Wingspan 2025-2026

As the 2025-2026 school year comes to a close, students and teachers alike reflect on the school year. Students may remember those first days of the year, trying to figure out their locker or remembering a new schedule. Teachers may look back to those first days in amazment at how quickly the year seemed to slip by. No matter what, we should all be proud of what an amazing and successful year we have had at OMS! We have all thrived, creating an environment of community that is unmatched.

We at the Wingspan hope you continue to have a summer of success. Read a book, get outside, laugh, and enjoy all this time off has to offer!

• 🪩Mountainside Cafe- Princeton MA *** Mr. Duncan TOP SPOT 2026 ***

• Martha’s Vineyard (anywhere on the island!)

• Cape Cod- Canal Trail, CC Rail Trail, Shipwreck Ice Cream, Sundae School Ice Cream

• 🪩Lexies- Newburyport, Dover NH, Exeter NH, Epping NH, Portsmouth NH (BURGERS!)

• 🪩Lexies Landing-Newington NH (Classic summer seafood and burgers right on the bay!)

• 🪩Memories Ice Cream- Kingston NH (Try the legendary “Death by Cookie”)

• 🪩Great Island Eatery- New Castle, NH (right on the dock! Coastal vibes all the way!)

• The Egg and I Restaurant- Ogunquit, Maine

• The Marginal Walk- Ogunquit, Maine

• Federal Jacks Restaurant- Kennebunkport, Maine

• Horsefeathers Restaurant- North Conway, NH

• Meadowbrook Orchards (excellent bfast and lunch!)- Sterling, MA

• Kittery Outlets- Kittery, Maine

• Dairy Queen (DQ)-Various locations (quick and easy cold treat!)

• Zeb’s General Store- N. Conway NH

• Newburyport, MA (it’s my hometown!)

• The Paddle Inn-Newburyport, MA (great coastal themed restaurant with a vibe)

• Abrahams Bagels- Newburyport, MA (“eggcellent” bfast sandwich and FV ice coffee)

• Changing Tides- Newburyport, MA (amazing donuts!)

• The Grog- Newburyport, MA

• The Poynt- Newburyport, MA

• Sea Level- Newburyport, MA

• 🪩Chococo- Newburyport, MA (known for mini whoopi pies)

• Polly’s Pancake Parlor- Sugar Hill, NH

• Plum Island Beach -Newbury, MA

• Salisbury MA-Seabrook NH-Hampton NH Beaches- All summer long!

• Princeton Fire Department- Feel free to stop in and say hi! ☺

• Brick Alley Restaurant- Newport, Rhode Island

• Blueprint- Westminster, MA

• Janine’s Frostee (great burgers, fries, and of course ICE CREAM!)- Ware, MA

• Mt. Wachusett State Reservation

• Maudslay State Park - Newburyport, MA (a favorite place for me to bike, walk, and relax)

• Hodgie’s Ice Cream- Newburyport, Salisbury, Amesbury, MA (Cookie Monster Frappe!)

• Kimball’s Ice Cream- Westford, MA OR Lancaster, MA

• 🪩Mimi’s Coffeehouse of Hardwick- Hardwick, MA (great food and drinks! Plus donuts)

• 🪩The Frozen Orange FroYo- Orange, MA (White Choc Mousse w/mini choc chips!)

• 🪩The Thirsty Lab- Princeton, MA(great spot for unique treats and bfast sandwich)

• LLBean- Freeport, Maine

• The Vice- Westminster, MA

• The Black Pearl- Newport, RI

• Downtown Portsmouth, NH

• Moore State Park- Paxton, MA (great hill/meadow with nice sun-drenched bench to sit)

• Flatbread Pizza Company- N. Conway NH

• The Fix- Worcester, MA (great burgers!)

• Otto Pizza, Newburyport MA and Portsmouth NH

• New England Botanical Garden at Tower Hill- Boylston, MA

• Bob’s Clam Hut- Kittery, Maine

• 🪩The Village Pancake House- Rowley, MA

• Parker’s Maple Barn- Mason, NH

• Mt. Monadnock, NH

• Mad Martha’s (Outstanding breakfast! ) - Plum Island, MA

• Mt. Washington Valley, NH

• Over Easy – Sterling, MA (breakfast! Massive pancakes!)

• Quincy Market and Boston Common/Gardens- Boston, MA

• Gibbet Hill Grill- Groton, MA (Mr. Duncan loves the farm to table menus!)

• Forge and Vine- Groton, MA

• 🪩“The Bagel Shop” –Ashburnham, MA

• Lowes or Home Depot (for house projects!)- Leominster, MA

• Texas Roadhouse-Leominster, MA (for eating after shopping @ Lowes) ☺

• The Old Salt Restaurant- Hampton, NH

• Long and Short Sands Beach- York, Maine

• Tanglewood- Lenox, MA

• 🪩Woods of Westminster Golf Club-Westminster, MA

• Hampton/Sagamore Golf Club- Hampton NH

• Kays- Westminster, MA

• Sorrento’s Pizza- Gardner, MA

• Queen Lake, Phillipston, MA

• Leominster State Forest

• The Berkshires

• Wachusett Meadow, Princeton, MA

• Cordelia’s Farm- Berlin, MA (pick your own flowers!)

