Bigelow Hill News

We have many exciting things going on in the month of October!

Our 3rd grade students will be participating in testing as they take their Ohio State Test for English Language Arts in October. Part 1 is scheduled for Wednesday, October 21 and Part 2 is scheduled for Thursday, October 22. We recommend getting a good night's rest and eating a healthy breakfast so that they are able to show all that they know on these assessments.

We will be having a celebration on October 30th here at Bigelow Hill. Students are welcome to bring costumes to school and will change into them. Please do not have your child wear their costume to school. Please remember to bring school appropriate costumes (no weapons, make-up, blood, etc.) More information will come from your child's teacher if needed. This celebration will just be for students at school and not a family event. More details to come.

The end of the first quarter is on October 14th. As a reminder, students do not have school on October 15th for a staff in-service day or on October 16th for Fall Break. First quarter report cards and student progress will be discussed at conferences in October and November. These are scheduled in the evening on October 22nd and November 5th. Be on the lookout for additional information on conferences, including sign-up options coming through ParentSquare this year!

We believe that a strong partnership between home and school is essential to student success. We appreciate all that you do to work with us as we all strive to help students grow. Please let me know if there is anything that we can do to help.

Sincerely,

Kyle Mansfield

Principal

Attendance – If a student needs to be absent you can email asteffes@fcs.org or call the morning of to notify us of an absence. Families must notify the school the morning of an absence.

How to Report an Absence:

*In order to successfully report an absence, please be sure that your phone and email addresses are accurate in Final Forms.

1. Call the automated attendance line at 844-305-3755 and follow the prompts.

2. Report absences within the School Messenger app.

Visitors – We keep visitors limited in the building for safety reasons and to offer our students an environment to focus on education. All visitors must wear a visitor badge.

Transportation – If you need to change transportation for the day, you must call the office before 2:00 pm or we may not be able to get a message to your student or the teacher in time to make a change.

October 7: 5th Grade IOWA Testing

October 7: PTO Meeting at Bigelow Hill at 5:30pm

October 13: Kona Ice During Recess

October 14: End of the First Nine Weeks

October 15: No School for Students - Staff In-Service Day

October 16: No School - Fall Break

October 19: Board of Education Meeting - 6:00pm

October 20: Picture Retakes

October 21: 3rd Grade ELA OST - Part 1

October 22: 3rd Grade ELA OST - Part 2

October 22: Conferences - 3:00-7:00pm

October 23: Progress Reports Sent Home

October 30: Halloween Parade - Parade inside Bigelow Hill - this event is for our students and is not a family event

November 4: PTO Meeting at Bigelow Hill at 5:30pm

November 5: Conferences - 3:00-7:00pm

November 9: Board of Education Meeting - 6:00pm

November 10: Kona Ice During Recess

November 11: Veterans Day (more information to come)

A Fun & Easy Way to Support Bigelow Hill!

Our Book Buddies have been a HUGE hit with our students! These fun, collectible buddies are quickly becoming a favorite, and we’d love to see even more of our students earn them!

Here’s the best part: you don’t have to sell anything! Our SchoolStore fundraiser is an easy way for families to support Bigelow Hill through purchases you may already be making.

Think about the gift cards you purchase throughout the year. Do you shop at Barnes & Noble, Crumbl, Kohl's, Sam's Club, Temu, Texas Roadhouse, Sephora, Cheddars, Amazon or other popular retailers? Instead of purchasing those gift cards somewhere else, you can purchase them through the SchoolStore. It takes one extra step, and Bigelow Hill receives a portion of the proceeds from the gift card purchase.

💙 You shop.
💛 You get the gift card you were already planning to purchase.
💙 Bigelow Hill earns money to support our students.
💛 And your child can work toward earning those awesome Book Buddies!

We know families are busy, so we love that this program doesn't require selling items, collecting money or delivering products. Simply share the SchoolStore information with your friends and family so they can participate too. Every gift card purchase can make a difference for our students and our school!

