One Chip Challenge
Dance For Kindness
One Day. One Dance. One Heart. Together we DANCE FOR KINDNESS!
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13TH @ 1:00 PM - Main Street, Ayer
Dance for Kindness is a worldwide FlashMob that takes place in cities and countries around
the world on the same day to show that regardless of our differences, kindness is the
common thread that unites us all. And while we may disagree about many things, we
can all agree on the importance of building a kinder world for ourselves and our
children.
Winter Sports Registration
ASRMS will offer the following sports for the Winter 2022-23 Season. All begin the Monday after Thanksgiving:
Boys ice hockey co-op with Lunenburg -- Grades 8-12 (must register here and at Lunenburg's Final Forms)
Indoor track (grades 9-12 -- grade 8 ONLY if they competed in indoor last year)
Middle school boys and girls basketball -- grades 6-8 REGISTER BY 11/8
Unified Mini-golf (grades 7-12) -- Once or twice a week beginning in January
Competitions will begin at 3:30 or 4 depending on the day and sport. Practices will start no earlier than 2:45, though start times will be staggered throughout the afternoon. Coaches will announce practice schedules soon.
Click HERE to register!
ASRMS Chorus
Chorus is back! Chorus will meet on Fridays after school from 2:30-3:30 in the music room.
sign-up sheet:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s5tCSg63mjcMJI5KFm3h7M8OJqOMUfy9OzfG8At3t0U/edit?usp=sharing
After School Extra-Help
AYER SHIRLEY RECREATION - BASKETBALL REGISTRATION
REMINDER!!! Registration for Ayer Shirley Youth Basketball grades 5-8 is up!
Click HERE to sign up!
Ski Club
We welcome you to join Ayer Shirley Regional Middle & High School beginning Thursday, January 5, 2023, for 6 weeks of skiing or snowboarding at Mt. Wachusett, in Princeton, MA. A healthy way to enjoy our New England winters.
There is NO BUSING this year! Parents may either drop off and pick up OR join the ski club! Our start time is 3:30 and ending time is 7:30
Dates planned this year are as follows: January 5, 12, 19, 26, and February 2 and 9, 2023. In case of inclement weather, and it is necessary to cancel, we will add another trip to the mountain. We go on six trips no matter what.
Again this year to register the Student Program is offered Online Only. Parents can start ordering program services now! The price is only locked for a few more days so register now to avoid price increases
Follow the directions below:
Step ONE: Go to https://www.wachusett.com/Tickets-Passes/Groups/School-Groups.aspx
Step TWO: Enter Program Code: AYSH - Parents enter this Code to access the order form.
Step THREE: Use the order form to select which badge you want, rentals, and lessons.
- Student Season Pass Bronze $349.00
- 6WK Lift Badge THU $173.00
- “First come, first serve “policy is observed.
- If the numbers get too high, I will need to cut it off.
Students are responsible for their own actions and safety during the program. School rules prevail. Students should know they will be responsible for getting organized, carrying their own gear, getting suited up, and following chaperone check-in expectations. You must have health insurance in the event of a mishap. A faculty member will check participants at the mountain, but will not always be able to ski/board with them. Faculty members and volunteer chaperones will be skiing/boarding, however, they will not be with your child at all times, and therefore the buddy system is enforced/expected.
Everyone must check-in and check out with me (Mrs. Gibbons) upon arrival, once at 5:45 and when departing. This includes parents who are participating. Our time ends at 7:30
Authorization and Consent Form, and the Pre-Participation Head Injury Reporting Form For Extracurricular Activities, attached, needs to be filled out and returned before your student can participate.
Chaperons, YES, I would love to have a parent or three to come along to either ski, board, or float around the ski area as a contact person for the students. If a parent can sign up for one Thursday, that is one more day of help for the program. There is a discounted fee for your lift ticket as well as equipment rentals.
Please return the signed and completed. Please submit electronically if possible.
Should you have any questions please contact Sarah Gibbons, email (preferred) at sgibbons@asrsd.org, or 978-772-8600 X1484.
Thank you,
School Counselors
For grade 8 families, as you prepare to transition your students to high school, please use your counselors!
Nashoba Tech: is accepting applications until January 15th. Please use their website to apply, the middle school will send all supporting documents after Trimester 1 closes.
Private/Selective Secondary Schools: Please notify your student’s counselor if your student is applying to one of these schools at least a month prior to the application deadline to allow adequate time to prepare supporting documents.
ASRHS: Is your high school! Stay tuned!!
We are continuing our partnership with the BRYT Program this year and, therefore, we continue to have the opportunity to make additional resources available to families.
