Bigelow All-School Dance is coming up next Friday, October 25, 7:00-9:00pm.

Dance tickets are $6 and will be on sale this week and next 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.

The dance is open to all Bigelow students in grades 6, 7, and 8. Asking a classmate as a “date” to the dance is unnecessary and discouraged. Students are invited 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 mogensenl@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.

In the next couple of weeks, Bigelow students will have the opportunity to participate in activities related to Refugee (the book they read over the summer) in three different occasions, on the 23, 28 and 30.

The goal of Bigelow’s One School, One Book Program is to create a more inclusive community through participation in a common reading experience as a whole school. Through discussion and advisory activities, staff and students share a common experience of reading and learning together. This program is supported by the Bigelow PTO, thanks to your donations.

Bigelow has prepared a series of great activities for our students. If parents would like more resources to talk to their children about this issue that touches some Bigelow families more closely then others, here are two suggestions:

From the UN Refugee Agency: Teaching about refugees
From the Harvard Graduate School of Education: Migration, Separation, and Trauma
(Note: the resources suggested above are for the adult community)

Bigelow Activities

Wednesday 10/23 Extended Advisory
The students will watch a portion of a video documenting the story of a young Vietnamese boy’s childhood escape from war-torn Vietnam, and his eventual resettlement in Australia.The film won the Audience Award and the 2015 Human Rights and Film Festival in Melbourne, Australia. They will have a discussion afterwards with their advisor and fellow advisory members.

Monday 10/28 Advisory
Students will view a video that explains the difference between a migrant and refugee as defined by the United Nations.  Advisory members will work together to create a working definition of these two words.

Wednesday 10/30 School-Wide Events
The day begins with students participating in an interactive experience in advisory designed to help students gain more insight into the refugee experience. Following this activity, each grade will listen to a guest speaker who will share their experience about moving to America as a refugee or helping newcomers resettle in our community.

• 6th grade speaker: Howard Sholkin. Mr. Sholkin is a trustee of Temple Shalom in Newton and supports the temple’s work assisting families who need to resettle in America due to political unrest in their countries.
• 7th grade speaker:  Adnan Almalky. Mr. Almalky lives in Lowell, MA with his family where he resettled in the United States needing to leave Iraq.
• 8th grade speaker: Joseph Singer. Mr. Singer is the grandfather of one of our former Bigelow graduates who survived the Holocaust and resettled in the United States.

Don’t throw markers in the trash – recycle them!  The Bigelow Green Team recently mailed 650 dry markers to Crayola for recycling.   Join our Green team, and help us make Bigelow a more environmentally friendly school!  Our next meeting is on Monday from 3-4 in room G08.

Note from the Nurse’s Office:

The Bigelow flu clinic will be on Wednesday, November 6, 2019. Each student to be vaccinated must have a parent/guardian complete two forms : 

1. Consent/Screening form
2. Vaccine administration record/Insurance form.

Forms are available in the school nurse’s office, or may be downloaded at www.newtonma.gov/flu. You may electronically complete the form, print, sign and return. Forms are due to the School Nurse by Monday, November 4, 2019.

Only the flu shot (no nasal spray) will be offered at school this year. The Vaccine Information Statement about the flu shot, and additional information for families including tips on preparing kids for a shot is available at www.newtonma.gov/flu or in the school nurse’s office. There is no cost to receive the vaccine, but insurance information is requested. All students, regardless of insurance status, are invited to receive vaccine with parent permission.

Students are not required to receive flu vaccine, however the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends flu vaccine for all people age 6 months and up. There are many places to get a flu vaccine including at school, your primary health care provider or community clinics. For additional clinic dates for the whole family, visit www.newtonma.gov/flu.

In addition to vaccination, it is important to practice good hand hygiene and cough etiquette by washing hands often; covering coughs and sneezes with a tissue or the arm; and staying home when sick. For more flu prevention tips, talk to the school nurse or check out these websites: www.newtonma.gov/flu and www.cdc.gov/flu

English flu forms 2019.pdf