
Principal's Weekly Update
February 9th, 2024
A Message from Dr. Nadjarian
Dear Families,
This week, our 1st grade students discussed how in order to love our neighbor and God well, we must first love ourselves well. The students concluded that by getting enough sleep, spending time with friends who lift us up, exercising, and enjoying time outside, we will take care of the bodies we have been given by God, allowing us to better love and serve others. I hope we all can remember the importance of those simple but profound activities this weekend. Enjoy the last weekend before Lent! At school, we look forward to treating your children to a pancake lunch on Tuesday to celebrate Mardi Gras. Encourage your children to finish strong through this week until February School Break!
Have a great weekend!
Looking Ahead
February 13th
- Mardi Gras Pancakes For Lunch
- Boston Lyric Opera comes to perform Cinderella (PreK-5)
February 14th
- Ash Wednesday Mass at 12:10 p.m. (PreK-8)
February 16th
- No EDP
February 19th - February 23rd
- February School Break
February 29th
- Coffee with the Principal at 8 a.m.
March 5th
- "Family: The First School" (Session 2) at 8 a.m.
March 6th
- Trimester 2 Grades Close (K2-8)
March 8th
- Special Someone Dance: 4 - 6 p.m.
School Board Member Spotlight: Jerry Smith
Over the next few weeks, we will continue to spotlight our incredible school board members. They are indispensable members of our community, responsible for big-picture planning, such as directing the vision of St. Mary's, budgeting, and discussing curriculum.
Jerry Smith serves as Secretary of the St. Mary’s School Board. He is the Senior Director of Advancement at Catholic Charities Boston, where he oversees annual giving, stewardship, and development operations. Jerry has more than a decade of experience helping organizations raise money for their missions. Prior to Catholic Charities, he worked for Goodwill and Merrimack College.
Jerry is a graduate of Merrimack College and enjoys spending time with family and friends, board games, Boston sports, and traveling. He is a parishioner at St Cecilia Parish in Back Bay (where he met his wife). Jerry lives in Arlington with his wife Andrea and their Old English Sheepdog named Dudley.
We are very grateful for Jerry's commitment to holding our board to high standards, especially through his organizational and communication skills!
Artwork Display at Newton City Hall - Ms. Kaitlyn Malinowski
We are proud to share that our very own artist-educator in residence, Ms. Kaitlyn Malinowski, is preparing to show her artwork, Midnight Bloom, on display at Newton City Hall in the Mayor's Gallery (2nd floor) from March 4th through March 29th. All are welcome to support and congratulate her at the Opening Reception on March 15th at 6 p.m. The paintings are floral and organic abstractions influenced by the celestial and otherworldly. St. Mary's is blessed to have such talented experts as part our teaching faculty! Congratulations Ms. M!
Miss. Annie's Piano Studio!
Our PreK-2nd grade Spanish teacher, Miss Annie, is excited to announce that she has reopened her audiation based piano studio in Medford, MA. She is looking for students ages 4-6 who are interested in Keyboard Games group classes. These classes lead children through informal guidance to develop their audiation and they are innovative, creative and really fun. They will give your child an excellent foundation to further his or her music studies with more formal classes later on. They spend much of the lesson away from the keyboard doing movement and singing activities to develop our audiation and then we bring it to the keyboard to learn rote pieces, basic technique, keyboard geography, and do some creativity and improvisation.
Miss Annie is also accepting students ages 6 and above who are interested in Music Moves for Piano classes, which are more formal piano lessons that build upon the foundation of the Keyboard Games classes. These are often partner lessons but can also be individual lessons, and lead the students to continue developing their audiation, tonal and rhythm vocabularies, piano technique, and work on rote pieces from the books as well as adding outside repertoire when the student is ready. They start with movement activities and always find time for creativity and improvisation, as this really solidifies their learning.
If you are interested in trying a free trial class or would like more information, please contact Miss Annie directly via email at palmquiststudioofmusic@gmail.com or call/text her at 978-548-7576. You can also follow her studio on Instagram @palmquiststudioofmusic
Meet The Special Subject Teacher Presentation
Please see our virtual “Meet the Special Subject Teacher” presentation linked here. We are glad to welcome Ms. Macaspac as our new Middle School Technology Education teacher!