From the BRYT Network:
Mark your calendars! for our Parent Learning with Parent speaker series-. "All the Questions You’ve Ever Wanted to Ask about Crisis Services. Navigating mental health systems." November 16, 7 pm. see flyer for the link.
bryt Family Engagement Resource Library page. This resource doc is created by our bryt family engagement team to save you time in your search for articles, links, and local community resource needs for your students and families. We will add resources to match our monthly live event topics, and this page will also house the recordings of our Youtube live recordings as we go, as well as our live events from last year. Let us know your topic needs.
This week in Family engagement, we continue with our regularly scheduled Parent Supporting Parent (PSP) group offerings, see here. As a reminder, we now have a Male identifying Dad's PSP group. We will continue our Monday night BIPOC group, and our other weekly PSP groups, including Pacific Standard and Eastern Standard times. Our parent-to-parent support is open to ALL parents of youth who are navigating mental health challenges. The groups are virtual, hosted by a BRYT family engagement specialist via Zoom, and are designed to be a platform for families to support each other. *The purpose of these groups is to give parents an opportunity to give and receive support from each other. PSP groups are not designed to supplement mental health treatment.
Facebook group for BRYT families: This closed FB group is only for BRYT caregivers. To join, just search 'BRYT FAMILY SUPPORT' on Facebook and ask to be added. BRYTFamily Engagement Coordinators manage the group and caregivers will find posts about events, parenting articles, support from other parents, and more.
As a reminder, Ms. Brine has students with last names beginning with A-D, Ms. Teahan has students with last names E-K and Ms. Esielionis has students with last names beginning with L-Z. There are some exceptions to these caseloads.
Please reach out with any questions or concerns at any time!
Green Team
Things are happening with the Green Team!
In Science, scientists are finishing up their study of index fossils and will be moving on to study continental drift and seafloor spreading.
Miss Glidden's Math classes have mathematicians working on dividing fractions and decimal operations. Mr Langford's historians are beginning a project in which they will research 5 key events they feel have had the largest impact on human history.
In Ms. Stahl's ELA classes, students are reading the novel Harbor Me and working on narrative writing, while
Mr. Churchill's ELA classes are learning about what makes a myth a myth and writing analytical essays explaining how the myth of Prometheus fits the bill as a classic myth.
Purple Team
ELA:
6th Grade: Students are well into the novel Harbor Me and have been analyzing plot structure, character development and theme. They have been perfecting their skills on open response questions and in preparation for their narratives, they have been learning about figurative language and descriptive or “show don’t tell” writing. Finally, to celebrate Halloween, they had a great time creating “blackout” poetry using text from some of Edgar Allan Poe’s famous short stories.
7 Grade: Seventh graders are enjoying and are almost finished the novel The Outsiders. They, too, have been analyzing plot structure, character development and theme. Like the sixth graders, to celebrate Halloween, they created some really great “blackout” poetry using text from some of Edgar Allan Poe’s famous short stories.
Social Studies:
6th Grade: The transition into historical thinking has been very seamless. Students have acquired basic skills on how to assess historical documents using primary and secondary sources in order to corroborate claims. More importantly, students are now able to cite evidence from the text when answering a writing prompt or text-dependent questions. We will continue exploring research methodologies to accurately cite and quote evidence through a historical slides project. After Veteran’s Day, we will transition into our next unit analyzing Early Human civilizations.
7th Grade: WE THE PEOPLE! Studying the different forms of Greek governments, we have spent the last two weeks featuring Democracy, which by far, is the greatest Greek contribution to the modern world. In fact, the Greek word for people which is “Demos” and the Greek suffix of “Kratia,” means to rule. Therefore, in other words, We the People rule in a democracy. We are also engaging in mock elections where students will run and campaign for different roles representing the Ancient Athenian branches within a democracy. The primary goal is for students to simultaneously make connections outside of the classroom with the Midterm elections also taking place. Lastly, we will transition into the Peloponnesian War; Athens vs Sparta, which will culminate in a historical essay and then an end of the unit final exam.
Science:
6th Grade: Students are analyzing and interpreting maps showing the distribution of fossils and rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures to provide evidence that Earth’s plates have moved great distances, collided, and spread apart. Soon we will be investigating the formation of fossils, and describing what we can learn by studying them.
7th Grade: Students are obtaining and communicating information on how data from past geologic events are analyzed for patterns and used to forecast the location and likelihood of future catastrophic events. We are watching the USGS website and witnessing live real world earthquake data populate the map. Next, we will be exploring the structure and function of volcanoes.
