I hope this newsletter finds you (mostly) shoveled out and recovered from the blizzard of '26. This was a tough week of no heat or electricity for many of our FD families - and two weeks away from school for the students and staff. Our currently scheduled last day is a 1/2 day on June 25th. As always, we will keep you posted about any changes that occur with scheduling. Right now, we are really just looking forward to getting back into the school and seeing all our Forestdale students back in their classrooms.

Due to the unanticipated days off, we will be moving Read Across America Week to March 9-13. Please see the updated Event Schedule below. Our guest reader/author G-Pa Rhymes will continue as scheduled this Tuesday, March 3rd, but all other reading celebrations have been shifted to the next week. Please reach out to myself or our reading coach, Amy Baxter at: abaxter@sandwich.k12.ma.us if you have any questions.

This week's spotlight has shifted to the staff. Below you will find images from our wonderful Forestdale Family, showing the various ways they rode out the blizzard week. While it is no fun to be without heat and electricity, our amazing staff found creative ways to spend the time both indoors and outside in the snow.

I hope you enjoy these images. We'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning.

-Kara Schofield, Assistant Principal

Starting Wednesday, March 4th, kindergarten students will complete the Middle of Year (MOY) assessment as part of our Imagine Learning literacy program.

This assessment is given midway through the school year and helps teachers understand how students are progressing with important early literacy skills, such as letter recognition, letter sounds, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, and beginning reading skills. These foundational skills are essential as students continue to develop as readers.

The MOY assessment is not a test that students pass or fail. Instead, it provides teachers with valuable information to:

The assessment is completed on a device and is designed to feel interactive and game-like, making the experience comfortable and low stress for students.

Teachers will use the results to guide instruction and will share relevant information about your child’s progress with you during upcoming spring conferences or other communication as appropriate.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to your child’s teacher.

Staff and family pups didn't seem to miss a beat with the ridiculous amount of snow that fell down in Sandwich and surrounding areas last week. Here are a number of staff pooches out enjoying the snow with their owners.

Staff members helped each other out - bringing coffee and donuts to those who were stuck and without power. Building snow-forts, making snowmen, cross country skiing, eating outside, sledding, play in the snow and of course shoveling were part of the activities our Forestdale family participated in last week.

Indoors, our staff and families built forts, played games by candlelight, did puzzles, snuggled with pets, knitted, read books, and watched those who were still outside. Some staff went away for February vacation - and had an extra week away due to the cancellation of flights!

We'd love to see what your families did with the no electricity, blizzard week. Send your photos of any blizzard week activities (not vacation week - just the unscheduled days off, please) and we'll compile them to share out with you! Please click the link below to send images with a brief description of what is going on