The LMS Express

Hi all-

Today, a group of our Student Council members went to the NELMS (New England League of Middle Schools) Student Leadership Conference at Southern New Hampshire University. This small group of student-leaders are just a few of the LMS students that do incredible things on a regular basis. Whether in the classroom, at the theater, on the concert stage, athletic fields and cross-country courses, participating in math competitions and competitive debates, volunteering at the Senior Center, or helping our school as part of the LMS Upstanders Committee, our students are doing so much! We are proud of each and every one of them, and we're proud to be such an instrumental part of their growth and development.

This edition of the LMS Express is full of just some of the "goings on" at and around LMS these days. Thanks for having a look!

Be well,

Tom

October 21st & 22nd - Mrs. Lenning Hood Field Trips

Friday, October 23rd - NELMS Student Leadership Conference

Wednesday, October 28th - School Board Meeting, 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, October 29th - Picture Retake Day

Thursday, October 29th - 11:30 Dismissal, Parent/Guardian-Teacher Conferences

Friday, October 30th - No School, Parent/Guardian-Teacher Conferences

Tuesday, November 3rd - Election Day

Friday, November 6th - 7th & 8th Grade Dance/Activity Night, 6:00-8:00

Monday, November 9th - Field Trip to Mr. C at LOH (information below)

Tuesday, November 10th - LMS Veterans Day Luncheon

Wednesday, November 11th - No School, Veterans Day

Saturday, 11/14 & Sunday, 11/15 - Lebanon Craft Fair

Tuesday, November 17th - LMS Spelling Bee

Wednesday, 11/2-F5riday, 11/27 - No School, Thanksgiving Break

Please be aware of an important upcoming safety update. Beginning Monday, October 26th, there will no longer be a crossing guard stationed at the Dartmouth College Highway (Route 4) crosswalk in the mornings. Because this is a seasonal position, morning coverage is concluding as the weather shifts.

Please note that afternoon crossing guard coverage will remain in place to assist students during dismissal. We will send another message if this changes.

Our first round of Parent/Guardian-Teacher Conferences at Lebanon Middle School is coming up soon!

Conferences will take place on Thursday, October 29th (11:30 dismissal) and Friday, October 30th (no school).

All conferences will be held with your student(s) advisor, who have by now sent parents/guardians to sign up for a specific time slot.

For more detailed information about this conference structure, please read over this document: LMS Conferences Information for Parents/Guardians.

Please reach out directly to Tom Harkins or to your student's advisor if you have any questions.

To be a part of our LMS Operation Bundle-up by sponsoring an LMS student, please click here. Thank you!

In honor of Veterans Day, Lebanon Middle School would like to recognize and celebrate the brave men and women who have served or are currently serving in our nation's armed forces.

We warmly invite any student family members who are veterans or active-duty service members to join us as our special guests on Tuesday, November 10th.

To show our deepest gratitude for your service and dedication, we would love to buy you lunch as you share a meal with some of our students. This is a wonderful opportunity for our students to celebrate their personal heroes and for our school community to express our collective thanks.

Event Details:

• Date: Tuesday, November 10th

• Location: Lebanon Middle School (3 Moulton Ave, Lebanon)

• Lunch Time: 11:15-12:45

If a veteran or active service member in your family is able to attend, please RSVP by Wednesday, November 4th by emailing Tom Harkins (tharkins@sau88.net). Please include the name of the attendee and the name of the LMS student so we can ensure you are seated together.

Thank you for your service to our country. We look forward to honoring you at our school!

We are excited to announce that all 5th, 6th, & 7th graders will be going on a field trip to the Lebanon Opera House on Monday, November 9th to see "Mr. C: The World In Motion".

This is from the LOH website:

Are you ready for some toe-tapping music, mind-blowing media, and hair-raising science? If so, join Mister C for a one-hour lesson in the lab.

Mister C is no stranger to finding exciting and engaging ways to explore STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) in our everyday lives. With The World in Motion, he illustrates Newton’s Laws of Motion by demonstrating pendulum swings, inertia hammers, hovercrafts, and more.

Students and teachers will be amazed by this funny and educational performance that uses the engineering design process to make the ordinary extraordinary!

