Principal's Weekly Newsletter

Dear Families,

St. Mary's successfully completed their final fire drill of the year! All students evacuated the building quietly and safely into our parking lot. Special thanks to the Brookline Fire Department for helping to keep our school safe and prepared for an emergency.

We encourage you to monitor school social media accounts for posts celebrating our 8th-grade students and their experiences at St. Mary's. We are exceedingly proud of this class and all that they have accomplished!

Congratulations to St. Mary's parishioner, Claire MacPherson, who has devotedly directs our students and pedestrians at the St Mary’s Church crosswalk for years. She’s a ray of sunshine in our community! Don’t forget to congratulate her if you see her.

Lastly during Monday's Parking Lot Prayers, we reflected on the following Bible verses on Perseverance:

Romans 5:3-5 (in summary perseverance makes you stronger)

Isaiah 40:31 (in summary God can give you strength to keep going)

Galatians 6:8 (in summary don't give up, you are almost there)

I encourage you reflect on these verses as a family as we approach the end of the school year.

I wish everyone a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend! May we never forget those who made the ultimate sacrafice for our freedom!

May 29th

• No School- Memorial Day

May 31st

• Spring Concert at 8:45 a.m

June 2nd

• International Family Festival at 4:30 p.m
  

June 5th

• Field Day 10a.m-1p.m at Larz Anderson Park

June 7th

• Grade 8 Graduation and Convocation Mass at 10 a.m

June 9th

• Band Concert at 8:30 a.m
  

June 14th:

• Uniform Swap 2:15-3:15

June 16th

• Last Day of School

September 4th

• No School - Labor Day

September 5th

• No School- Student/Teacher Meet and Greet

September 6th

• First Day of School (Grades 1-8) & Early Dismissal: 11:30 a.m. Bring a snack from home

September 7th

• First Full Day of School (Grades 1-8) Bring lunch from home
• Orientation (PreK-K2), 9-10:30 a.m.

September 8th

• First Day of School with only PreK-K2 & Early Dismissal for PreK-K2 at 11:30 a.m. Bring a snack from home
• Second Full Day of School (Grades 1-8) Bring lunch from home

Covid-19 cases: 0

Fevers: We had multiple children ( mostly in PreK & K1) out this week with fevers. This is not an unusual occurrence this time of year. A fever is anything 100.4 or higher. Students who have a fever must stay home until they are fever free for 24 hours without fever-reducing medication and are feeling well enough to attend school.

Students should test for Covid-19 when they have a fever.

Call your doctor if a fever lasts more than 4-5 days, a fever over 105., your child is not eating or drinking, severe pain, headache, stiff neck, rash, weakness or shortness of breath.

Please let us know when your student is absent and the reason for the absence.

Enjoy your weekend

Bravo to our school band! Our experienced band students had the opportunity to perform at Faneuil Hall alongside several other Catholic Schools and private schools in the greater Boston area. One student said, "We rocked them with Rocky!" A special thank you to all our parent chaperones and Ms. Hawes, our band director, for making this experience possible!

Field Day is quickly approaching on June 5th. Here are a few details to keep in mind as we approach field day at Larz Anderson Park. We will be sending out an email with more details as we get closer to the event so be on the lookout!

Field Day Information

On Monday, June 5, 2023, Field Day will be at Larz Anderson Park.

10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. PreK – Grade 8

Students are to be dropped off at the field (Goddard Ave. entrance) at 10:00 a.m. (There will be no supervision before 10:00 a.m.) All children must be picked up no later than 1:00 p.m. Please look out for permission slips and a Field Day Facts Sheet next week.

Each grade has been assigned a specific t-shirt color. The following are the team colors:

PreK, K1 – St Mary’s Tshirt

K2 - red, white & blue

Gr 1 - navy

Gr 2 - red

Gr 3 - white

Gr 4 - green

Gr 5 - yellow

Gr 6 - purple

Gr 7 - orange

Gr 8- brown

International Family Festival is quickly approaching! Thank you to all our parent volunteers who are helping us prepare for this special event. Just a reminder that the festival will take place on Friday, June 2nd at 4:30 p.m. EDP will close at 4:30 that day too. Many of our students will be performing so we hope you can all attend!

Instructions for those making food:

1. Due to the number of students with varying degrees of severe allergies to nuts, we will have a NO NUTS policy for all dishes.

