The LMS Express

Hello all,

Thank you for having a look at another LMS Express. This one is full of little glimpses into some of the incredible things happening here at LMS. Many fun activities and exciting academics take place in our school on a daily basis. Our Student Council continues to create joy with their Spirit Days and other events, and our educators continue to push our students to learn and develop into the best versions of themselves.

Yesterday marked the end of our 2nd trimester - new EAs will begin on Monday, and parent/guardian-teacher conferences will happen in a couple of weeks. Our 8th graders met with LHS counselors to begin the process of choosing their courses for next year, which is a sure sign that we're in the home stretch of the school year. Hard to believe!

Please note there is No School this coming Monday, March 10th. Teachers and Paraeducators will be here at LMS for a Professional Learning Day. I hope you all have a nice, long weekend.

Be Well,

Tom

Monday, March 10th - No School, Teacher Inservice Day

Tuesday, March 11th - City-Wide Voting

Tuesday, March 11th - All-District Band Concert, LOH, 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday, March 12th - All-District Jazz Band Concert, LOH, 7:00 p.m.

Thursday, March 13th - All-District Chorus Concert, LOH, 7:00 p.m. (tickets required)

Friday, March 14th - Upper Valley Trails Alliance visit during 7th & 8th grade lunches

Saturday, March 15th - Leb Rec Shamrock Shuffle

Wednesday, March 19th - School Board Meeting, 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, March 20th - Early Release - Parent/Guardian-Teacher Conferences

Thursday, March 20th - LMS PTO Meeting, 6:30 p.m.

Friday, March 21st - No School - Parent/Guardian-Teacher Conferences

Thursday, 3/27-Saturday 3/29 - LHS Wet Paint Players Shows

Hi, Kingston :)

All 8th grade parents & guardians should have received an email from Ian Smith yesterday with instructions for completing course registration for next year at LHS. If you are the parent/guardian of an 8th grader and you didn't receive that email, please let me know.

If you would like your student to receive a yearbook, but need some financial assistance, or if you would like to donate a yearbook to an LMS student that needs some financial assistance, please contact Tom Harkins at tharkins@sau88.net.

Due to safety concerns, students are discouraged from boarding buses other than their "normal" bus. Requests for changing buses should be made in emergency situations only, and must be approved by SAU88 Transportation Director Paula Harthan. She can be reached at pharthan@sau88.net.

Please note: The L9 bus, aka "the shuttle bus" brings students to the Lebanon Green, and can be boarded by any student on any day. The L9 bus does not require a "change of bus" request. Please let Tom Harkins know if you have any questions about this.

The LMS Lost & Found bins are full once again! Lost & Found items will be on display outside the gym during the week of conferences (March 17th to March 21st). All unclaimed items will be donated to the Listen Center on Friday, March 21st.

Here is the lineup for next week's concerts:

Tuesday, March 11th - All-District Band Concert, LOH, 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday, March 12th - All-District Jazz Band Concert, LOH, 7:00 p.m.

Thursday, March 13th - All-District Chorus Concert, LOH, 7:00 p.m.

Regarding Thursday's concert: Each chorus member has been issued 3 tickets for friends & family to attend. Unfortunately, due to space constraints of the LOH, only ticket holders will be granted entry. Thank you for your understanding.

Over the past few months, a group of 37 LMS educators participated in a book club focused on The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. This important work examined the critical challenges facing today's youth in our digital age and offers valuable insights for parents and educators.

Key Takeaways from Our Discussions

Our faculty engaged in meaningful conversations about:

- The impact of social media on student well-being

- Strategies for supporting emotional resilience

- Ways to foster healthy digital habits

- Building stronger parent-school partnerships

Parent Reading Recommendation

We strongly encourage all parents and guardians to consider reading The Anxious Generation. Understanding these contemporary challenges can help us work together to support our students' mental health and academic success. The book is available at local bookstores and libraries.

Looking Ahead

Stay tuned for more resources in our upcoming newsletters!

In math, students have been investigating area and perimeter.

In science, students explored gravity by calculating how far they could jump on other planets and studied moon phases using Oreos and a model consisting of a lamp and a “moon pop” (foam ball on a pencil).

