The Pulse of the Pride

Lyme School Friends,

We have had another great few weeks at our school.

The biggest news, which you may have noticed, is that the dumpster is gone. After much work, all of the siding was replaced and has been painted. The building looks fantastic! Remember, this is the first phase of the construction project. The second phase will be this summer when the K-3 wing has its asbestos abatement.

We also completed the annual Blisters for Books. This event was successful once again and our students enjoyed spending some time out on the Green and being cheered on! Thank you for your support of this program.

Just today, we had our Lion's Cup. This has become an all school event in recent years where the middle school advisories compete and the lower schoolers cheer on. It has become quite popular and a tradition at our school.

The colder weather has definitely arrived. With this weather, it is imperative that students bring to school layers for going outside.

In a future newsletter, I will tell you more about a newly developed student leadership group in the middle school as well as a developing podcast with sixth graders. Stay tuned!

Have a fantastic weekend and enjoy the Pulse of the Pride!

Regards,

John P. D'Entremont, Principal

Dates:

October 22, 2024 - Student Flu Clinic

October 24, 2024 - Picture Retake Day

October 25, 2024 - 7 PM - 8:30 PM - MS Activity Night

October 28 - November 1, 2024 - SPIRIT WEEK

November 1, 2024 - Lion's Club Free Eye Screener for Students

November 5, 2024 - Election Day/No School

November 22, 2024 - First Trimester Ends

The Lebanon Upper Valley Lions will be coming to Lyme Elementary School on November 1st to conduct a free Eye Screener for our students. This screener takes about 3 minutes per student and the results will then be sent home for parent/guardian review. If a child's results indicate the need for intervention (glasses), that will be included in the paperwork. The Lions club does this for free as a community service. If for some reason you do not wish your child to be screened, please reach out to Kati Miller and we will ensure they are not tested.

Lyme School Parents/Guardians,

We will be holding a flu shot clinic on Tuesday October 22 for Lyme students.

Our clinic is being offered in cooperation with the New Hampshire Immunization Program (Division of Public Health Services) and your Regional Public Health Network. The clinic is during the school day and trained medical staff will administer the vaccine.

Why sign your child up for this year’s flu clinic?

Your child will be less likely to get the flu and miss school.

You won’t have to miss work to take your child to get a flu vaccine from your medical provider.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services recommend a flu vaccine for everyone six months of age and older.

NEXT STEPS:

If you DO want your student to receive the flu vaccine at our school-based clinic, please complete the attached consent form and return it to me via email or print out.

If you DO NOT want your child to receive the flu vaccine at our school-based clinic, please DO NOT complete the consent form. No action is needed.

More Information:

Your child’s vaccination information is confidential and protected under state and federal law. New Hampshire’s Immunization Information System (NHIIS) securely stores immunization information from all of your healthcare providers in a single record. The NHIIS is a HIPAA compliant, web-based system that is voluntary for you/your child.

Per NH RSA 141-C:20-f sharing your/your child’s vaccine information with the NHIIS is voluntary. You will be provided an opportunity to Opt-In (to share information) or Opt-Out (to not share information) prior to vaccination. No information will be shared with the NHIIS unless you have provided explicit consent to share your/your child’s vaccine information.

When you Opt-In to the NHIIS your child’s immunization is electronically available to you and your healthcare provider wherever they are. Unlike paper records, NHIIS records are available whenever needed and can’t be misplaced. Additional information is available at https://www.dhhs.nh.gov/programs-services/disease-prevention/immunizations/nh-immunization- information-system/nhiis-0

For general influenza information, visit the CDC’s website: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/index.html

Vaccine information from Immunize.org is also available to help answer your questions: Vaccine Information Statement: Inactivated Influenza Vaccine (immunize.org).

- Kati Miller

Pumpkin Book Character Show

Design a pumpkin or gourd to look like your favorite book character. You may use paint, glue, markers, fabric, etc. but you may not carve! Be creative!

Fill out the attached form and send it and your creation into school between October 28 - November 1.

Your character will be on display for everyone to enjoy. Pick up your character on November 1 (or it will be disposed of).

Let’s celebrate reading, fall, and the pumpkin season! You can see we are already off and starting our display!

- Mrs. Wilcox

• October 20th - Sunday - 2pm-3:30pm - Thetford Academy Open House - join us at one of our Admissions Open House events and explore the academic, athletic, arts, and outdoor offerings at Thetford Academy. Hear from TA’s award-winning faculty about our programs and curriculum and learn from current students about the TA community and experience. We can’t wait to meet you! Questions? Contact Enrollment Coordinator, Sayer Wickham sayer.wickham@thet.net - Register HERE
  
  

• November 7th - Thursday - 5:45pm - St. Johnsbury Academy Open House - Meet our Faculty, Staff, and the Administrative Team -Learn about Academic Programs, talk to coaches and club advisors, and enjoy refreshments made by culinary students. Click HERE to register
  
  

• November 14 - Thursday - Taste of Thetford Academy - TA 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. Students can order a complimentary lunch from the TA Cafe or bring a lunch from home. Transportation will be provided. Permission Forms will be distributed closer to the date. Here is an electronic version
  
  

• December 4 - Wednesday - 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. Permission forms will be distributed closer to the date. Here is an electronic version
  Registration LINK through HHS - need to sign up as well.

