Monthly Archives: March 2020

Ready? Set? BID!

The Newton Early Childhood Program (NECP), Newton’s public preschool, is hosting its largest school/PTO fundraiser of the year starting March 26th. They won’t let COVID-19 stop their efforts.

Supporting NECP helps to support your own school’s future students. Why? Because NECP is the only school within NPS whose children will grow up to become the students of all 15 elementary schools, 4 middle schools, and 2 high schools in Newton.

So get ready to bid for great deals on restaurants, summer camps, birthday parties, gym memberships, and more! Over 200 amazing items from across Newton and the Boston area. Auction proceeds will fund education enrichment programs, community-building events, and classroom materials for our city’s youngest learners.

Visit https://32auctions.com/necp

Bidding will end April 4th at 9pm. Good luck!

ActiveMinds Tutoring is Adaptable

ActiveMinds Tutoring is adaptable and ready to assist your transition. Their tutoring team is equipped with the resources to accommodate the limitations of online schooling and the needs of your child during this difficult time. Through tutoring, mentorship, and coaching, they are prepared to offer meaningful learning experiences through online support.

Contact ActiveMinds to learn more about their experienced tutors. Call 617-227-2225, email info@activemindstutoring.com, or visit http://www.activemindstutoring.com/testimonials.html

Discovery After School Club for Children Grades K-4

Register now for the Discovery After School Club 2020-2021 school year. This warm, enriching after school program, conveniently located at the Leventhal-Sidman Center in Newton, offers a variety of workshop choices with integrated Jewish content. Experience service projects, Jewish holiday celebrations and more in this vibrant community!

Engaging, expert-led workshops include art, basketball, chess, coding, cooking, dance, drama, farming, floor hockey, Hebrew, music, nature exploration, robotics, STEM, tennis and yoga. For children in grades K-4. Early bird special available until May 1st.

For more information, including pricing and registration, visit bostonjcc.org/afterschool or contact discoveryclub@jccgb.org or 617-558-6483. Early release day options available. Open to the entire community.

Bigelow Families Support Network

We realize these can be complicated times for many in our community. But we can help each other! Please fill out this form if you are looking for assistance OR if you are able to offer help. (Note that all information is only visible to the PTO Board)

Bigelow Families Support Network Form

If you would like to speak with someone instead of answering this form, please reach out!
Text or call: (617) 631-0625
Email: bigelowbulldog@gmail.com

Take care and stay healthy!

Bigelow Contacts

Below is a list of Bigelow contacts if you need additional information or have other questions:

If you….

❏    have a general question about school, contact Mr. Harrison: harrisont@newton.k12.ma.us

❏    have concerns about my child’s social emotional needs, contact your child’s guidance counselor or the school psychologist:

❏    have a concern about your child’s health, contact Head of School Nurses, Ruth Hoshino hoshinor@newton.k12.ma.us

❏    have a question about your student’s learning: Contact your child’s team teacher.

❏    your child is on a 504 or IEP and you have a question about their needs or questions about special education services:  Contact Assistant Principal for Student Services, Courtney Rau Rogers raurogersc@newton.k12.ma, or your child’s caseworker.

Bigelow Learning from Home

Note from Mr. Harrison:

You can expect:

●      Your child’s team teachers will be in touch with you and your child via email or video by the end of this Friday, and then once a week afterwards.

●      Team teachers will share with your child learning activities for each week. The learning activities will be standards-based grade level content activities that may review material already learned and deepen understanding. They will not serve to teach new content, be collected or graded, or be used as assessment toward term grades.

●      In addition to the learning activities shared by teachers, NPS has created online resources called “NPS Learning from Home” that can be found by following the link below:  www.newton.k12.ma.us/covid19

●      Guidance counselors will be available to connect families with community resources and offer social emotional support. They are also a resource for questions about connecting with teachers.

●      Special Education liaisons will be in touch weekly to ensure that students on their caseload have access to enrichment activities and to support students’ social emotional needs through virtual connections.

●      The Bigelow administration will be available to respond to parent inquiries. The best way to reach us is via email, which we will be checking daily.

●      All Bigelow faculty will be checking emails daily.

●      I will send out a weekly email or video in an effort to maintain our strong community connections.

NPS Learning from Home

Thank you for your patience as we have worked with our NPS administrators and faculty to determine the best way to provide learning opportunities to our students during this extended school closure. 

Resources – Grades 6-8

As many of you have quickly learned over the past few days, it is not possible to truly replicate the traditional PreK-12 school day at home. School is a place where learning is engaging, creative, and differentiated. It is a place where students receive academic, as well as social and emotional supports. And so, while we cannot re-create the school day at home, we can provide you with resources that will provide continuity of learning for our students during this uncertain time.

On this page, you will find links to resource pages our teachers and staff have compiled for families. The resources are divided by level (PreK-5, Middle, High) and many are further divided into “Review and Practice,” “Games and Activities,” and “Extend Your Thinking.” These materials and activities are not intended to replace classroom instruction or to substitute for it in any way. They are meant to help your student remain connected to school and engaged in learning and to help you, as parent/guardian, create routines to help manage at home while we are out of school.

Resources – Grades 6-8

Over the next three weeks, teachers will be reaching out through weekly communication to their classes with specific recommendations for learning activities that students and families complete each week. These activities are grade appropriate and can be completed by students independently or with support from their family. Special education staff, English language learning teachers, and counselors and other staff are also available to communicate with students and families. In addition, we have developed a Frequently Asked Questions document to answer questions you might have.

If you need access to a device or assistance with internet connectivity in your home, please visit our technology page for more information.

Bigelow Families Support Network

We realize these can be complicated times for many in our community. But we can help each other!
Please fill out this form if you are looking for assistance OR if you are able to offer help. (Note that all information is only visible to the PTO Board)

Bigelow Families Support Network Form

If you would like to speak with someone instead of answering this form, please reach out!
Text or call: (617) 631-0625
Email: bigelowbulldog@gmail.com

Take care and stay healthy!

Other Community Resources

NPS Resources

Newton Public Schools published a page in their website for COVID-19 Information and Resources. Please bookmark it and check it often as the district is constantly updating it. It includes:

  • Covid-19 District Updates
  • School year and last day of school information
  • Enrichment resources
  • Supporting students during Covid-19
  • Transportation
  • Food scarcity and resources
  • Facebook group: Newton Neighbors Helping Newton Neighbors
  • Municipal, State and Federal Health Departments

COVID-19 Information and Resources.

Newton South Light the Way AUCTION

The Newton South Help Light the Way Auction will provide funds for the installation of permanent lights at Winkler Stadium. Help light the way to school spirit and community spirit at South. Our community and merchants have donated over 60 items, so please click below to register online and start bidding today at https://e.givesmart.com/events/eQe/

The Light the Way Auction is open online now through March 28th at 11:59 pm.

The current goal is to raise $50,000 for the Light the Way Fundraiser. Many thanks to our community and merchants for their continued support of the Help Light The Way fundraising campaign! Please reach out directly to Bella Gelman and Penelope Nam-Stephen if you have specific questions.

Stay safe and healthy….and Bid for the Lights! GO SOUTH, GO LIONS, GO NEWTON!