Principal's Weekly Update

Dear Families,

We had a fantastic Discovery Day! Our Middle School Student Ambassadors and Parent Ambassadors joined our Director of Admission, Director of Advancement, Assistant Principal, and myself in welcoming prospective families. Families had the opportunity to see the exciting Friday happenings at school. The school's halls were alive with the sound of music as today marked the first day of our band program!

K2-8 progress reports went home today with your child. A special thank you to Ms. Gloria Reyes for spearheading our first progress reports using FACTS for grades 4-8. The teachers have worked as a team in making this transition to a new online platform possible!

See you at Parking Lot Prayers on Monday (weather permitting)!

Have a lovely and restful weekend.

October 14th:

• 9-11:30 Admissions Open House
  
• First Day of Band
  
• Progress Reports K2-8
  
• Grade 1 only- Visit from Fire Department at 10 a.m.

October 18th:

• Meet the Specials Subject Teachers Night
  

October 19th:

• School Mass at 8 a.m.

October 26th:

• Virtual Open House
  

October 28th:

• All students are invited to come in Halloween costume (guidelines coming soon)
• Halloween Costume Parade at 8:15 a.m.
• Halloween Celebration 4-6
  
• EDP ends at 4
• PreK-K1 Progress Reports

October 31st:

• Dress-down Pajama Day

November 1st:

• All Saints Day Mass (full school Mass PreK-8 at 12:10)

November 8th:

• Brookline Public School is closed (bring lunch from home)

November 11th:

• No School-Veteran's Day
  

November 16th:

• Walk-Around-Wednesday

November 23rd:

• Thanksgiving Liturgy at 9:30 a.m. (PreK-8)

November 24th-25th:

• No School Thanksgiving Break

November 28th:

• K2-8 Report cards go home
  
• Parent-Teacher Conferences begin
  

St. Mary’s had 1 case of Covid-19 this week.

Our school social work intern is starting friends and lunch groups for the middle school next week. Lower grades started this week. This is a great opportunity for our middle school students to meet in small groups and learn about positive peer relationships, play games and get to know each other better. Consent forms must be signed in order for your student to participate. If you would like a consent form or have any questions please reach out to our social work intern Domenica Adamson dadamson@stmarys-brookline.org, your student’s teacher or me cwu@stmarys-brookline.org. We are so fortunate to have a social worker with us this year. I hope all the students take advantage of this opportunity.

Enjoy your weekend.

Thank you for supporting your children at home in preparation for our Fall MAPs testing window. Students were so respectful and quiet during testing. Older students assisted the Kindergarten students with technology and showed leadership and patience. All K2-8 teachers will share results individually with families during Parent Conferences when Report Cards are distributed at the end of November.

Regular attendance at school is essential to student success. When children are absent, they miss out on valuable learning time at all grade levels. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in Massachusetts “defines ‘Chronically Absent’ as missing at least 10% of days enrolled (e.g., 18 days absent if enrolled for 180) regardless of whether the absences are considered excused, unexcused and/or for disciplinary reasons” (https://www.doe.mass.edu/sfs/attendance/#:~:text=Massachusetts%20defines%20Chronically%20Absent%20as,and%2For%20for%20disciplinary%20reasons.). We encourage all students to come to school and for parents to reach out if there are concerns preventing regular attendance.

Ms. Crapo read Peter's Chair to her students and then had her students paint their own chairs and cradles. Some of the vocabulary students learned in this lesson were as follows:

• accident
  
• change of heart
  
• cradle
  
• crib
  
• surprise
  
• tiptoe
  

This week students celebrated Hispanic day, Virgen del Pilar patrona de Zaragoza, Spain. It is the biggest celebration in Spain which also happens to be the city in which Ms. Garcia is from!

Ms. Garcia taught them special ways in which this day is celebrated through music from the Aragon Region and popular dance. Ms. Garcia also brought her “cachirulo” the square cloth which is red and black and is traditionally worn during the festivities. They also offered Mother Mary of Pilar some flowers.

During center time today in Mrs. Creamer and Miss Sabryna’s K1 classroom, the students were using their counting skills to make groups of 4 and their fine motor skills by cutting out the letters in their names.

Students studied color theory by reading “The Color Monster” by Anna Llenas. They mixed primary colors, red and yellow, to make orange. Students drew with crayons to music and used pattern blocks on pumpkin shape templates in centers. They loved the activities and rotated to each table by participating in all the lessons!

Ms. Tiny and Ms. McAuliffe’s K2 students practiced writing and sounding out the letters O and C this week. After letters are unwrapped, students work on a series of exercises while practicing reading, writing, and sounding out letters.

Grade 3 students are learning about the life cycle of plants. In particular during this lesson, they discussed seed germination. They are hoping to sprout pumpkin seedlings by Halloween. They started by decorating their own pot. They examined the seeds and indicated with their fingers how far down to place the seed. This started a discussion about measurements. Ms Cafferky showed them that about 2.5 centimeters (the measurement system she learned in Sweden) is about 1 inch (the measurement system we use in the U.S.). Looking forward to seeing your seedlings, Grade 3!

Grade 3 is excited to become penpals with students in Sweden. They listened intently to a video where their penpals introduced themselves. Afterwards, it was Grade 3’s turn to write and share their own introductions. In just one take, Ms. Cafferky and her students recorded their own video message.

In the book The Giver, the character Jonas starts to gradually see color as he strengthens his memories. In doing so, he begins to gain more emotion. Students were tasked to go around the classroom and identify emotions with certain colors.

Students learned about the Neolithic Era and the transition between the Paleolithic era and the Neolithic Era, the earliest time recorded in human history. They focused on the revolution of basic inventions and were tasked in creating their own inventions of what could have been used in the Neolithic time by presenting to the class. The goal was not only to present their invention but to also pitch business ideas.

Students learned all about family and tradition in countries such as Mexico and Spain. Family members are considered beyond the immediate family. Ms. Sanchez asked her students to reflect on the question “Who do you consider your family?” Students were asked to draw their families and label them in Spanish.

Several vocab words taught in this lesson included the following:

Madre-mamá

Padre-Papá

Hermano

Hermana

Tío

Tía

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