If your family hasn't participated yet, there's still time to join the fun! Help us spread the word and get more Book Buddies into the hands of our students!

Thank you for supporting Bigelow Hill and helping us make a difference for our students!

We are no longer using Remind as our communication platform. ParentSquare has replaced Remind for all communication for Bigelow Hill and Findlay City Schools. It is important that you activate your account! Once you activate your account through the emailed link, you will be able to download the ParentSquare App and communicate through the app, email or text messages, similar (but not exactly the same) to how Remind was used in the past. But activation must happen first!

Once your Final Forms are filled out, you should receive an email inviting you to activate your account for ParentSquare. It is important that the email and phone numbers of the Primary and Secondary contacts are accurate and up-to-date at all times. Check your inbox for an email to activate your account for ParentSquare. An account is created for you already, but you will need to activate it through the emailed link.

If you are having trouble with any of this, click on the blue button below to troubleshoot. If you are still having trouble, give us a call or stop in to Bigelow Hill and we will be glad to help you out!

Clear, open communication is always our priority and ParentSquare is going to be a big component in helping us keep you informed and up-to-date with everything going on here at Bigelow Hill.

If you have already ordered for the entire school year, you are good to go! You can scan the QR code or go to customer.kona-ice.com.

We are so grateful to have a book vending machine at Bigelow Hill! Here are just a few of the students that have been able to choose a book from our vending machine! Students earn a token for the book vending machine when they are nominated by their teacher for following school expectations, being a great leader and working hard in school!

Helping Every Child Grow Academically

At Bigelow Hill, we set aside special time each day called Reinforcement and Enrichment (RE) Time, or “Walk to Intervention.”

• 3rd, 4th and 5th Grade: 60 minutes daily

All teachers—Classroom Teachers, Intervention Specialists and Reading Specialists—work together during this time. Students “walk to” the group that matches their needs. For example, one child might practice phonics with a reading specialist while another builds comprehension with their classroom teacher. Some students also take part in enrichment activities for an extra challenge.

Groups are flexible and change based on assessments (Acadience and STAR) so every child gets the right support at the right time. Families of students needing intensive support (Tier 3) or additional support (Tier 2) will learn more about a Reading Improvement and Monitoring Plan (RIMP) at Fall conferences.

Our goal: Every child makes progress and feels successful as a learner.

Your students will engage in a variety of new learning opportunities this month! Click the link to learn more about the upcoming literacy and numeracy topics.

Your third grade student will engage in a variety of new learning opportunities throughout the month of October. Continue reading to learn more about the upcoming literacy and numeracy topics. Don’t miss the conversation starters and activities to extend your student’s learning, which can be found below.

What are we reading?

Building our students’ background knowledge is important because the more they know about a topic, the easier it will be for them to read, understand, and retain the information in a text. This month, students will learn about the makeup and functions of the human body. Students will focus on the various systems in the body and will learn how closely interconnected they are. Students will learn about the skeletal, muscular, and nervous systems that make up our bodies. They will further explore the senses of sight and hearing and how our eyes and ears work. Within the unit, students will write in many different ways and for a variety of purposes. For example, they will write about one of the body systems they have studied in the unit.

What’s happening in math?

Third grade students will explore a variety of models for multiplication, including equal groups, arrays, the number line and ration tables. They will also apply the associative and distributive properties to develop efficient and reliable strategies for multiplying.

Extended Learning Opportunities

In the coming weeks, read with your student and encourage them to read often. Use these conversation starters and activities to extend your student’s learning at home.

• Why is the human body compared to complex machines?

• What are some of the systems you have learned about? What jobs do those systems have?

• How do the skeletal system and the muscular system work together? How do the skeletal system and the nervous system work together? How do the muscular system and the nervous system work together?

• Use everyday experiences as an opportunity for your student to practice adding and subtracting multi-digit numbers. For example, keeping score during a board game or totaling the number of snacks eaten.

