Weekly News
October 23, 2020
Calendar Items
Tuesday, October 27 - Green Day / Last names A-L at school
Tuesday, October 27 - Intermural Cross Country at Harmony
Tuesday, October 27 - Intermural Football at Oxford
Tuesday, October 27 - Intermural Volleyball at Overland Trail
Wednesday, October 28 - Silver Day / Last names A-L at school
Wednesday, October 28 - Parent Teacher Conferences 3:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, October 29 - No School - Parent Teacher Conferences 7:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Friday, October 30 - No School
ZOOM Update
- All ABMS teachers will be updating Zoom ID and passwords for Monday, October 26.
- Students MUST sign-in to Canvas using their Blue Valley email address and access Zoom from inside Canvas.
- We will no longer support the links sent out in September.
- Once in Canvas, students can access Zoom there by authenticating their BV email address.
- Thank you for helping us keep our Zoom meetings secure.
Attendance – Frequently Asked Questions and Clarifications
- We continue to make accurate attendance records a priority.
- Teachers have been directed to take attendance within the first 5-10 minutes of class.
- If your student (at home) is trying to connect via Zoom and attendance has already been taken, please have them email the teacher or call the office. We’ll do all we can to help them connect.
- Some students are setting alarms about 4 minutes BEFORE class starts to insure they are on the Zoom when attendance is taken and academic instructions are provided. This is a great tip for success!
- If your student will miss a class or must leave a class early (either at school or from home via Zoom), please contact our attendance office to provide an excuse. 913-624-2305
- Student absences are considered “undetermined” until we hear from a parent or guardian regarding the reason for the absence.
- Please help your student understand that if he/she leaves a class early from home (leaves the Zoom without notice), he/she will be considered unexcused in the absence.
- If your student is ill and it’s his/her “at school” day, but he/she wants to log in to Zooms to stay caught up, please call our attendance line to indicate the illness. If the student Zooms for the class, he/she will not be counted absent; it he/she does not Zoom, he/she will be counted absent (ill).
- We know there are as many “situations” as there are students, and we’re doing our very best to handle each one with kindness and consistency.
Parent-Teacher Conferences
- Parent-teacher conferences will be held via Zoom this year.
- An email with instructions for how to sign-up via ParentVue was sent on Tuesday, October 20 around 1:30 p.m.
- If you wish to sign up for a conference after 3:30 on Wednesday, October 28, please contact our main office phone at 913-624-2300 for help.
Mathcounts
Hi, ABMS! Each year, 10 students from Aubry Bend participate in Math Counts. Math Counts is a foundation that strives to challenge the minds of students through math! It is a competition series where students compete against like peers and all students grades 6-8 are welcome to participate in this competition. We will find times to meet throughout the year to practice challenging math problems and prepare for the testing rounds. The first round of the competition is completed within the school. This round will determine our students who will represent ABMS at the chapter competition. The chapter competition will take place in February of 2021 and our ABMS reps will compete against like peers from around the metro area. If any of the students move forward, they will participate in the state competition and then nationals if qualified.
We will meet once a week to practice and challenge our minds for this competition series. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, there will be an option to participate in practices and competition rounds via Zoom in addition to in person.
For more information about Math Counts, visit this website: https://www.mathcounts.org/
If you are interested in participating in Math Counts this year, please fill out the form (https://forms.gle/GhXRg8RxtJDR2HTs8) by Monday, October 26. Mrs. Redlin will email you with more details about meeting times and materials.
Girls Basketball Information
8th grade girls intermural basketball will begin November 2nd. Below are several important items to know if your student would like to participate.
- Our teams will be led by Head Coach Andy Pastine (apastine@bluevalleyk12.org)
- Athletes competing with club teams will be able to participate in intermural basketball.
- Intermurals are open to both students enrolled in In-Person and VirtualED learning.
- Intermural teams will compete against intermural teams from other Blue Valley middle schools.
- Intermural teams will be coached by ABMS coaches.
- After a few practices, coaches will assign players to teams based upon ability level.
- Administrators, coaches, and athletic trainers will collaborate to establish and utilize procedures to mitigate risks.
- Students will not wear masks while participating in drills or 5-on-5 competition. Students will wear masks at all times when not participating in a drill, scrimmage, or game.
- Coaches and spectators will wear masks at all times.
- All participants will complete daily COVID temperature screenings.