2. Please come at 3:00 pm (on the day of the event: June 2nd) with all your belongings to set up for your table. Each person will receive ½ of a table and will be sharing with another country so please keep this in mind as you set up.

3. Each table will have a sign with your country on it.

4. Clean up-Please stay and help us with clean up.

Instructions for those attending:

1. There is no parking in the parking lot. Please park on surrounding streets near the school.

2. For those attending please follow the signs (which say check-in) pointing where to go. In order to enter the event you must have your passport which you will collect at check-in.

3. Please DO NOT go to the tables. The tables are off limits until the event officially begins after the opening prayer. Until then please go around the building and enter from Harvard St.

   
   

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

I know we’re all starting to think about summer and a well-deserved break. Sadly, that means it is time to call all the books back to the library for their summer rest. This was the last week of checking books out. Summer is the time to see what we’re missing, repair any books that need mending and generally catalog what we need for next year. I will let the students know which books they have out, and if you could take a look around your homes and send back any St. Mary’s books you find that would be great!

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at nbroley@stmarys-brookline.org

"Hello Families!

We are two weeks away from our Spring concert, and our students are READY! As a staff, we could not be more proud of the work each grade has put in to make this concert a success. Below is some information regarding the Spring Concert:

When: Wednesday, May 31st at 8:45AM

Where: The Saint Mary’s Parking Lot (the same location where we have Parking Lot Prayers and other school events).

Student Dress Code:
PreK, K1, K2, 1st, and 2nd Grade: “Wear what makes you feel spectacular!” Please be advised that clothing must adhere to school dress code rules for dress down days. Families can see the SMS handbook for more information.

3rd, 4th, 5th Grade: Saint Mary’s School Uniforms

6th Grade: Black clothing “with Rock Empahsis”. Please be advised that clothing must adhere to school dress code rules for dress down days. Students can speak with Ms Smith for more information.

7th and 8th: Black clothing, and actors can wear an additional costume piece that describes their character. Please be advised that clothing must adhere to school dress code rules for dress down days. Students can speak with Ms Whitten and Ms Smith for more information.

Concert Order:
Pre-K/K1 - “Feelings Song”
1st/2nd - “Seasons of Love”
K2, 1st, 2nd, 3rd - “Breakaway”
K2, 1st, 2nd, 6th - “When I grow up”
3,4,5 - “Revolting Children”
7/8 - Original Musical Production entitled “Take back the Night”
6th - “Ultimate”

Practice Materials: Practice materials can be found on the concert page of Ms. Smith's Website- Link to concert materials"

PreK's butterflies hatched this week! ! Students made observational drawings of our their new butterfly friends. After learning all about the life cycle of butterflies, it was time for PreK said goodbye to their butterflies!

K1 painted under the table laying on their backs just like how Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel. They too also said goodbye to their butterfly friends!

I is for Ice Cream Day! K2 participated in the ice cream in a-bag experiment using the following ingredients:

Milk

Vanilia

Sugar

Ice

Salt

Students enjoyed a delicious ice cream treat with a touch of sprinkles!

First graders are mastering the difference between hard c and soft c and hard g and soft g sounds in multi-syllabic words. They have done various activities this week to determine the difference including a sorting activity.

The 2nd & 3rd Grade students walked the Freedom Trail for their field trip on Wednesday! They walked from Faneuil Hall to Boston Common! Along the way, they learned about Boston's history and took in the sights of the city.

Grade 4 is continuing their study of how plant structures help them survive, grow, behave, and reproduce. In this lab, they examined and dissected flowers to find the parts used for reproduction. They studied the methods for pollination and found the parts of the flowers used in the process.

In 4th grade, I had the privilege to look over some essays from the students and learn about some hopes and dreams the students have for the school. It was a joy to hear there well thought out ideas!

5th grade had the opportunity to work on geometry shapes. In particular, they worked on polygon shapes and played a riveting game of Battle Ship to learn more about different complex geometrical shapes.

Ms. Stroia's Grade 8 students began working on a Middle School Memories Scrapbook that includes poetry and writing thank you letters. Included in this scrapbook, students have the chance to reflect on their greatest lesson learned, reminisce on favorite middle school memories by creating projects such as a collage, a book dedication page, or a remember when page.

Grade 8 did balloon car races where they explored Newton’s Law of Physics to figure out how to build a car that would travel the furthest. They presented their cars to their class and explained their reasoning for selecting the materials they did.

This week students have been learning all about farm animals in early childhood Spanish class!

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/