Principal's Weekly Update

Dear Families,

Congratulations to Mrs. Maria Enrique who gave birth to a beautiful healthy boy, Isodoro Enrique, on Tuesday, March 21st. We are overjoyed for you and your family! Mrs. Enrique will be on maternity leave for the next few months.

*Please see the message below from our Director of Advancement, Dan Griffin:

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 $8,100 dollars in gifts and pledges in one week! We are so grateful for your commitment and support for our school.

We have more exciting news to share! We have been presented with a final matching challenge! A committed board member has provided a $5000 matching gift. Our community has two weeks until the end of Lent on Thursday April 5th to unlock this generous contribution to the Fund for St. Mary's.

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 support 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.

March 27th:

• Second Trimester Report Cards Released (K2-8)

• Parent Teacher Conferences begin (K2-8)

March 28th:

• Parent Volunteer opportunity from 8:30-9:30 routing Easter flower deliveries.
  

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 @ 2:25 pm, No EDP

April 17th - April 21st:

• April Vacation - No School

April 24th:

• Welcome Back!

• Spring Clubs Begin

We have 2 cases of Covid-19 to report this week.

Enjoy your weekend

Dear K2-8 Families,

If you wish to apply for financial aid, please log into your FACTS account and click on Grant and Aid section. Please note that all families currently receiving financial aid must re-apply for the following year. Financial aid will be awarded only to students who have submitted a completed re-registration form for the 2023-2024 school year. You must apply (or the deadline for applying is) by April 15th, 2023. Families who need assistance please contact Ms. Gloria Reyes at (617) 566-7184.

We are so excited to be hosting a Catholic Spring Book Fair on April 3rd and 4th! 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. The Book Fair will take place on Monday, April 3rd from 2:15-4 p.m and Tuesday, April 4th from 2:15-4 p.m. 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)

Students attended Mass this week during Lent and had the opportunity to listen to Fr. Bobby as he talked about the importance of sacrificial love.

Today we had a k2-8 Stations of the Cross! It was beautiful to see the students learn and understand Jesus and how much he did out of love for us. We had each grade represent and share a little about each station. We are so proud of our student readers!

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.

Ms. Crapo's class constructed letters from her mystery box using Lively Letters and Handwriting Without Tears. Students were asked to construct letters using wooden curves and lines.

Each homeroom at St. Mary’s has a classroom saint and Ms. Tiney’s is Saint Joseph. On Monday, the Kindergarten students were treated to traditional Saint Joseph’s Day pastries from the North End. These are italian desserts known as Zeppole di San Giuseppe. They are choux dough rings filled with whipped cream, pastry cream/custard, or ricotta fillings. Father Jonathan came to celebrate the feast day and enjoy this special snack with them! Students discussed how Saint Joseph, a carpenter, is the patron saint of fatherhood. Later in the day, students painted their very own wooden prayer boxes with a prayer to Saint Joseph on the inside. They used colorful paint to decorate their prayer boxes as well as unique designs!

This week Ms. Fragola's First Grade class made their writing come to life with this craft! Students are learning How-To style writing and worked on sharing how they would build an ice cream sundae!

Grades 2 and 3 students had a blast on their field trip as they had the opportunity to explore the Museum of Science and the Planetarium. Thank you to our lovely parent chaperones for leading the way through the museum!

Grade 3 was tasked I making diorama ecosystems. In science, they have been working and discussing different types of Ecosystem and what living and non-living things are. For their final project, they had the opportunity to choose an ecosystem and build a diorama.

Grade 4 learned all about protractors and measuring angles! After reading the book “Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland,” students went on their own quest to measure angles in geometric figures and around the classroom. They practiced finding and measure obtuse and acute angles.

Grade 6 presented a body biography project for Little Women. Each group was assigned a character and did an analysis of colors, symbols, and quotes that were associated with each character.

In art this week, our Middle School is finishing a Polaroid mixed media project. Inspired by Surrealism, students sketched out a fictional or real place they wanted to visit. Then using a photo framer, they captured the best angle of their sketch and copied it onto a photo-sized paper. For finishing touches students applied a "filter" using liquid glue and a touch of paint.

We are so proud of our girl and boys basketball teams!

Congratulations on Grades 5+ 6 win against St. Theresa's in Somerville last night!

Good luck on your last two games of the season this weekend which will be held at the New Balance Court!

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/