The World in Motion is conceived and performed by Kevin Cornell, an educator with more than 20 years of experience. He’s worked as a classroom teacher, principal, curriculum specialist, and district administrator. His specialty is inspiring and engaging learners of all ages using video, music, and live presentations.

Please note: 5th, 6th, & 7th graders will be walking from LMS to the Lebanon Opera House (down the rail trail access through the DPW parking lot). We will send reminders the week prior so that people can dress appropriately. If the conditions are unsafe for any reason, we will have an alternative plan.

Ryan won the contest for pitching a restaurant and menu to "Gordon Ramsay". He got to wear the coat when he won! He was judged on cooking vocabulary, description and the ability to sell his concept. This is part of an ongoing collaboration between Dartmouth College students learning about language acquisition and LMS students in the ELL program. All students did a great job and made everyone in the room hungry!

Eighth-grade social studies classes recently had the privilege of examining a collection of letters from the Civil War. This valuable collection was generously loaned to the classroom by a student's family. Students greatly enjoyed viewing historical correspondence.

Each Thursday morning is "Reading Day" during our daily Advisory period. This is a highlight of the week for all!

Mr. G. came out for a snack and a visit with some of our 5th graders!

The Upstanders working on posters to promote the power of kind deeds!

Students and staff who receive leaves on the community tree for doing good deeds get to drop a bouncy ball in the tube to represent the kindness they spread at LMS. Thank you for making the school a better place!

Eighth graders in Mrs. Sturtz's class identify the physical and chemical changes that occur when making S'Mores.

All students at LMS in 7th & 8th Grade English Language Arts classes are reading fascinating novels!

For their Different Perspectives unit, 7th graders are reading A Long Walk to Water by Linda

Sue Park. The perspective of Salva Dut is based on his true story of strength and perseverance as a 'Lost Boy' walking hundreds of miles from southern Sudan to Ethiopia and then Kenya in the 1980's and beyond.

In their Dystopian unit, 8th graders are reading The Giver by Lois Lowry. Students are finding the answers to the question, "What are the dangers of creating a perfect society?"

Enjoy the photos of the giant novel covers created by a variety of students in both 7th & 8th grade!

Pumpkin decorating in Advisory!

Amy Franklin returned from Riverview Farm in Plainfield, New Hampshire. She talked to students in Family & Consumer Science about diversified farming, Apple science, and the history of apples. She brought varieties of apples for students to taste and vote on, and that was very popular among all students!

The LMS Wellness Committee put on a “Fall Taste Test.” Mrs. Fraser made delicious butternut squash soup for students and staff to sample. Thank you to our student volunteers for passing it out!

Global Voices Club had its first monthly meeting after school on Wednesday. This month we learned all about Diwali, the Indian Festival of Lights, from Shravya, and heard a story about the origin of Diwali from Sam. Then we enjoyed some tasty Indian snacks. Our November focus will be the country of Lebanon. Students who want to explore cultures around the world can join us by having their parents sign them up on Final Forms.

Parents, guardians, and staff who have a cultural tradition they'd like to share at a future meeting, please reach out to Sydney Johnstone or Brooke D'Entremont.

12 students from the LMS Debate Team attended the first debate tournament of the year, competing at Oyster River High School on Saturday, October 17. The topic was whether the U.S. should impose a moratorium on the construction of new hyperscale data centers.

Our debaters rose to the challenge of competing against high school students, with several teams earning wins along the way. Congratulations to all twelve students for their hard work, teamwork, and enthusiasm! And a big thank you to the three LMS parents who went along and served as volunteer judges!

The team's next tournament will be Saturday, November 7, at Portsmouth High School. The topic for that tournament will be the same.

Go, LMS Debate Team!

Last night LMS Gold team (Ruiqi, Karl, Evie, Charles) took home second place at our first meet in Windsor. We also had two competitors tie for first, Karl and Ruiqi with perfect scores, and Molly and Elise rounding out the podium with sending second and third places. All mathletes performed very well at the meet, and represented Lebanon with respect and good sportsmanship we are so proud of their efforts!

