Principal's Weekly Update

Dear Families,

Even though the week was short, it sure was busy!

Ms. Allen's Grade 6 students kicked-off our week leading us in Parking Lot Prayers. Each student presented to the school reflections and prayers on the virtue of charity. During their reflection, students shared a poem that they wrote together as a class that encompassed the true meaning of charity. Here it goes:

Charity is love.

And with it, the Holy Spirit frees us like a dove.

The flame of Love much alive,

Yet we ate the bad fruit of the vine.

With our human brokenness,

God still shows us forgiveness.

Sewing everything together,

Like a master poet with a feather.

I was deep under in the whale,

When Christ saved me like in Jonah’s holy tale.

God’s love is so divine,

We can’t even comprehend it.

Be forgiving,

Be kind,

Be patient,

Be honest,

Be happy,

Do good,

Give your best.

Only what HE thinks of you matters anyway.

In this Thanksgiving week,

Remember this most important virtue that we seek.

Charity is humanity’s greatest treasure

Rejoicing with love is God’s greatest pleasure.

Have no fear,

God is here.

Charity is God,

And when it’s a habit we join others in a virtuous squad.

Thank you for your hard work and leadership Grade 6!

I pray your Thanksgiving will be filled with the joy of God's love and the warmth of His blessings. Thank you for being an integral part of the St. Mary's School family. Happy Thanksgiving!

November 23rd

• Happy Thanksgiving! No school

November 24th

• No school (Thanksgiving break)

November 27th

• Return to school from Thanksgiving break
• Winter Club Preview

November 29th

• Winter Club Registration
• Report Cards Released (Grades K2-8)

November 30th - December 1st

• Parent-Teacher Conferences (Grades K2-8)

December 2nd

• Blessing of Nativity Scene (after 4 p.m. Mass)

December 5th

• Christmas Tree Lighting 4-5:30 (EDP ends at 4 p.m.)
  

December 7th

• Coffee with the Principal: 8 a.m. - 9 a.m.

December 8th

• PreK-8 School Mass at 12:10 p.m.: Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary Holy Day

December 10th

• Christmas Market (after 11 a.m. Mass)

December 12th

• Christmas Pageant: 9 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
  

December 18th - January 2nd

• No School - Christmas Break

We would like to extend our gratitude to all of our St Mary’s school families and our parish’s St. Vincent de Paul who donated turkeys and meals were distributed on Monday afternoon! Shout out to our Grade 7 and 8 students who helped the parish staff to assemble all the donated food items and the wonderful thanksgiving cards made by our students. We love to see our students giving back during this time of Thanksgiving!

This week, our generous parent volunteers led by Jayme S. continued our tradition of collecting over 75 pies from our families as a thank you to all school faculty, staff, and our parish staff, and all priests in residence. We are so grateful for our community and cannot wait to share our delicious pies with our loved ones tomorrow!

The St. Mary's community celebrated a special Liturgy of the Word service where each grade gave thanks for different gifts in their lives and then Father Jonathan blessed the baguettes for each student to take home and enjoy with their family. Thank you to Mr. Lynch for playing the organ and conducting our beautiful children's choir. The choir's voices radiated through the church!

Thank you to Michette Bakery and the Etaix family for providing and assembling the bread and prayers. Our hope is that the prayers will be read out loud with students' families, and then break bread together reflecting on the virtue of charity. Michette Bakery recommends that the bread is placed in the oven for a few minutes before eating! Thank you Michette Bakery, we are so grateful!

Grades 3-5 visited the Plimoth Patuxet Museums! They explored the Historic Patuxet Homesite where they learned about the daily life of Wampanoag communities in the 1600s. They sat inside a wetu (house), tried out different toys, and observed rabbit being cooked over an open fire. Students then went over to the neighboring 17-Century English Village where they stepped into a recreation of Plymouth Colony! Using 17-century methods they helped do laundry and grind corn, and they heard about daily life from Pilgrim men and women working and living in the village. They ended the trip with a picnic lunch on the Museum grounds.

Pre-K students in Miss Porcello and Miss Crapo's classes decorated turkey feathers! Students used a variety of materials to create their own unique feather.

Ms. Reitnour's 1st grade students spent a lot of effort recently making a Thanksgiving quilt, which now hangs on the hallway wall for all to see! As they created it, they made observations about the patterns they were seeing, predictions about how many rows they would need for the whole class, and analyzed the patterns of 5 that they noticed. Then they used the class quilt again to make the connection between patterns of 5 the students observed on the quilt while working with a hundreds chart to identify those numbers. The quilt now serves as a festive reminder of all of the progress Grade 1 students have made in math and critical thinking.

5th grade did a Thanksgiving Readers Theatre for their PreK buddies. Students learned the history of the first Thanksgiving. Then they all enjoyed coloring turkeys and sharing what they are thankful for.

In Ms. Connors' class, the Thanksgiving festivities were combined with STEM! Students created a "Balloons Over Broadway Ballon Float" by designing a sketch of their creative balloons. Then, they noted the materials they needed to complete the task. After completing their balloons, they celebrated with the class Balloon Float!

Our middle schoolers helped our K2 students better understand the spirit of Thanksgiving by making bracelets of gratitude. Each bead on the bracelet represents something that the student is thankful for.

Join St. Mary of the Assumption Parish for a fun Christmas Market after the 11 a.m. Mass on December 10th! See the flyer below for details.

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/