Principal's Weekly Newsletter
September 18, 2026
Pizza Fridays
We are excited to continue Pizza Fridays with Spa Pizza for the 2026–2027 school year!
Families who would like to participate are asked to make one lump-sum payment for the entire school year.
There will be a total of 32 Pizza Days throughout the year: 26 Fridays and 6 Thursdays.
Cost for the Entire School Year
- 1 slice per Pizza Day — $115
- 2 slices per Pizza Day — $225
Thursday Pizza Days
In addition to our regular Friday Pizza Days, pizza will be served on the following Thursdays:
- December 3, 2026
- January 2, 2027
- February 11, 2027
- March 18, 2027
- April 15, 2027
- May 27, 2027
If you would like to purchase pizza for your child, please send cash payment by Monday, September 21, 2026.
Please place the payment in a clearly labeled envelope with your child’s full name, grade, and number of slices (1 or 2).
Thank you! We look forward to another great year of Pizza Fridays!
Band Demonstration
World Languages
Students in Mrs. Chavez-Ross’s K1 Spanish class started in prayer for their first class of the year. They learned the sign of the cross in Spanish and learned the Guardian Angel Prayer together in English. Students learned each others names and shared about their summer vacations. Mrs. Chavez-Ross led the students in singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider in English and Spanish. Students were excited to take turns for their listening game: Simon Says. They had a great first class!
Grade 3 French students had their first class with Monsieur Raymond. They started with the basics: singing and learning the alphabet in French. Each student practiced their oral pronunciation with Monsieur individually, as their peers followed along. The students were excited to open their French workbooks for the first time as well! Grade 3 students enroll in French for half of the year and then in Spanish for half the year to help them discern which language to enroll in for their entire Grade 4 year. Très bien!
Library
This week was truly a treat as classes experienced their first week of Library Class of the 2026-2027 school year. In addition to her role as full-time Student Support Specialist, Ms. Kousidis (or as the students affectionately call her, “‘Ms. K”) is also our new K2-5 Elementary Library Teacher! This summer, while she was working hard preparing for her new roles, Ms. K was simultaneously spending a lot of time absolutely transforming the St. Mary’s library into an organized, categorized, whimsical, nature-themed literary sanctuary. Here you see grade 3 students enjoying a tour of the new library, learning the rules of the library, and enjoying their first book as a class. Ms. K has created a place where students in grades K2 through 5 will come to foster a true love of reading of all kinds. Ms. K has taken our library experience to the next level - and we are all so grateful! Thank you, Ms. Kousidis!
Infant
Toddler
This week, Ms. Sabryna's toddler class explored colors through painting and collaborative art activities, developing their creativity and fine motor skills through hands-on experiences. They also strengthened their building and problem-solving skills while working with bristle blocks and participated in circle time through music and movement, using egg shakers as they sang familiar songs. It was a fun week filled with creativity, music, and learning together!
K1
On Tuesday, our K1 students in Mrs. Creamer’s class celebrated International Dot Day! On International Dot Day, millions of people around the world connect, collaborate, and create to celebrate all that creativity inspires and invites. Mrs. Creamer’s class read The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds and celebrated with an assortment of unique creative activity stations! One station helped students to learn their letters by using small dot stickers to trace the first letter of their names. Another station allowed for students to use dot paints to color in each gumball in a gumball machine. The final station allowed for each student to fully express their creativity, providing with a blank dot that they could color in any way they liked! It was amazing to see how each student embraced their creativity in different ways.
K2
Grade 1
Grade 2
Students in Mrs. Sterge’s Grade 2 Social Studies class learned about families as a community full of respect and responsibility. Families care for each other with love and understanding. They brainstormed how their own families support them at home! Great work, Grade 2, learning about home communities.
Grade 3
Students in Ms. Hinson's Grade 3 class jumped into their Wordly Wise vocabulary class. They identified the nouns in sentences together. Students learned vocabulary words and their meanings by searching for context clues in each sentence as well. Some words included in their vocabulary study were: grasp, scar, examine, and marine. They also reviewed adjectives from work on the previous day.
Grade 4
Ms. Carr's 4th grade class has jumped right into their first writing unit all about fiction stories! Students participated in conversation about the elements of fiction as well as how the plot of a story is structured. They then planned and rehearsed their own skits, using all of what they have learned to produce a realistic fiction story. Each story included an exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and a resolution. Students had lots of fun performing and being members of the audience! The class is looking forward to starting the drafting process on their own fiction narratives!
Grade 5
An important part of being a 5th grader at St. Mary's is being a role model to the younger students and especially to their classroom buddies in Mrs. Porcello's PreK class. Every year, Mrs. Palmer's 5th grade students use the book The Day the Crayons Quit to create their own story, The Day the School Supplies Quit. In the 5th grade version, students create letters as if they are school supplies and explain in humorous ways how they don't like to be treated. When buddies meet for the first time, the 5th grade class will read to the PreK students the story they created.
In 7th grade Social Studies with Mr. O'Connor, students explored various types of maps including political, physical, topographical, and population density maps. After familiarizing themselves with these styles, students used a collection of maps and our classroom globe to make inferences and predictions about our first region of study, South Asia.
