The LMS Express

Hello all,

Our second full week has been busy and productive. Students and teachers have (overall) settled in nicely to classroom routines and procedures. Our sports teams continue to be victorious, our student musicians have their instruments tuned up, and our afterschool clubs and activities are starting up with strong participation. Next Friday is our Team Unity Day, which is always a great day for students and staff alike!

I hope you all can take some time to relax with friends and family this weekend. Thank you for taking a look at this edition of the LMS Express!

Be well,

Tom

We are pleased to welcome TWO new members of the LMS family this week!

Don Concannon joined us this Wednesday as our Substitute Assistant Principal while Dr. Rooney is out spending time with the newest member of the LMS family - Bridget Margaret Rooney! She was born Thursday, September 19th at 1:24 a.m. Mom and everyone are very happy and healthy, and all of us couldn't be happier for all of them.

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Wednesday, September 25th - Ribbon Cutting/Tours at LHS and HSS

Wednesday, September 25th - School Board Meeting, 6:30p

Friday, September 27th - LMS Team Unity Day

Tuesday, October 1st - Early Release (11:30 Dismissal) - Staff Professional Development

Thursday, October 17th - LMS Open House

Saturday, October 19th - 5th & 6th Grade Lockin at the CCBA

Monday, October 21st - Flu Clinic for students (more information to follow)

Saturday, October 26th - 7th & 8th Grade Locking at the CCBA

We are searching for 2 parents/guardians to join us as we form a Schedule Committee to look at our daily schedule and determine what changes might be made to make the student experience the best that it can be. We will be meeting on Wednesdays from 1:15 to 4:45 once a month (first meeting will be Wednesday, 10/16) through the rest of the school year. This is clearly a large time commitment, which is indicative of the size of the undertaking of rewriting a schedule for a middle school. We are hopeful that there are two parent/guardian members of the LMS community that are willing and able to commit to such an important task. Please email Tom Harkins at thharkins@sau88.net with one or two sentences explaining why you would like to be a part of the committee. If we have the luxury of more than two volunteers, we will choose randomly to determine who is a part of the committee. Our goal through this entire process is to be as transparent as possible, seeking feedback and guidance from as many stakeholders as possible within reason, please stay tuned for more information coming soon. Thank you.

Friday, September 27th is our annual Team Unity Day! There will be no classes on Friday - each team will be participating in activities designed by teachers to help promote a sense of unity and bonding amongst the students and teachers.

Teaming is a priority in our school. Research has shown that interdisciplinary teams of teachers working with a common group of students are the signature component of high performing middle schools. The team model is the heart of our school from which other desirable programs and experiences evolve.

Teachers have been working hard to plan a fun day for our students! Here's a quick peek at where each team will be on Friday:

-The Pine Team will be staying at LMS.

-The Spruce Team will be at Civic Field on Seminary Hill.

-The Birch Team will be at Storr's Pond in Hanover.

-The Maple Team will be at Camp Farnsworth in Thetford.

-The Oak Team will be at Huse Park in Enfield.

We're all looking forward to another fun day!

I have had many parents reach out this year wondering what the current covid policy is. Here is what is on the LSD website regarding our health guidelines, which include covid, updated on 3/8/24; https://www.sau88.net/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=331607&type=d

"The CDC recommendations no longer require isolation for five days after testing positive for COVID-19. Furthermore, one does not have to wear a mask for days 6-10 after testing positive. However, it is still strongly advised that students stay at home if they feel unwell (cough, sore throat, runny/stuffy nose, sneezing, etc.) and mask for five days after symptoms improve or the fever ends."

All the district nurses continue to stress to staff, students, and families~ If you are sick, please stay home, regardless of what it is.

FLU CLINIC: LMS flu clinic will be held on Monday 10/21/24. Please look for an email with information on this next week.

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns.

The Lebanon Middle School cross country team competed in their first ever meet on Tuesday 17th September, held at Hartford High School. In the 3000m race they competed against 10 other middle schools including teams from Hartford, Barre, Montpelier, Thetford, and Weathersfield. Several weeks of hard training by the team paid off, with 2nd place in the girls race by 7th grader Jill Campbell and 2nd place in the boys race by 8th grader Curran Pool, along with several more top 10s and other strong finishes. The team is competing at the Woods Trail meet at Thetford Academy on October 5th (along with the Lebanon High School XC team) and at the New Hampshire Middle School Championships at Derryfield Park in Manchester on October 19th. Congratulations to the LMS XC team on a great first meet!

Working with peers in small groups is an important skill to learn. In Flex, students learn not only to generate good questions to solve problems but also to use positive language to agree and/or disagree with one another. Here, students generated open- and closed-ended questions to solve a ratio math problem to paint kitchen cabinets at Nana's house. Everyone did really well coming up with good questions and even better at using ratios to solve a mistake made in the paint recipe.

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This week in 6th Grade Language Arts, students became genre detectives complete with detective mustaches. Learners investigated excerpts of literature to determine the genre.

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• Help us meet our fundraising goal so we can skip the catalog and still be able to fund student activities and mini-grants. Each donation before 10/19 allows you/your student to vote on which costume Mr. Harkins should wear to school this Halloween!

• Save the dates! CCBA Activity Night Lock-Ins are coming up: October 19 for 5/6 grade and October 26 for 7/8. Stay tuned for more details!
• Our next meeting is October 10 at 6:30 in the LMS cafeteria and on Google Meet. Come to one meeting or come to them all - your input helps us make the PTO better.

Visit our website for meeting and event information!

In their first Open Mic of the year, students in Ms. Lenning's class share writing they completed in response to the prompt, "What I Do Away from School".

Fifth-grade students have been learning about cardinal and intermediate directions. They loved writing on their desks with whiteboard markers to make their compass rose.

