Ankeney Charger Newsletter
April 2023
Ankeney Middle School
Main Office Hours: 7:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m., Monday through Friday
Click HERE for Daily Announcements
Mr. Brian Shimko, Assistant Principal
Email: AMSHelp@gocreek.org
Website: https://www.gocreek.org/o/ams
Location: 4085 Shakertown Road, Beavercreek, OH, USA
Phone: 937-429-7567
From Mr. Baker, Principal
Hello Ankeney Families,
Whether you were traveling or relaxing at home, I hope you all had a wonderful Spring Break. I am looking forward to welcoming students and staff back to the building this week. We have a very busy April ahead of us here at Ankeney. We will be completing 6 days of testing throughout the month of April and early May. ELA State Testing will occur on Tuesday, April 18th, and Wednesday, April 19th. The Science State Test will occur on April 25th and 26th and Math will be held on May 2nd and May 3rd. Thank you in advance for sending your child well-rested, full of energy, and ready with a fully charged Chromebook each day!
The midterm for the 4th quarter is on April 14th. This is always a good time to check ProgressBook. If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to reach out to your child's teacher. Our Spring Dance theme is called "Hollywood Glam" and will be held on April 28th sponsored by our PTO.
We have many fun events planned for May including our upcoming Ankeney Night with the Dayton Dragons, 6th Grade Fun/Picnic Day, 7th Grade Field Trip to the Cincinnati Zoo, 8th Grade Field Trip to Kings Island for STEAM Education Day and our 8th Grade Farewell. We look forward to finishing this year strong as we continue to "work hard, be kind, and problem solve" at Ankeney Middle School.
I hope you enjoy reading about all of the great things happening at Ankeney in this month's edition of our Ankeney Charger newsletter.
Go Chargers!
Josh Baker
Ankeney's 2022-2023 Staff
DID YOU KNOW??? - OHIO'S STATE TESTING
Starting April 18, all students at Ankeney will be taking the OST (Ohio’s State Tests) in English Language Arts and math. 8th-grade students will complete tests in science. Results from these tests are what the State of Ohio uses to give every school district in Ohio a star rating for their report card. As a building, our teachers have been preparing students by working through practice tests, teaching valuable test-taking strategies, and discussing ways for students to do their best. Historically, Ankeney students have always done well on state tests, so we know that our students will continue this tradition. We appreciate all you can do as parents by making sure students get a good night’s rest and eat a healthy breakfast each morning.
Shine Award
Our Shine Award recipient for the month of March is 7th grader Kaylee Basballe! Kaylee is an awesome student and person! She has a wonderful personality that captures the room. Kaylee will talk to and work with all students. She volunteers and contributes to class conversation regularly. Kaylee does a good job of advocating for herself. She does a great job of balancing being a typical middle school student and taking academics seriously.
Congratulations, Kaylee, on being a student of character!
April Dates to Remember
April 7 - No School - Good Friday
April 10 - No School - Conference Exchange Day
April 13 - Virtual PTO Meeting @ 7:00 p.m.
April 14 - Kona Ice @ Lunch
April 18 & 19 - Ohio’s State Tests in ELA
April 25 & 26 - Ohio’s State Tests in Science (8th Grade only)
April 28 - PTO Spring Dance, 6:00-7:30 p.m.
May 2 & 3 - Ohio’s State Tests in Math
Art Club
Our AMS Art Club, comprised of 75 students, has been having fun experimenting with a wide variety of materials! This year's projects include: pumpkin/stamp carving, tie-dye, ceramic jewelry, watercolor bookmarks, marbled mugs, fused glass jewelry, and canvas painted shoes. Our final project next month will involve painting wooden benches to be installed at Owen's Place in Rotary Park. It's been wonderful getting to see students from all three grade levels come together after school to creatively express themselves. We would like to thank our PTO for their continued support over the years, helping to make this club possible for our AMS students. To see some pictures from our projects, click HERE.
Spring Pictures
Attn: Ankeney Middle Parents
Spring Picture day is scheduled for: April 6th
You may pre-order spring photos online.
DEADLINE TO ORDER ONLINE IS April 3rd
Spring photos are optional. We will only photograph your child individually if an order is placed online.
LINK TO ORDER ONLINE:
Ankeney PTO News
Did you know we have a Facebook group, Ankeney Middle School PTO, where you can post
questions and get real-time information? We limit access to parents, guardians, and staff,
so please answer the prompts when requesting access. Please follow and share with your
Ankeney friends!
Spring Dance
Friday, April 28, 2023, from 6:00-7:30. The theme this year is Hollywood.
