Falcon Family Flyer

Greetings, Forestdale families!

Back in August during our opening day meeting with staff, we framed our work and hopes for the school year around the idea of “joy” at Forestdale. It served a dual purpose though - the first was as an acronym: - “Just One Year” (J.O.Y.). In the education world we do a lot of thinking about things in terms of 3-5 year plans, and many times we wait months for data to come back before making meaningful plans for the future. In reality though, each of our staff members in each of our classrooms has just one year to make a difference. A finite amount of time, and a sense of urgency in the work that we do.

However, through all of the work, we need to have fun, enjoy what we’re learning, laugh with our classroom communities, and foster real joy - day in and day out. Finding and appreciating the joy, while maintaining that sense of urgency, is the happy balance we strive to foster.

As we return from April break, with a shocking 33 days of school left, it’s important that we maintain that sense of urgency each day from here until mid-June; while finding as much joy as we can in the process!

Mr. Weldai

We have an amazing team of people supporting our students each and every day at the Forestdale School. Each newsletter, we'll try to showcase one of our amazing staff members here!

This past week was Administrative Professionals’ Day! We are very lucky at the Forestdale School to have Ms. Megan LoPilato in our main office keeping us going every day. Ms. Megan runs our office efficiently, is a vital and reliable resource for our families and staff members, and makes every student feel like they belong here at Forestdale. We are so appreciative of all her hard work and dedication!

The Title 1 department held a great caregiver breakfast on Tuesday, April 15th on supporting student literacy at home! Literacy coach, Ms. Kathleen Bracken took families through her presentation, and shared her expertise on ways to help support their students. The presentation she used is linked below!

The next PTO meeting of the year will be Wednesday, May 14th at 6pm! Come join this great group and hear about the upcoming events, ways to get involved, and more. The meeting will be held virtually on google meet, and the link can be found on the Forestdale PTO Facebook page.

This Friday, May 2, from 5:30 - 7:30pm in the cafeteria, join the Forestdale PTO for a Sensory Friendly Arts and Crafts night! We'll be making sensory bottles, and there will be no music at this event, but food will be provided. It is not a drop off event, so please plan to stay with your student. RSVP at the QR code on the attached flyer!

On Wednesday, May 7th, Forestdale will be participating in Walk and Bike to School Day, a statewide event encouraging kids to walk, bike or roll to school! Please RSVP so we can request for appropriate assistance and if you are interested in leading a meetup in your neighborhood to encourage more students to participate please indicate as such. https://www.forestdalepto.com/form/m/327482

The annual Rock the Walk fundraiser was a huge success! Our Forestdale families and PTO did an amazing job raising funds for our school community. Together, we raised $21,309! This is an awesome accomplishment, and we are truly grateful to our PTO for running it, and to each and every one of you for supporting it. On Friday, April 4th, we came together to celebrate the success and had a great time! Special thank you to our PTO, Mr. Zeke Santiago our DJ, and Ms. Kayla Connolly and PopIn Photo Booths for helping make the night a blast!

The final update from the PTO can be found here: https://shorturl.at/TXTKA

Save the date! Friday, May 30th will be the spring fling and ice cream social for students in grades K-2. It will be a great way to end the month of May! More information will be coming your way soon.

This year, the yearbook will feature students in grades 5-8! All 8th graders will be given a yearbook as they move on, but any students in grades 5-7 who would like to purchase a yearbook can do so at this link: https://ybpay.lifetouch.com/Order/LookupJob?jobnumber=15220725

Orders need to be submitted by May 5!

Calling all 4-8th graders! The Mac Singleton Basketball League is looking for players! Students in grades 4-5 can come to the Salemwood Gym to join on Wednesday, May 7th at 6pm. Students in grades 6-8 can come to the Salemwood Gym to join on Monday, May 5th at 6pm. Each team will have a member of the Malden Police Department as their head coach - it's a great time! More information on the flyer attached.

The Great Malden Outdoors is proud to produce a free adaptive outdoor event series with Waypoint Adventure. The next event is on Sunday, May 4th with rock climbing at Waitts Mount. Please sign up at the Malden Recreation Department website (www.maldenma.myrec.com). More information is on the attached flyer!

Come join the City of Malden on Sunday, May 18th from 1 - 4pm at the Salemwood School for a sensory friendly celebration for neurodiverse youth and families! There will be interactive sensory playrooms, a community resource fair for families, food, and more! Sign up and learn more at the flyer attached.

MCAS testing is well underway - we're more than halfway done! Linked below is a schedule of testing dates throughout the next few months. Any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out! Huge shout out to Ms. Karie Carpenito, our testing coordinator, for getting everything ready, training our staff, and being available as a resource during testing times!

Just a reminder, there is an early release (11am) dismissal day on Wednesday, May 7th.

The Spring Choral Concert is coming! On Wednesday, June 4th at 1:15pm, grades K, 2 and 4 will be participating in a Disney themed spring concert! Families are invited to attend, and the performance will be recorded and shared afterwards as well. Looking forward to it!

