Dear Parents/Guardians,

Last month, we sent a communication about a viral trend on TikTok name the "Devios Lick Challenge." The challenge, has impacted many schools across the nation, as it encourages scholars to perform a different destructive, harmful and/or illegal activities each, (e.g. vandalizing school property, stealing random items from school, or committing assault). In September, the challenge was to " vandalize school bathrooms." Hannah Ashton Middle School suffered various acts of vandalism to our bathrooms that caused damage to our facilities.

The challenge for the month of October is called "slap a teacher/staff member." The challenge encourages scholars to slap a teacher or staff member and run before being caught committing the assault. The incident must also be filmed or the challenge does not "count."

We have talked with our scholars about the vandalism that occurred and are now asking for your help and partnership in explaining the seriousness of these acts, especially an act as disgraceful as slapping a teacher/staff member.

Please talk to your child and make sure they understand this is not acceptable behavior. Vandalism to school facilities or assault will not be tolerated and will be punishable in accordance with the RCS Student Code of Conduct, which is in our student handbook (and can be found at the bottom of this newsletter). Consequences for this type of behavior could include suspension, expulsion, or legal action.

At HAMS, we expect our scholars to behave themselves in way way that Respectful, Responsible, and Safe! We appreciate your partnership in making HAMS a safe place for our scholars, staff members, and families.

Sign-ups for Fall Family-Teacher Conferences have opened! Conference will be held on Thursday, 10/21 from 3:00pm to 7:00pm and Wednesday, 11/3 from 3:00pm to 6:45pm. Please use the My Conference Time Link below to sign up for conferences with your scholar's teachers.

https://www.myconferencetime.com/hannahashton/

Masks: Please help us keep your child and others healthy by encouraging them to bring a mask to school and to wear their mask over their nose and mouth while inside the building and on the bus. We are seeing an increase in scholars who are refusing to wear their masks or are not wearing their masks properly. Scholars who continue to break this school/District rule may receive disciplinary consequences.

Water Bottles: Due to Covid restrictions, HAMS does not have water fountains. Instead, we have bottle fillers. Please send a water bottle to school to help your child hydrate through out the day. (This is especially important for scholars who have physical courses such as PE, Fitness, and Yoga).

As a part of the HAMS incentive for Positive Behavior, our scholars have the opportunity to earn Raider Bucks! Scholars who are exhibiting traits of Responsibility, Respect, Safety, Collaboration and Empathy will receive Raider Bucks from any member on the staff. These bucks are entered into a daily drawing for a number of different prizes!! Please ask your scholar about Raider Bucks!

Starting Monday, October 18th, we will be having a staggered release. Car walkers/riders will be dismissed at 1:50p.

• Car walkers are expected to wait outside of Door 6 until their ride arrives; walkers will begin to walk home.
• Grade levels 7 and 8 bus riders will be dismissed at 1:52pm
• Grade levels 5 and 6 bus riders will be dismissed at 1:55pm
  

5th grade Families,

Please be aware that the end of the quarter is this Friday, Oct. 15, 2021. All grades need to be submitted by this date in all classes. You can check student grades by going to Echo and then selecting the bar graph icon to see the gradebook. At that point, you can then see any red assignments and there may be a retry allowed for those assignments.

Please look for class dojo signups. There should be printed copies or text messages/emails being sent to join. This is a great way to connect with teachers. We are also looking at implementing a restorative recess where students and teachers will be working with any student who might have an issue during the school day. There will be a reflection of the issue and then a debrief with the teacher.

Science and PBL Update: Final changes to the Scientific Method project are due before Friday, Oct. 15, 2021.

21st Century Design Update: Students are finishing vinyl chromebook skins project.

Math (Babb)- All math students have been working diligently to improve their math skills through their Aleks lessons. Students should be completing at least 7 topics a week. Enriched: We are wrapping up our distance project. Students will be teaching their classmates how to find the distance Salva travelled by using Latitude and Longitude, using a Coordinate Grid, and by using a Scale.

Math6- We are finishing finding distance on a coordinate grid and will be beginning all things with ratios and proportions.

Math (Griffin)- This week, we have been working on simple ratios and ratio problems involving tape diagrams. Scholars finished a choice board on Monday (10/04) and will have a short quiz this Monday (10/11). Scholars will continue work on ALEKS Quicktables, ALEKS lessons (7 topics per week), along with assignments on ECHO. Please be sure to check grades and monitor missing assignments.

Humanities- We finished the novel “A Long Walk to Water” as well as our work with the 5 Themes of Geography. Scholars will be using all of their knowledge about the book to create solutions to real world problems that people are facing in Reynoldsburg. Over the next few week, we will start focusing on improving scholars’ skills with short nonfiction texts about timelines and factors of migration.