Ankeney Middle School Night with the Dayton Dragons
Dayton Dragons vs. Fort Wayne TinCaps- Come join friends, family, classmates, and teachers at a Dragons game in support of the Ankeney Middle School PTO on Sunday, May 21. Game starts at 1:05pm, with gates opening at 12:00pm (noon). $7 from every ticket sold will go back to the PTO. Be sure to arrive early to listen to the Ankeney Middle School Choir sing the national anthem.
**Deadline to order is Friday, May 5th. Please click on the link to order tickets!
https://fevogm.com/event/AnkeneyMS23
Thank you!
3rd Quarter Treat was a huge success! We heard so many thank yous, and kind words!
Thank you to all the parents who helped with donating all the chips! We appreciate it!
Thank you to Girl Scout Troop 34354 for the cookie donation for the AMS Staff. Greatly
appreciated!
PTO Committee Chairs - URGENT
Did you know as a parent at Ankeney you are automatically part of the PTO? Lucky you!
Because the PTO does amazing things for our students and staff! We're looking for a few chairs that will be open for the 2023/2024 school year.
First Friday Chair -On the First Friday of every month, we give our staff a treat. This can be
simple; coffee, donuts, a small snack, and we've even done a few lunches this year. It's
really appreciated by our staff, and only one day a month! You have a budget to work with,
and many donations too!
Cookie Walk Chair - In December we have a cookie walk for our staff...this has been an
Ankeney tradition for many years, and the staff loves it! Dozens and Dozens of cookies are
donated by Ankeney Families. This has a little work up to the event, spreading the word,
and getting the boxes ready. The day of the cookie walk you and your helpers can restock
the cookies, clean up, box cookies for bus drivers, etc
Fundraiser Chair - I love fundraising! It's a fun position, and we're open to fundraising ideas!
The Dayton Dragons is usually a yearly fundraiser we do- setting up and sharing
information with families.
Quarterly Treat Volunteer - Each Quarter we give our students a quarterly treat. We've done
stickers, chips, popsicles, candy, candy canes, there are many options! This is usually the
last week of the quarter and it's done during lunch.
If you're interested in more information on any of these positions, we would love to chat!
Please send us an email at ankeneypto@gmail.com. We have an amazing PTO Board and
Chair people that has allowed us to do many awesome things for our students and staff,
but it truly takes a village! Looking forward to chatting soon!
Free ways to raise money for Ankeney Middle School!
Coke Rewards
Please collect Coke codes too! Coke codes can be found under the lid of any Coke product
bottles and when you remove the perforated cardboard flap from 12 and 24 can packs.
They can also be found on the shrink wrap of Dasani water, Powerade and larger can packs.
Coke codes earn anywhere from 5 cents to 60 cents for our school! Coke codes can be
turned into 1st-period teachers or turned into the green container in the office.
Check out our PTO calendar, to see upcoming events! 2022-2023 PTO Calendar
Awesome Classrooms
Mock Senate in 8th Grade Social Studies
6th Grade Band
7th Grade Science Lab
VFW Patriot's Pen Essay Contest
Mrs. Brown’s Honors ELA classes participated in the VFW’s Patriot’s Pen Essay Contest, “A Pledge to Our Veterans.” Congratulations to seventh graders Ben Whittridge, who placed first, Linnea Sattler, who placed second, and Ainsley Doss, who placed third. As finalists, each received a monetary award and a letter for their accomplishments.
Pictured left to right: Linnea, Ben, Ainsley
Mission Pop-Tab-a Palooza with 657.6 Pounds of Pop Tabs!
Battle of the Books
Celebrate Reading Week
Our annual Celebrate Reading Week, a week dedicated to encouraging people to read, was held from February 27th through March 3rd. This week stresses the importance of reading and is dedicated to encouraging people to become lifelong readers. Students read quietly in various classes throughout the week and participated in daily reading trivia contests to win prizes.
Students and staff nominated their all-time favorites (books or series) for the year's biggest competition, March Book Madness. The top 32 books/series school-wide battled head-to-head in sudden-death rounds, where the titles receiving the most votes moved on to the next round in the competition. In true March Madness fashion, there were several upsets! The competition culminated in a battle between Green Eggs & Ham by Dr. Seuss and The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton, with Green Eggs & Ham receiving 53% of the vote and being declared champion.
One of the highlights of the week is the annual Battle of the Books. More than 30 sixth, seventh, and eighth-graders read twelve young adult novels and competed in a quiz-bowl type competition with the top two teams advancing to the Championship Round. Charlotte Howard and Synclair Smith faced off against Michelle Barr, Alice Pak, and Kristina Turley in a fierce battle. Both teams received medals and gift certificates for their accomplishments. Congratulations to the winners: Michelle Barr, Alice Pak, and Kristina Turley, who were crowned with Dr. Seuss hats! Thanks to all students who participated in our annual Battle of the Books contest!