The Spring Band Concert is coming! On Thursday, June 5th at 1pm, grades 6-8 will be participating in their annual spring concert! Families are invited to attend, and the performance will be recorded and shared afterwards as well. Looking forward to it!

The Drama Club has been hard at work for their upcoming spring performance of "The Little Mermaid!" Save the date, May 21st and May 22nd at 6pm in the auditorium.

As we approach the end of the year, here are a few dates to mark down on your calendar! More information will be coming your way soon!

• Kindergarten moving on ceremony - June 12th
• 8th grade moving on ceremony (dinner and dance to follow!) - June 12th
• Grades K-5 Field Day - June 10th
• Grades 6-7 Field Day - June 11th

Special Olympics are coming up on Friday, June 6th. Some of our students will be participating in the annual event at MacDonald Stadium. If you have any questions about this great event, or are interested in learning more, please reach out!

The main office has received a number of questions last year about excused vs. unexcused absences. If you are keeping your student home sick, have an appointment, etc. and would like to have the absence excused, please make sure to write a physical absent note and send it in, or write an email to your student's teacher. The phone call to the office line does not excuse your student's absence, it does however stop the automated absent phone call that comes home based on Aspen/X2. Any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out!

Please make sure to check backpacks regularly for important notices from the nurse, and from your teachers. While most things are done electronically, a regular backpack check is always a good idea.

**Speaking of backpacks, if anyone still needs one for their student we have extras to give away in the main office. Please don't hesitate to reach out and let us know!**

Our lost and found is already going strong! For any students looking, the lost and found is in the cafeteria directly to the right when you walk in. If you're missing something, please encourage your student to come check it out. For a list of what's there so far, please check out this google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rK0N_O9rfX86rsG1t2fpV2dG4mFw7PK9RKRTezANSt0/edit?usp=sharing

The April school lunch menu is pictured below, and the link to the monthly menu can be found here: https://shorturl.at/Fw2mQ

Over the last month, students in grade 5 participated in March Math Madness! It was a 4 week program designed to improve students' multiplication and division skills, with numbers ranging from 1 to 12. Every week, students competed in progressively challenging sets of problems, while racing against the clock. As they worked their way to the finals, the top 7 students competed for the title of March Math Madness Champion! Congratulations to our champions: 1st place - Benjamin Roper, 2nd place - Desmond Smith, and 3rd place - Claire Johnston! Thank you so much to Mr. Joe Ialuna and Ms. Molly Whisler for organizing this great experience for our students!

This month, our 1st graders created animal habitat dioramas after completing their literacy unit on different habitats! Their work in class focused around the interconnectedness of living things with their physical environments, and explored different plants and animals and what habitats they need to thrive. The dioramas are on display in the main lobby!

The Harlem Wizards put on a great show at Malden High School last month, and it was great to see so many Forestdale families there! Special shout out to staff member Mr. Zeke Santiago who played for the Malden team. They really wowed the crowd!

April's activity with our Kindergarten and 8th grade buddies was a spring themed activity! Students created an interactive egg hunt, and had a great time creating some temporary chalk art outside by the playground! The buddies work so well together, and are developing stronger relationships as the year goes on.

Students in Ms. Kim Barber's music class have been working on their recorder skills since the beginning of the 3rd grade. As they continue to practice, they are able to compete in a "recorder karate" competition to demonstrate mastery in more and more skills. Four 4th graders competed and achieved "Black Belt" status over the past year and a half! Congratulations to Henry Chia, Mayson Cornay, Barock Geberysuse, and Xerxes Nathan!

Ms. Chelsey Powell's grades 3-5 Art students worked on poster submissions for the MA Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) annual Arbor Day Contest! Students were asked to reflect on the theme "Trees Around the World," thinking about the importance trees have in our community. We were notified this week that Claire Johnston was the 1st place winner in the contest, and received 1st place overall for students in grade 5 across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts! Congratulations, Claire! There will be a ceremony in June to celebrate her accomplishment, and a tree planted in her honor at the Forestdale School. Way to go!

Shout out to the City of Malden Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development (OSPCD) and the Public Facilities Department, especially directors Alex Pratt and Eric Rubin, for all the great improvements that happened over April Break! Our auditorium and gymnasium received new lights (just in time for the concerts and plays this spring!), and our playground received a brand new and safe rubber surface for our students to play on. We are very excited about these upgrades, and appreciate all the hard work on behalf of our city leadership. Thank you, again!

On his most recent visit to the building, Superintendent Sippel was greeted with cheers and excitement from Ms. Rachel Sorlien's 1st grade classroom! Dr. Sippel was their special guest reader for Read Across America day in March, and the students were very excited to see him again, and share some things that they were learning that day.

If there's anything that we can do, please don't hesitate to reach out to any member of our main office team. Our phone number is (781) 397-7326, and each of our email addresses are listed below.

• Mr. Adam Weldai, Principal: aweldai@maldenps.org
• Mrs. Karie Carpenito, Assistant Principal: kcarpenito@maldenps.org
• Mr. Kenji Foster, Assistant Principal: kfoster@maldenps.org
• Mrs. Megan LoPilato, Administrative Assistant: mlopilato@maldenps.org