The Pulse of the Pride

Lyme School Friends,

Welcome to the month of November or is it May? The weather has certainly been weird! However, this has made for some great recess soccer games and other fun outdoor activities. It is hard to believe that November is already here.

Please remember that school is closed November 11th next week.

Please don't forget to turn back the clock this weekend!

Kick back and enjoy the newsletter this weekend!

Best,

John P. D'Entremont, Principal

11/7 - lunch change...lunch will be pancakes and homefries.

11/11 - No School

11/23, 11/24 & 11/25 - No School

11/18 - First Trimester Ends

Please remember we start our day at 8AM in the morning so we can get our day off and running. Thanks so much!

Students should have a clean pair of sneakers at school for the gym. This will help us keep the gym floor in pristine condition. Thanks for helping us with this!

If ordering school photos, the deadline is December 4th. https://caniaphotography.gotphoto.com/login

Dear Lyme School Families, Friends, and Staff,

As the holiday season approaches, we recognize that there are needs within our community. Last year, a food drive was held to benefit the Upper Valley Haven, our local food shelter. This year, we would like to expand our giving efforts to include a winter coat drive in addition to a food drive.

Beginning the week of November 7 and lasting through December 21, members from our middle school advisories will be in the main lobby from 7:45-8:00 am collecting winter coats of all sizes and food. There will be bins marked for each set of items. Food and coats will be delivered to the LISTEN Center and The Haven on December 21.

We are asking for the following food donations:

Rice

Pasta

Sauce

Canned vegetables

Condiments (ketchup, mustard, salad dressing, salt, pepper, etc)

Stuffing

Cranberry sauce and other canned fruits

Boxed muffin, cupcake, and cake mixes

Peanut butter

We also encourage gently used coats and jackets that are free of rips and tears.

We hope that you will join in, contribute, and provide the best gift to those in need: giving.

Thank you very much for being a part of our school's effort to help our fellow community members.

~Middle School Advisories

Thank you to everyone (students, teachers, families, and classrooms) that participated in our Pumpkin Book Character display! We had a variety of characters. Each was creative and thoughtful. They certainly inspired others to read a new book!

Kati Miller RN BSN: Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri

Matthew Greenway RN BSN: alternating Weds and coverage as needed

Celeste McCool RN BSN: alternating Weds and coverage as needed

On November 3rd, we had a successful flu clinic for our students! Thanks to Nurse Miller for organizing this for our families!

Please do remember that the unusual weather will not last forever. There are some mornings coming up that are more "normal". Please ensure your students are dressed appropriately for whatever New England weather brings each day!

Hello Lyme Families!

Becky Neuroth, our fantastic tech integrator and I, started our Digital Citizenship journey with students using Common Sense Media curriculum. We feel this unit of study is especially important now that all students at the Lyme School have a personal device in their hands during their week and might also have access at home. We will be in classrooms throughout the year addressing the below topics:

Media Balance & Wellbeing
Privacy & Security
Digital Footprint & Identity
Relationships & Communication
Digital Drama/Cyberbullying
News Media and Literacy

Common Sense Media web resources are incredibly helpful in navigating media choices available to your family. If you are ever curious about an application, website, or platform, you can get loads of information from their website.

Commons Sense has curated a Family Media Toolkit - which includes “Tips by Text” “Family Media Agreement” and “Family Engagement Resources” for conversations.

Best,

Rachel and Becky

*High School Events*

• November 17th - Thursday - 6:30pm - Rivendell Academy Information Night - Come and learn more about Rivendell’s project based curriculum, global and domestic trips, exceptional faculty, close-knit community and more! Please RSVP at website below (Even if you cannot attend, but would still like more information, please complete the form). See their latest newsletter!
  
  

• November 30th - Wednesday - 8:00-11:15am - Thetford Academy Visit Day - FOR STUDENTS ONLY This is an opportunity for 8th graders to tour the campus and get more information about TA schedule, classes, clubs, sports, and extracurricular activities. Transportation will be provided. Students will be back for lunch. Please return the field trip permission form no later than Monday, November 21st.

