Principal's Weekly Newsletter

Dear Families,

As we wrap up the last week before April break we would like to highlight the middle school robotics elective. As many of you know, St. Mary's has partnered with TrueRobotics from Worcester Polytechnic Institution to offer a hands-on robotics course to our middle school this term.

The students have been exemplary in their cooperation and leadership with this opportunity. Throughout the past few weeks, the three grades have worked together to build and begin programming their robots. It has been a joy to see the students work together across the three grades, to build new relationships, and to share their skill sets with each other. Throughout the term students will have the opportunity to learn about mechanical engineering as well as programming. The middle schoolers have embraced this new challenge with vigor and are excited to move onto the programming stage with their robots.

Have a wonderful weekend and April Break and we are looking forward to seeing you all back in school after break!

Thank you Sebastian and Leonare from Grade 2 for leading the school in morning announcements and prayers!

April 17th - April 21st:

• April Vacation - No School

April 24th:

• Welcome Back- Parking Lot Prayers Resume!

• Spring Clubs Begin

April 24-28th

• Empowering God’s Children Lessons

April 25th

• 1st Communion Retreat
• School-wide Mass K2-8

April 26th

• Brookline Internet Safety Presentation

April 28th

• Admissions Open House

April 29th

• First Communion

May 3rd

• Parent Volunteer Council

May 9th

• Coffee with the Principal

*Save the Date*

May 31st

• Spring Concert at 8:45 a.m
  

June 2nd

• International Family Festival
  

June 5th

• Field Day

June 7th

• Grade 8 Graduation

June 9th

• Band Concert at 8:30 a.m
  

June 16th

• Last Day of School

I am once again happy to report 0 Covid-19 cases.

If you are looking for things to do during vacation week the following link has some great ideas!

https://www.bostoncentral.com/things-to-do-in-boston-with-kids

I recommend Castle Island in South Boston: plenty of free parking, open green space to run around, ride bikes or scooters, play ground, beach, fishing pier and Sullivans to get lunch and an ice cream. So much fun!!

Franklin Park Zoo is great! Free parking, lots of exhibits, lions, zebras and gorilla's to name a few. You may also spot the Zoo's peacock that roams around to say hello to visitors!

Martin's Park and Playground is a favorite playground for my 7 and 8 year old nieces. It is a short walk from the Children's museum and they can spend hours there climbing and running around. Lots of shade to relax and enjoy a snack.

Stay safe and enjoy your vacation

Hi everyone!

We are fully in Spring Concert mode in music class. It's right around the corner on Wednesday, May 31 at 8:45 am following the parent volunteer meeting. I've updated my music class website to have all of our music concert materials for practicing. This applies to K2 through 8th grade. Pre-K and K1 materials will have come from Ms. Whitten in Drama because we are tag-teaming for a super fun show this year.

Bonus - the website also has a Spotify playlist for all the fun songs we sing in class, perfect for any road trips or dance parties you may have at home!

Here's that website link! Music Class Website

The 3rd and 4th grades have done it again! They have studied, listened to, and engaged with music from all around the world to compete in the ultimate Music Listening competition. This is a competition based on the University Interscholastic League competition called Music Memory, where students listen and memorize music along with facts about where the music comes from and what makes each piece special. While our last unit was about the traditional Western Classical music we often learn about in school, this time we focused on music outside our backyard. We traveled through time and to many locations to hear what different classical music sounds like all over the world. Or sometimes what musicians created from classical music. Music is a beautiful way to tell stories and it can be so much fun to learn how other people do so through their own style. Without further ado....here are your round 2 champions!!!

Overall Music Listening Champion: Griffin Miller

3rd Grade (Class Winners):

- 1st Place Aika Narimatsu

- 2nd Place Ayana Sugimoto

- 3rd Place Cyan Patt

4th Grade

- 1st Place Olivia Sagong

- 2nd Place Sophie-Ella Brown

- 3rd Place Alexandria Clements

Congratulations, students on your diligent hard work! Oh, and your awesome ears!

We are excited to welcome Brookline Police Department to St. Mary's on Wednesday, April 26th at 5 p.m in the parish lower hall to speak to our parents about the importance of positive internet citizenship and safety. We strongly encourage all parents/gaurdians to attend this conversation. Please note this talk is for parents only. Following this talk, Brookline Police will visit with grades 4-5 and Middle School to educate our students.

This week students learned about Easter ( la Pascua) and spring time ( la Primavera). They also counted in Spanish and learned more about colors and tracing lines. They had so much fun in Spanish class!

Pre-K has started their "Things That Grow" Unit. This week, they are focusing on spring time! They have been learning about spring time activities, the weather, what to wear, and more! Pre-K went on a spring nature scavenger hunt to search for signs of spring. They had to look for the following items: trees, leaves,flowers, grass, birds, bees, ants, the sun, spiders, snails, clouds,butterflies, and a rainbow! They found everything but the snail!

K2 has been learning about the weather and the four seasons. This week, they focused on spring and rain. Students partook in the rain cloud experiment. This experiment showed students how when water droplets get too heavy, gravity pulls them down as raindrops. The classroom filled with cheers of excitement as the first droplets of rain made their way through the clouds!

First Grade had an outdoor learning day to celebrate Earth Day! Students participated in a variety of activities. Students worked on strategies to separate oil from water which represented the oil spills in the ocean. They also made their own adjective bugs, and insect shelters from materials they could find in nature, and did a scenic drawing!

Number Corner in April addressed key skills and concepts for fractions, multiplication, and division. They get to develop their understanding using Number Corner by discussions, hands-on activities, reflections, and problem-solving. Each week the student that has the “number corner specialist” job is in charge of leading the meeting, which makes the students practice their leadership and for the other students to show respect for the person speaking

4th Grade had a fun time this week with a whole set of activities:

Windmill experiment:

Number Corner in April addresses key skills and concepts for fractions, multiplication, and division. They got to develop their understanding using Number Corner by discussions, hands-on activities, reflections, and problem-solving. Each week the student that has the “number corner specialist” job is in charge of leading the meeting, which makes the students practice their leadership and for the other students to show respect for the person speaking

Writing class outside today! Revising and editing each other’s persuasive essays.

Planning meetings for our debate about whether or not classrooms should have pets.

Middle School students participated in running dictation which helps support team work engagement, and practicing reading, speaking, and writing while reviewing content. They did such a great job with this challenging activity!

The 7th graders continued their study on heredity by learning about DNA. During the lab, students learned about the chemical structure of DNA and the process of DNA extraction. They were given the opportunity to extract DNA from strawberries using common household materials such as dish soap, table salt, and rubbing alcohol.

Through this hands-on experience, students were able to observe the physical properties of DNA, including its stringy texture and the way it clumped together in the presence of alcohol. They also learned about the importance of DNA in genetic research and how it is used to identify genetic diseases and traits

This week the 8th graders learned about solubility, concentration, and pH. During their lab, students hypothesized and tested how different factors (temperature, particle size, and chemical polarity) can affect the solubility of different solutes. The 8th graders concluded a warm solvent (e.g. hot coffee) with solutes of small particle size (e.g. powdered sugar) dissolves the quickest in their experiment.

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/