 (K2-8)

• Parish All Night Eucharistic Adoration

March 27th:

• Second Trimester Report Cards Released (K2-8)

• Parent Teacher Conferences begin (K2-8)

April 6th:

• Holy Thursday - Early Release at 11 am

• No EDP or after-school activities

April 7th:

• Good Friday - No School

April 10th:

• Easter Monday - No School

April 13th:

• Admissions Online Info Session 9 am

April 14th:

• No EDP

April 17th - April 21st:

• April Vacation - No School

April 24th:

• Welcome Back!

• Spring Clubs Begin

I am so proud of our students who demonstrate day-in and day-out leadership qualities. Featured below are moments that stood out to me this week.

Picture #1 As I was walking upstairs, I witnessed Beckham from Grade 6 helping our young PreK students up the stairs. As he walked behind them he repeatedly said "hold onto the rails."

Picture #2 Right before Principal Sofia led the school in morning announcements/prayer, Jenny (Grade 8) bent down and encouraged and gave her the confidence to lead the school!

Picture #3 Thank you to our Grade 3 students, Cyan and Stella for leading the school in morning announcements today. You did an excellent job!

We had two guest speakers during Tuesday morning's faculty meeting. Nurse Catherine conducted training on how to use our AED machine. Father Jonathan led a talk for this lent on how to examine our conscience using the Beatitudes as a point of reference. Thank you, Nurse Catherine and Father Jonathan!

Thank you to our Parent Ambassadors, Tej Hiran, Christina Bowman, Anna Maciejuk, and Patricia Salic for speaking on our Discovery Day parent panel. Special thanks to Jenny in the 8th grade for speaking to our parents and our 4th grade student ambassadors.

During the Season of Lent, Grades 1 through 8 will be provided with at least 2-3 opportunities to attend Mass. During this week Grades 1, 2, and 3 represented our school very well and joined with other parishioners at the 8:00 am Mass. I am very proud of these students!

Third and fourth graders are in the “table work” phase of the production process for our end of the musical number: “Revolting Children” from Matilda. We have been diving into the methods of theatre practitioner, drama theorist, and political activist Augusto Boal to explore the importance of trust in movement ensembles.

Fifth Grade began their drama game project presentations this week! This week a student led us in “Musical Stories” and some others taught us how to play the improv classic “Alibi”. Coming up next we have “30 Second Stories”, “Bus Stop”, “Family Portrait”, and “Wink: Celebrity Edition”. Students have been working in groups to research, rehearse, and lead classmates in games that develop essential performance skills.

The eighth grade finished their game unit! I was impressed by some of the students that led their games totally independently and engaged the entire class!

This week K1 learned about the artist Frida Kahlo who painted many self-portraits. They drew their own self-portraits and added Kahlo’s iconic flower headpiece.

They also learned about the artist Charles Demuth and made their own version of his art called “I saw the figure 5 in Gold." They practiced writing the number 5 and then painted around them.

The K2 students have been studying American symbols. In particular they have been learning about the Statue of Liberty. Incorporating math into their social studies lesson, the students made predictions to see if the number of students lined up along lady liberty’s foot print would be more than, less than or equal to the length of her foot. The students recalled that lady liberty’s foot is 25 feet long or the equivalent of a shoe size of 879!

In science, the third grade class has started working with Biological Evolutions, and have learnt about different types of fossils. Body fossils and trace fossils are two types they have talked about and the students got to make their own trace fossils leaving a handprint using clay!

Grade 4 is using the Bridges math curriculum to analyze and evaluate strategies for solving multi-digit addition problems. They examined the Standard Algorithm, Give and Take, and Split Them Up strategies for efficiency when solving on paper and mentally.

In 4th grade, the class had the opportunity to visit Catholic TV where we had a tour with Bishop Reed! He showed the students and chaperones a behind-the-scenes sneak peek at some awesome shows that Catholic TV is putting on. Afterwards, the 4th-grade class went to Cabot’s Ice Cream where they enjoyed some delicious ice cream as a class.

In 5th grade students have been researching debates that are occurring in our world (Should animals be in zoos or in the wild? Are sharks more dangerous to us or are we more dangerous to them? Should we study oceans or space more?). Throughout the trimester they read informational texts that provided facts on both sides of each debate. With these facts, they worked with group members to create a presentation to share with the class.

In Middle School, the 6th-grade class worked on writing their own psalms which were inspired by the 150 psalms in the Old Testament. Students learned more about King David and his riveting story as a major prophet in the scriptures.

Seventh graders studied Hellenistic Art and Culture in Mr. Febesh’s Social Studies class. They discussed the successful attributes of the ancient trade city of Alexandria. They looked at historical illustrations of the city as well as modernday photographs and compared and contrasted the architecture of the buildings and infrastructure.

On Monday, I led a community meeting with all our middle school students reflecting on Proverbs 15:1 which states that " a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." We discussed what that means to them and how we can apply this passage in our daily lives.

Please find the links below to our social media pages. We have been constantly uploading posts and stories so if you are interested in seeing more of our day-to-day happenings, please follow us!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/st-mary-of-the-assumption-school

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stmaryschoolbrooklinema

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stmaryschoolbrookline/