• North End, Boston, MA

• Summer concerts at New England venues (especially NH Bank Pavilion- Lake Winni)

• 🪩Giacomo’s (great food!)- Hubbardston, MA

• Portland “Old Port”, Maine

• 🪩The Colonial Grille-Gardner, MA

• Mill #3- Fitchburg, MA

• Baba Sushi- Worcester, MA

• Mezcal-Worcester, MA

• Shrewsbury Street restaurants, Worcester, MA

• Cristaldi’s Pizza (best beach pizza!)- Salisbury, MA/Seabrook, NH @ Jct of 286/Rt 1A

• Tripolis Pizza (2nd best beach pizza!)-Salisbury, MA/Seabrook, NH @ Jct of 286/Rt 1A

• Meredith and Weirs Beach, NH (Lake Winnipesaukee)

• Vanilla Bean Cafe-Pomfret, CT

• Iceland! (only 4 hours away by plane!)

• Mystic Sugar Bakery- North Conway, NH (voted best Choc Chip Cookie in NH!)

• Georges Diner- Meredith, NH

• Spotted Cow Cafe- Barre, MA

• Town Docks Restaurant- Meredith, NH

• Prohibition Pig Restaurant (outstanding pulled pork!)- Waterbury, VT

• Burlington VT, Brattleboro VT, and Woodstock VT

• Antonio’s Pizza- Amherst, MA and Worcester, MA

• The Hanger- Amherst, MA (delicious chicken wings! )

• Rail Trails (Amherst to Northampton, MA and Holden to Barre, MA, Groton, MA)

• Atkins Farm- Amherst, MA

• Patriot Place, Foxboro, MA

• Bolton Bean, Bolton, MA

• 🪩Carter and Stevens Farm (Stonecow)- Barre, MA

• Davis Farmland- Sterling, MA

• Bolton Orchards- Bolton, MA (cider donuts!)

• Rietta Flea Market- Hubbardston, MA

• 🪩Red Apple Farm- Phillipston, MA

• Torito Restaurant- Worcester, MA (great bean dip!)

• Hubbardston Pizza Palace- Hubbardston, MA (great BBQ chicken pizza)

• Lilac Hedge Farm- Rutland, MA

• Starbucks- various locations

• Mango’s Stone Fire Pizza- Mystic, CT

• Mystic Depot Roasters- Mystic, CT (awesome breakfast sandwiches and coffee drinks!)

• Pickity Place- Mason, NH

• Brilla Cafe- Holden, MA

• Worcester Public Market- Worcester, MA

• Water St. Cafe (voted best breakfast in NH)- Laconia, NH

• Tuckers- various NH locations (great breakfast!)

• White Mountain Bagel- Lincoln NH

• Wings Over Worcester- Worcester, MA

• Peach’s Restaurant-N. Conway, NH (awesome breakfast BUT get there early!)

• Crust Bakery- Worcester, MA

• Emma’s Place-Sterling, MA (great breakfast and lunch offerings)

• 99 Restaurant- Gardner, MA

• McDonalds-various locations (wicked yummy soft serve…and cheap!)

• Wegmans- Northborough, MA (epic food court)

• Dunnes Ice Cream- York, ME (try the Tornado flavor…soooooooo good!)

• Acadia National Park- Maine

• Bar Harbor, ME (great walking town- voted best small town to visit in NE)

• Thurston’s Lobster Pound- Bernard, ME

• Geddy’s Restaurant- Bar Harbor, ME

• Woods of Eden Glamping Campground- Mt. Desert Island, ME

• 🪩The Butterfly Place-Westford, MA

• Bowen’s Wharf-Newport, RI (great food and shops to try out and explore)

• Rail Explorers- Portsmouth, RI (ride the rails while peddling and taking in some sights)

• Crave-Beverly, MA (outstanding breakfast sandwiches!)

• Hammond Castle-Gloucester, MA

• Lobster Trap Restaurant- Cape Cod (who loves lobster?)

• Mello Moose Coffee House- Meredith, NH (great breakfast sandwiches and coffee)

• Wakefield, Quebec Canada (awesome small town in rural Canada with many activities!)

• Barre Falls Dam-Hubbardston/Barre/Rutland MA (hiking and biking!)

• 🪩The Barn Restaurant- Princeton, MA

• American Heritage Museum, Stow MA

• Pilot House, Sandwich MA (great food! Live concerts on the lawn)

• Cape Cod Coffee, Sandwich MA (great coffee and breakfast sandwiches)

• Ben’s Sugar Shack-Temple, NH (maple donuts! Also other delicious treats!)

