WBMS Friday Notes
Oct 23-27
Reflections from Ms. Perkins
WBMS parents and guardians –
This week we celebrated so much of what makes this community outstanding. We focused on healthy choices through Red Ribbon Week; academics, athletics, altruism, and the arts through the Webster Awards; social responsibility at our Citizenship Breakfast; new friendships at Mix-it up lunch for #UNITE, and our cultures and diversity at International Night. Watching our students observe their heritage through music, dance, food, and traditional clothing was one of the greatest highlights of the year thus far! Oh and in between all that fun we deepened our knowledge about languages, mathematics, science, history, and so much more! Ours is a wonderful and unique community filled with talent, enthusiasm, and compassion. Thank you to all who helped make these events special, and thank you for sharing your brilliant students with us each day.
In collaboration,
Rebecca Williams Perkins
Principal, Webb Bridge Middle School
Dates To Remember
Oct 28 - Rockdale Magnet Math Competition
Oct 30- Building Character Rehearsal
Oct 31- Latte and Learn @ 8am in the Media Center
Oct 31- Character Day
Nov 1- Jr. Beta Meeting
Nov 1- Volleyball vs Haynes Bridge @ 5:30
Nov 2- Band Concert
Nov 3- Volleyball at Crabapple @ 5:30
Nov 3- Chinese Club
Nov 4- North Fulton HS Math Tournament
Nov 6-8- JA Biztown for 6th Grade
Nov 10- SGC Meeting
Nov 11-GMEA All State Chorus, Band and Orchestra
Nov 11 – South Forsyth HS War Eagle Math Competition
Character Day- Oct 31
Install Surface Updates
Final Exam Reminders
In preparation for the transition to high school, final exams will be administered to students in all core subject areas: mathematics, language arts, science, social studies, world language, reading, and health. Most exams for each semester, in all grade levels, will be comprehensive in nature. No students will be permitted to take an exam early. Students who have an excused absence on the day of an exam must work with that subject area teacher to establish a time to make up the exam after receiving approval from the principal. Exams are scheduled and publicized through school communications. Students must make up exams within 10 school days after the end of each semester. Administration strongly encourages family travel not be scheduled during exam times.
Final Exam Schedule
Dec 18th - Reading, World Language, and Social Studies
Dec 19th - Math and ELA
Dec 20th - Science and Health
Dec 21st - Grandparent Coffee, Fine Arts Assembly
Citizenship Awards
6th Grade
Pia Saraswat
Jacob Ko
Shana Suhanthan
Malu Nobre
Ciara Greenaway
Lauren Kardell
Addison Freeman
Paige Dunmire
Katie Durko
Lauren Heffner
Andy Hyun
Aleah Rivera Micheo
Maddie Roach
Clayton Christensen
Julianna Alfaro
Maia Capuano Blejer
Taylor Nieves
Tez Cherukuri
Caroline Steiger
Sara Berry
Malavika Niverthi
Ryan Butch
Brady Corkill
Amiyah Griffin
C J Mitchell
Guillaume Rheault
Aiyanna Cook
7th Grade
Ghazal Ismandar
Poojitha Kommineni
Sanjana Sujith
Isha Nathan
Kailah Crafford
Ayana Ansari
Ansley Kelly
Jackson Frank
Isabella Markus
Jasmin Lopez-Castro
Eshan Momin
Avery Woods
Brycen Hendrix
Ria Lisso
Ana Paula De la Torre y Estrada
Kylan Davis
Katherine Hinton
Sameeksha Singh
Ben Henry
Whitney White
Nisha Jaganathan
Anna Farrar
James Jones
Haley Day
Alyssa Khalil
Emily Pirkle
Christopher Jimenez-Galarza
Lilian Doan
Nahyun Kim
Maya Dayan
8th Grade
Lauren Aulov
Laura Flores
Jack Macken
Mahta Behnam
Ava Pettenon
Carly Concevitch
Sneha Alex
Zachary Judd
Jack McCabe
Atreyee Ghosh
James Scaiff
Meridith Mazurik
Nikhil Patel
Andres Manuel Muradas Esquivel
Alaina Thomas
PJ Greenaway
Shriya Thungathurti
Sweya Surapaneni
Kirsta Cooke
Daphne Marie Owens
Gabriela Morales-Cuellar
Aidan Givens
Gabriela De Souza Costa
Sruthi Sanju
Kaedin Alvarez
Moving Day Atlanta- Senora Goodman
On October 21st, several students participated in Moving Day Atlanta at Piedmont Park in honor of their Spanish teacher, Ms. Goodman. The walk helped raise money for research and raise awareness for Parkinson’s disease.
