Principal's Weekly Newsletter

Dear Families,

We are very excited for our Basketball team to be playing tonight at the Gann School in Waltham and Saturday against St. Columbkille’s at the YMCA in Brighton. Good luck, we are cheering you on!

Thank you to our fantastic Board of Specified Jurisdiction for their time on Tuesday night! We appreciate your time and talents advancing our mission as a school.

Please view our Catholic Schools Week itinerary below as well as flyers for our Pub Trivia Night and Game Night on January 26th. We are excited for the festivities to begin! Flyers were sent home today.

Have a restful Martin Luther King Day weekend, and see you back on Tuesday!

January 16th:

• No School/ Martin Luther King Day

January 17th-February 13th:

• Winter MAP testing window

January 19th:

• Progress Reports Released (Grades K2-8)

January 20th:

• Early Re-Enrollments Concludes

January 23rd:

• Report Cards Released (Grades PreK-K1)

• Winter MAPS make-up testing begins (optional)

January 25th

• Coffee with the Principal

January 26th

• Pub Trivia Night

January 27th:

• Professional Development/ No School

January 29th:

• Catholic Schools Mass Kickoff

January 29th-February 4th:

• Catholic Schools Week (please see above flyer)

Hi St. Mary's families,

We had 3 reported cases of Covid this week.

If your child had a recent well visit please send me a copy for our records.

Enjoy your weekend.

Nurse Wu

The early re-enrollment period for the 2023-2024 academic year ends on January 20th. Families should have received an email from the FACTS/SIS Family Portal with instructions on how to re-enroll. All families that re-enroll between January 9 and January 20 will be eligible to be entered into a drawing to receive a $500 credit towards their 2023-2024 tuition. On January 23rd, three families will be randomly selected to receive the tuition credit.

All families have until April 1st to complete the re-enrollment packet using the FACTS/SIS Family Portal. If the re-enrollment packet is not submitted by April 1st, your family's enrollment status will be considered withdrawn for the 2023-2024 academic year.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.

If you have already informed us that your family will not be re-enrolling, we ask that you still log into the FACTS/SIS Family Portal and select the "Will Not Re-enroll" option.

Middle School Spanish students started a new unit in Spanish class. They are working on how to order a meal in spanish! In this unit, they will learn about food, entertainment, and the variety of traditions which encompass different Spanish speaking cultures throughout the world. In addition they will learn how to go shopping and how to order at a restaurant in spanish.

During the first few sessions they learned new vocabulary words with flashcards and visual queues to help them work on pronunciation. They also played different Spanish games such as "Carrera de palabras" (Racing with words). Finally, they also had a chance to work on some of their grammar as they focused on the past tense and conditional propositions.

Mr. Suriawinata's students participated in experiments this week that focused on cellular respiration. Students hypothesized if working out will cause more exhaled Carbon Dioxide. The lab addresses how exercise (increased muscle activity) affects the rate of cellular respiration. Students did so by measuring three different indicators of cellular respiration; breathing rate, heart rate, and carbon dioxide production. Students measured indicators with and without exercise.

Materials used included:

• Beaker/Test Tube/Cup
  
• Bromothymol blue solution
  
• Straw
  
• Stop watch
  

Ms. Stroia engaged her students on a vocabulary discussion, specifically on the word “personification” and its meaning supported by examples. In order for her students to make art connections with the text from "The Hobbit", she tasked her students draw goblins and present their drawings. Students supported the drawing details with evidence from "The Hobbit".

Students are in the process of learning about earthquakes, and how we can track earthquakes. Student learn how to make a seismographs with basic household materials where they can hypotheticaly track their own earthquakes!

Mrs. Palmer’s students participated in physical and chemical weathering labs this week. While reviewing terminology, Mrs. Palmer had her students came up with an action to describe the specific vocabulary word using “Words Come Alive.” This is an effective way for students to make connections with the vocabulary.

Second grade has been using classroom supplies, giant feet, teacher feet, and their feet to estimate and measure the school. Students have worked individually, in pairs, and in teams with different units of measure. At the end of the week, they started using their inch worm rulers and practiced lining up objects with the lines on their ruler to get accurate measurements!

Displayed is a picture of Ms. Tiney leading her students in Bridges Number Corner. Students focused on how to apply numbers onto their everyday life. In Number Corner, Ms. Tiney shared with the class all about how many days it's been since we started school and they reviewed the number table. January's Number Corner incorporates visual models such as five-frames, ten-frames, finger patterns to 10, linking cubes, and number lines.

K1 had an exciting time going over the alphabet and learning more about the letter H with Mrs. Curley. They worked on their fine motor skills and had a wonderful time as they came up with different animals and words that began with the letter H. They also interacted with the new technology platform from the curriculum “Handwriting Without Tears” using the Smart Board and got to create our own posters of a horse which they made in class.

Students in Ms. Creamer's class tested the absorbency of different materials after reading the book Rabbits and Raindrops and learned that a rabbit’s fur is not waterproof. They also learned all about Martin Luther King Jr. and the importance of kindness and acceptance!

Pre-K is learning about the winter season. Students have read stories about the winter time and have had discussions about winter time activities. They have made connections between the books they have read and their real life experiences, like going ice skating and sledding. Pre-K has explored snow and ice through hands-on activities that promote science skills, sensory experiences, and fine motor development.

Students learned all about New Year festivities and winter songs as they began their new winter theme. Feliz año nuevo 2023 and “el invierno” season.

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/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/stmarybrookline