Principal's Weekly Update

Dear Families,

Please remember to have your child bring lunch from home on Monday, September 26th since Brookline Public Schools are closed for Rosh Hashanah. Happy New Year to our families who celebrate Rosh Hashanah!

Thank you to the many families who came to our Back to School Night! It was lovely having you visit our school and classrooms! A special thank you to the Vankoski Family and 90+ Cellars for donating the delicious wine for our Back to School Night. We are so grateful for your support!

We are looking forward to seeing many of you next week on Friday, September 30th at our Luca Movie Night! Families are encouraged to bring lawn chairs, sweatshirts, blankets, etc. We will provide bagged treats!

Lastly, please read the MAP testing section below.

Have a safe and restful weekend!

September 26th: MAPS testing begins- lunch from home

September 27th: First Coffee with the Principal at 8 a.m. school cafeteria

September 30th: Movie Night at 7p.m. in school parking lot

October 1st: Alumni BBQ

October 3rd: Red Sox Game at 7 p.m. and clubs begin

October 5th: Picture Day

October 6th: Protecting God's Children Training 8-9:30am

October 10th: No School: Columbus Day/ Indigenous Peoples' Day

October 5th: Yom Kippur-Bring lunch from home

October 12th: First Parent Volunteer Council meeting 3 p.m. (lower hall of church)

Thank you Fr. Bobby for celebrating the school's Mass of the Holy Spirit Wednesday! The liturgy was celebrated to inaugurate the academic year with many of our students and their parents.

All parent volunteers need to attend a "Protecting God's Children" workshop. I will be holding a PGC training on October 6th from 8-9:30a.m. This is required if you wish to volunteer at school or chaperone a field trip, etc. The program is developed to underscore the code of conduct for adults who are in contact with our students. If you are unable to attend this session, you may find one at your local parish and provide the certificate of completion to us. If you have already done this training in the past, you do not need to repeat it. The Boston Archdiocese accepts trainings completed in another Archdiocese as well!

We held our MAP Assessment rally yesterday afternoon. It was a lot of fun bringing students and teachers together to cheer on the K2-8 students!

MAP Testing at Saint Mary’s Next Week for K2 – Grade 8

Starting the week of September 26th, students in K2 – Grade 8 will take the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test. This test is given at the beginning and end of the school year in Catholic schools in the Archdiocese. Students in K2 – Grade 1 will take the Reading and Math tests. Grades 2 – 8 students will take the Reading, Math, and English/Language Arts Tests. To prevent anxiety, we present the tests to students as part of the curriculum and to prepare for the tests, they take a brief practice test with sample items. We encourage parents to prepare your child for MAP tests by doing the following:

• Be sure your child arrives at school on time. Testing will begin during the morning periods.
• Be sure your child gets a good night’s sleep each night.
• Be sure your child has a good breakfast before coming to school.
• Encourage your child to listen to and read all test directions carefully.
• Give your child the constant message that teachers at Saint Mary’s School have prepared him/her to do well.
• Praise your child for his/her effort every day.

Our band director, Mrs. Hawes, held a band demonstration showcasing instruments ranging from all types of string to wind instruments this morning. Grades K2-8 have the opportunity to participate in our band program starting on October 14th.

Please review the following message from Mrs. Hawes:

Registration information can be found below.

Registration should be completed online through the link found below.

Link To Register for Band and Violin Online:

Pemusic.com/join

INSTRUMENTS AVAILABLE TO EACH GRADE:

Kindergarten - ukulele only

Grades 1 and 2 - violin only

Grades 3 - 8 - flute (for extra hard workers), clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, drums, bells, violin

Trombone is offered to grades 4 - 8

Hi St. Mary’s families

Happy Friday!! We were notified of 2 positive Covid-19 cases this week.

I am seeing an increase in cold symptoms: runny noses, coughs and sore throats, especially with the younger students. Is it allergies, a cold or Covid is the question everyone is asking. The Department of Public Health and DESE require that students with any symptoms of Covid be tested with a rapid home test. If they are negative they can come to school with mild symptoms. It is recommended that students who test negative but have symptoms wear a mask until symptoms resolve. I have included the Covid-19 guidelines below. If anyone needs rapid home tests please let me know.

Quarantine is no longer required nor recommended for children or staff in the school settings, regardless of vaccination status or where the exposure occurred. All exposed individuals may continue to attend programming as long as they remain asymptomatic. Those who can mask should do so until Day 10, and it is recommended that they test on Day 6 of exposure. If symptoms develop, follow the guidance for symptomatic individuals, below.

Symptomatic individuals can remain in their school or program if they have mild symptoms, are tested immediately onsite, and that test is negative. Best practice would also include wearing a mask, if possible, until symptoms are fully resolved. For symptomatic individuals, DPH recommends a second test within 48 hours if the initial test is negative.

