LigerBots FLL Info Night

The Newton LigerBots are hosting a First Lego League (FLL) and Junior FLL Robotics programs Info Night. At FLL Info Night, parents can learn more about the FLL program and students can participate in fun activities.

FLL is the FIRST LEGO robotics competition for fourth through eighth graders. In addition to building and programming LEGO robots, each year’s themed FLL challenge includes a project for which team members brainstorm and present creative solutions to real life problems. This event is aimed at parents and students. Junior FLL is a project based program for grades K-3.

Current LigerBots students and coaches who have participated in FLL in the past will lead a presentation with general information on FLL as well as on how to start your own team. There will be demonstrations of EV3 robots, hands-on STEM activities for kids, demonstrations by the Newton Day Dragons FLL team, and people to answer any questions you may have. Email fll@ligerbots.com for more information, or visit  https://ligerbots.org/fll or FIRST at https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/fll.

June 17th, 7:00 – 9:00 pm at the Newton North High School, 457 Walnut Street
Film Lecture Hall (just off the front entrance at Tiger Drive)

Free Newton Summer Concert Series

The Mayor’s Office for Cultural Events and Newton Community Pride present FREE summer concerts! Bring a blanket/chair and enjoy live music under the night summer sky!

Sunday evening concerts on the Newton Centre Green (corner of Langley Rd and Centre St):

  • July 7th East Coast Soul
  • July 14th Classic Groove
  • July 21st The Love Dogs
  • July 28th Blue Suede Boppers

Wednesday evenings “Dancing in the Parks” concerts sponsored by The Village Bank:

  • July 10th McIntyre Orchestra in Coletti-Magni Park in Nonantum, 386 Watertown Street
  • July 17th Cross Street at the Auburndale Community Library, 375 Auburn Street
  • July 24th Big Chief at Capt. Ryan Park in West Newton, corner of Washington and Cherry Streets
  • July 31st Daybreakers at the Newtonville Senior Center, 345 Walnut Street

Tuesday evening “Children’s Entertainment” concerts:

  • July 23rd Bee Parks and the Hornets at the Newton Centre Green
  • August 6th Stacey Peasley Band as part of the Newton Police Department’s National Night Out at the Newton Police Headquarters and Capt. Ryan Park

All concerts 6:00 – 8:30 pm. Any questions, please call 617-796-1540.

Steve Matthews* Shooting Clinic

The clinic will include all aspects of the game of basketball. There will be lectures, drills, contests, and games and attendees will learn how to shoot with perfect form.

Please complete and submit application online: stevematthewsshootingclinic.com 

*Steve Matthews, currently the Head Varsity Basketball Coach at Newton South High School,  finished his college playing career fifth all-time in the history of the NCAA basketball in three point field goal percentage and three point field goals made. He made well over 100 three point field goals per season at Northeastern University and Emerson College. In his only two seasons at Emerson College, Steve scored 1,139 points. Steve has worked individually with countless grade school, middle school, high school and college basketball players on improving their basketball skills. If you want to improve your shooting ability, this is the clinic for you. Open to Newton boys entering grades 4-9 next fall.  $299 per attendee.

July 22nd – July 25th, 90:00 am – 1:00 pm
Newton South High School Field House
140 Brandeis Road, Newton

Summer Weekend Sports Clinics

This summer Viking Sports is offering weekend soccer, baseball/t-ball, and basketball clinics in Brookline, Chestnut Hill, Sudbury, and Wayland. The Brookline programs will be held at Waldstein Park on Saturday mornings and will feature both soccer and baseball/t-ball clinics. On Sundays, they’ll be offering basketball clinics at the Soule Gym as well as advanced basketball classes on Sunday mornings.

Check out the schedule: 2019 Summer Sports Clinics

Support Our School Library

Honor a graduate or thank a teacher at the end of this school year by purchasing a book through the Support Our School Library  website. This service allows you to choose a book and include a personalized bookplate to honor a student or thank a staff member at Bigelow. In addition, each book is bound in a special way to make it last and processed quickly so students can have it in their hands as soon as possible. Consider donating today to help maintain Bigelow Library’s rich collection of independent reading books. Donations can be made through the end of the school year. Thank you, in advance, for your generosity.

7th Graders Learned about Engineering and Erosion

On May 30 and 31, the New England Aquarium brought to Bigelow 7th graders their new Coastal Engineering Outreach Program. The program challenges students to address the issues of local coastal erosion through the engineering design process, with an emphasis on communication and collaboration. Students work as teams employing engineering design to plan, test, and present their solutions to limit the erosion of sand from their own section of simulated sandy coastline.

This program was sponsored by the PTO, thanks to the support of our community.

Sustainable Back-to-School Supplies at Bigelow

Bigelow just published the school supply lists for next year! The PTO invites you to think about school supplies in a sustainable way.

We invite all families to reduce your school shopping list by reusing items that are still in good conditions. This can save money, will reduce waste and it can be a great opportunity to embrace our sustainable values with our children. There’s a reason reduce & reuse come before recycle – not just because it sounds good, but it’s the order in which we should approach sustainability.

Working with your students when school is over:

  • Empty backpacks, pencil cases, binders, folders.
  • Clean everything (a swipe of rubbing alcohol can remove marker and make everything looks like new).
  • Organize pens, pencils, markers, scissors, calculators, etc.
  • Take out the used pages of notebooks and evaluate if the notebook can be reused in school or at home.

Then compare the supply list suggested by the school with what you have organized and cleaned. You might find out that there’s very little to buy! A good investment for next year is a reusable water bottle – the classes of 2017 and 2018 have gifted the school with water fountains.

8th Gr. Supply List | 7th Gr. Supply List | †6th Gr. Supply List | World Languages Supply List

Check out more resources:

Volunteers and donations still needed for the Teacher Appreciation Tea (6/4)

Volunteers and food/drink donations are still needed for the Teacher Appreciation Tea on Tuesday, June 4th. We are looking for volunteers to provide finger sandwiches, cakes, pastries, fruit salad and any other delectable that goes well with tea. We also need volunteers to help set up and break down. Set up is at 1:15 pm and break down is at 3:00 pm.

All items may be dropped off the morning of the tea in the teacher’s lunchroom or put in the refrigerator there. Please drop off items no later than 12:30pm. It is most helpful if items are brought in a disposable container.

  • To bring food or volunteer please sign up HERE.
  • To make a monetary contribution for the tea by credit card, please click HERE.

For more information or if you have any questions, please contact the Teacher Appreciation Co-Chairs, Miriam Alandydy (miriam.alandydy@gmail.com) or Andrea Hemment (ahemment@gmail.com).

Barb Moran talked to 8th Graders

On May 28th, Barb Moran, WBUR Senior Producing Editor on the Environment, talked to 8th graders about how to produce news about Climate Change. This was part of an 8th grade Science project, in which students will be researching local environmental issues and reporting their findings in the form of a news article, podcast, or video. The presentation by an environmental journalist from NPR kicked off the project.

The journalist’s visit was sponsored by the PTO, thanks to the support of our community.