

Principal's Weekly Update
October 20th, 2023
A Message from Dr. Nadjarian
Grades K2-8 progress reports are being sent home today. Please sign and return them by Monday, October 23rd.
On Monday during Parking Lot Prayers, we introduced October's Virtue of the Month, "patience." We reflected as a school community on Proverbs 14:29 which states that "Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick-tempered displays folly." Thank you to Lucy from Grade 7 for leading the school in prayer after our reflection. Please join us as Grade 7 leads Parking Lot Prayers on Monday continuing the reflection on patience.
Good luck to all our students in Cross Country who are competing in this weekend's Mayor's Cup at Franklin Park!
We look forward to seeing you all at next week's Trunk or Treat event and Costume Parade!
Have a restful weekend!
Looking Ahead
October 22nd
- Cross Country Mayor's Cup at 9:30 a.m.
October 25th
- Grades 4-6 field trip to Boston Symphony Orchestra
October 26th
- Grade 4 field trip to Catholic TV
October 27th
- Costume Parade at 8:15 a.m.
- Trunk or Treat from 4-6 p.m. EDP ends at 4 p.m. dismissal from Harvard Street doors.
October 30th
- Progress Reports Released PreK & K1
November 1st
- All Saints' Day School Mass at 12:10 p.m. (All PreK-8 students and families invited)
November 6-8
- Middle School field trip to Nature's Classroom in Maine
November 9th
- Online Information Session
- Grades 2 and 3 community walk field trip
November 10th
- No School: Veteran's Day
November 16th
- No EDP
November 17th
- Trimester 1 grades close (K2-8)
November 22nd
- Thanksgiving Liturgy of the Word: 10:15 a.m. in the church for PreK-8
- Early Dismissal: 11 a.m.
- No EDP
November 23rd
- Happy Thanksgiving! No school
November 24th
- No school (Thanksgiving break)
November 28th
- Return to school from Thanksgiving break
Trunk or Treat!
Join us for our annual Halloween Trunk or Treat celebration next week on Friday, October 27th from 4-6 p.m. This will be a fun evening filled with treats, games, activities, and contests. May the best Halloween costume win!
A Message from Ms. Renalyn Te, Director of Admissions
Discovery Day
Today’s Discovery Day included a presentation from our Grade 6 students, Adira and Kaiden. The prospective parents were impressed by their poised and confident public speaking skills. The parents were equally impressed by the kind welcome and assistance they received from our student ambassadors: Emma, Faye, Max and Sam. Thank you very much to our parent ambassadors Christina Bowman, Chen Chu, Nickolette Gaglia and Elizabeth Montgomery for sharing their insightful parent perspectives.
Reminder for After School
Our school playground is designed for small groups of students. While it is a great time to make new friends and meet up after dismissal, it is reserved for our Extended Day Program students and staff. It is difficult to supervise a larger group of students than our staff is prepared for. Also, after picking up your child from their teacher, please supervise them closely in the parking lot and surrounding campus as it can be a very busy time of day. Thank you for paying close attention to the safety of our students!
Catholic Schools Foundation Partnership
Dr. Nadjarian and Mrs. Reyes attended the Catholic Schools Foundation (CSF) reception on Thursday evening. CSF was established to help raise funds for scholarships and programs that allow students from low-income backgrounds to benefit from high-quality Catholic education in the Archdiocese of Boston. We are so grateful for our partnership with CSF!
Faculty Spotlight
Recently, Mr. Pike’s library students have been getting into the autumn spirit by exploring a range of books that explore the season of fall and the upcoming celebration of Halloween! A few favorites have been stories such as Flat Stanley and the Missing Pumpkins, Mouse’s First Halloween, and Don’t Push the Button. The festivities continue with autumn and Halloween-themed movement break activities, which are balanced out by short, yet educational videos demonstrating various library-based topics. As the year progresses, our library’s circulation services are beginning to open for grades 1-8. Students have been especially excited to start checking out some of their favorite books! Stay tuned for news about our upcoming Scholastic Book Fair in December!
First Choir Rehearsal
This Wednesday marked St. Mary’s first-ever choir rehearsal, led by music teacher, Mr. Lynch. Ranging from grades 3-7, the variety of voices provides an angelic sound when they come together. Their debut will be November 1st at the All Saints Day School Mass at 12:10 p.m.
Fun Drama Class Updates
Both 2nd grade classes dove into the first annual St. Mary's K2-2nd Reader's Theatre Fest this week with The Bad Seed and James and the Giant Peach. Students learned how to read a script, worked in small ensembles to read the first draft of the script, and participated in table-work dramaturgy! These are incredibly advanced skills that flex literacy, artistic, and SEL muscles, so Ms. Whitten is incredibly proud.
As part of their theatre for social change investigation, the 3-5th grade has been practicing literary, dramatic, and artistic analysis through improvisational role work strategies such as "This is Not A", "I am a Tree" and "Voices in the Head". They are becoming excellent improvers, and Ms. Whitten cannot wait to begin devising and designing with each class for this important story!
PreK
Miss Porcello's Pre-K class started their Fall unit! Student's spent the week learning about the changing leaves, weather in the fall time, and fall time activities! Student's observed pinecones and harvest corn, explored in the fall sensory bin, picked apples and pumpkins, in dramatic play, and completed many fall inspired art projects. They even went on a leaf hunt after reading the story "We're Going On A Leaf Hunt!" It was so much fun exploring sandbox park and hunting for red, orange, and yellow leaves. Student's are excited to continue their fall time study on apples next week!
K1
Our young artists also learned primary colors and secondary colors on their color wheel. They practiced fine motor skills of coloring with control and observed mixing primary colors in a shaker bottle to create secondary colors. They furthered this knowledge of colors when they colored in leaves on a tree based on their shapes.
K2
With Ms. Tiney and Ms. McAuliffe, our K2 students are learning the five senses: sight, taste, touch, smell, and hearing. On Thursday, students had a practical experience of the sense of sight by going on a “Sight Walk.” They used their paper cameras to be observant of all of the various natural and man-made objects in our beautiful world.
Grade 1
1st grade has been learning about our government and American symbols. In this lesson, students learned 2 American symbols - the Statue of Liberty and the bald eagle. They learned, for example how the bald eagle is a symbol of strength and the spirit of freedom. Students began their own picture book of symbols of the United States. They also connected the symbols with the themes of the song “My Country Tis of Thee.”
Grade 2
Grade 3
Grade 4
Grade 5
In Mrs. Palmer’s Class, students made use of clocks in order to better understand fractions. Fractions are a major area of focus of 5th grade math. Students build upon their knowledge of fraction addition and subtraction in 4th grade by finding the least common denominators and learning how to multiply/divide fractions this year. They will be very prepared to take their understanding of fractions to the next level in 6th grade next year!
Middle School
Grade 6
In math, students are practicing skills regarding least common multiples and greatest common factors with real-life applications. Not only will this help with fractions (their next unit) but it may also appear on SATs and ACTs later on in their career. They are ahead of the game!
Grade 7
Grade 8
In grade 8, students began Friday's class with a vocab quiz. Words such as "articulate" and "jubilantly" were assessed by having students write their own sentences including each vocab word. Then they went on to read and discuss Chapter 12 of To Kill A Mockingbird. The novel has recently taken a turn from being lighthearted and easygoing to a bit more dark and heavy. The change in mood has captured the attention of the ELA scholars.
Middle School Guest Speaker Series
Free Entry Into Brookline Chess Blitz Championship (Prizes for winners)!
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