Science (Miller)- This week we are beginning our rocks and minerals project. Students are working with a partner and creating a poster that reviews the main concepts of our unit. Students are being evaluated based only on the parts they were assigned to complete. Students will have a quiz next Friday over Rocks and Minerals.

Science (Babb)- Scholars are finishing our study of atoms and molecules and will begin our study of energy and motion.

The weekly incentive continued this week! Each week, students have the opportunity to earn some down time by meeting behavior and academic expectations. Check in with your student and see if they are earning the incentive each week!

In ELA with Ms. Lawrence, scholars completed their first argumentative essay of the year, with the topic of Child Labor. Final grades for this essay can be found in the ECHO gradebook. In the coming weeks, scholars will be moving into HMH Into Literature, and will begin a unit entitled Taking Action. Students will read a variety of texts, looking to answer the essential question: What helps people rise up to face difficulties? Students can access all of their in-class readings on the HAMS student portal, in the HMH Ed app. Finally, a reminder that all Quarter 1 missing work for ELA must be turned in no later than Wednesday, October 13.

In Science with Ms. Rogers, students are finishing up their energy unit by exploring electricity and electrical circuits. Next week, students will work on a group project where they will have to build an electrical circuit out of aluminum foil, cut up Christmas lights, a folder and tape. Students are practicing how to build circuits using snap circuits and different computer simulations. All science grades are completed and updated as of 10/8/22. Please, have students check their ECHO and complete any missing assignments.

In Social Studies with Mr. Perkins, students are coming to an end of our Greece Unit. Next week is the last week of the quarter, so the focus is going to be reviewing for our unit test which will take place next week, and working with students to improve their grades before the end of the quarter. When we begin our second quarter, we will begin discussing Ancient Rome!

In Math with Ms. Fox, for the next few weeks, students will be focusing on integers and their rules for each operation. Students should be completing 7 ALEKS lessons a week from Monday-Sunday for homework; this is our online program used to help students grow in math. Also a reminder that all missing work for quarter 1 is due by next Wednesday, 10/13. Please feel free to reach out through text at 614-710-4840 with any questions or concerns.

In Enriched Math 7 with Ms. Lewis, the class is wrapping up all operations dealing with integers. It’s been refreshing seeing the energy pouring out from doing good ‘ole arithmetic! We have a new e-book that can be found through Reveal in the HAMS student portal; actual textbooks are said to be coming soon. Students are obligated to complete seven ALEKS topics each week (the app is also found via the student portal). If ever your student needs something to do, encourage him/her to spend time in ALEKS. The enriched class will be turning its attention to all things rational over the next few weeks.

8th grade students are working to become high school ready by collaborating on group projects, studying for unit tests, and completing missing work before the end of the quarter.

Math 8: Math students are working on ALEKS to fill in their gaps from past years in math classes. Each assignment is individual for each student. The log in information is link on the math Echo.

Science: Science students just finished a big unit test this week, and students who got below an 80% can look for a retake opportunity in the next week. Students will be starting their next unit as we start our quarter 2 of 8th grade.

Integrated Math 1: Integrated Math 1 students have finished all district-required assessments and are well on their way learning about statistics, specifically data distribution and how to analyze and interpret various types of data and its graphs.

We are using ALEKS as a platform to cover possible 8th grade standards that have been missed. Each student will be required to complete the initial course by the end of the first semester. Working in ALEKS is part of each child’s weekly obligation, so please encourage your son or daughter to complete topics each evening as part of the course’s year-long requirements.

Social Studies: In 8th Grade Social Studies we have finished our Colonies Compete unit. We learned how geography affected the economies of the English colonies. We have talked about the movement of people throughout the colonies and explored Mercantilism and Triangular Trade. We finished the unit with European land claims and the French and Indian War. Students should have completed a problem based project in which Natives had to decide which European nation to ally with. Please check your child's Colonies Compete PBL to see their progress.

Please check your students grades regularly by logging on to their echo page from the student portal at hams.reyn.org.

DC students have been given a packet of fundraising information. This fundraiser will end on OCT 15th. Please participate in this fundraiser to help lower the cost of the trip for each student. Reynoldsburg City Schools is now allowed to take donations from businesses. If you or someone you know owns a business, and would like to donate to the DC trip please contact lauren.taylor@reyn.org. Donations will be viewed as sponsorship, and sponsors will have the opportunity to have a logo on the DC trip t-shirts.

Hello, HAMS families,

Reynoldsburg City Schools have once again partnered with Children's Hunger Alliance to provide weekend food boxes to those who may be interested. These meal packs have 5 shelf-stable, non-perishable, meals (3 regular, 2 breakfast) and are available to students across RCSD. If you are interested in signing your child up, please complete the form below.