Math:
Grade 6: 6th grade has wrapped up Module 1 on ratios, unit rates and percent proportions. We are now beginning Module 2: Arithmetic Operations. Students will expand their understanding of the four operations as they study division of whole numbers, division by a fraction, division of decimals and operations on multi-digit decimals. We are looking forward to the 6th grade Boundless Adventures Field Trip on November 10th.
Grade 7: 7th graders on the purple team have completed Module 1 on ratios, proportional relationships and scale factor. In module 2 students will build on their understanding of rational numbers to add, subtract, multiply, and divide negative numbers.
Blue Team
Math with Mrs. Daisy - 7th graders are using number lines to model the addition of integers. 8th graders are adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing with scientific notation. We will begin translations of figures next week.
Science with Mrs. Kauppi - Scientists are working on how earth’s surface changes in a short time. Events that change earth’s surface are earthquakes, volcanoes, floods and landslides.
Social Studies/Civics with Dr. Pataky -
7th Grade- Unit 2- Ancient Greece
Ancient Greek City-States
Alexander the Great
Do Now Quotes in notebook
We will be looking at Greek mythology and ancient Greek City-States
We will then start our unit on Ancient Rome
8th Grade- Early Colonial America
We started our build a colony project this past Monday and will finish over the next week. We will then move on to early American philosophy, the thirteen colonies, and the French and Indian War.
Mr. Nessman & Ms. Nigohosian’s Corner -
We will be supporting students in a variety of classes this trimester. I will also be working on some organizational strategies with various students. We are taking donations of unused (or lightly used) notebooks, folders, and binders to help students in organizational need.
We are also sending home a daily homework email. I can’t guarantee it will always be 100% accurate for every class every day, but it will give you an idea of what specific assignments need to be worked on and what upcoming quizzes, tests, and projects there are.
Email Mr. Nessman (knessman@asrsd.org) if you want to be added to the list (7th grade parents and guardians only)
Also, for students with IEPs, keep an eye out on Friday afternoons for an email from me listing any missing work from that week. Parents will also be copied in.
Maroon Team
This month in Civics class students are learning about how the debt from the French and Indian War led to increased taxation on the 13 colonies and an ever increasingly watchful eye from the British government. They will learn how many colonists viewed the Proclamation of 1763 as depriving them of some of their natural rights and be able to explain how these two events began to sour the relationship between the colonies and Great Britain. We will be introduced to the Sons and Daughters of Liberty as we see the colonial response to the Stamp Act. We will hold a trial for the soldiers of the Boston Massacre and ask questions like is anyone justified in destroying property in protest (Boston Tea Party).
This month in ELA class 8th graders are studying The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe and finishing up the Suspense and Narrative Writing Unit with a final project. Students will choose one of their favorite stories of the term to create a visual project exploring and demonstrating the narrative elements that elicit suspense. Students should also be continuing to complete their independent reading logs.
In Español, students have just wrapped up Para Empezar with an exam that assesses all that they know from the beginning of the year. They have learned A LOT! We will now use this base knowledge to begin communicating in complete sentences: talking, reading, writing and listening about ourselves and others with a focus on agreement and verb conjugation. We also just celebrated Día de los Muertos and learned about the cultural significance of the holiday. We had the opportunity to reflect on our own thoughts and beliefs while comparing and contrasting aspects of Día de los Muertos and our own culture/society. Check out the ofrenda that students made and visited in class.
In Academic Support this month, we have been focusing on editing strategies to understand where commas need to be placed. Students have also been writing open responses to grade level reading passages with claim, context, evidence and reasoning sentences. Math students have been mastering operations with integers and applying the rules to simplifying expressions.
Technology Corner
Check It Out!
SPIRIT WEAR
Get your ASRMS Spirit wear at Route 2 Apparel!!!
https://route2apparel.com/ASRSD/shop/products/middle_school?page=1
ASRSD ATHLETICS
Please click on the link below to see the ASRSD Athletics schedule
BAND
ASPTO MEETING SCHEDULE
Middle School Library
October 11th
November 8th
December 13th
January 10th
February 15th
March 14th
April 11th
May 9th
June 13th
“Together We Can Do More”
Website: https://sites.google.com/view/aspto
Welcome Letter and Calendar: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16J8aKAlJRDaLDOUfABCSKicda5l55Ecn/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=107589591020179956727&rtpof=true&sd=true
Ayer-Shirley Regional Middle School (ASRMS)
Email: boelerich@asrsd.org
Website: asrsd.org
Location: 1 Hospital Road, Shirley, MA, USA
Phone: (978)772-8600
Facebook: facebook.com/ASRMSPanthers