At the direction of the Lebanon School Board, our district has begun a process to examine potential changes to our school day start and end times to better support student learning and well-being. Because our district relies on a staggered bus transportation system, our elementary schools and secondary schools cannot open simultaneously. Research and recommendations from major professional organizations suggest that middle and high schools benefit from a later start time to align with adolescents' biological sleep patterns, yielding benefits such as improved academic performance, enhanced physical and mental health, reduced tardiness, and increased safety. Studies indicate that earlier start times do not negatively impact younger children, allowing districts to shift elementary schedules earlier to accommodate later secondary start times to support learning for all students. Currently, Lebanon Middle School and High School begin at 7:30 am. The national average for high schools is 8:00 am, and fewer than 10% of high schools begin at or before 7:30.

Our committee includes parents, teachers, and other district staff, as well as LHS and LMS student committees. We are proceeding cautiously with this inquiry and working in close collaboration with our Authorized Regional Educational Area (AREA) partners, including Grantham and Plainfield, to evaluate community impacts. Later this fall, we will send that information with surveys to families, faculty, and students to learn how a potential shift might affect your routines and schedules. In the winter, everyone will also have opportunities to share feedback during in-person Q&A sessions before any decisions are made. Should a change be decided upon, the earliest possible date for implementation would be Fall 2028.

You can read more about the research behind this initiative here. If you have questions or concerns that you would like the School Start Time Committee to know about now, you can submit them via this Google form; this will remain open until Oct. 25th.

Carter Moote, an 8th grader at Lebanon Middle School is excited to play the role of Young Elsa/Ensemble in what is sure to be one of Northern Stage's most magical shows to date. Tickets sell quickly once November comes (with some shows already sold out), so don't delay!

Carter will play the role in the Winter cast, so be sure to purchase your tickets for one of the following dates/times if you want to come support this proud Lebanon student! For a list of show dates that she'll be in, please click here.

The LMS Scripps Spelling Bee is Wednesday, November 18th at 3:30 in the LMS Library! (This is a date change.)

If your student has signed up, remind them to Practice, Practice, Practice! Spelling isn’t about being perfect the first time. It’s about practicing, noticing patterns, and learning from mistakes. Scripps developed a free app called Word Club. This is a very good resource for practice and available through Apple and Google App stores for free.

For questions or information, contact Jodi Lenning jlenning@sau88.net.

The LMS XC team recently competed in two big, competitive meets and came away with some impressive performances.

At the Woods Trail meet in Thetford, VT the girls team took first place out of 13 teams, earning their fourth victory of the season while the boys took 2nd out of 21 teams.

Then, this past weekend at the Hopkinton Cross Country Festival, roles were switched. This time the boys won, taking 1st out of 24 teams while the girls took 2nd out of 23 teams.

In both meets, the boys were led by top finishers Carter Walsh and Ethan Trudeau and the girls by Hannah Gray, Molly Swanson, and Melanie Martin. But, in cross country it is often the 3rd-7th runners that are keys to victory. Carter and Ethan were backed up by a tight pack of Aadhi Eedula, Daniel Achord, Brandon Kay, Jacob Labore, Andre Trudeau, and Alex Pomeroy. The girls also had a surging pack of Caroline Knittle, Keira Mailloux, Imi Waraschinski, Charlotte Roy, Finley Streit, and Nayra Mikecz.

The cross country team has a local meet at Indian River Middle School this Thursday, before traveling back to Hopkinton to run in the NH Middle School State Cross Country Championships on Oct 24.

Students in 5th grade have been very busy in their STEM classes. All of the students just finished their first Module assessment in Math. To prepare for the assessment, students practiced long division with a game of Capture the Flag and they practiced order of operations by solving clues to figure out a mystery. Next week, we will be starting our second Module on fractions. In Science, classes are continuing to learn about and practice the scientific method. Students participated in a skittles lab in which they had to identify the different variables, form a hypothesis, conduct the experiment, collect and analyze the data and form a conclusion. The testable question for the lab was: How does the temperature of water affect the time it takes for a skittles' color to dissolve. Over the next few weeks, we will continue to practice the scientific method.

November Meeting

Join us for our November meeting on Wednesday, 11/4 at 6:30 PM in the library or on GoogleMeet. Come to one meeting or come to them all!