- If your student will participate in intermural basketball, please fill out this Intermural Sign-Up form. The form allows families to sign their student up for basketball as well as indicate family members who should be admitted into games. Spectators are limited to household members and grandparents. Only those listed on this form will be allowed as spectators at events. If a family has more than one student who will be participating in intermural basketball, it will be necessary to submit a separate form for each student.
- Each student participating in intermural sports must submit a completed 2020 Intermural Pre-Participation Packet to the ABMS office. This packet includes a permission form, a COVID-19 questionnaire, and a transportation consent and release form. This packet must be on file at ABMS prior to participation in an intermural practice or game. Families are encouraged to submit these to the ABMS office at their earliest convenience.
- If a student submitted a 2020 Intermural Pre-Participation Packet for volleyball, cheerleading, cross country, or football, the student does not need to submit a second packet in order to participate in girls basketball.
- Physicals are not required to be submitted for students to compete in intermurals.
- Students will need to arrange their own transportation to school for practices and home games. Transportation will be provided from a student’s home school for away games.
Contact Info for PSMS VirtualEd Teachers
- Donna Gerstner - Social Studies - dgerstner@bluevalleyk12.org
- Shannon Ferrerya - ELA - srferrerya@bluevalleyk12.org
- Amy Gabel - Science - aegabel@bluevalleyk12.org
- Kim Vail (ABMS) - Math - ksvail@bluevalleyk12.org
Prairie Star conference reminder
Zoom links for teacher conferences (waiting rooms) will be emailed to all parents on Tuesday (10/27) – this way you don’t have to search very far in your email to find the info 😊
Please remember, all conferences are by appointment – zoom link/passwords to all teacher zooms are provided for your convenience; however it isn’t meant to imply teachers are open for pop-in/unscheduled conferences. Teachers will be monitoring their waiting room and only admitting the next scheduled parent/family when it is time for that appointment. Please understand that conferences should only last 10-12 minutes, not the full 15 minutes. This allows teachers a few minutes to get organized before the next conference begins.
instructions for signing up for PT conferences
Scheduling a conference with PSMS counselors (Ms. Richards & Ms. Reynolds)
If you are needing to schedule a conference with either of our counselors, please email them directly (their conferences are not scheduled via ParentVue)
Tina Reynolds treynolds@bluevalleyk12.org
Christine Richards crrichards@bluevalleyk12.org
7th Grade Students attending ABMS and HMS
Contact Info for HMS VirtualED Teachers
- ELA- Erica Hurlbut ELHurlbut@bluevalleyk12.org
- Science- Trish Soper PSoper@bluevalleyk12.org
- Social Studies- Brennan Flanagan BFlanagan@bluevalleyk12.org
- Math - Melissa Canas (ABMS) mmcanas@bluevalleyk12.org
8th Grade Students attending ABMS and OMS
Contact Info for OMS Virtual Teachers
- Science- Ryan Bird rbird@bluevalleyk12.org
- Social Studies- Iain McKee IJMcKee@bluevalleyk12.org
- ELA- Amy Putman APutman@bluevalleyk12.org
- Math - Brad Cook (ABMS) - bacook@bluevalleyk12.org
Getting to know Student Services
Hello Wolverines! I’m Sara Talley and I am one of the counselors at Aubry Bend. I am in my 5th year of counseling and my 15th year in middle school education. I love middle schoolers and this unique time in their development. My favorite part of my job is getting to know students at Aubry Bend. While we split students based on their last name, we have an open door policy in student services and students are free to visit with any one of us at any time. As a counselor, I support students with academic and social emotional concerns or issues. We do this through classroom lessons, working with small groups or individuals. We also support students in informal settings through conversations when we see them out in halls and at lunch. I feel very fortunate to be part of the Aubry Bend community! Please contact me if you have questions or concerns. You can email: stalley@bluevalleyk12.org or call 913-624-2318.
· Invest in ABMS/PTO membership - Any and all support is very much appreciated!! Log into ParentVue to donate.
· AMAZON SMILE - Did you know you can support ABMS by shopping through Amazon Smile? It's an easy way to help, but you must shop through our link.
· "BE IN THE KNOW WITH ABMS PTO"- Be sure to follow us on FB (@AubryBendMSPTO) and twitter (@AbmsPto).