4th Grade Leads Parking Lot Prayers
Our 4th grade students helped our school begin the week with a prayerful and hopeful mindset by leading parking lot prayers. They concluded last month's virtue - humility - and introduced this month's virtue - faith. To help the school visualize what humility does and does not look like, they prepared a humorous skit in which a baseball player showed how pride (the opposite of being humble) destroys friendships. Thank you for reminding us of the beauty of being humble, Grade 4!
Coding Club
Recently in Coding Club, the students learned about variables and how computers use them to keep track of information and decide what to do. Then, they put their knowledge to work by adding variables to their own projects. One project, for example, was to keep track of a player's score and the high score.
PreK
Ms. Crapo's PreK students worked on drawing long lines, short lines, and curved lines this week during stations. Our students have greatly improved in their fine motor skills, drawing, and ability to follow directions compared to the beginning of the year. We can't wait to see how their skills and creativity continue to progress as the year goes on!
K1
On Thursday, K1 students in Mrs. Creamer's class focused on the number "5"! They got to know this number inside and out through designing a colorful page of 5's and counting 5's using multiple symbols and strategies. Our young mathematicians also practiced understanding sequences by predicting the next symbol in the sequence!
K2
Our creative K2 students practiced exercising their creativity this week through story telling and drawing. Using dice with pictures on them, students created a variety stories on the spot depending on which pictures the dice landed on. Students also created a storyline, which the 5th grade class will use in their class later on. The skills of quick thinking, creativity, and open mindedness will transfer into their learning in all of the various subjects they will learn about this year and beyond.
Grade 1
Grade 2
Students in Mrs. Fragola’s Grade 2 classroom worked in two small groups during Reading Centers on Monday. One group worked with Mrs. Fragola to read “Desmond Dune Ghost Patrol” by Andrés Miedoso and illustrated by Victor Rivas. She guided students on this read-aloud as they worked on vocally emphasizing punctuation and quotations in different characters’ voices. Students rotated groups so all had the opportunity to work both independently and in a group with Mrs. Fragola. Students also took a moment to focus on the things they are grateful for this week. Students read A Little Thankful Spot and then completed this wonderful activity of filling their jar of some of the things they are grateful for!
Grade 3
Grade 4
In math class, our 4th graders are working on understanding the various strategies of multi-digit subtraction, including constant differences, using a number line, standard algorithm, and more. It is very impressive to observe their quick mental math using the many strategies! In religion, students learned about the three pillars of Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. They came up with definitions for each of the pillars. For example, prayer is talking and listening to God with our hearts and minds. Ms. DeLuca's students even connected almsgiving to the virtue of charity which was our virtue of the month in November! After instruction, students brainstormed how they were going to participate in applying the pillars onto this Lenten season.
Grade 5
Middle School Newsletter
Grade 6
In 6th grade math, students are understanding percentages conceptually, and are practicing calculating practical applications, such as tip percentages and discounts. In social studies, students have been working diligently on their research papers. In earth science, students have been tasked with giving a news report on different major earthquakes throughout history and explains aspects of it such as the epicenter and type of stress on the fault.
Grade 7
In religion, 7th and 8th graders have been learning about the hope and newness of life Jesus brings each one of us through his passion, death, and resurrection. They have been using multiple content styles to understand this, including unpacking songs to discover their deeper meaning. In social studies this week, students learned about the differences between Sparta and Athens and what eventually lead to the Peloponnesian War.
Grade 8
In 8th grade science, students studied multiple measures of cardiovascular respiration, including heart rate, respiration, and observing a visual change in an indicator. As students changed from a resting state to an exercising state, they collected the data over multiple trials to analyze the chemical and physiological effects. 8th grade Civics had the opportunity to write letters to many of our state representatives, asking them great questions about the work they’re doing on legislation in the House of Representatives. We’re looking forward to hearing back from our reps!
Follow us on Social Media
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