Principal's Weekly Update

Dear Families,

Grades K2-8 progress reports are being sent home today. Please sign and return them by Monday, October 23rd.

On Monday during Parking Lot Prayers, we introduced October's Virtue of the Month, "patience." We reflected as a school community on Proverbs 14:29 which states that "Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick-tempered displays folly." Thank you to Lucy from Grade 7 for leading the school in prayer after our reflection. Please join us as Grade 7 leads Parking Lot Prayers on Monday continuing the reflection on patience.

Good luck to all our students in Cross Country who are competing in this weekend's Mayor's Cup at Franklin Park!

We look forward to seeing you all at next week's Trunk or Treat event and Costume Parade!

Have a restful weekend!

October 22nd

• Cross Country Mayor's Cup at 9:30 a.m.

October 25th

• Grades 4-6 field trip to Boston Symphony Orchestra

October 26th

• Grade 4 field trip to Catholic TV

October 27th

• Costume Parade at 8:15 a.m.
  
• Trunk or Treat from 4-6 p.m. EDP ends at 4 p.m. dismissal from Harvard Street doors.
  

October 30th

• Progress Reports Released PreK & K1
  

November 1st

• All Saints' Day School Mass at 12:10 p.m. (All PreK-8 students and families invited)

November 6-8

• Middle School field trip to Nature's Classroom in Maine

November 9th

• Online Information Session
• Grades 2 and 3 community walk field trip

November 10th

• No School: Veteran's Day

November 16th

• No EDP
  

November 17th

• Trimester 1 grades close (K2-8)

November 22nd

• Thanksgiving Liturgy of the Word: 10:15 a.m. in the church for PreK-8
• Early Dismissal: 11 a.m.
• No EDP

November 23rd

• Happy Thanksgiving! No school

November 24th

• No school (Thanksgiving break)

November 28th

• Return to school from Thanksgiving break

Join us for our annual Halloween Trunk or Treat celebration next week on Friday, October 27th from 4-6 p.m. This will be a fun evening filled with treats, games, activities, and contests. May the best Halloween costume win!

This past Saturday St. Mary’s participated in the Central Suburban Catholic School Expo. Thank you to our Grade 8 student Emilia and her mom Anna for being ambassadors for our school.

Today’s Discovery Day included a presentation from our Grade 6 students, Adira and Kaiden. The prospective parents were impressed by their poised and confident public speaking skills. The parents were equally impressed by the kind welcome and assistance they received from our student ambassadors: Emma, Faye, Max and Sam. Thank you very much to our parent ambassadors Christina Bowman, Chen Chu, Nickolette Gaglia and Elizabeth Montgomery for sharing their insightful parent perspectives.

Our school playground is designed for small groups of students. While it is a great time to make new friends and meet up after dismissal, it is reserved for our Extended Day Program students and staff. It is difficult to supervise a larger group of students than our staff is prepared for. Also, after picking up your child from their teacher, please supervise them closely in the parking lot and surrounding campus as it can be a very busy time of day. Thank you for paying close attention to the safety of our students!

Dr. Nadjarian and Mrs. Reyes attended the Catholic Schools Foundation (CSF) reception on Thursday evening. CSF was established to help raise funds for scholarships and programs that allow students from low-income backgrounds to benefit from high-quality Catholic education in the Archdiocese of Boston. We are so grateful for our partnership with CSF!

Recently, Mr. Pike’s library students have been getting into the autumn spirit by exploring a range of books that explore the season of fall and the upcoming celebration of Halloween! A few favorites have been stories such as Flat Stanley and the Missing Pumpkins, Mouse’s First Halloween, and Don’t Push the Button. The festivities continue with autumn and Halloween-themed movement break activities, which are balanced out by short, yet educational videos demonstrating various library-based topics. As the year progresses, our library’s circulation services are beginning to open for grades 1-8. Students have been especially excited to start checking out some of their favorite books! Stay tuned for news about our upcoming Scholastic Book Fair in December!

This Wednesday marked St. Mary’s first-ever choir rehearsal, led by music teacher, Mr. Lynch. Ranging from grades 3-7, the variety of voices provides an angelic sound when they come together. Their debut will be November 1st at the All Saints Day School Mass at 12:10 p.m.

Both 2nd grade classes dove into the first annual St. Mary's K2-2nd Reader's Theatre Fest this week with The Bad Seed and James and the Giant Peach. Students learned how to read a script, worked in small ensembles to read the first draft of the script, and participated in table-work dramaturgy! These are incredibly advanced skills that flex literacy, artistic, and SEL muscles, so Ms. Whitten is incredibly proud.

As part of their theatre for social change investigation, the 3-5th grade has been practicing literary, dramatic, and artistic analysis through improvisational role work strategies such as "This is Not A", "I am a Tree" and "Voices in the Head". They are becoming excellent improvers, and Ms. Whitten cannot wait to begin devising and designing with each class for this important story!

