Dear Families,

We were very blessed to have another great week. It was special to be together as a community with many of you at our Mass of the Holy Spirit on Wednesday. Thank you very much to our Grade 8 student lectors, to Fr. Jonathan for celebrating, and to Fr. Bobby for concelebrating this first Mass. A special thank you to Fr. Jonathan for giving our Grade 5 students a special tour of the sacristy and how vestments relate to the liturgical year as they were learning about in class!

A huge thank you to our amazing and dedicated Parent Volunteer Leaders who met with our admin team on Tuesday morning to assist us with events and community building! We look forward to seeing many more of you serving closely with the Parent Volunteer Leaders throughout the year to help our school flourish.

Finally, I look forward to welcoming all parents/guardians to Back-to-School Night on Wednesday, September 20th from 5:30-7:00 pm!

First session PreK-Grade 2:

Wine and Cheese will be served starting at 5:30 pm.

PreK-Grade 2 teachers will be ready to welcome you into their classrooms starting at 6 pm.

Second session Grade 3-Grade 8:

Wine and cheese will be served starting at 6pm.

Grades 3-8 teachers will be ready to welcome you into their classrooms starting at 6:30 pm

Our teachers are excited to share their plans for how they can best educate your child(ren). Please note that this event is for parents/guardians only and there is no childcare available. EDP will close at 5:30 p.m.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Race bibs are here! There is still time to register and get yours! Join our 1st annual St. Mary's 5k Race to compete against our St. Mary's family for prizes or to walk through the finish as a community!

Sign up below:

https://runsignup.com/Race/MA/Brookline/StMaryoftheAssumptionSchool5K

September 18th:

• Fall Club Registration

September 20th

• Back-to-School Night (parents and guardians only)
  
• EDP ends at 5:30 p.m.

September 22nd

• Band Demo

September 23rd

• St. Mary's 5K Race
  

September 25th

• Yom Kippur- Bring lunch from home

September 26th

• Touring Tuesday

October 6th

• Picture Day
  

October 10th

• Coffee with the Principal
  

MAP Testing will begin at St. Mary's the week of September 25th. Please make sure your child is well rested and has a great breakfast that morning!

Our Picture Day is scheduled for Friday, October 6th rain or shine! We ask that students come to school in full uniform.

The school will not be accepting late forms after photo day, Friday, October 6th. However, if you are interested in purchasing photos, you can can order online for one week after picture day. Everyone will receive a free class photo.

Pre-ordering will open one week prior to photo day. Please click the link below to pre-order:

photocharm.org

Click on "pre-order photos"

The password: STMARYS24

It's so nice to have all the children back in the building for the first full week of school.

A few reminders:

If your child has allergies or asthma that requires an Epi-pen or inhaler and you have not already done so please bring in all necessary medication and an Allergy or Asthma Action plan to school. You can get the action plans from your child's PCP. If you have any questions please let me know.

DPH requires I have a copy of an immunization record and a well visit report for every student. If you have not sent one in via the FACTS portal please send one to me as soon as possible. Well visit reports are good for 1 year.

If your child is a close contact for Covid-19 with a family member please let me know. Household close contacts can still attend school as long as they wear a mask , do not have severe symptoms and test on day 5 after their last exposure with the positive family member.

Flu shots are now available at pediatric offices and most CVS and Walgreen pharmacies. St. Mary's School will not have a flu clinic this year.

Enjoy your weekend!

Mrs. Nisreen Bayazid comes to Saint Mary's with 8 years of clinical experience working with children in the school setting. She studied for her dual-masters degree at Lesley University where she earned a Mental Health Counselor degree and a School Counseling Degree. She has worked with kids as young as 15 months all the way to 15 years of age. She has worked in a therapeutic school for kids with high needs, she has worked in public schools in Boston and Newton, and she has spent the past few years working in another Catholic school in Boston. She comes with an extensive background in ABA therapy, CBT, DBT, and group therapy. She is Palestinian/Lebanese and comes with an international background from the Middle East and Europe. She is very excited to work with the St. Mary's students!

The first week back has been filled with enthusiasm, smiles, and a genuine sense of community. We've had the pleasure of reuniting with familiar faces and extending warm welcomes to new members of our program.

Fall clubs online registration will take place on Monday, September 18 @ 10:30AM. This morning 9/15, the fall clubs preview was emailed to families-if you did not receive this email please notify our EDP director, Nicole Tiney, ntiney@stmarys-brookline.org

Please note: EDP will close at 5:30PM on Wednesday, September 20. Our team looks forward to seeing parents/guardians at Back to School Night!