Video made by 8th grader, Emma P.
Welcome Officer Ritchey and Raider!
Officer Ritchey and Raider received a warm welcome last week!
Raider has an important job in our community. Raider will be enhancing communications with the police and our youth. Raider will be visible at all Alpharetta schools, but will focus on Alpharetta High School, Webb Bridge Middle School and Haynes Bridge Middle School. Raider is here for you and you can pet her whenever you want! Her main goal in the middle school level is to make friends with the students, which will lead to a positive relationship with the police.
Raider is very excited to meet all of the Webb Bridge Jaguars! Raider will be continuing her training for the next 2-4 weeks and she will be ready for our community!
Follow Raider on Instagram @ adps_k9_raider
Canned Food Drive
The annual Food Program hosted by The North Fulton Community Charities, will be held the weekend before Thanksgiving, from November 17-19. The Student Council and Beta Club will be helping with the collection of the items listed below and we would appreciate our parents and community helping us out with such a wonderful event. NFCC will be delivering crates for food collection the first week of November and we have asked they pick up the items around November 17.
If parents, teachers, or students from our school wish to volunteer at the NFCC Thanksgiving Program site, they must register online at www.nfccholiday.org. Individual volunteers must be at least 16 to serve without an adult, groups of teens 16-18 must have an adult chaperone for every group of four. Each teen 13-15 must be accompanied by an adult. Children under 13 may not volunteer at the site.
We are just doing the collecting of the items, however the NFCC is looking for volunteers as well. Please see the list below to help us make the Thanksgiving collection a success for those in need.
Thanksgiving Donations for NFCC 2017
For Thanksgiving donations, we need non-perishable food items for a Thanksgiving meal and grocery store gift cards in $25 increments. Last year we provided the makings for a Thanksgiving meal to nearly 600 families!
Below is a grocery store list of suggested items. Consider getting an item in each category for a family of four or buying several items in one category:
- Canned Vegetables (Corn, Beans, Sweet Potatoes, Pumpkin, Squash, Greens, etc.)
- Boxed or Bagged Potatoes and Rice (Mashed or Scalloped;
- White, Brown or Yellow Rice)
- Boxed Pasta Mixes (Mac-n-Cheese, Side pasta mixes)
- Boxed or Bagged Stuffing Mixes (Cornbread, Herb, Plain)
- Bags of Flour, Cornmeal, and Biscuit mixes (Wheat, All-Purpose, White)
- Boxes of Baking Goods (Cake Mixes, Brownies, Pie makings, Cornbread)
- Cans of Gravy (Turkey, Chicken)
- Cans of Fruit (Apple, Cranberry, Cranberry Sauce,
- Pineapple, Applesauce, Peaches etc.)
- Please limit your donations to specific
- items for a Thanksgiving meal.
Surface Reminder- Charging Block
Is your student’s charger block for their Surface marked with their name? If not, make sure it is labeled with tape or label that can be removed. (If it still has a barcode, remove that.) If a student loses a charger at school, someone can bring it to the media center and we can return it to their teacher. If it’s not marked, a new one costs $40 to replace. Please remember also to have your student run their security updates at least once a week. This has resolved some problems with charging, network access, and usage.
Parent University
*If you missed the Oct 17th Parent University- here is the link for the presentation.
AHS Parenting 2.0 Night
Parents, you are invited to the annual Alpharetta High School Parenting 2.0 Night on November 9th starting at 6:30 PM. The event is free!
The speakers will offer three break-out sessions that night. Please click on this link to the AHS Parenting 2.0 Flyer to find out about our informative topics and to sign up for three sessions: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx-C2XTcZfUsWFRJcmhSSUNkdlE/view
On that night, you will receive agendas with the break-out session room numbers.