Miss Porcello's Pre-K class started their Fall unit! Student's spent the week learning about the changing leaves, weather in the fall time, and fall time activities! Student's observed pinecones and harvest corn, explored in the fall sensory bin, picked apples and pumpkins, in dramatic play, and completed many fall inspired art projects. They even went on a leaf hunt after reading the story "We're Going On A Leaf Hunt!" It was so much fun exploring sandbox park and hunting for red, orange, and yellow leaves. Student's are excited to continue their fall time study on apples next week!

K1 students this week got to enjoy a petting zoo provided by Barn Babies! They were overjoyed to be up close and personal with over 20 animals, including bunnies, chicks, a goat, a potbellied big, kittens, and puppies. Our K1 students will be talking about this educational and fun experience for months to come.

Our young artists also learned primary colors and secondary colors on their color wheel. They practiced fine motor skills of coloring with control and observed mixing primary colors in a shaker bottle to create secondary colors. They furthered this knowledge of colors when they colored in leaves on a tree based on their shapes.

With Ms. Tiney and Ms. McAuliffe, our K2 students are learning the five senses: sight, taste, touch, smell, and hearing. On Thursday, students had a practical experience of the sense of sight by going on a “Sight Walk.” They used their paper cameras to be observant of all of the various natural and man-made objects in our beautiful world.

1st grade has been learning about our government and American symbols. In this lesson, students learned 2 American symbols - the Statue of Liberty and the bald eagle. They learned, for example how the bald eagle is a symbol of strength and the spirit of freedom. Students began their own picture book of symbols of the United States. They also connected the symbols with the themes of the song “My Country Tis of Thee.”

Students in Ms Fragola’s class had a good and spooky time practicing even and odd numbers. They were each given a different number and were tasked to cut out that number of paper eye balls to glue onto their cauldron. Inside the cauldron, students explained why their number was odd or even. The result was a bubbly eyeball cauldron that serves as a reminder of their math understanding.

This week in Ms. Kousidis' 3rd grade class students celebrated their narrative writing! Students took part in an Author's Tea on Friday to celebrate completing their Narrative Writing pieces. Finished works varied from stories about swimming in a nearby lake, playing board games with family, and getting take-out for dinner. The classroom was transformed with tablecloths, "tealight" candles, snacks and cookies, a virtual fireplace and a balloon arch. They were able to share their writing pieces with their classmates, visiting teachers, Dr. Nadjarian, Mrs. Enrique, Mr. Antonacci, Mrs. Bayazid. What a special memory for third graders!

This week, 4th graders logged their observations of an erosion and weathering experiment involving water, rocks, and sand. They discussed the different types of weathering and where they observe them in nature. Each student shared their observations in their lab notebooks.

In Mrs. Palmer’s Class, students made use of clocks in order to better understand fractions. Fractions are a major area of focus of 5th grade math. Students build upon their knowledge of fraction addition and subtraction in 4th grade by finding the least common denominators and learning how to multiply/divide fractions this year. They will be very prepared to take their understanding of fractions to the next level in 6th grade next year!

6th grade social studies students learned how to read topographic maps. Topographic maps portray natural and man-made features, showing elevation, slope, and contour. By understanding those concepts, students are laying the foundations for future units, such as volcanoes and trenches.

In math, students are practicing skills regarding least common multiples and greatest common factors with real-life applications. Not only will this help with fractions (their next unit) but it may also appear on SATs and ACTs later on in their career. They are ahead of the game!

Students in Mr. Suriawinata's math class are working on their skills in calculating the properties of a triangle. They are applying the Pythagorean theorem to find missing lengths of a triangle and they are further developing their understanding of calculating area. Later that day in science, students learned about the properties of cells in animals and plants. By comparing the structure of a cell to a city, students made connections between the different parts and functions. Key parts of any city include features such as administration, transportation, and waste management, to name a few. Similarly, a each cell has components that govern, transport, and eliminate waste. Our 6th grade scientists will now have a clear connection in their minds.

In grade 8, students began Friday's class with a vocab quiz. Words such as "articulate" and "jubilantly" were assessed by having students write their own sentences including each vocab word. Then they went on to read and discuss Chapter 12 of To Kill A Mockingbird. The novel has recently taken a turn from being lighthearted and easygoing to a bit more dark and heavy. The change in mood has captured the attention of the ELA scholars.

Our Middle School Guest Speaker Series was launched this week! Dr. Sitarah Mathias, Children's Hospital Pediatrician, gave a talk to our middle schoolers on her journey to becoming a medical doctor and how her faith plays a pivotal role when interacting with and treating her patients. Thank you for sharing your words of wisdom. Dr. Mathias!

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/