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Principal's Weekly Update

January 24th, 2025

Principal's WeeklyUpdateJanuary 24th, 2025

A Message from Dr. Nadjarian

Dear St. Mary’s Families,


We were thrilled to welcome our wonderful infant and toddler families to this morning’s orientation! It was heartwarming to see so many of our families come together as we shared our outlook for the remainder of the year and the great work already being done in our infant and toddler classrooms. A big thank you to our incredible early childhood team for their excellent and informative presentations and to all of our families for taking the time to attend. We’re very grateful for your partnership!


This morning, our K2-8 staff participated in a fantastic professional development session, "Using Data to Tell Our Story and Drive Growth," facilitated by Samantha Curtis from Catapult Learning. The session provided valuable insights and practical tools for leveraging data to support student success and growth. A huge thank you to our Assistant Principal, Mrs. Enrique who not only coordinated this professional development session, but also applied for the ESSA Equitable Services Grant which funded this PD session.


This afternoon, faculty and staff had a lovely opportunity to gather together at Brookline's Clayroom for some team building. It was great to have all of our faculty and staff from infant to grade 8 teachers as well as our administrative team enjoying time all together. Thank you to the Clayroom for hosting us and for your partnership!


Have a restful weekend!

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Infant/Toddler Orientation

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Infant/Toddler Orientation

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K2-8 Professional Development

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K2-8 Professional Development

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Infant/Toddler Professional Development

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Faculty and Staff Social at the Clayroom

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Faculty and Staff Social at the Clayroom

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Looking Ahead

January 25

  • Girls' Basketball Game (Grades 5-8) @ Our Lady's Waltham

  • Boys' Basketball Game (Grades 5-6) @ Our Lady's Waltham

January 26 - January 31

  • Catholic Schools Week

January 28

  • Catholic Schools Week Mass - Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas - at 8:15 AM for Grades PreK-8, all friends and family are welcome, family reception to follow in the Lower Hall

January 29

  • Brookline Public Closed - Bring Lunch From Home

February 1

  • Girls' Basketball Game (Grades 5-8) @ St. Theresa of Avila

  • Boys' Basketball Game (Grade 5-6) @ Holy Name

February 2

  • Family Mass concluding Catholic Schools Week at the Parish at 11 AM

February 7

  • Online Info Session at 9 AM

February 8

  • Girls' Basketball Game (Grades 5-8) @ St. Theresa of Avila

  • Boys' Basketball Game (Grades 5-6) @ St. Theresa of Avila

February 14

  • NO EDP

February 17 - February 21

  • NO SCHOOL - February Break

February 23

  • Girls' Basketball Game (Grades 5-8) @ Mount Alvernia

  • Boys' Basketball Game (Grades 5-6) @ Mount Alvernia

February 24

  • Welcome Back to School!

February 28

  • Winter Wonderland Dance (Grades PreK-2)

March 4

  • Mardi Gras Breakfast for Lunch

March 5

  • Ash Wednesday Mass at 12:10 (Grades PreK-8)

March 7

  • Trimester 2 Grades Close (Grades K2-8)

  • Girls' Basketball Game (Grades 5-8) @ Jackson Walnut Park School

  • Boys' Basketball Game (Grades 5-6) @ Jackson Walnut Park School

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Scientists Club made volcanoes this week!

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K2 had a great time playing in the snow at recess!

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Snow angel fun!

Basketball

Great job to our boys and girls basketball teams last weekend! Both are competing again on Saturday. We hope to see you there cheering them on!

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Re-Enrollment for 2025-2026

It is that time of year again to complete your child's re-enrollment packet for next year. The early re-enrollment period for the 2025-2026 academic year began on January 13th and will end on January 27th. All families that re-enroll between January 13 and January 27 will be entered into a drawing to receive a $500 credit towards their 2025-2026 tuition. On January 31st, three families will be randomly selected to receive the tuition credit.


All families have until March 1st to complete the re-enrollment packet using the FACTS/SIS Family Portal. If the re-enrollment packet is not submitted by March 1st, your family's enrollment status will be considered withdrawn for the 2025-2026 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.