Publicity
Parents and guardians,
We want to share the great work happening every day at Webb Bridge and - since a picture’s worth a thousand words - we’d love to share photographs of your children excited about their learning. We do realize that some families have privacy concerns and want to acknowledge your right to limit sharing of your own child’s image publicly. Since collection of information related to publicity has moved to the district level, it can be difficult to determine which families in our school wish to restrict public sharing of their children’s images. To address this, we are asking any parents or guardians who prefer to restrict publicity regarding their students to complete a separate form for Webb Bridge MS so we may honor your wishes when we are sharing on our website, Friday Notes, Twitter, etc. and/or with the press.
The link to the form is http://bit.ly/WBPubOptOut17
Attendance Myths
Research-based from the Department of Education
Does it really matter if my child misses a few extra days each year? Here is one of the myth’s about student attendance.
Missing a few days of school each year is normal and doesn’t matter that much.
- Data indicate that missing more than five days of school each year, regardless of the cause, impacts student academic performance and starts shaping attitudes about school.
- From the 6th grade through the 9th grade, student attendance is a better predictor of dropping out than standardized test scores.
- Excused absences and unexcused absences have similar impact on student academic performance.
Thank you for helping to prioritize daily school attendance.
WBMS Basketball Tryouts
WBMS Basketball Tryouts will occur the week after Thanksgiving.
Boys – November 28-30
Girls – November 29-30
Students need to be there the first day of tryouts. Informational packets are by the PE board.
All paperwork must be turned in to Coach Sell before tryouts.
Jr. Beta Club
Our next meeting is Nov 1st @ 8:00am in the cafeteria. Remember meetings are mandatory. If for some reason you are unable to attend, please make sure you contact us via Edmodo or email.
Chess Club
Webb Bridge Process to Performance After School Acting Classes
Thursdays 4:15-5:45 This session will work on improvisation, scene study, physicality, character development, and audition techniques. Students will also work on one-act plays. This is a phenomenal class to work skills as well as gain stage experience!
For more information: www.buildingcharacter.org
email: info@buildingcharacter.org
SAVE THE DATE: One Act Play Night- Nov 3rd
One Act Play night Friday Nov 3rd at 7pm @ WBMS
Come out and see two hilarious one act plays performed: “Paper or Plastic” and “The Express Line”
There’s a lot of crazy comedy going on in these grocery stores; taking too many items into the express line, crazy co-workers who dress in camouflage to hunt down stray grocery carts, managers who refuse to deal with unruly customers because they are putting up Christmas decorations in August! Come out and see how checker Mabel takes a stand against the principle of one too many items in the express line, and how Sarah handles the first day of her new job at the craziest grocery store on the planet!
Tickets sold during lunch on Nov 1st and 2nd or you can purchase from any cast member.
Interested in tech crew? Contact Whitney King: whitney@buildingcharacter.org
Lost and Found
All lunch boxes and water bottles need to be put near the cafeteria on the left side entering the café, and will be donated or thrown away the last day every week.
All items in the lost and found next to the clinic will be donated or thrown away on the 15th of every month.
All Items of value: glasses, electronics, jewelry etc. should be given to the front office.
AHS- IB Program
International Baccalaureate Community Meeting
Join us on the evening of November 13, 2017 from 6:30-7:30pm in the Alpharetta High School Media Center for an informational meeting regarding Alpharetta High School’s work as a candidate school. This meeting will provide an excellent opportunity for parents to learn more about the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme and to stay informed of the work that AHS has been doing toward becoming an authorized IB World School. Parents and students are invited to join us for this information session.
If you have any questions, feel free to email AHS’s Diploma Programme Coordinator, Frank Fortunato: fortunatof@fultonschools.org
*There will be a Parent University meeting in December regarding this topic @ WBMS
Please Support PTA
Dear Jaguar Families,
We would like to give you an update on how our PTA fundraising is progressing, and
say a big thank you to all of the families that have donated to our Fall Fundraiser.
Your tax-deductible contribution is the ONLY time WBMS PTA will ask for money the
entire school year, and it supports many Student Achievement and Enrichment
programs.
Our goal this year was to raise $30,000 and we have only reached $24,600 of our
goal! We need your financial support to help us reach our goal so that we can
continue to provide academic and enrichment programs for our school. If you have
not donated and would like to, please go to www.wbmspta.org to donate today! OR if
you prefer to do it in person, we will have a PTA donation table at International Night,
Thursday, October 26th from 6:00-8:30 pm.