• Peterboro, NH (lots of cools places to check out + Pack Monadnock)

• Keene, NH (lots of cool spots to check out)

• Canobie Lake Park, Salem NH

• Bocado-Worcester, MA (Like tapas? Delicious small plates to share!)

• 🪩Momo’s Pizza, Fitchburg MA

• WooSox!!! Polar Park- Worcester, MA (you might even spot me with some OMS teachers!)

🪩=Support a business owned/operated by someone Mr. Duncan knows

Looking for some local fun? Check out these places in both Ashburham and Westminster where you just might find some of your classmates hanging out, too!

-Sunset Lake

-Wyman Pond

-Crocker Pond

-Wachusett Resevoir

-Snowmill Pond

-Notown Resevoir

-Center of Ashburnham and Westminster

-Town Libraries

-Basketball courts

-Pump Track

-Playground

-Bread of Life, Youth Group (Thursdays)

-Tweedo's

-Kay's

-Vice

Middle school is always supposed to be hard; it’s the part of life people always warn you about. The awkward in-between phase. Where people learn who they are, whether it be through how they dress or how they act. This point of our lives is where we discover what type of people we want to be.

Whether it be your parents or grandparents, maybe even your second cousins, people only ever tell you the bad about middle school. How cringe it is and how you're guaranteed to make a fool out of yourself, and while that may all be true, no one ever talks about the good parts of it. All the memories you make and all the drama that seemed so serious at the time, but looking back is really all just kind of dumb. All the different people you meet, and discover how and who you want to be associated with. No one talks about how all those “cringe” and “dumb” things you did were just self expression, messing up and learning from your mistakes, understanding that you don't have to be the same as everyone else just to make friends.

In middle school, you learn how to communicate with others and how to handle relationships as unserious as they may be, but most importantly you learn who you want to become. And while one day your exact idea of who you wanted to be when you were in 6th grade is going to change, it will always be a small outline of who you are. Soon these will all just be memories and some of us will never see each other again, going our separate ways to different high schools and creating our own paths. Kids that have known each other since kindergarten will never sit in the same classroom together again. While we grow, friend groups will split up and new people will meet, but the friendships that we had throughout this time will always be a part of who we are, whether it be from a positive or negative perspective. We have matured and grown together and watched each other mess up, and soon this will all just be one big blur that we too will inevitably bundle up under the category of our “dumb”, “cringe” middle school experience.

One day the moments we currently live in will be stories we tell our kids and a point in time we wish we could go back to, because as we get older we’ll understand that nothing is as serious as we thought it to be. By the time we graduate, no one's going to remember the time you fell down the stairs during 7th grade or the really bad outfit you wore on the first day of school. What seems so big now we will realize never truly mattered. It just helped us grow into the people we will and have become.

Middle School was such a big change for me, and I know it was also a big change for everyone around me. Of course with middle school comes the stress, the homework and all the gossip and drama. But that's really all people remember from it. Some people forget that middle school can actually be a blast. There are so many fun clubs to do, you get a bit more freedom, and I met some of my closest friends throughout middle school. It’s such a short time in your life, but you create memories and form friendships that last for life. Even though you may hate it now, you’ll look back and learn to love it. It’s an emotional roller coaster, and everyone’s changing, but that's only for now. The impact and lessons from your friends and teachers will last a lifetime. So learn to just focus on the good, and your middle school experience will be even better.

A sure sign of summer vacation is a visit from the amazing Marching Spartans. Each year, the Marching Spartans travel to all of the schools in the district to show all their hard work and to inspire younger students to join. It is always a exciting to see former and current students shine while doing something they are so passionate about.

Check out the website linked below for some summer reading that is perfect for the beach, porch, reading nook, or wherever you like to get your book fix!

• Math in the Kitchen: Turn cooking and baking into math and measurement lessons. You can practice budgeting and help plan a weekly grocery trip.
• Creative Journals: Try creative writing or writing about your summer adventures. Then maybe you can submit your writing to next year's Wingspan!

• Nature Scavenger Hunts: Create a list of local leaves, bugs, or landmarks, or turn family walks into science explorations. Keep a nature journal about all the bugs, animals, or cool places you visit in nature.
• Backyard Science: Conduct mini experiments such as planting garden herbs, observing insects, or creating a DIY volcano with baking soda and vinegar.
• Local Parks: Make use of nearby green spaces and splash pads.

• Building Challenges: Use household items like LEGOs, Play-Doh, or cardboard to construct indoor forts or backyard obstacle courses.
• Visit Libraries: Each town library offers more than books, you can get passes to museums and parks.
• Local History: go to the town Historical Society to learn about the history of your town.
• Museums: go to local museums, students often get a discounted rate or use a pass from the library.

If you have made it this far, thank you! Thank you for taking the time to read our little school paper! We hope you have enjoyed the Wingspan. We are already planning for next year. If you have any ideas or would like to help out next year, let Mrs. Jensen know! We would love to have you on our team!