Weekly News

Monday, September 6 - No School Labor Day

Tuesday, September 7 - No School

Thursday, September 9 - Volleyball game

Thursday, September 9 - Football game

***Athletic calendars are located at the end of this document***

The Blue Valley School District is excited to partner with Panorama to collect perceptual survey data on students’ social-emotional learning skills. The survey will be administered in October and March and provides helpful information for classroom teachers and other school personnel to help meet the needs of each student.

The survey includes questions related to the following topics:

• School safety — perceptions of students’ physical and psychological safety while at school
• Self-management — students’ ability to manage emotions, thoughts, and behaviors
• Social awareness — students’ ability to consider the perspectives of others and empathize with them
• Self-efficacy — students’ belief that they can succeed in achieving academic outcomes
• Grit — students’ ability to persevere through setbacks toward achieving goals
• Emotional regulation — how well students regulate their emotions
• Sense of belonging — how much students feel they are valued members of the school community

A couple of items to note:

1. Please log into ParentVue to either opt your student into participating or opt your student out of participating. Participation is entirely voluntary. Upon logging into ParentVue, a screen will pop-up, and families will have the opportunity to record their decision.
2. Implementation reflects a Kansas State Department of Education requirement for school districts to collect social-emotional learning data.
3. You can learn more about the survey at https://www.panoramaed.com.

Middle school course fee payment for the 2021-22 school year is open and online now. Your ParentVUE login and password are required to pay course fees.

• Course fees are assigned based on your student’s enrollment. Some seventh and eighth grade exploratory/elective classes include course fees.
• Course fees are assigned for the first semester only.

Questions regarding fee payment should be directed to Sharon Jirak, ABMS Bookkeeper, sjirak@bluevalleyk12.org.

Car and Bus lane has been steadily improving each day. In an effort to continue the efficiency of our car lane we are continuing to test a new routine; however, some safety concerns have arisen that we must address.

Car riders may continue to be dropped off in the back of the building once our buses have unloaded (after 7:30 a.m.). Drivers must drive the entire loop in the back of the school and drop their students off on the sidewalk at the south doors of Aubry Bend Middle School. DO NOT STOP ON THE ROAD TO DROP STUDENTS OFF. This is a safety concern as we do have teachers and buses that are using this road to also access our back parking lot.

Parents can access the south loop by taking the road between Aubry Bend and Southwest off of 175th. Drive past the tennis courts and take a right towards Aubry Bend. After 7:30, drivers may enter the back parking loop and drop students off on the sidewalk leading up the building. The front car lane will continue to be option for the unloading of students in the morning from 7:15 on.

After school pick up will remain in the front of the building only. Students cannot be picked up in the back of the building after school. Drivers ARE NOT to park on the south road to pick up students.

“How can I help?” It’s one of the most common questions we hear from our Blue Valley community these days and it is what makes our community so special: your willingness to lend a helping hand and provide support during difficult times. Our students need us now more than ever, and in order to support them in the best way possible, we need our community. We are currently looking for substitutes. If you have completed 60 college credits, you are eligible to apply for an emergency substitute license. If you are available one day a week, or even a couple days a month, consider applying to become a substitute. For more information, please contact Kaitlyn Drew at KMDrew@bluevalleyk12.org.

• Here is a list of COVID-19 Testing Sites, if needed. The list includes information on what type of tests are available and whether an appointment is necessary. Please note that many sites offer free tests, while others may have a charge. Please call the site to check on the cost.
• Blue Valley school sites have received several requests asking for replacement COVID-19 Vaccination Cards. Neither the school district nor JCDHE have these records. Individuals who need a replacement card should go to the Kansas WebIZ: Immunization Information System website and click on "Requesting an official immunization record."

Aubry Bend's "Rock of Ages (Middle School Edition)" has been cast! It is going to be AWESOME. Crew lists have also been completed.

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR CAST AND CREW LISTS.

CAST - 1st rehearsal for FULL CAST is Wednesday, Sept. 8 from 3-4:30pm in the commons.

CREW - the first crews start meeting the week of Sept. 13. Please see the crew calendar LINKED HERE to find the dates and times when your crew is called.

(If your student did not turn in their crew form yet and still wishes to participate, please have them bring the form to Mrs. Vail ASAP.)

Please contact KSVail@bluevalleyk12.org with any questions!

Hello! My name is Jessica Jurkovac, and I am the new library media specialist at ABMS!

As I will be spending time working with your students this year in the library, I wanted to share a little about myself.

I grew up in Columbus, Ohio. I went to Northwest Missouri State University and earned a degree in Middle School Education with concentrations in English Language Arts and Social Science. I also have a master's degree from UMKC in Language and Literacy, and I am currently working on my Library Media Specialists degree at Fort Hays University. I previously worked as a 7th-Grade English Language Arts and Social Studies teacher for 5 years in the Blue Valley school district. I love to read, travel, and spend time with my family. I read from a variety of genres, but I mostly enjoy science fiction, dystopian, and fantasy books!

I am thrilled to be your students’ library media specialist! I look forward to helping students become critical thinkers, enthusiastic readers, and skillful researchers!

Please feel free to reach out to me through email at jjurkovac@bluevalleyk12.org if you ever have any questions or are looking for any book recommendations for your student!