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The LMS Student Council sponsored "back-to-school" Spirit Days last week, and they were a fun way to come back from February Break. Thank you, Student Council! For pictures from our Twin Day and Tropical Island Day, please follow this link: Student Council Spirit Days 2025.

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Our Student Council also sponsored the 2nd Dance/Activity Night of the year, and it was another stellar success! For many pictures from that event, please click this link: LMS Dance/Activity Night 2.28.25

We shared quite a few pictures from our Winter Carnival in the last LMS Express. For many, many, more please click this link. LMS Winter Carnival Pictures February 2025. (This is a very large .pdf file and may take a few moments to load. This Google Slides Version may load more quickly.)

Clicking on those links will bring you to literally hundreds of pictures of the various fun events we've had over the past couple of months at LMS. There have been a number of student and faculty/staff photographers for those events. I would like to thank each of them, along with Mrs. Roper and Ms. Fusco for the tremendous amount of work in organizing those photos. Thanks, all!

On Wednesday, Spruce Team students stepped into the world of Ancient Egypt through an interactive gods and goddesses speed-dating activity. Each student took on the role of a powerful Egyptian deity, complete with a profile description and image, bringing mythology to life. Rotating every three minutes, they engaged in lively, in-character conversations, sharing key details about their ancient Egyptian identity. As they met new "deities," students uncovered connections, rivalries, and relationships among the gods and goddesses, gaining a deeper understanding of their significance in ancient Egyptian culture.

On Thursday, students took their learning further by selecting one of the gods or goddesses they encountered during the activity to research in depth. With access to a curated collection of resources and structured templates, they began crafting a three to four slide presentation highlighting their chosen deity’s role, symbols, myths, and influence.

Next week, students will showcase their findings in small group presentations, allowing them to expand their knowledge of multiple gods and goddesses while practicing their communication skills. Through this engaging blend of hands-on activities, research, and peer learning, students are developing a rich understanding of ancient Egyptian beliefs and mythology.

Students in Mrs. Proper's and Mrs. Lemelin's 5th grade classes completed a stem challenge and had to engineer chinampas (floating gardens) to finish up our study on the Aztec Civilization.

Composting has returned to LMS! Many thanks to Ms. Rzemien and Sra. D'Entremont for all their work to bring this valuable experience back for our students and staff.

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An important part of the week!

Students writing scripts and performing poetry.

The co-ed LMS Nordic Ski team just wrapped up a fun and successful season. Over February break they competed at the NH Middle School Championships in Sandwich against 18 other teams. The girls team placed 2nd and the boys team placed 4th!

Below photos show the team at a race in Jackson, NH and the girls with their trophy from the State Championships.

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The LMS Wrestling team took to the mat a couple of weeks ago in the NHWAY States, competing against other wrestlers from across the state. 6th grader Parker Chaput took 6th place, and 7th grader Gabe Del Frari took 5th place and wrestled a total of 7 matches to achieve this. Last but certainly not least is 8th grader Molloy Albee-Deroehn who took 4th place. These 4 wrestlers have qualified themselves to go on to Youth New England's on March 15th an 16th in Fitchburg Massachusetts. Congratulations to the whole team!

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Registration for baseball and softball is open. Please reach out to Autumn Lanseigne, (alanseigne@sau88.net) Director of Athletics & Co-Curriculars with any questions.

Students who signed up for the Fisher Cats Reading Challenge during Open House will bring home bookmarks with additional information attached. Please read the details carefully.

Please note that the deadline for sending the necessary information (either via snail mail or digitally) is April 1. This is a Fisher Cats deadline, and there are no exceptions.

p.s. If you are willing and able, please send us pics of LMS students enjoying a Fisher Cats game through their free Reading Challenge tickets! Thanks!

Leb Rec's annual Shamrock Shuffle is Saturday, March 15th! Last year, we had an LMS crew that wore green headbands and wristbands to show our community. I still have a lot of those headbands and wristbands, and I'll be promoting this event with the students starting next week. This is always a fun event that gets people moving on a March Saturday morning, and builds up our Lebanon community.

We have funds available for anyone that would like to participate but needs some financial assistance. Please reach out to me at tharkins@sau88.net or Elena VanZandt at evanzandt@sau88.net if you would like to discuss this.