· VIRTUAL BINGO - THANK YOU to everyone who participated!! We had a great time and we hope you all enjoyed the event! The gift card prizes are in the office, so you can pick those up anytime or email Tracy Cook to have it sent home with your son/daughter.
· DIRECTORY COVER CONTEST - Congratulations to ANNIE ARTHUR, the winner of our student directory cover contest! Stay tuned to see her artwork on the cover later this fall. Congrats, Annie!
Help fill the gaps!
We still have many books checked out that have not returned from last school year. Please be looking at home, under the bed, in the car, or in backpacks for ABMS library books! We’d love to fill up our shelves!
Scholastic Online Book Fair
The Scholastic Virtual Book Fair is coming soon! Oct 30th-Nov 12th. Our book fair will be completely online this year. We’re currently scheduling Book Fair Previews with ELA classes. The online fair is a great way to safely shop, and with this method there’s so many more books available for all ages! It’s a great way to stock up for the whole family! See the link below for more information. It will be updated as the Book Fair approaches.
https://www.scholastic.com/bf/aubrybendmiddlesch1
Curbside Checkout
Curbside checkout continues for our ABMS Virtual students! Check out the link below to learn about this process!
Axis 360 eBooks
Not comfortable with checking out a print book? No problem! Students can check out eBooks through Axis 360. See the link for directions and to locate the Axis 360 link!
ELA
Students used their inferencing skills to evaluate theme (life lessons and morals) in short stories, videos clips, and novel excerpts. They also read the short story titled “The Circuit”. Ask your student what they learned about theme this week. We are excited to welcome Student Services to ELA classes next week. Counselors will present a lesson on conflicts and rumors.
Math
Math classes will be wrapping up the geometry unit next week before conferences. Mr. Stewart and Mrs. Vail’s math classes will be taking the geometry assessment on Tuesday, October 27 or Wednesday, October 28.
Social Studies
This week in social studies students chose an innovation from Mesopotamia or ancient Egypt that they wanted to learn more about. Ask your student what they chose. We have begun making a small project online about our topics. We will wrap that up next week.
Science
Science classes started a unit about the solar system this week. We will continue to learn more about the planets and different objects in space and how they compare to Earth.
ELA
Students are beginning the writing process for an informative essay. Topics relate to our overarching theme of "How Do Humans Impact the World?" Students selected their topics, and they are preparing notes using virtual notecards , MLA citations, and an outline. We are organizing ourselves!
Science
Science classes will be completing our Battle of the Bacteria next week. When we return from the long weekend, we will begin our studies of diffusion and osmosis.
Math
Canas Advanced Math: We explored the differences between rational and irrational numbers, how to prove a repeating decimal is rational by converting it to a fraction, and how to approximate square roots! Students received a study guide yesterday, and will take their unit test Monday October 26th. I'm looking forward to conferences!
Cook Advanced Math
We will begin to explore the differences between rational and irrational numbers, and how to approximate square roots! We plan on taking a Unit 1 Test on November 4 & 5!
Social Studies
We will be reviewing the Five Themes of Geography and will look at how other countries celebrate Halloween!
ELA
We will be working through the writing process by revising and editing our narrative essays. As a culminating activity for The Outsiders, students will be escaping from a digital breakout room with their cohort group. The breakout room will require students to evaluate, assess, infer, apply, and analyze their knowledge of novel.
Math
Math 8 (Moss): Multistep equations and inequalities. Road Trip Final Project.
Math 8 (Virtual): Solving equations final test due
Algebra 1: We are wrapping up our functions unit. Will be transitioning into solving multi-step equations
Social Studies
Students are taking their Unit 1:Who should be in Charge? Assessment over this week of Conferences. We will also be starting a 2020 Election prediction project. Students will use various polls and previous historical data, to try and predict the results of this year’s election. In years past, our students have been more accurate at the predictions than many of the “experts,” so we are looking forward to see what they discover.
Science
Moss Science: Penguin home prototype testing.
Farris Science: Students should be collecting items to for the Save the Penguins' project. Students will start designing and building next week.
Aubry Bend Middle School
Email: AubryBendMiddle@bluevalleyk12.org
Website: www.bluevalleyk12.org/ABM
Location: 12501 West 175th Street, Overland Park, KS, USA
Phone: 913-624-2300
Facebook: facebook.com/Smore
Twitter: @smorenewsletter