We need help with concessions at our home games! Please sign up below https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090c44abac23aafc1-abms4

Do you need a P.E. shirt? How about a music performance shirt? *** Only new students need to buy a music performance polo shirt. If you are a returning 7th or 8th grader and have a polo shirt from previous years, you are good to go***. Do you want some ABMS swag???The store is OPEN NOW THROUGH SEPTEMBER 12TH with deliveries about 2-3 weeks after that! To order follow the link https://mccwebstores.com/5466/shop/home. Have fun shopping!!!!!

"There was a farmer who had a dog and BINGO was his name ohhhh B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O and BINGO was his name oh! Thats right, virtual bingo is coming up on September 17th! Follow the square code on the flyer below to get your tickets now!

If you haven’t joined the ABMS PTO yet, its not too late!!! You can use this QR code and get your PTO membership and INVEST in ABMS

Be sure to follow along with all of the latest and greatest PTO happenings via our social media channels! You can LIKE our page on facebook (ABMS PTO) and follow us on twitter ( @AbmsPto)

ELA:

Students analyzed internal and external conflict and how conflicts affect the plot and resolution of stories. Students were also introduced to finding evidence in text to support their analysis. We are also learning how to use MLA format to cite evidence correctly in writing.

Math:

Math classes started our Geometry unit this week. Students worked together to compose and decompose polygons to calculate the area. Next week, we will continue to practice this skill and look into calculating volume of irregular polygons.

Science:

Students will be finishing up learning about scientific vocabulary. Students should study the information from their science notebook to prepare for a quiz next week. Check each teacher’s Canvas course for specifics.

Social Studies:

This week we were busy analyzing artifacts and learning about the acronym R.E.C.I.P.E. Ask your child to tell you what the letters of R.E.C.I.P.E. stand for. (Answer: Religion/Beliefs, Environment, Class System, Innovations, Political System, and Economic System). Next week we are going to be starting our next unit called Empires (Mesopotamia).

ELA:

Students are becoming strong at citing evidence correctly. It is impressive! Now students will learn about writing objective summaries. After reading a few articles and writing objective summaries for them, they will be experts. If you haven't had the chance to review the parent letter about novels for 7th graders, please open this link. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1irR9sxMj8Enh8HEgOzE-zRc1t3TChvR3nWEZTLCZQJE/edit?usp=sharing

Math:

Students learned how to explain their mathematical thinking while solving problems on collaborative slides with their peers. They also were given time to make corrections on their slides (after feedback from their teachers and peers). After viewing data from the pre-assessment, we focused on review concepts to best prepare students to be successful in our first unit for 7th grade!

Science:

Students reflected on our CER cube activity, acknowledging how IMPORTANT and supportive evidence is (after switching cubes with their peers). We had FUN mingling with ALL the science classes outside in order to gain new perspective! Students took a pre-assessment over our first unit of study (Molecules to Organisms), and we will use that to guide our instruction moving forward. Lastly, we discussed how grading works in science class this year! Please view the following video for information on our mastery levels:

https://bvusd.instructuremedia.com/embed/05f6a9e9-04b4-49e1-902c-aa34e284ce64

Social Studies:

We’ve continued our work in learning about the five themes of geography, this week focusing mainly on the theme of “place,” or the features that really kind of define a location. For example, think about Paris, France! The things that make Paris, well, Paris are the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, speaking French, little cafes, the Seine River, etc. Those things kind of define Paris as a place. We also spent time learning about Human-Environmental Interactions through a case study in Brazil. Brazil has had a heated debate over building a new highway through the Amazon Rainforest for more than five years now, and the debate is STILL going! We tried to look at this issue through several lenses, and ultimately your student is going to have to make a claim and defend their reasoning about whether they think Brazil should go forward with this highway or not- there’s a lot of pros and cons! Can’t wait to read their thoughts!

Farris Science:

Energy Transformations

ELA:

Will continue working on our narrative writing and dive into some poetry analysis of Robert Frost’s Nothing Gold Can Stay.

Social Studies:

Diving into the specifics of the Constitution. Specifically the Bill of Rights & Articles 1-4.

Algebra 1:

Functions. Students will explore function notation and how inputs affect outputs for different functions/relationships

Happy September! Thanks to all our families who were able to engage in our 7th and 8th grade Back to School Night this week! We had a great in-person turnout and a wonderful response to the virtual option. We appreciate your support more than you know!

This weekend is Labor Day weekend, and you may have noticed that elementary and middle school students do not have school on Tuesday, September 7. Our staff will be involved in professional learning that day.

In the morning, our teaching staff will work with their colleagues across the district in professional learning communities. This work is important to our team because our middle school teachers collaborate with their colleagues across the district to ensure the best learning experiences for our students.

In the afternoon, our ABMS team will return to the building to dive deeper into their planning for current and future units and create common formative and summative assessments.

Last week, I talked about the routines and procedures we’re developing with kids this year. I am so happy to say that our days feel normal and routine…busy, busy, busy, but normal and routine. A routine that rolls around every year is parent/teacher conferences. This year, parent/teacher conferences are the last week of September for the BV School District.

The ABMS schedule for conferences will be finalized next week, so watch your email and the Weekly News for details. We heard loud and clear from our families that the Zoom option was preferred because it was convenient and productive, so that will be our default mode for conferences; however, there will be a window of time available for parents/guardians who wish to schedule an in-person conference with a teacher.

For your planning, middle school students will not be in school September 30 or October 1 because of parent/teacher conferences.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend! We love our community and want you to know that you can depend on us.

Sincerely,

Diana Tate, Principal

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