Dear Greenwood Families,

It seems that we’ve hit the “Oh, look...it’s snowing again” part of winter all of a sudden. Luckily the weather systems coming through this week seem minor and hopefully won’t result in any disruptions to our schedules. We do, after all, live in New England!

February Break

All Wakefield schools will be on February break next week, Monday, February 15th through Friday, February 19th. We look forward to seeing everyone back with us on Monday, February 22nd!

iReady Midyear Benchmarks

In the two weeks before break, students at all four elementary schools are completing their middle-of-year iReady assessment in math in Grades 1-4. The assessment will be similar to the beginning-of-year diagnostic that our third and fourth grade students took in October; however, students will be taking this assessment during in-person school time instead of at home. Fully remote students will complete their diagnostic at home during their synchronous class times with their teacher.

This diagnostic assessment will help teachers monitor growth and make adjustments to lessons to support students’ needs. Just like the first assessment, students will get questions that are too easy, too hard, and just right. The diagnostic platform will adapt based on student answers.Students will also take an end-of-year diagnostic later in the spring.

***If they do not have them already at school, students should bring a pair of headphones to school with them on their scheduled testing day.***

The schedule for the winter assessment is as follows:

Monday 2/8: Remote School Grades 1-4 (unless otherwise communicated by teacher)
Tuesday 2/9: Greenwood Grades 1-4

Please reach out if you have any questions.

Greenwood PTO Meeting Guest Speakers

With the specialist switchover that took place last week, we thought it would be a good opportunity for families to “meet” our Art and Music specialist teachers. Mrs. Amy Drago and Mrs. Caitlin Brighenti will be our featured guests at the meeting on Tuesday, February 9th at 7:00pm. They will be first on the agenda, so come and hear about how they are teaching your children virtually this semester!

Wakefield Community Mental Health Forum - This Week!

Please see the linked flyer for information about Wakefield's Virtual Community Mental Health Forum, to be held on Thursday February 11th at 7pm.

This year's speaker is Dr. Stuart Ablon of MGH's Think Kids. Dr. Ablon is Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, Founder and Director of Think:Kids at Massachusetts General Hospital, and the author of three books. One of the world’s top-rated keynote speakers at conferences including SXSW, TedX and NATCON, he teaches a very different approach to understanding and addressing challenging behavior. Dr. Ablon's lecture is fantastic and very appropriate for both parents and educators!

Google Form Registration Page:https://forms.gle/aaqvm5sQsarZxc7U6

A Zoom link will be emailed to registered participants the day of the event.

Report Cards

Report cards will be viewable by families on iParent on Friday, February 12th. A School Messenger with additional information, including how to access your child’s report card, will be sent out to families mid-week.

WEF Virtual Family Trivia Night

Instead of the Adult Spelling Bee, the Wakefield Educational Foundation is changing things up this year and holding a Virtual Family Trivia Night on Friday, March 5th! WEF has done so much to support our schools and depends on these types of events to raise money to continue that work. Check out the flyer for more details.

Counseling Resources

The resources for children, families, and staff that were shared in last week’s issue of Gator Tales have been saved here for anyone who would like to access them. Please know that you can also reach out directly to me or Jenny Beardslee, our School Psychologist, as well for questions, support, or help accessing additional resources.

Health Reminder

Once again, we are reminding everyone to support us in our efforts to keep everyone safe by practicing and promoting safety precautions, which include hand hygiene, mask-wearing, social distancing, and avoiding group gatherings and travel to high-risk states where the rates of transmission are high (here is a link to the MA Travel Guidelines, in case a need to travel out of state arises). We are also asking for you to keep children home if they are experiencing any of the following symptoms:

Fever of 100.0 or higher, and/or chills
Cough (not due to other known cause such as chronic cough, asthma, allergies)
Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
New loss of taste or smell
Sore throat
Headache when in combination with other symptoms
Muscle aches or body aches
Nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea
Fatigue when in combination with other symptoms
Nasal congestion or runny nose when in combination with other symptoms and not due to other known causes such as allergies
Unusual rash when in combination with other symptoms

Our school nurse, Mrs. Doherty, is always happy to answer any questions you may have or provide clarification.

Technology Support

Please email the WPS Tech Department at technology@wpsk12.org if your child is in need of technology support while at home.

As always, please do not hesitate to reach out with questions. Thank you for everything you do to support your children and their learning!

Tiffany Back