Weekly News
October 29, 2020
Calendar Items
Tuesday, November 3 - Silver Day/Last names M-z at school
Wednesday, November 4 - Green Day/Last names A-L at school
Thursday, November 5 - Silver Day/Last names A-L at school
Friday, November 6 - NO SCHOOL - End of 1st Qtr.
Monday, November 9 - NO SCHOOL
End of Quarter Information - Canvas Courses
At the end of each quarter, most courses in Canvas will conclude and will no longer be visible on the Canvas app. A concluded course is only visible through the Canvas website, by selecting All Courses on the Courses tab and scrolling down to “Past Enrollments” section. Courses for this quarter will conclude on November 5th, 11:59pm. Report cards will be generated and viewed on ParentVUE sometime at the end of the school day, November 13th after 4pm. Each new quarter, teachers will publish a Canvas course for the new quarter. As courses are published, students and families will again be able to see current courses on the Canvas app and Canvas website. For Canvas parent resources, visit www.bluevalleyk12.org/canvas.
*CANVAS TIP: Be sure you have downloaded the latest version of the Canvas Parent App (download in iTunes and Google Play).
MAP Scores
MAP reports and scores will be sent out early next week. Please be on the lookout for these reports in your home mailbox.
November Hybrid Schedule
- The district reviewed the gating criteria on Monday, October 19 and determined that the district would remain in the “Yellow” until November 27.
- Please click here for the November ABMS planning schedule for hybrid.
Student Lunch Period – Touchless Payment Method
Students were all issued lunch cards on lanyards at the beginning of our in-person learning to make our lunch line touchless for payment. We have been able to replace any lost cards very quickly. It would be awesome if families could help us by reminding students to have those lanyards in their backpacks when they leave for school. It really improves our response time for lunch lines when we don’t have to look up student lunch numbers. Thank you!
PSAT
Each year we offer the PSAT 8 to 8th grade students during the school day. The PSAT 8 is the 8th grade version of the PSAT National Merit scholarship test given to high school juniors, and further serves as practice for future standardized testing events. Click here to learn more about the PSAT 8.
Due to the hybrid schedule, this year’s test administration for our face-to-face students will work as follows:
“B” group students (last names M-Z) with last names M-Z test on Tuesday, November 17th at their home school.
“A” group students (last names A-L) with last names A-L test on Wednesday, November 18th at their home school.
If you have a VirtualED student, you would have received emails from Adam Wessel earlier this month detailing how to sign virtual students up for the PSAT 8.
If you have any questions, please contact Ryan Colburn at rcolburn@bluevalleyk12.org.
Play and Musical
Parents and Students – We are excited to announce that ABMS has scheduled its Play for performances on March 11th and March 12th. Auditions will begin the second week of January. More information will be coming soon. Our Musical, which is traditionally in the fall has been moved to the spring. We are still waiting for clearance from the district for our Musical, but we have picked tentative performance dates of May 20th and May 21st. As we get more direction on the Musical we will share with students and families.
Girls Basketball Information
8th grade girls intermural basketball will begin November 2nd. 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. 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.
Vail Math (advanced and integrated) - we will spend next week making corrections to the geometry assessment we completed this week. Please give your students some time to make necessary corrections (which will positively affect their grade) next week.
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
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
Hi Wolverine Families! I’m Robert (Bobby) Pulcini and this is my 4th year as a counselor at Aubry Bend. While my assigned last names for students start with A-K, it is really great to getting to know all of our students here. You can usually find me out and about, chatting with students in the halls, in PE, or at lunch. As a counselor, I can provide individual support for student with academic and social emotional problems or issues. Counselors at ABMS support student to resolve conflicts, build organizational skills, and effectively communicate with peers and adults at school. It is truly a joy to be a part of the Aubry Bend community and seeing the growth of our students over the three years they attend ABMS, is really remarkable. Please reach out any time you have concerns. Best ways to contact me are by email: rpulcini@bluevalleyk12.org and phone: 913-624-2317
· 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 are working with our committee to put together a couple more BINGO nights this year, so stay tuned!
· SPIRIT WEAR - Get ready to shop! Our ABMS online store is officially back OPEN!! Think winter birthdays, holiday gifts, mid-year growth spurt, etc.... so many reasons to shop. Place your order by midnight November 22 and we will have the items early December to distribute before winter break. https://mccwebstores.com/2522/shop/home
Book Fair
It’s Finally Here!!!