If tuition affects your ability to re-enroll at St. Mary's, please contact Dr. Nadjarian and Gloria Reyes at cnadjarian@stmarys-brookline.org and greyes@stmarys-brookline.org.

Community Night at The Garrison House

To celebrate our community during Catholic Schools Week, we are partnering with The Garrison House, right here in Brookline Village! On January 29th, stop by The Garrison House for lunch or dinner and mention St. Mary's! 10% of the proceeds from the day will be donated to St. Mary's. Join us for a day of community and good food!

Check out The Garrison House Menu!

Infant

Our infants had a great time exploring this week! They worked on fine and gross motor skills, sensory exploration, and teamwork!
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Toddler

In Miss Tiffany’s toddler class, students worked in both literacy and STEM small groups. First, they read the book “Inside Noah’s Ark.” Then, they practiced fine motor skills to cut, color, and place animals inside their own ark. In STEM small groups, students continued their study of Noah’s ark by exploring objects that sink and float. They found waterproof objects around the classroom and made predictions and tested whether they would sink or float.
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PreK

In Miss Porcello’s PreK class, students continued their winter unit. They did some “ice” painting on tinfoil. At story time, they read "Millions of Snowflakes" and then made their official predictions on what they think would happen to the snow kept in the refrigerator and the freezer! They put some snow in each, and when they went back downstairs they discovered that the freezer snow stayed the same and the refrigerator snow melted a little, but left some snow in the cup! Students determined that the freezer is colder than the refrigerator, so that is why it did not melt. They decided to leave the snow in the fridge/freezer overnight to check again the next day.
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K2

Students in K2 are practicing how to build a sentence using the following components: A sentence begins with a capital letter, tells a complete idea, has space between words, and ends with punctuation.

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Grade 1

Students in grade 1 studied the phases of the moon this week! They learned about the different phases the moon goes through. Then, they used oreos to create models of each of the moon phases!

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Grade 2

Students in grade 2 are working on nonfiction writing. They spent time researching in a variety of texts, and they took notes on details that will help them when it's time to start writing their paragraphs.
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Grade 3

This week, third graders learned about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. After reading an article together as a class about Dr. King's life, students discussed the important details of the text and of Dr. King's life. They used the details to support their answer to questions about Dr. King's life and legacy.

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Grade 4

Fourth graders have been working on elements of poetry in reading. To begin, students performed poems written by famous poets in groups. They identified the differences between poetry and prose. Now, they are writing their own poems! They focused on nine different types of poems which they will turn into their very own poetry book.

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Fourth graders have also been working on structuring paragraphs. For their latest paragraph, they were tasked with writing why they believe St. Mary's is a great school in order to prepare for Catholic Schools Week. Students brainstormed many ideas and had to choose which main reasons they were going to use for their paragraphs. They started working on outlining and color coding their paragraphs using T-Charts.

Grade 5

Students in 5th grade began a new book club book called, "Goldfish Boy." Students will deeply analyze this book over the next few weeks to better understand the characters and other story elements. Students have discussions as a class and answer comprehension questions independently to show their understanding.

Middle School

In 7th Grade ELA with Miss Allen, students participated in a "Silent Discussion" activity to explore The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Moving around the room, they annotated and commented on key passages that highlighted Death’s narration and its connection to the essay prompt: What insights or truths about WWII or the Holocaust is Zusak able to communicate by having Death narrate the story? This collaborative activity allowed students to brainstorm essay ideas while engaging with their peers' perspectives, fostering deeper understanding and critical thinking as they prepared for their analytical writing.

To wrap up their study of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, students in Miss Allen's grade 8 ELA class worked to create theme posters that showcased their understanding of the novel's main ideas. Each student received a large poster focused on a specific theme and used their copies of the text to find and include relevant quotations. Themes included courage and bravery, education and learning, innocence and growing up, prejudice, and justice and social class. The activity encouraged creativity, with students using colored pens, drawing, and organizing their ideas in unique ways to fill the posters with their interpretations and reflections. By completing this project, students demonstrated their ability to analyze key themes and support their insights with textual evidence.

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Follow us on Social Media

Please find the links below to our social media pages. We are 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/

Christine Nadjarian
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