• December 13th - Tuesday - 4:00pm-5:30pm - Hanover High School Information Night for Parents/Guardians. Counselors and staff will offer tours and then have a presentation followed by a Q and A session with a panel of students.
  Please also see: Hanover High Welcome Letter and Important Dates for Families
  
  

• December 14th - Wednesday - 8:00-12:30pm Hanover High School Visit Day - FOR STUDENTS ONLY This is an opportunity for 8th graders to tour the building and get more information about HHS schedule, classes, clubs, sports, and extracurricular activities. A bus will be provided by Lyme School to and from. Students will need to BRING A BAGGED LUNCH for the day. Please RSVP on this form and complete/return field trip permission form no later than Friday, December 9th

Sometimes when students get stuck or become inflexible, they need a break from the classroom. They are not “in trouble”, and they come to Ms. Connie’s room to help problem solve through skills and strategies and make a plan for next time. In our collaborative problem solving, the student and I identify the problem, the size of the problem, who’s affected by/involved with the problem, brainstorm possible solutions, and identify what tools or resources we might need and use. We pick a solution to try and we check back in to see how successful it was. Smaller problems are managed at school and sometimes bigger problems might require family communication. The classroom teacher and/or I will communicate with the family if needed. My room is a place for students who need a break, who are working on focus and attention, social skills, friendships, and some support in problem solving. Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns. cbalch@lymeschool.org

We hope that you have been enjoying this beautiful Fall weather! School is off to a great start and we are excited to share and explore our Adolescent Health curriculum with the seventh graders. We are writing to inform you that beginning the week of November 21, we will start our lesson content. Rachel and I have the privilege of co-teaching this course of study and we find it consistently rewarding. Enclosed is the curriculum for you to look over.

We are excited to begin our work with your child. We're planning to send out emails that share what we addressed in class, so that you can use these as a springboard for discussions at home. Feel free to reach out with any questions that you may have.

Warmly,

Lisa Damren

Health Educator

Rachel Stanton

School Counselor

Reminder to all families to help students remember to return library books in a timely manner for others to enjoy. Overdue notices are sent periodically. Thank you for your help with this.

In the last few years, Lyme School teachers have taken a course in teaching writing called the Writing Revolution. In this course, K-8 teachers learn how to implement the Hochman Method, an explicit set of strategies for teaching expository writing. The method builds from sentences to compositions and is embedded in curricula across all content areas and grade levels.

The Writing Revolution’s method enables educators to teach writing skills and content simultaneously. There’s no separate writing block and no separate writing curriculum. Instead, teachers of all subjects can adapt the strategies and activities to their preexisting curriculum and weave them into their content instruction. For example, students can practice writing complex sentences in science, math or language arts. They become very familiar with the strategy templates and readily use the subject area content they are learning in their writing practice.

Direct instruction, strategies, and common lesson templates emphasize expanding sentences, using transitions, organizing a paragraph, writing strong topic and concluding sentences, developing a solid thesis statement, and, most importantly, revising one’s work.

In the three years since the Lyme School began using The Writing Revolution, we have seen significant growth in our students’ writing skills! As parents, you may hear about SPO’s (single paragraph outlines) and MPO’s (multiple paragraph outlines). You may also see your child using more transitions, subordinating conjunctions, and appositives in their writing, too. Ask your young writer about these components of their writing!

We are pleased to notify families that the New Hampshire Department of Education announced the launch of the new Family Portal, a secure website that provides a central location for families to access your child’s results for the New Hampshire Statewide Assessment System (NHSAS).

Information included in the Family Portal:

• Your child’s NH SAS summative results from spring 2022
• Individual score report with interpretive guides to download and print
• Glossary of assessment terms
• Frequently asked questions
• Other resources

Parents and guardians can access the Family Portal by visiting New Hampshire’s assessment portal at: https://nh-familyportal.cambiumast.com/#/

To log in to the Family Portal, enter the following information:

• Access Code which is being sent home with your child
• Child’s First Name as it appears on official school records
• Child’s Date of Birth

If you do not have an access code or have any questions on how to access your child’s results, please contact the school.