Your fourth grade student will engage in a variety of new learning opportunities throughout the month of October. Continue reading to learn more about the upcoming literacy and numeracy topics. Don’t miss the conversation starters and activities to extend your student’s learning, which can be found below.

What are we reading?

Building our students’ background knowledge is important because the more they know about a topic, the easier it will be for them to read, understand, and retain the information in a text. This month, students will continue to explore the Middle Ages in Europe and the Islamic medieval empires in part II of the unit. Students will learn more about these two separate regions and their medieval history. They will also study how they are related by a common past—the decline of the Roman Empire—and what their impact is on the present. Students will expand their knowledge about the Middle Ages in Europe and the Islamic empires to better understand the modern world. They will practice taking notes about the informational texts they read throughout the lessons. Students will also write an informative, an explanatory, and a persuasive paragraph. Finally, these lessons provide multiple opportunities for peer collaboration.

What’s happening in math?

Fourth grade students will continue to increase their understanding of multiplication by building models to solve single digit and double digit problems. They will also build ratio tables and use them to make generalizations about the effects of multiplying by 10, 100, and 1000. Students will have opportunities to solve story problems and compare the strategies they have been practicing. At the end of this unit, students will solve and understand division problems that have remainders.

Extended Learning Opportunities

In the coming weeks, read with your student and encourage them to read often. Use these conversation starters and activities to extend your student’s learning at home.

• What is an empire? What are some of the names for rulers of an empire? Why did some people believe that the Roman Empire would last forever? What other empires are you learning about?

• What are some of the elements of Islamic architecture that you studied? What is the significance of a dome in the architecture? What is calligraphy, and how was it used in architecture? What is one of the architectural masterpieces that you read about?

• Practice skip counting by 10s, 100s, and 1000s with your student while completing everyday activities.

Your fifth grade student will engage in a variety of new learning opportunities throughout the month of October. Continue reading to learn more about the upcoming literacy and numeracy topics. Don’t miss the conversation starters and activities to extend your student’s learning, which can be found below.

What are we reading?

Building our students’ background knowledge is important because the more they know about a topic, the easier it will be for them to read, understand, and retain the information in a text. This month, students will learn the tools and strategies needed to approach poetry. Students will explore the methods and devices used by poets, which will prepare them to read and interpret both formal and free verse poems. Students will also have many opportunities to practice what they have learned by creating their own poems. Students will use a Poet's Journal that contains activity pages tied to each instructional lesson. The poems for each lesson are printed in the journal, and the activity pages allow students to review material, answer questions, complete comprehension activities, and compose poems themselves. In their writing lessons, students will work either independently or collaboratively to create original poems that model the structure and style of the poems they studied in each lesson.

What’s happening in math?

Students will be learning to add and subtract fractions with different denominators by using strategies to find common denominators. They begin by using familiar tools like money and clocks, then move on to number lines and tables to help rewrite and compare fractions. As the unit progresses, students apply these skills to solve real-world problems and learn how to simplify fractions using greatest common factors and least common multiples.

Extended Learning Opportunities

In the coming weeks, read with your student and encourage them to read often. Use these conversation starters and activities to extend your student’s learning at home.

• What is an apostrophe poem? Tell me about the apostrophe poem you wrote or heard a classmate share.

• You have been learning about tone. What is tone? What are some different kinds of tone? Can you give me an example?

• Ask your student about the carrot experiment happening in their math class. How are the masses of the carrots changing as the month progresses?

Findlay City Schools has created a common set of expectations for students across the District. These common expectations have been explicitly taught to students and extensively reviewed right after Winter Break. This allows staff to be consistent across the building and allows students to know the exact expectation in each location at Bigelow Hill. We have posters up all around the school to serve as a reminder for both staff and students.

Email: kmansfield@findlaycityschools.org
Location: 300 Hillcrest Avenue, Findlay, OH, USA
Phone: 419-425-8317