Falcon Family Flyer

Greetings, Forestdale families!

Monday marks the 40th day of school for our Forestdale Falcons! We've got a fun week ahead, too, our first spirit week! The schedule is attached here, and outlined below:

Monday, 10/28: Pajama Day! Feel free to dress in your comfiest pajamas, but don't fall asleep!

Tuesday, 10/29: Mismatch Day! Do these socks clash with this shirt? Do I have pajama bottoms on with a fancy top? Today's the day to...not make sense!

Wednesday, 10/30: Sports Day/Hat Day! Represent your favorite sport or team with a jersey or some gear!

Thursday, 10/31: Character Day! Dress up as your favorite character from a book, movie, etc and enjoy the day in costume! No masks or weapons/weapon like props will be allowed - school appropriate is a must! Students will need to make sure whatever they wear is easily bathroom friendly, and able to participate in all aspects of the normal school day.

Friday, 11/1: Forestdale PRIDE/Malden Day! Wear your favorite Forestdale Falcon gear, or some forest green - or sport some blue and gold for our Golden Tornadoes - whatever you wear, wear it with Forestdale/Malden Pride!

Looking forward to a fun week ahead!

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!

Mrs. Wendy Byrne is starting a new adventure! This week, Mrs. Byrne transitioned out of her 8th grade math classroom, where she has been teaching for a number of years, to begin serving the entire Forestdale School community as our new Math Coach! Mrs. Byrne's students know her as someone who really knows her content, and cares about making sure they understand it just as well. As she begins this week, she's really looking forward to getting to work with teachers across the entire building on content and pedagogy, and helping them reach their students in the same way she did. Mrs. Byrne loves the caring and supportive environment at the Forestdale School, and particularly appreciates how the staff supports each other, and lifts each other up when it matters the most. Outside of school, Mrs. Byrne spends a lot of her time at her sons's basketball games, and visiting family in Rhode Island. We're all excited to see what Mrs. Byrne brings to her new role this year!

The Title 1 department will be running its next family and caregiver workshop event on Thursday, November 7th at 8:15am in the Forestdale cafeteria with a presentation on how to support students at home with Literacy! Be on the lookout for more information to come.

The next PTO meeting of the year will be Wednesday, November 13th at 7pm! 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.

On Friday, December 6th, the PTO will be holding their annual family night and craft fair from 5:30 - 7:30pm. Vendors are needed! Have you ever wanted to participate in a craft fair? Do you know someone who would? Send them our way! Details are in the attached flyer.

Thank you to the Forestdale PTO for a great first family Friday event! The cafeteria was full of families for crafts, pizza and a lot of fun earlier this month! Looking forward to the next event in December!

The City of Malden comes alive every Halloween with a festive spirit that's hard to match! If you celebrate, please be safe, responsible, have a ton of fun, and consider joining one of the great events that are going on to celebrate in our community. The closest to home is the annual Ward 5 Halloween Party, taking place in the Forestdale School Cafeteria on Sunday, October 27th from 3 - 5pm! All are welcome! For more information, check out the "Halloween in Malden" page on the City of Malden website: https://www.cityofmalden.org/1031/Halloween-in-Malden

The City of Malden is looking to update their Open Space and Recreation Plan, and they need your help! The plan will establish a community vision, goals and objectives for the future of Malden’s parks and open space. Take the survey attached (you could win a prize!), and for more information please visit cityofmalden.org/osrp. The survey is open through October 31st!

The 7th and 8th graders will be selling “Boogram” lollipops next week both during lunch, and online through the PTO website (https://www.forestdalepto.com/BOOGRAM). Boograms will be distributed on October 31st, and the proceeds from the purchases will benefit the upcoming 7th and 8th grade field trips. The cost of the fundraiser will be:

• 1 lollipop for $1
• A whole homeroom of boograms for $15

Lollipops and grams will be distributed on October 31st. Proceeds from the purchases will benefit upcoming 7th and 8th grade field trips. If you’d like to purchase some, you can go online to the PTO website or send money in with your student to purchase during lunchtime.

For more information and for questions, please reach out to Meghan Bowe at mbowe@maldenps.org. We greatly appreciate your support!

Mr. Greg Waite, our band teacher extraordinaire, is seeking any donations of musical instruments that families might have at home and are willing to part with! Do you have an old saxophone or clarinet in the attic? Do you (like Mr. Weldai, does!) have an old trumpet in the back of your car that could use a new life? Our school will happily accept any donations of musical instruments that you have!

Picture retake day is coming up on Wednesday, November 13th. Information should be on its way home from Lifetouch, but for more information please feel free to reach out!

Tuesday, November 5th there is no school for the Malden Public Schools, and staff has a professional development day. It is also Election Day in the City of Malden - check out the city's election resource website (https://www.cityofmalden.org/1083/2024-Election-Information) for more information and ways to participate, and exercise your civic duty to vote! If you happen to vote at the Forestdale School (or would like to swing by on Election Day to support our kids!), there will be a bake sale going on in the lobby to benefit middle school field trips!

We're not wishing any time away, but mark your calendars! The Winter Concert is approaching, and we wanted to make sure families had enough time to plan. On Monday, December 16th at 1:15pm in the auditorium, Grades 1, 3 and 5 will be hosting a singing performance for families. The instrumental performance dates are coming soon. Looking forward to hearing the music!

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!

As we continue through the year, please be aware that pick-up time in the afternoon outside in the circle was one of our biggest challenges last year and this year we are still looking for some ways to improve it for our grades 2, 3, and 4 students and families. Forestdale Park will continue to block the driveway so families can not cut through, and we would again request that people do not double park in front of parked cars, block handicap spaces, and/or stop in middle of the road to drop off or pick up children for the safety of all our kids. We are seeking parent volunteers to help with traffic during pick-up time, so if you are interested, please let us know!

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 October school lunch menu is pictured below, and the link to the monthly menu can be found here: https://malden.schooldish.com/SchoolMenus/Forestdale?fbclid=IwAR2ZJ0dwZiruvvYiJhtVAk1yngQak5OmO8hyTVKfUV_rzL5gzDOlwP540_k

This week students in Grades K-3 were given some very helpful tips and interactive demonstrations around fire safety from members of the Malden Fire Department! The kids were extremely attentive and learned some important information to help keep themselves and their families safe.

Our Kindergarten students met their 8th grade buddies again last week for some engineering and fun! They tried their luck with a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) challenge, building a tower and keeping it secure. They practiced their design skills, teamwork skills, and had a great time!

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the Town Hall with Superintendent Sippel last week! It was a great chance for us to learn more about him, and his vision, while also sharing our hopes and dreams for the future of the Malden Public Schools!

Last week our 8th grade students were visited by a counselor from the Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational High School to ask questions and start to think about high school next year, and the bigger picture of college and career readiness. Thank you to Ms. Melissa Hambley for organizing this, and the other upcoming events for our 8th graders as they begin to think about and get ready for their next adventure!

Students in Ms. Rachel Sorlien's 1st grade class have been learning about the systems of the human body in their literacy block this month. As an extension activity, they created life size models of some of the different systems they've been learning about, including the skeletal system, digestive system, nervous system, muscular system and circulatory system. They had a great time extending their learning, and it was pretty cool to see these on display!

Students in Grade 3 were recently practicing their multiplication facts, and created these "Monster-Plication" displays that caught a lot of attention in the hallway! This is one example of what the kids saw outside Ms. Christie Sullivan's classroom door!

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