We hope to see you out on the course wearing your LMS headbands & wristbands!

Birch Team 8th graders visited HACTC this week. Each LMS 8th grader has the opportunity to visit HACTC each year to give them a glimpse into this fantastic opportunity that is available to them over the next few years. Many thanks to Mrs. Allard for making these visits happen!

Using corn syrup, rice, marshmallows and red hots, seventh grade Birch students model the components of blood during their "Blood Soup" lab.

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5th and 6th graders have worked hard for several weeks to convert a simple block of wood into a superfast dragster. They learned some basic physics lessons about aerodynamics, friction, and drag before designing, shaping and painting their cars in preparation for the big race. Students used some basic hand tools and a few power tools to create their masterpieces.

A bracket was created and students raced to the last one standing! Today's winners were:

5th Grade

!st Place - Vihaan Nalla

2nd Place - Maddy Smith

3rd Place - Remy Pouliot

6th Grade

1st Place - Anderson Norris

2nd Place - MJ Attiku

3rd Place - Rose Gibbs

The top 3 from each class will get to race their cars again at the end of the school year to find out who has the fastest car in the school!

The LMS Speech and Debate Team has recently competed in TWO tournaments. At both tournaments, the question we debated was whether the U.S. should join the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is a court that investigates and tries individuals charged with war atrocities and other crimes against humanity. As always, students had to prepare their own cases and debate both sides of the issue.

On February 1, we traveled to Portsmouth High School to debate against New Hampshire high schoolers. We had a great time and picked up a combined 3 wins out of the total 11 rounds we debated. New team member Graham Sielicki made his debut!

On February 15-16, we traveled to Cambridge, MA, to compete in the annual Harvard National Speech & Debate Tournament, one of the larger and more prestigious tournaments in the world of speech and debate. Across two days, our teams picked up a combined 5 wins out of 16 rounds against other middle school teams from across the country. Congrats to all for doing very well against some very talented opponents! Additional kudos to the team of Pluto Beirne-Freiman & Cooper Rhoads, who made it to the "triple octofinal" round, signifying that after the five preliminary rounds, they were ranked in the top 64 out of the total field of 201 teams.

Next up, we'll be taking part in a qualifier round of the American Legion Junior Oratorical Contest locally here in Lebanon on Saturday, March 1st. That is a speech contest about various aspects of the U.S. Constitution.

After that, our March tournament with the New Hampshire Debate League will be Saturday, March 22nd at Manchester Memorial High School. The topic for the March debate is, "Resolved: In the United States, the benefits of the use of generative artificial intelligence in education outweigh the harms."

It is never too late to join the LMS Speech and Debate Team! To get in on the fun, To join the team, have your parent or guardian sign you up in Arbiter, and then come to the next Tuesday practice, which are held most Tuesdays from 2:30pm-4pm in room #237.

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• 🌷🌞 Spring is nearly here, and it's time to start thinking about your garden! Get your seeds, bulbs, and plants while helping the LMS PTO raise funds for future mini-grants and events.
• 🍅🍎 For a wide variety of vegetable and flower seeds, shop Fedco Seeds here (group code LEBANONMS). Seeds will ship to school; stay tuned for details on pickup
• For flower bulbs, seeds, and potted annuals, shop Three Rivers here (group code: CF4EF6). Bulbs and seeds will ship directly to you; stay tuned for details on potted annual pickup.
• Our next meeting has changed to Thursday, March 20, at 6:30 PM due to the chorus concert on the 13th. See you then!

Please click this link for the March 2025 Superintendent update from Amy Allen.

Please use this link to weekly reminders and this link Community Partner information.

On Friday, March 14th, staff members from the UVTA will be visiting LMS during 7th & 8th grade lunches to meet students and share information about their program. (On a personal note, my own son participated in UVTA a few years back, and we had a great experience. I'd be happy to share more information from my own perspective if anyone would like to discuss this.)

2025 Registration is now open on the Lebanon Baseball website, www.lebanonyouthbaseball.com.

The "L" in LMS PRIDE is for Leadership

"We believe in modeling for others and being a positive public example in all we do."

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

You can click here for past issues of the LMS Express.