Principal's Weekly Update

Dear Families,

Parking Lot Prayers are back! This week we reflected on the virtue of "temperance." We discussed how the virtue of temperance is about practicing self-control. It helps you control your actions, thoughts, and feelings.

On Monday, we will have a school-wide Mass (K2-8)and then come back to the parking lot (Prek-8) for the Crowning of Mary. All parents are invited to attend!

Thank you visiting families for joining us for Discovery Day at St. Mary's! We are delighted and honored by your interest in joining our community. Special thank you to our student ambassadors in the 3rd grade and Adira Jones, our student speaker, and our parent panelists, Taz, Elizabeth, Chen, and Ithwa. As always, we are grateful to our parent volunteers for their time and wisdom. Thank you to our teachers, staff, and students for representing St. Mary's so well.

Please keep our First Communicants in your prayers as they make their First Communion tomorrow!

Have a beautiful weekend!

April 29th

• First Communion

May 1st-May 5th

• Teacher Appreciation Week

May 1st

• School-wide Mass and Crowning of Mary at 8a.m

May 3rd

• Parent Volunteer Council

May 5th

• Dress Down Day- Dress like your teacher or school nurse
  
• Nurses day

May 9th

• Coffee with the Principal

May 11th and 12th

• Middle School New York Trip

May 12th

• Grade 1 Aquarium Field Trip

May 15th-19th

• MAP Testing

May 19th

• PreK and K1 Zoo Field Trip

May 24th

• Grades 2+3 Freedom Trail Field Trip

May 31st

• Spring Concert at 8:45 a.m
  

June 2nd

• International Family Festival
  

June 5th

• Field Day

June 7th

• Grade 8 Graduation and Convocation Mass

June 9th

• Band Concert at 8:30 a.m
  

June 16th

• Last Day of School

I am happy to report 0 cases of Covid 19 this week.

If your student has not had a well health visit with their pediatrician or a dental exam in over a year now is a good time to schedule an appointment. Well visits will include eye, hearing and scoliosis screenings and make sure your student is up to date with immunizations. Dental care is important to your child's overall health and well being. Early detection of decay in teeth helps to promote proper oral function and prevents unnecessary pain or loss of teeth. If you need assistance finding a pediatrician or dentist please let me know.

Enjoy your weekend

After a nearly year-long process of photography, writing, and design work, we are proud to launch St. Mary of the Assumption School's new website! We are incredibly thankful to Jim and Karen Healey from Peapod Design for their hard work and support. The website is a fantastic representation of the mission, culture, and sense of community here at St. Mary's. We encourage you to share the website within your network and on your social media - www.stmarys-brookline.org.

We are still considering applications for all grades for the 2023-2024 school year. If you are interested in enrolling the siblings of your currently enrolled children, please submit an application through the admissions portal: Application – St Marys of the Assumption (stmarys-brookline.org).

Thank you to Fr. Jonathan, Ms. Connors, our 2nd graders, and parents for a great First Communion retreat! Fr. Jonathan and students made their own unleavened bread!

Students learned new vocabulary about spring by matching pictures. They learned more about numbers in Spanish!

A huge thank you to our Brookline Police Department for speaking to our parents about internet safety on Wednesday! They will be coming back to our school to speak and guide our older students in making safe choices.

Pre-K is continuing their Things That Grow unit by studying vegetables! This week, they learned about planting and caring for vegetable gardens and parts of vegetables. They participated in fun learning activities like measuring vegetables and stamping vegetables. Pre-K also had a vegetable taste test. They tasted broccoli, pepper, celery, carrots, and onion and decided if they liked or did not like the taste. Lastly, after reading The Ugly Vegetable and Growing Vegetable Soup, they made their own vegetable soup! They took turns cutting vegetables, putting them in the crockpot, and stirring! The soup was delicious!

Mrs. Creamer's K1 class learned all about space and planets!

K2 students participated in a STEAM challenge. After learning about summer, they were asked to engineer a structure that would protect them from the sun. Students were given the opportunity to choose from a variety of materials in order to create their designs. All designs were tested and shade approved!

Grade 2 students had a special visitor this week! Mr. Sterge, PhD candidate, led the class through the scientific process as they chose their own procedures to answer the question: how does exercise immediately affect one’s ability to perform a small muscle task? Students then analyzed and graphed their own data, drawing conclusions about their results. The class enjoyed seeing Nick’s graph of the class averages and seeing some of the cells that he has worked with in his lab at Boston University.

Grade 3 has been learning about the concepts of force, which can be balanced or unbalanced, and motion, particularly pull and push. To demonstrate these concepts, they engaged in friendly games of tug of war. They predicted what would happen when there were four against eight students: six against six students, and all twelve students against Ms. Cafferky.

Ms. DeLuca led her class on a detailed scientific seed observations. Students were given a dry bean and were asked to observe the texture, color, patterns, and shape. After recording their observations, they were tasked in generating observations for a soaked bean. Lastly, students planted their seeds and some began to sprout today!

Students in fifth grade are learning about the similarities and differences between parallel and series circuits. They completed a lab to see what happens when you remove a lightbulb from a parallel circuit and why homes and offices use parallel circuits instead of series circuits.

Grade 5 had a guest speaker this week! Adira's mom, Ithwa, came in and shared all about Ramadan. She explained how Muslims pray and fast for 30 days as well as how they celebrate the feast (Eid). She also brought in treats for the class. Thank you, Ithwa!

The 6th grade is hard at work on the Solar System models. The sixth graders are using different mediums to create solar systems. Featured are grade 6 students, Cate and Hailie using foam while other students are using clay and balloons!

In ELA, 8th graders are working on outlining and drafting argumentative essays as their final assessment for The Outsiders unit. They are picking out quotes to support their arguments, completing graphic organizers, and drafting their rough drafts before doing a peer edit activity next week.

In our first coding club students familiarized themselves with common computer skills such as scrolling, navigating our coding website, and dragging images. Ms. Chambrelli and Ms. Fragola also discussed computer and internet safety and the importance of keeping our passwords to ourselves rather than sharing them with friends. After a tutorial and introduction, students were able to start their coding adventure on their own or with peers!

Students are using TinkerCAD to learn 3-D Design!

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/