Principal's Weekly Newsletter

Dear St. Mary's Families,

I'm so happy to announce the beginning of a festive and beautiful weekend. We have two amazing feast days coming up, St. Patrick and St. Joseph. Both are incredible examples of fatherhood. St. Joseph, in particular, is a remarkable example of the beauty and infinite value of family life. I have always been encouraged by his hope and boldness as he approached so many diverse and difficult circumstances.

With this in mind, I would like to express my profound appreciation for all of you. Every family understands this mission, which is demonstrated in the Holy Family: to love and serve each child as a gift of God. Each family is a unique and unrepeatable gift to our St. Mary's community.

I continue to find great hope and joy in your example of patience and love which you express to each of your children at home. Truly, I can't imagine the St. Mary's family without any of you.

Today we had the opportunity to celebrate St. Partick's Day. Students showed their admiration for St. Patrick's by wearing a wee bit o' green.

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 3rd & 4th

• Catholic Spring Book Fair with The Daughters of St. Paul

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:

• April Vacation Begins @ 2:25pm, No EDP

April 17th - April 21st:

• April Vacation - No School

April 24th:

• Welcome Back!

• Spring Clubs Begin

Dear Parents,

Thank you very much for your support for the Lenten Appeal for the Fund for St. Mary's. We were able to raise close to over $4,500 dollars in gifts and pledges in one week! We are so grateful for your commitment and support for our school.

The generosity of our families, friends, and stakeholders allows us to invest significantly in our school. Improvements such as an expanded specials curriculum, updated smartboards, an increased financial aid budget, experiential learning opportunities, and an improved athletics program are made possible through your commitment to the Fund for St. Mary's.

As we head into next week, I encourage you to be on the lookout for another exciting Matching Gift opportunity to invest in our school through the Fund for St. Mary's! Your gifts will allow us to invest in:

• New screen, projector, and speakers in the gym.

• Basketball hoop in the playground.

• Outdoor Play Equipment for Early Childhood Learners.

Thank you again for your support! If you are interested in giving to the Fund for St. Mary's please visit here: St. Mary's Giving Page

Thank you to all families who have already completed their 2023-2024 re-enrollment packets. Please note that if the re-enrollment packet is not submitted by April 1st, your family's enrollment status will be considered withdrawn for the 2023-2024 academic year. If there are any extenuating circumstances regarding your family's decision to re-enroll, please make us aware as soon as you are able.

Covid-19 cases: We have 3 cases to report this week.

Enjoy your long weekend

We are so excited to be hosting a Catholic Spring Book Fair on April 3 and 4! The Daughters of St. Paul, a religious community sharing the Gospel through media and social communication, will be bringing tons of awesome faith-based books to St. Mary's during Holy Week! There will be all kinds of genres including biographies, fantasy, graphic novels, mystery, and so many more! This is a great opportunity to grab some Easter-themed books or to grab some Easter basket items. More details about times to visit the book fair to follow. If you want to check out some of the titles ahead of time, take a look at the many book offerings on the Daughters of St. Paul website: Home Page - US | Pauline Books and Media (paulinestore.com)

Pre-K has started their Healthy Bodies unit! This week, they are focusing on dental health. Students are learning about the importance of brushing their teeth and visiting the dentist. They had a special visit from Nurse Wu and her student Nurse Caroline. Nurse Wu read a story about visiting the dentist and Nurse Caroline talked to students about the proper way to brush their teeth. Everyone got a turn brushing the alligator's teeth!

Today PreK Crapo celebrated St Patrick’s day by learning all about the rainbow colors with fun crafts and promising to God that we will always remember what we are lucky to have in our lives! Friends shared that they feel lucky for their family, friends, toys, yummy foods, school, and their pets!

Today the PreK met with their fifth-grade buddies and completed academic St. Patrick’s Day activities. Fifth graders helped PreK students write letters, find numbers, and build with blocks.

This week in K1 we learned about the artist Claude Monet. We made our own lily pads. We also did a directed painting of his “sunset in Venice” after learning about reflections.

Our K1 class set a trap yesterday to see if we could catch a leprechaun. The children were so excited to see that the tricky leprechaun was in our classroom and we may have caught him! He brought his little ladder, left behind some bootprints and our trap was closed! We were ready to use our nets to capture him if he tried to escape when we opened the trap, but unfortunately, he fooled us and he took our gold! He did leave us a note that lead us to a special lucky treat hidden in Ms. Debbie’s desk! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

This week in first grade, students read How to Catch a Leprechaun and then created their own plans to trap their leprechaun! Students then took their designs and created their very own traps! Fingers crossed they will catch the leprechaun this year!

In third grade, students made a video touring the school to show their penpals from Sweden a bit about what makes St. Mary's so special! In addition, the students shared about their different classes and specials. They are looking forward to hearing back from their penpals because next week they will have a brief video about the elementary school in Sweden.

In fourth grade today during number corner they learned about patterns and rhythms using their calendar grid for March. They analyzed functions to determine the outcome for a given input to predict future dates.

In 5th Grade, the entire class participated in an invigorating Chocolate Milk Debate! The class took sides and argued for or against having Chocolate Milk in schools. I even had the opportunity to listen in on the debate as a judge along with Mr. Ferrari and Ms. Julia Whitten (our Drama teacher). After the debate, we had a wonderful time trying different flavors that go well with milk. Yum!

Students completed their end-of-unit projects on erosion, weathering, and deposition. Students were challenged to choose an image and build a model of the image. They then needed to present how the image represented erosion, weathering, and deposition.

The seventh graders continue their study of genetics and heredity. This week they learned about sex-linked genes and why males are more susceptible to specific genetic conditions like color blindness than females. To reinforce their understanding of heredity, students predicted the offspring and parents of different Oompa Loompas based on exhibited physical characteristics.

Students have been working with colors and stickers to represent emotions. To learn more about our distinct emotions, students made bottles of different colors with each color corresponding to a specific emotion. By separating emotions, students were taught how to control their emotions.

Early elementary classes have started their sound design unit! Students have played sound guessing games, gone on sound collection walks, and have started their own sound design projects with the found objects in Ms Whitten’s “box of wonder”! Students are encouraged to be present and listen to all the different sounds in their daily lives that can be used to make theatre!

5th grade had a blast this week presenting two more drama games: “bus stop” and “30 Second Stories”. Improvisation skills are so important, not just on stage, but in the classroom as well! Ms. Whitten got to see the fifth grade flex their performance skills this week during their chocolate milk debate and their science project presentations! Many many thanks to Mrs. Palmer for incorporating performance in so many places in the fifth-grade curriculum!

7-8th grade music and drama classes have enjoyed combined classes as they begin the devising process for their cross-curricular musical production project, which will debut at the end of the school year. A contemporary song has been voted on, and students are now analyzing the lyrics to brainstorm ideas for scenes that show the moments before and after!

During EDP, students were able to work on their homework for this three-day weekend with Ms. DeLuca.

This week our boy's and girl's basketball teams played at St. Columbkille. The teams have improved tremendously in the past few games. Please come and join us as we cheer on our teams for the last game of the season at Holy Name Parish School (10:30 am).

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/