We launched Parking Lot Prayers this week at school. Students in grades K2-8 pray together on Monday mornings in the parking lot (weather permitting) until Christmas vacation, and resume after Easter. Each month we will highlight one virtue. September’s Virtue of the Month is temperance. The 8th grade will sponsor the rest of September's Parking Lot Prayers. Parents are always invited to attend!

Rosie Lacy completed her internship at St. Mary's School through the Mercy Fellowship at Salve Regina University. This week, she gave a presentation at Salve Regina on how our schools mission and values align with those of Salve Regina University. She reflected very positively on this experience and is looking forward to staying involved with our school community. We are so proud of you and appreciate all that you did and continue to do for our school community Rosie!

Fr. Bobby visited classrooms and blessed our classroom crucifixes in honor of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross this Thursday. He explained to our students how through the mystery of the cross, God gives us victory and fullness of life!

This week our specials classes began at St. Mary’s! Our amazing special subject teachers are experts in Visual Art, Music, Library and Technology Education, World Languages, and Physical Education! In Library, Mr. Pike, our newly hired Librarian asked students about their favorite books they read over the summer. Our K1 students are big fans of “Dragons Love Tacos” by Adam Rubin! On their first day, they read “Oh the Places You’ll Go” by Dr. Seuss!

Mrs. Bayazid helped Mrs. Creamer’s K1 class start the day with a mindfulness lesson that brought peace and joy. They also had a sing along before starting to learn the social-emotional lesson.

This was a dance party Mrs. Bayazid had with 1st grade to celebrate their success with their first mindfulness lesson! They loved the mindfulness activity even more than the dance party!

Ms. Tiney taught her K2 students all about coloring safely with markers. They earned their 4th certification of the week on how to properly and safely use school supplies. Mrs. Bayazid got to assist and was so proud of their coloring skills!

In Miss Connors' class, students were excited to receive their teeny tiny observation notebooks for reading. Students were taught to observe the who, what, where, when, and how components of a good story. They will continue to log observations throughout the year in their journals to create individual short stories.

In Mrs. Fragola's class, students are starting their exploration into emotions by using the Little Spots of Feelings series. They are learning about different emotions and what makes their emotion spots grow or shrink. Mrs. Fragola introduced this unit with the read-aloud, and then students discussed times when they felt various emotions. In the activity, each spot has a different color. Students will reflect on their emotions and visually represent them through their work using an Emotions Journal. Our Grade 2 students are so excited to talk about their feelings and how to express them!

In third grade science, children are also logging their observations during the seed planting activity. Students will observe the germination and log their seeds progress in hopes to cultivate native wild flowers.

This week, students put on their scientist hats and made critical observations about what was happening outside on the blacktop. They recorded their observations in their science journals and many took note of the laughter in the gym that was carried outside through the windows!

Students also made bracelets that spelled a word that inspired each of them. "Trust," "Caring," "Love," and "Creative" are some of the words you will find on our students' bracelets. If they become discouraged at any point throughout the year, the bracelet can remind them of an inspirational message of hope!

Grades 4 and 5 worked on their self portraits this week with a challenge: no pencils or pens. Using only painted paper, scissors, and glue, students were given the task to visualize what it takes to craft a self portrait. They found creative ways to put together eyes, shirts, and hair using only the paper provided! This activity built community among the 4th and 5th graders by using shared materials, and you can see each student’s portrait hanging next to the classroom!

In Miss Allen's ELA class, students took part in a Socratic Seminar on “A Jury of Her Peers.” The goal of a Socratic Seminar is for students to hold mature discussion about the text through rigorous and respectful dialogue so that students can seek a deeper understanding of complex ideas. The students did an excellent job!

In Mr. Antonacci's math class, students began mastering decimal addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division this week. In one activity, students split into groups to order food from a menu to practice estimation and exact calculations with decimals.

In Mr. Febesh's science class, students designed different experiments and carried them out using scientific methods! They did a great job collecting data and carefully explaining their procedures.

Awesome job 6th graders!

7th grade has begun their first unit on Early and Ancient China and has gained a deeper understanding of the geography of the region. In U.S. Civics class, 8th grade has taken a deep dive into the colonial economy as they move along the road to the American Revolution!

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/