Thank you to all of those that visited the St. Mary's table at Brookline Day! It was wonderful to see you and your families enjoying the festivities. We are always grateful for your support and encouragement within the Brookline community.

I am looking forward to seeing many of you next Friday at our Movie Night!

Hello St Mary’s families!

Are your children out growing the books on their bookshelves? Are you simply running out of space for new books? Looking to minimalize? The St Mary’s library will happily accept donations of gently used children’s books of all sorts. Feel free to drop them by the library or in the front office with “Attn. Library” on the packaging. If we cannot use them for any reason, we will make sure they find a good home elsewhere.

Thank you so much for supporting our little library!

I had the pleasure of sitting in and observing how Ms. McAuliffe connects her morning meeting and Number Corner together. Number corner is part of our new Bridges Math Curriculum. For the month of September, morning calendar focuses on two-dimensional shapes, circles, rectangles, triangles, and square, and basic combinations. During the month, students have the opportunity to describe and compare the attributes of the four shapes as we as identify circular, rectangular, triangular, and square objects in the classroom.

Ms. Malinowski taught her students all about primary and secondary colors. First students listened to the story "Mixed- A Colorful Story" and then they were tasked to mix colors together to make other colors using clay.

Students in first grade identified their emotions and assigned colors to them in their “spot of emotion”

This past week, Grade 3 has been discussing living and non-living things in science. Ms. Cafferky provided students with many images of living and non-living things. Students were tasked to sort and categorize them. They worked in groups and made posters!

Students worked together to determine the factors of various numbers and made posters showing the factor pairs with arrays. They then learned the terms “prime” and “composite” and categorized their numbers.

Ms. DeLuca is mentoring a Boston College practicum student, Ms. Alexa this semester. Ms. Alexa taught a lesson on map keys and their importance. Students created their own unique maps including keys.

Fifth grade worked on a science lab where students were able to apply the scientific method to a Penny lab experiment. In this exciting experiment they formed a calculated hypothesis as to how many water droplets could fit on one penny. Students were amazed to see that in fact many more droplets could fit on the penny then they had expected.

8th Grade ELA participated in a Story Puzzle after reading Anton Chekhov's "The Bet." Students were challenged to arrange quotes and scenes from the story in narrative and chronological order.

In Grade 6 French, students began learning different types of common salutations!

In Middle School Spanish, Ms. Sanchez began celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month in the US! Students learned about Puerto Rico and Chile while reviewing their own hobbies, interests and favorite things to do. Because "in meeting and knowing other cultures, we get to know better ours, and ourselves." They also read part of Sonia Sotomayor's biography, the first Hispanic judge in the US Supreme Court.

6th graders decorated their homeroom while reviewing basic vocabulary, greetings, calendar and colors. They even had the chance to dance some Hispanic rhythms!

7th and 8th graders were asked about their interests in learning Spanish this school year. One of my goals this week was for Ms. Sanchez to get to know them and to introduce their personal goals and interests in the next lesson.

In Early Childhood Spanish, Ms. Garcia focused on numbers and colors with K2 . PreK and K1 danced and read books!

Next week Ms. Garcia will introduce a new theme starting with the seasons and fall.

Rocio Garcia is one our phenomenal language teachers! She is an Early Childhood Educator from Spain and has been teaching young children for over 10 years. In 2018, she and her husband decided to start a new adventure in the USA. She is a mother of a 3-year-old toddler who attends to St. Mary’s. Ms. Garcia has experience teaching different strategies according to different ages such as cooperative learning or the play method. One of her favorite teaching approaches is creating projects focused on situations and topics that children can experience daily. Rocio believes that “curiosity drives learning, and we need to guide them walking that path." Her goal is to introduce a second language by combining music, games, new technologies and lots of fun. Aside from teaching, Rocio likes baking, planning events, and spending time with friends and family.

Just a reminder that there is one week left to register for the Rose Debate Institute's Speech and Debate club! Students in this club will actively learn the essential skill of communicating in classes packed with engaging games and exercises to teach the students. Students in the club will learn how to:

1. Master the building blocks of confident speaking such as expression and body language.
   
2. Practice peer-to-peer communication and the art of conversation.
   
3. Learn to think critically and speak persuasively.
   
4. Study speech writing and the practice of rhetoric.
   

Please register ASAP to reserve your spot by clicking the link below:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v9Cma_E6iAE4avJKD5dFg_pLYd0DyO130pAQk1b4OMo/edit

Spread the word! We are excited to host several options for families to learn more about St. Mary's. To learn more or register to attend an event visit our Admissions Events page: https://stmarys-brookline.org/admissions-events/

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/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/stmarybrookline