The Scholastic Online Book Fair has begun!
Fri, Oct 30th - Thurs, Nov 12th.
Our book fair is completely online this year. It’s a great way to safely shop, and with this method there’s so many more books available for all ages!
Over 6,000 products including Book Fair exclusives,
new releases,value packs, and more.
All orders ship home!
FREE shipping on book-only orders over $25*
All purchases benefit ABMS!!!
https://www.scholastic.com/bf/aubrybendmiddlesch1
Help fill the gaps!
We still have many books 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!
ELA
Students began a new unit this week for narrative writing. They will finish the quarter by writing a personal narrative about an event, incident, or experience that has impacted their life. Students brainstormed ideas, completed a pre-writing activity, and began writing paragraph one this week. Ask your student what topic they picked to write about!
Math
Redlin: We finished up our Geometry Unit and will be moving on to our Unit 2 that includes extending the number line and rational numbers at the start of quarter two. Next week, we will focus on a quick review of all things fraction related.
Stewart: We will be testing over the Geometry Unit next week. Be sure to review your Unit Reviews from this week to prepare for the test.
Vail: We will spend next week making corrections to the geometry assessment we completed this week. Please give your students some time to make necessary corrections (which will positively affect their grade) next week.
Science
Science classes will be moving forward with our solar system unit. We will be discussing the planets and different objects in the solar system.
Social Studies
We are getting ready for our assessment over Mesopotamia and Egypt. We will review this information next Monday/Tuesday and take the assessment on Wednesday/Thursday. Students can review for this assessment by retaking the 3 "Check For Understandings" in canvas.
Math
Canas Advanced Math took a unit test on Monday over operations within the Real Number System and will venture into our unit on Expressions, Equations, and Inequalities after the long weekend! I am so proud of all of your hard work!
Science
Wrapped up our week by looking at the microorganisms in pond water, and finishing the "Battle of the Bacteria". Next, we look forward to exploring the cell processes of diffusion and osmosis.
Integrated math
assessed over order of operations to include integer rules! Our next step is to apply those rules to operations between fractions and decimals!
Social Studies
We completed our Five Themes of Geography and will have a quiz next week.
ELA
Students are developing ideas for their informative writing piece by finding evidence and creating an outline of ideas. It is rewarding to watch them go through the steps of the writing process. Light bulbs are turning on!
ELA
Final drafts of narrative essays will due, and librarian Amy Cooper will be visiting our ELA classes for book talks.
Math
Algebra 1: Solving Multi-step equations
Math 8: Finish Road Trip Final Project. All DeltaMath assignments should be completed.
Social Studies
Students have started, but we will be participating in a Election Prediction Project in the two days leading up to the 2020 Presidential Election. Students will look at historical data and various current polling numbers to try and predict which candidate will win certain swing states this year. Ask your student which state they have been assigned to research, predict and monitor.
Mr. Schmidt’s classes will be taking the Unit 1 Test on the days after the election.
Science
Farris: Continuing Save the Penguins project
Moss Science: "Save the Penguins" Final Project testing, complete energy K-W-L.
Thank you for such an awesome turnout for our fall parent-teacher conferences! It was so great to connect and partner with our families to plan for the future success of our kids. Our team feels energized and excited to move forward this year to create the best learning experiences possible for all of our kids.
The end of the quarter is Friday, November 6. There is important information about the end of the quarter in the newsletter above that relates to seeing report cards, Canvas updates for a new quarter, and parent resources. There is no school for K-8 students on Friday, November 6 and Monday, November 9 to allow for professional learning for our staff.
Teachers will be involved in professional learning and grade preparation during that time. We feel strongly that now that we’ve “lived” the hybrid model for a month and will be in it for another month, we need to take time to stop and reflect upon what is successful and what can be changed to improve the teaching and learning experience for everyone. We will spend our profession learning time discussing the important of relevance and meaningful work for students in order to engage them in the learning process whether they are at home, at school or virtual.
Thank you, again, for your support of ABMS! We love our community and want you to know that you can depend on us.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Sincerely,
Diana Tate, Principal
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