From the Principal’s Office

Our first All-School Dance is coming up next Friday, October 26, 6:30-9:00pm. Dance tickets are $6 and will be on sale later this week and next week during lunch in the cafeteria. Students can hang out, play ping pong or other games, and listen and dance to music in the gym. Pizza and snacks will be sold in the cafeteria.

Our dances are open to all Bigelow students in grades 6, 7, and 8. Asking a classmate as a “date” to the dance is unnecessary and discouraged. We want all students to come and have fun with friends. The theme of this dance is Halloween, and costumes (but no masks) are encouraged!

A few parent chaperones are needed. (Harry Potter “Invisibility Cloaks” costumes optional!) Please email Assistant Principal Lucas Mogensen at Lucas_Mogensen@newton.k12.ma.us if you are interested in helping out. Parent chaperones help take tickets, sell refreshments, and supervise the hallways; teachers and counselors chaperone inside the gym.

Bigelow dances are for Bigelow students only, and all school rules apply at this event. The dance ends promptly at 9:00 p.m., and we ask that parents pick up on time at the gym entrance then. For safety reasons, students are not allowed to walk home, even in a group, without parent accompaniment.

Sincerely,
Todd Harrison
Principal

Do you enjoy solving math puzzles and testing your math skills? Do you like Math Team and are looking for more challenges? Come try out for the 2019 Bigelow Mathcounts Team. On Friday October 26, 3-4:15pm in Room 209, we will host the Mathcounts Challenge, where you will test yourself against a challenging series of math problems. Top performers from the Challenge will be invited to join the team. If you are invited and decide to join, your commitment involves a weekly practice in preparation for the regional competitions held in February. To learn more, see www.mathcounts.org/programs/competition-series. You MUST register in advance for the Mathcounts Challenge event by October 25, by filling out this form: https://goo.gl/forms/V66WAlxPMqehXqgm1

From an 8th Grade Parent:

After School Driver Needed Starting December 4 until the end of the school year.
Pick up and drop off needed for a Bigelow 8th grader.

Tuesday Bigelow pick up at 2pm and drop off in West Newton
Wednesday Bigelow pick up at 2:45pm and drop off in West Newton
Thursday Bigelow pick up at 2:45pm and drop off in West Newton
Friday Bigelow pick up at 2:45pm and swing by West Newton to grab practice gear and drop off in Needham at 3:45pm

Sincerely Gracies mom
MB@KOR.COM

The Bigelow Library website is a great resource for students. It offers reading suggestions by genre, it has pages on diverse books, coding, global learning and curriculum project links. Check it out: Bigelow Library Home. Students and families can also follow what is going on in the Bigelow Library on Twitter: @BigelowReads.

The Bigelow School Council has developed a new school-wide homework policy. This policy is based upon the latest research on homework, and clarifies the reasons for it, the amount of time that students should spend on homework in each grade, the responsibilities of students, teachers, and parents, and the procedures when homework is not completed. It also includes an appendix of suggestions for parents, and the School Council is finalizing a resource guide of best practices for teachers. Here is the link to it. 

This is a great way to help our students get some fresh air in the middle of the day! At Laps at Lunch students  walk laps around the inside perimeter of Burr Park once they’re done with their lunches in the cafeteria. As a parent, you help them cross the street and monitor their walk. It’s a fun way to be around the kids and see how much they get from this opportunity. If interested please contact Mary Fitzgerald (physical education teacher) at: Mary_Fitzgerald@newton.k12.ma.us. More about the program here.

We just received this request from Bigelow:

Wanted: A portable ping pong table for use by Bigelow MIddle School. Please contact Kersten Raso at kersten_raso@newton.k12.ma.us if you have a table that you are willing to loan or donate to the school.

Thank you!