Read-a-Thon
Students participated in the ELA department’s first Read-a-Thon February 27 through March 10. Prizes were awarded for the top 3 classes with the highest reading minute average and top 3 classes with the highest fundraising average. Money that was raised will be used for various items, such as Battle of the Books fees/prizes, Power of the Pen fees/materials, Celebrate Reading week materials/prizes, lost/damaged novels, and materials to use with students in the classroom.
Congratulations and thank you to everyone who participated in our Read-a-Thon! Our school total is $5,525.00 and 60,832 minutes read. Special congratulations to our winning classes:
First place pizza party winners:
Mrs. Zois's 4/5 block with an average donation of $165.00 per student
Mrs. Zois's 4/5 block with an average of 482 minutes read per student
Second place movie party winners:
Ms. Phillips 6/7 block with an average donation of $20.91 per student
Mrs. Hargrove's 3/4 block with an average of 321 minutes per student
Third place extra recess winners
Mrs. Taylor's 6/7 block with an average donation of $20.19 per student
Mrs. Hargrove's 5/6 block with an average of 233 minutes read per student
Having students comment that the Read-a-Thon was fun and made them like reading again makes this a very worthwhile endeavor!
Power of the Pen
Ankeney’s teams dominated the district competition for Power of the Pen, an interscholastic creative writing competition for seventh and eighth graders. Both the seventh and eighth grade teams finished first out of 14 teams at each grade level. Our eighth grade team is composed of Carson Cusick, Morgan Drummond, Charlotte Howard, Harper Nestor, Julia Pochet, and Synclair Smith. Our seventh grade team is composed of Rylynn Anspach, Iliana Frie, Lucinda Gilmore-Junker, Alice Pak, Grace Robinson, and Allison Veliz-Paredes.
Ankeney had four of the top twelve individual award winners at each grade level, and all of them automatically advanced to regionals. In eighth grade, Synclair Smith placed 3rd, Julia Pochet 5th, Harper Nestor 9th, and Carson Cusick 11th. In seventh grade, Alice Pak placed 3rd, Rylynn Anspach 8th, Lucinda Gilmore-Junker 9th, and Iliana Frie 10th. Synclair and Alice also won “Best of Round” awards, which honor the highest quality student writing. Grace Robinson and Allison Veliz-Paredes also qualified for regionals.
AMS Power of the Pen Team Makes History!
Our Power of the Pen teams continued to showcase their writing talents at the Regional competition at Wittenberg University. The Ankeney combined team of eighth-graders Carson Cusick, Harper Nestor, Julia Pochet, and Synclair Smith and seventh-graders Rylynn Anspach, Iliana Frie, Lucinda Gilmore-Junker, Alice Pak, Grace Robinson, and Allison Veliz-Paredes won the Sweepstakes Trophy for having the highest point total out of 29 teams, and our seventh-grade team also placed first at their grade level.
Several students also won individual awards. Congratulations to Synclair Smith, who won the Director's Choice award for her piece entitled "Antonio." Additionally, out of 72 eighth-grade writers, Harper Nestor placed 7th and Synclair placed 8th. In seventh grade, Allison Veliz-Paredes placed 7th, Alice Pak 10th, and Lucinda Gilmore-Junker 11th out of 73 writers. Good luck to Harper, Synclair, Allison, Alice, and Lucinda when they compete in the State Finals at Ashland University on May 19th!
A BIG change is coming in the Student Nutrition Department. On April 17, 2023, we go live with a new parent payment portal both for school fees and lunch payments. PaySchools Central will replace EzPay and provide you, the user, with a much more user-friendly experience. Some of the enhancements will be real-time deposits, transparent account transactions, and added customizable parental functions and controls. Stay tuned for more detailed information in the coming days.
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Need Help? Have a Question?
To assist our families in getting information they need and communicating with our Main Office, feel free to use the following e-mail addresses:
Report Absences:
General Questions:
(Please allow up to 24 hours for a response.)
Students can now ask to speak with a counselor or building administrator by completing a Google Form when they are signed into their District account by going to: https://forms.gle/sio8VucDQ36tQGt67
Ankeney Middle School Awards
- 2008 - Ohio School of Character
- 2008 - National School of Character Finalist
- 2008, 2009, 2010 - Ohio Department of Education Excellent with Distinction Rating
- 2009, 2010 - Ohio School to Watch
- 2016 & 2017 - Ohio Momentum Award
- 2018 & 2019 - Overall A Award