Students will be able to collect their weekend box from Mrs. Pittman on Fridays. If there is no school on Fridays, the boxes will be available on Thursday.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdCB8506QJI5x5yZ0xh4EwvsB7cTMKgB8f5HVfT7teGCFczEQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

Please feel free to reach out to ashley.pittman@reyn.org if you have any questions.

In addition to updates of events in our HAMSLetter, we have created a HAMS family calendar!! You can add this google calendar to your own by clicking the link below.

HAMS Family Calendar

Reynoldsburg City Schools requires an updated Emergency Medical Form to be kept on file for every scholar. Please fill out the EMA HERE and return to the HAMS Main Office during Raider Check-in on August 17th or to your scholar's homeroom teacher on the first day of school

Reynoldsburg City Schools Food Service Department recognizes the importance of providing
students with healthy and nutritious meals at school. The complete Food Service policy can be located at: https://www.reyn.org/policies.aspx

• Breakfast—Reynoldsburg City Schools provides a breakfast program to all students in all schools in accordance with federal regulations. For pricing and menu information, please check with your child’s school, or visit: https://reyn.nutrislice.com/menu.
• Lunch—Reynoldsburg City Schools offers a hot lunch service daily featuring a variety ofitems. Menus and pricing information are available at https://reyn.nutrislice.com/menu.

PaySchools Central is a secure and convenient website application that allows parents to add to their child’s meal account online using any Visa or Mastercard (including Debit Visa and

Mastercard). To use the PAYFORIT.NET online system visit www.PaySchoolsCentral.com website.

Please note that breakfast and lunch will be free for students for the 2021-22 school year, however, we are strongly encouraging all families who are eligible for Free and Reduced lunch to still complete the application https://payschoolscentral.com/. It is still important for families to apply for meal assistance. This is what helps determine how much funding the school district gets for programs that help children, families, teachers and administrators. If your child has been approved for free meals and has a negative balance, you are still responsible to pay off the balance on their account.

The district offers a variety of technology tools, computer network and internet access to students and staff. Students are permitted and encouraged to bring personally-owned devices to school to support and enhance their education. They are provided filtered, internet access for personal devices, but not direct access to the district's networks, including printers and shared drives.

With these privileges come high expectations for responsible technology use and behavior. All students and staff must sign the district's Computer and Technology Acceptable Use Policy in order to be granted access to the district's network and technology resources. Please review this policy and keep in mind that it may be updated at any time in order to accommodate rapidly changing technology.

The Technology Acceptable Use Form must be completed for each student prior to distribution of his/her/their school issued device.

Please download a copy of our 2021 - 22 School Year Student Handbook. Hard copies will be provided to families and can also be found on our school website at https://www.reyn.org/hannahj.ashtonmiddleschool_home.aspx

Prior to the start to the school year, the District announced that "all Pre-K through 12th
grade students, teachers and staff will be required to wear a mask indoors during the school day to help to decrease the transmission of the COVID-19 virus and its variants, regardless of vaccination status. Masks are also required for everyone who is unvaccinated.

All students are required to wear masks at all times while using public transportation, including school buses. This is mandated per the CDC and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)’s Security Directive SD 1582/84-21-01. This directive includes students using school transportation for sporting events or extracurricular activities."

We are seeing an increase in Covid cases among our scholars. We are committed to the health and safety of our scholars, staff and visitors to our building, and we need your help!! Many of our scholars are not reporting to school with masks and/or are not wearing them properly. Scholars are wearing masks below their faces, not covering their noses or are not wearing them at all. Please take time at home to talk with your child about the importance of wearing their masks while in the building and on our school buses and providing your child with a mask to wear when they report to school.

We appreciate your assistance in helping to keep our school community healthy!!

Mrs. Breen Slauter, Principal

Email: attendance.hams@reyn.org
Website: https://www.reyn.org/hannahj.ashtonmiddleschool_home.aspx
Location: 1482 Jackson Street, Reynoldsburg, OH, USA
Phone: 614-367-1530
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HannahAshtonMiddleSchool/
Twitter: @ReynHAMS

Ms. Breen Slauter, Principal breen.slauter@reyn.org

Mr. Toby Quinn, Assistant Principal toby.quinn@reyn.org

Ms. Suzanne Robetoy, Administrator of Student Support suzanne.robetoy@reyn.org

Mrs. Ashley Pittman, Social Worker ashley.pittman@reyn.org

Mrs. Quan Boyd, Secretary quan.boyd@reyn.org

Mrs. Kerry Riggs, Secretary kerry.riggs@reyn.org

Office Hours are 7:00am to 3:00pm