We can’t do this without you! Thank you for your support!
Sincerely,
Kristen Vance and Cindy Garcia
WBMS PTA Co Presidents
Meetings and Public Comment
Webb Bridge’s School Governance Council meets in the morning one Friday each month in room 116; our next meeting is November 10 @ 7:30 in the PLR room. We hold a Public Comment period starting at 7:30 AM. Please feel free to attend and help us start our planning! If you cannot come to issue public comments, please fill out the form below.
Please Support Our Business Partners!!
Thank You Pasta Vino
11130 State Bridge Road, Johns Creek 770-777-1213
Publix
Dave and Busters
6500 Northpoint Parkway, Alpharetta GA 30022
Helping Florida
Alpharetta High School and Webb Bridge Middle School are teaming up again to lead what we hope will become another community-wide effort! The Hurricane Harvey fundraiser was a huge success at both AHS and WBMS and we are confident that was only just the beginning! From now through Friday, October 20th both schools will be accepting donations of baby & adult diapers, NEW t-shirts and socks, & toiletries. At that point, all gathered donations will be shipped to Our Father’s Housewares, a charity located in Atlantic Beach, FL. Donations can be dropped off at the front office. Monetary donations will also be accepted online at www.tinyurl.com/ahshelpsFlorida2017. The money collected will be used to pay for shipping the donated items to Florida. Any remaining money will then be donated to hurricane relief efforts. We sincerely thank you for your continued generosity and altruism.
Alpharetta Environmental Offerings
- The Household Hazardous Waste and Paint Collection is scheduled on November 4th for residents within the City limits. Registration is now available online at http://www.alpharetta.ga.us/about/news/2017/09/27/household-hazardous-waste-and-paint-collection-offered-for-alpharetta-residents
- We added an Audubon Birding Walk and Talk on November 11th. It will be at the Alpharetta YMCA Teen Center from 10:00am to 11:30am. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/alpharetta-offers-audubon-birding-walk-and-talk-tickets-38599058824?aff=ehomecard
Helping Children/Youth After A Loss
If you have a child who has experienced the loss of a parent, sibling, or other close loved one, there is a FREE weekend retreat for kids 7 years old to a high school senior. Camp MAGIK—Mainly About Grief In Kids (www.campmagik.org) --is a having their weekend retreat October 13-15, 2017 (deadline is October 4th). There is also a retreat available for adults who want to process their own grief with other adults who are grieving. It is held on the same campus and led by professional bereavement counselors. Transportation to/from the camp is available. Please contact Rene Searles McClatchey, PhD, at rsm@saf.com, 404.790.0140, for more information.
Low Cost Internet
Get assistance with low-cost internet providers for your student’s Surface by clicking this link:
http://www.cheapinternet.com/low-income-internet
This link has a listing of various programs in our area offering low cost internet connectivity for qualifying families.
As always, please exercise caution when reviewing options and choose what will work best for your income and family’s need.
2017-2018 School Year
First Semester
August 1 – 4 ........................................... Preplanning for teachers
August 7......................................................... First Day of School
September 4........................................Labor Day (schools closed)
October 6 ......................................Teacher Workday (students off)
October 9 ......................................Columbus Day (schools closed)
November 20 – 24.............. Thanksgiving Holidays (schools closed)
December 21 ....................................... Last Day of First Semester
December 22 – 29 ...........................Winter Break (schools closed)
Second Semester
January 1 – 3...................................Winter Break (schools closed)
January 4.......................................Teacher Workday (students off)
January 5....................Professional Development Day (students off)
January 8.........................................First Day of Second Semester
January 15..............Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday (schools closed)
February 16*................... Student/Teacher Holiday (schools closed)
February 19 ......................President’s Day Holiday (schools closed)
March 9*.......................................Teacher Workday (students off)
March 12....................Professional Development Day (students off)
April 2 – 6 .......................................Spring Break (schools closed)
May 24........................................................... Last Day of School
May 25.................................................................. Post Planning
May 28...............................Memorial Day Holiday (schools closed)
* Designated as inclement weather make-up days (if needed).
Our School Release Days
These are the dates approved through the RFF process as part of School Governance. WBMS students will NOT attend school on the following dates:
September 1, 2017
October 5, 2017
January 16, 2018
March 8, 2018