Students in the Design Lab have once again designed, built and installed a new fun feature on the playground. It's called a GaGa Ball pit. What's GaGa Ball?

A spirited group of 15 middle schoolers researched and considered dozens of different playground improvement projects. They consulted other students and teachers about their ideas, and met with the school administration and the facilities manager to discuss placement and safety concerns of their various ideas. Ultimately, it was GaGa that had the most support and seemed the most "doable". The group quickly focused around this idea, developed plans and very quickly designed and built the pit. It was just installed this week and the group will be working on developing specific Lyme School rules and expectations for GaGa, and teaching the rules to the rest of the school.

Big thanks go to the PTO for their support on this project!

I am trying two new electives for Middle School this session (a “session” is half of a trimester, meeting every other day): Sketchbook and Fiber Arts. In Sketchbook, students each have their very own sketchbook and we have been playing around with bookmaking, drawing faces, cutting into images, transforming and transferring images, and blackout poetry. In Fiber Arts, students are crocheting, knitting, weaving baskets, needle felting, and sewing. This week we had a visit with Carolyn Smith, from the Enfield Shaker Museum. Carolyn shared the Museum’s Tempestry Project, which shows weather data in knitted panels. Each row of the Tempestry panel represents a day’s temperature, shown by a color denoting a temperature range. It was eye opening to understand the process of gathering the data (going as far back as 1828!) and translating this idea into a visual representation of our climate over time. Next week, Eve Jacobs-Carnahan will visit to share her Knitting Democracy Together project.

During the last week of Country Music Month, students learned about acclaimed banjo player Earl Scruggs and listened to the crowd pleaser Foggy Mountain Breakdown. You may see a couple of familiar faces in this video, feel free to enjoy it at home!

If you have an artist, band, or composer you'd like to be considered for our Musician of the Week activity, feel free to fill out this form!

Another week, another sport , another round of champions in team tournament play. Congratulations to our floor hockey champs. Well done !!

Our annual celebration of Halloween took place during the last week of October. Students in K-5 enjoyed activities that included " Ghosts in the Graveyard" and "Ghostbusters". The themed games do not lack exercise as students ran and attempted to escape from the taggers who were trying their best to tag everyone in the room.

Between the gym decorations and the students' enthusiasm, a "spooktacular"

Come grab your Tuesday Stella's Pizza Order with the PTO.

November 29th from 5 - 6:30pm

The PTO and Stella's are joining forces. Come grab Two for Tuesday, mingle with other Lyme School parents and raise a bit of money for the PTO! Although we love kiddos, this is intended to be a parent event where parents can place their pizza take-out order. 5-6:30pm, have a drink and connect with parents while you wait for your pizza order. Pizza and drinks are on you, but a portion of your order will be donated to the PTO. RSVP here . This is an indoor event.

The next Board meeting is Thursday, November 17th at 7 PM at the Lyme School.

ALL Together has Elementary and Middle/High School Parent Handbooks available free of charge.

These handbooks are a practical guide for parents, guardians, and others who interact with youth and addresses today's toughest issues.

The Elementary edition: "Raising kids isn’t easy, start the journey off on the right foot. Cell phones, social media, anxiety and even issues with alcohol and drugs are starting earlier than ever. Learn how to set boundaries and keep your child safe."

The Middle/High School edition: "This edition of our Parent Handbook addresses some of the toughest issues affecting today’s parents and their teens. This resource will raise awareness immediately and educate readers on the latest trends, misconceptions and warning signs associated with each issue. This handbook is being used to help prevent issues such as addiction, violence and suicide across the United States."

Please fill out this form if you are interested in a FREE handbook.

OUR VALUES

● Fairness ● Acceptance of Others ● Integrity ● Responsibility

● Perseverance ● Individuality ● Compassion ● Courage

John P. D'Entremont, Principal

Elise Foxall, Academic Director

Geoff Tomlinson, Student Services Director