Lebanon PTOs Craft Fair, November 14 & 15, 10:00-3:00 at LHS

With over 60 local artists selling hand-crafted items (including some of LMS's own students!), the Lebanon PTOs Craft Fair is sure to fill you with holiday spirit. Admission is free! See the flyer below for more details. We also need volunteers and bake sale donations to help make this fundraiser a success - sign up here!

Save the Date: 7th/8th Grade Activity Night at the CCBA, December 5, 5:30-7:30 PM

Thank you,

Katie, Nicole, Christine, Stephanie, Julie, and Anja

Lebanon Middle School PTO

Visit our website for meeting and event information!

Jerimiah stopped by LMS for some pictures with familiar faces (and family!).

The correct answer was MRS. JONES' CLASSROOM! Thanks for playing!

The correct answer will be revealed in the next LMS Express!

For previous "Signs Around School", you can click here.

This year, we have 9 Lebanon School District students in grades 6-12 acting (Aarti Palaniappan, Diya Kashyap, Henry Dansby, Jacob McDowell, Jonah Fox Trussell, Katherine Seregina, Molly Bober, Natalie Thakur and Yuki Feiler), as well as two LMS teachers volunteering in the Trumbull Hall Troupe annual performance.

This theater group is unique because it involves Upper Valley teens and all proceeds go to 3 local charities: CHaD, the Haven, and the Zienzele Foundation. Last year THT teens raised $63,000 for these three local charities!

This year's show is a Brittany Spears jukebox musical, "Once Upon a One More Time" performed at the Lebanon Opera House on Nov. 6, 7, & 8th.

To buy tickets and support this troupe, their charities and the LSD students please visit: LOH Once Upon a One More Time Tickets (note: tickets range from $17-$32 each)

ABOUT THE SHOW: Powered by the chart-topping hits of the undisputed Princess of Pop, Once Upon a One More Time turns our favorite fairy tales upside down with a clever twist! When a fairy godmother goes rogue and plops copies of The Feminine Mystique in the laps of classic heroines, the damsels embark on a quest to rewrite their stories and redefine “happily ever after.”

Once Upon a One More Time weaves 23 of Britney Spears’ smash singles—like “Crazy,” “Oops!…I Did It Again,” “Circus,” “Lucky,” and “Toxic”—into “a big, modern, musical dance party, with Britney’s beating heart at its core.” (ABC News)

Did You Know?

Did you know that every student attending school in Lebanon can get a library card from Lebanon Public Libraries, even if they live in another town? With your card, you can check out books, movies, video games, board games, and all kinds of other cool stuff!

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! (Yes, we sound like an infomercial.)

You don't even need a library card to join in on the fun! Our Youth Services Department has activities happening throughout the year, and we'd love to see you!

Teen Nights: Once a month, we take over Kilton Library AFTER HOURS! Join us on select Fridays from 5:30–7:00 PM for games, activities, hanging out with friends, and PIZZA! Pizza in the library after hours? That’s a whole vibe.

After-School Snacks & Crafts: Need somewhere to hang out after school? Say less. Stop by Monday through Friday until 5 PM to grab a snack, make something creative, play computer or board games, do homework, find your next great read, or just hang out with your friends and our VERY FUNNY Youth Services staff!

Teen Advisory Board (TAB): Have you ever thought, "You know what this library needs..."? Well, give us the tea! Join our Teen Advisory Board and help us plan programs, share your ideas, raise money for activities, and make the library an even better place for teens. Your library, your voice!

And there's more! We have special events, random activities, and new things happening throughout the year. We've got lots of ideas, plenty of energy, and a whole library to have fun in.

Come hang out with us! We promise we're fun. (Our coworkers may have differing opinions about just how funny we are.)

Peep this . Here’s what’s giving soon!

SAU88 District Events Calendar

2026-2027 School Year Calendar

LMS Lunch Menu

LMS PTO Page

LMS Athletics & Co-Curricular Offerings

Elm Team (8th Grade) Homework Page

Willow Team (7th Grade) Homework Page

Spruce Team (6th Grade) Homework Page

You can see the full LMS Mission Statement by clicking here.