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BIS Newsletter

October 2023

BIS Newsletter October 2023

MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

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Happy October BIS Families,

We have had a lot going on at BIS over the past couple of weeks! We are finishing up our final testing session and want to give a big shout-out to our students for their hard work and resilience during our Fall math and reading assessments. We recognize that testing can be difficult and stressful but our students and staff always go above and beyond.


I also want to extend a big congratulations to our Cross Country team for another outstanding season! Thank you to our incredible coaches Mr. Aiken, Ms. Keimach, Ms. Kalagias, and Mr. Molleur for dedicating their time and passion to providing this experience for our kids. Thank you to our families for your support and to our colleagues at CK Burns, Dayton Consolidated, and St. James Schools for collaborating and allowing this program to become what it is!


The Ecology School will be visiting BIS in early November. All of our classes will attend an interactive and hands-on learning session with staff that specialize in field ecology and outdoor learning. We are very excited to have this opportunity come to us at BIS. At the beginning of November we will also be attending the high school drama performance of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland at BMS and our own BIS drama performance. We have so many things to look forward to!


Our Parent Teacher Conferences will be taking place in the beginning of November. Keep your eyes out for communications from your child's teacher regarding scheduling conference options. It is our goal to have as many families attend conferences as possible, as they are a great opportunity to discuss your child's learning and find out what they are working on!


Have a safe and healthy October!


Sincerely,

Lindsey Nadeau

Biddeford Intermediate School Principal

DATES TO REMEMBER

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Don't forget these events on your calendars!

October

  • Oct 23-31 - Red Ribbon Week
  • Fri Oct 27 - Fun Friday (Wear Red Day)
  • Oct 31 - Fun Friday (Wacky Hair Day)
  • Oct 30-Nov 3 - Scholastic Book Fair


November


  • Nov 1 - Early Release (Students dismiss at 12:00pm)
  • Nov 2 - BIS attends BHS Drama Performance at BMS
  • Nov 3 - BIS Drama Performances
  • Nov 5 - Daylight Savings Time Ends - Set clocks back 1 hour
  • Nov 7 - School Picture Retakes & Election Day
  • Nov 10 - No School (Holiday)
  • Nov 17 - Fun Friday (Book Character Day)
  • Nov 21 - Early Release (Students dismiss at 12:00pm)
  • Nov 22-24 - No School (Holiday Break)

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Message from the Counselor

Small group counseling is well underway at BIS! We’re working on being a good friend, learning about coping skills, practicing mindfulness, and how to deal with our worries and changes in our families.


We’re still reading Wonder and our BIS tigers are rocking their weekly kindness challenges! So far, we’ve asked our students to hold the door open for others, play with new friends at recess, say good morning to everyone they see, and help keep their classrooms clean without their teachers needing to ask! Our students are still working hard to earn “caught being kind” tickets and each day they’re making BIS a kinder place!


Finally, the last week of October is national Red Ribbon Week. The purpose of Red Ribbon Week is to encourage students to live a drug free lifestyle through daily announcements, SEL lessons focused on healthy coping skills, and general reminders to make healthy responsible choices. A letter further describing RRW and providing families with key talking points can be found below. We ask that all BIS students and staff wear red on Friday, October 27th to wrap-up the week!

School-Specific Events
This spreadsheet contains all important events by school in one place (i.e., picture days, spirit weeks, celebrations, etc.). The link remains the same and will be updated as new information is received.

WHAT ARE STUDENTS WORKING ON AT BIS?

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Art

3rd grade classes will start our land art lesson. We’ll watch Rivers and Tides, a documentary about artist Andy Goldworthy and then go outside to make our own land art.

4th grade classes will start artworks about fall leaves. They’ll also get a chance to go outside to collect and draw leaves.


Art to Remember Update: We’ve finished creating the beautiful artwork that will be submitted to ATR. You can expect to get catalogs and order forms before our November Break. You’ll have an online order code that allows you to view your child’s artwork and to place orders. These personalized keepsakes make great gifts and will be in your hands before our winter break!

Music

3rd Grade - We are working on composing our own Drumtastik ball routine. Each class will compose short rhythmic patterns. We will try out each pattern and then vote for our favorite pattern. One pattern from each class will go into the routine for the whole 3rd grade. Each class will get a chance to play this new routine:)


4th Grade - Each student is composing a rhythmic pattern to use on the Drumtastik balls. We take turns trying out other students’ compositions. We can mix and match different rhythms to see which ones fit the song “Black Mamba” the best!
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Social Emotional Learning

In SEL we are learning about identifying feelings within, as well as understanding others’ feelings. We call these check-ins: internal + external weather reports. With these check-ins we are learning to identify other people’s feelings based on physical, verbal, and situational clues; and that people can have different feelings about the same situations. We all have many different feelings. Some are comfortable, and some are uncomfortable. You can focus your attention on someone’s face or body and on the situation for clues about how he or she is feeling. We are also learning how to look inward and understand feelings we have within ourselves. We are learning that people can have different feelings and perspectives about the same situation. Noticing and understanding others’ feelings help you have empathy for them. Understanding and accepting how you are similar and different from others helps you get along better with them.

Physical Education

Fall weather has the temps outside cooling down but things have been heating up in PE! We’ve continued our emphasis on small area/playground type games in hopes of providing students with a “toolbox” full of games to pull from when the occasion arises. Once again we’ve been participating with almost no equipment and have also identified ways to modify these activities to match the environment we might have to use as well as options for makeshift equipment. Our latest activity, 2 Cone Kickball, has lots of options for play. It can be a kicking or throwing game and is easily adapted to big or small spaces. Best of all you can play with any group of 3 or more people! Its fast paced and uses many different strategies for success. New players beware, you will get LOTS of exercise !
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Library

We are continuing to explore the different types of literary genres in the library. We have been focusing on three different types of fiction, realistic, historical, and non-fiction. The Scholastic Book Fair will be October 30th-November 3rd in the library. The fair hours are daily 8:00-1:00. On Wednesday, November 1st, the fair will be open until 7:00 p.m. We hope to see you there!

SOMEDAY AT BIS....

Someday Program

This past week we began celebrating our students’ voice and choice by starting our Someday surprises! We celebrated students by doing things like a nature walk, lunches with friends, and fun crafts!

FOOD & HEALTH LINKS

DISTRICT LINKS

Upcoming Community Events
This newsletter contains community events previously e-mailed weekly as attachments.
The link remains the same and will be updated as new information is received.
District Updates
This link features all the past issues of the Superintendent Newsletters.

CONTACT BIS

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Contact Us

Lindsey Nadeau, Principal

Email: lnadeau@biddefordschools.me
Website: www.biddefordschools.me
Location: 335 Hill Street, Biddeford, ME, USA
Phone: (207) 282-5957
Facebook: www.facebook.com/biddefordintermediate

Biddeford Intermediate School