They followed this activity by creating a map on graph paper. We played "Battleship" Style. They hid their map in an open folder. Students had to describe their map to a partner using the cardinal and intermediate directions. The goal was for both students to end up with identical maps if good communication was used to communicate how the map should be drawn.

Just a reminder that students arriving to their classroom (not the school building) after 7:30 are marked "Late", as 7:30 is when Period 1 begins. Thank you.

Survivor Friday - students had to create a rubber band and string contraption to pick up and transport a yarn ball across hehe room as a team.

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Mrs. Gagne's Science Class

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Talk like a pirate, and sharing with learning partners 7th grade L.A.

Eighth grade Birch students build mini rockets out of film canisters to practice the engineering design process.

Seventh grade Birch students examine various objects to identify the characteristics of life.

Thanks to everyone that has completed the Alma START process. If you have received an email with this message:

Update for (Student's Name) at Lebanon Middle School in Returning (or New) Students 2024-25. The process outcome: Update Sis Information, has been reached.,

then you are all set! If not, please follow these instructions:

To complete the required District forms, such as student registration, photo permission, internet permission, etc. for your student, go to sau88-lms.getalma.com and log in with your username and password (generally firstname.lastname format). If you forgot your password, you can reset it from the login screen. If you are having trouble logging in, please reach out to Nikki Small at nsmall@sau88.net or call the school.

Once you log in, click the link under your LMS student that says "Alma Start Forms & Tasks". The link will take you to Alma Start to begin your back to school forms.

Some District forms such as free and reduced lunch applications will still be completed on paper and will be sent home on the first day of school. Please read through the Alma START information carefully. Accurate completion of this student registration ensures that you will receive calls and emails from the School/District for school cancellations, upcoming events, and emergencies as well as ensuring that your child will have internet access while in school. If you do not have a computer or internet access at home, access is available at school, the SAU, and at the public libraries.

If you have any questions, you can check out a tutorial on our website under Parents > Alma and by clicking here.

This year, we have re-implemented the behavior scales that some of you may already be familiar with from years gone by. We discussed these behavior scales during our First Day Assembly, and students have learned about them more during advisory periods this year. For more information about the scales, and to see them in detail, you can click here. Please reach out to Tom Harkins with any questions.

Pictured above is the LMS Community Tree as it is being created by Mr. Renninger. Ms. Marcoux brought this idea to LMS, and we're very excited about it! LMS staff and students are recognized for living out our LMS PRIDE values, and for each recognition, a leaf will be placed on the tree. Stay tuned as our tree grows!

BAM Books donated a large amount of books for our staff and students to enjoy this year. Thanks, BAM!

On Thursday, the podcast group met for the first time with the group members. During the meeting, students learned about recording technology, how to start the podcast, their goals, and where they want the podcast to go over the course of the year. Members of the community can subscribe to the podcast by following this link. Episodes will be released every Monday starting 9/30/24.

There is still time to join the LMS Choral Program! If your child likes to sing, this is the place for them!! Fifth and sixth grade chorus meets during LMS Block on X days and seventh and eighth grade chorus meets on Y days! We meet on the stage.

The chorus syllabus can be found here. Please email Mrs. Garnham with any questions (ygarnham@sau88.net)

It was great to see so many parents & guardians at school a couple weeks back. For those that couldn't make it, you can click here for the course information and syllabi that were handed out that night. Next up - Open House on Thursday, October 17th!

To add money to a student's meal account, please click here.

For the LMS breakfast & lunch menus, please click here.

We are looking for someone that would be willing and able to transport compost from our LMS cafeteria to Patch Orchards (about 8 minutes from school) each week - preferably on Friday afternoons. If you're interested, please reach out to Tom Harkins - thharkins@sau88.net or by calling the school. We saved 173 pounds of waste from the landfill this week, and we'd love to continue to do our part for Mother Earth. Thanks!

Contest Rules and Requirements:

Your Challenge: Create a video game using SCRATCH:

1. You must use Scratch

2. You can’t remix someone else’s entire game, however you may use the “Backpack” feature.

3. You must code your game to work with arrows (to be moved with a joystick) and W, S, A, & D keys for the buttons.

4. You must have your game so when you press the keyboard key ‘G’ your game will start over (like pressing the green flag)

5. Entries will be scored based on the following

1. Purpose/Narrative - what is the purpose of your game, does it have a story?

2. Technical Innovations that enhance the purpose and narrative of the game? - If asked, could you explain your code?

3. Gamification - Does your game keep score? How does it make the user want to “win”

4. Graphics - How does your game look? Did you make custom graphics or use the Scratch Library or some other online source?

5. Sound - Do you have sound effects that enhance your game and are not annoying? Can you mute your game and still play?

6. Easy to Use - Is your game intuitive to play or does your game have clear directions?

7. Originality - Is your game unique? Did you code it yourself? Did you design all or most of the graphics?

8. Bonus points: Is your game related to or connected to something you learned at LMS? For example maybe the characters of your game are based on the characters of a novel you read, where the protagonist is trying to overcome the antagonist of the story. Or maybe the storyline is based on a WWII pilot mission to defeat Germany or Japan from a Social Studies lesson. Or maybe you used your knowledge from a science unit on the laws of motion.

6. Submit by Friday, September 27th CLICK HERE to Submit

7. Winners will be presented on the LMS arcade at the LMS open house
   October 17th.

If you have any questions about making your game you can email Mr. Masi. dmasi@sau88.net

Fun-filled activities to local attractions for children in Grades 5-8. A chance to hang out with your friends and to make new ones. Activities are planned for days when school is closed. For more information, click here.

Did you know that we have a bunch of solar panels on our roof? You can learn more about the environmental benefits of our solar panel array by clicking here (and there's a link from our website)!