The Digital Drawing Art Elective has been meeting for the last 6 weeks, ending this week as the first elective session comes to a close. Digital Art is a fairly new elective, and I lucked out to have several students choose this elective for a second time. This means that rather than acclimating to digital tools, these students worked more fluently with the tools to create original work. I am proud of how each student worked to improve their abilities and started to think more critically about how artists work in this digital age. (Artwork by Isla, Lucia, Alice, Anju,Tessa, and Mae)

Last week, the Fifth Grade had their first visit with Katie at the Hood Museum of Art. We explored an exhibit called Feast for the Eyes: Food in Art. Students looked at artwork across history and cultures, focusing on a few pieces to dig into this idea that Artists might use food imagery as an expression of identity and lived experiences. After our time in the gallery, we visited the art studio and created a banner that is now outside the art room (and we love it!).

Our littlest (but often most creative!) builders dove into the engineering design process this week while trying to solve a tricky problem. How do you scratch that hard-to-reach spot in the middle of your back?? To kick things off, the children learned about identifying problems, brainstorming solutions, and creating prototypes. They then had to test and improve their designs. Their mission? To design and build their very own back scratchers.

Students brainstormed creative designs and drew their ideas. They used materials like popsicle sticks, plastic utensils, string, tape, and Q-tips. The room was buzzing with energy as they tested their creations and made improvements.

This hands-on experience not only fostered creativity and critical thinking but also emphasized perseverance and iteration. Be sure to ask your kiddo for help next time you have an itch in one of those hard-to-reach places!

If you find milkweed fluff in your child's hair or sunflower seeds in their pockets, it is because we are exploring seed dispersal in our October unit of the Four Winds Nature Program. Volunteers from the program are visiting classrooms this month to explore how and why seeds disperse. Using hands-on activities, including a visit to our own playground to collect and examine seeds, students are studying examples of seeds dispersed by animals, wind, and water (a coconut not found on our playground). After sharing their finds with the class, students have a chance to become dispersers themselves by returning seeds to the playground using their choice of dispersal method. Seed dissection to learn the parts of a sprouted bean and a puppet show featuring Benji Bear and performed by students round out the lesson.

October is Spooky Music Month in the 2nd grade! Check out these composers and their music!

Edvard Grieg- In the Hall of the Mountain King

Johann Sebastian Bach- Toccata and Fugue in D minor

John Williams- Hedwig's Theme

A big THANK YOU to everyone who supported our students and the children’s book fund for the town/school library collection through the Blisters for Books event. Many laps were completed and pledge sheets were sent home this week with the lap tally on the form. Please return pledge sheets and funds by Friday, November 1st. Thanks!

October 14-18 is digital citizenship week. All K-8 students will participate in digital citizenship lessons throughout the year during Library, Stanton Time, and Neuton Time (a new Friday special this year for middle school) classes. Students of all ages benefit from having digital citizenship skills to participate in online and classroom communities. They must navigate making choices both online and in life. There are both explicit and embedded ways we teach and model digital citizenship at school. Some of the topics within the scope of digital citizenship are media balance, online privacy, digital footprint, communication, cyberbullying, and news & media literacy.

Here are a few resources for you to use at home:

Family Tips, Ages 3-8

Articles and Tips - Searchable by age and topic

Safe Interaction Online, Grades 6-12

The fourth graders just wrapped up a research project on poetry and poets. Each student was assigned and researched a poet using both print and digital sources. They wrote a paragraph of background information they learned about their poet and chose their favorite poem to analyze. They also worked on imagery in art to illustrate their poems. They used Canva for Education to create posters. You can view the posters here.

Spanish is a place where we can reinforce (or even introduce!) topics that students are learning in other disciplines. In first grade, students will begin to learn about pictographs and bar graphs. Yet they will already have some background knowledge of graphing from this activity we did in kindergarten and first grade in Spanish in which we created a human bar graph to showcase students’ favorite color. It was easy for students to see which colors are the most or least popular based on the number of people lined up behind each color. This activity also allowed us to practice counting and answering questions in Spanish.

This week, the fifth graders began the process of learning how to belay one another on the vertical climbing wall. Before we enter the “ wall phase”, students are required to be able to independently put a harness on. In class, students were paired to practice this important first step in learning how to take on the serious responsibility of helping others get up the vertical wall safely and with a great amount of trust.

This work continues into the next few PE classes and will be a great way for students to learn how to take care of others.

This week in PE, the third and fourth grades participated in the Lyme School’s version of a “ tough bidder”. This involved students working independently, competing against the clock to attempt to make it through a series of fitness challenges.

Students kept track of the number of times they made it through one series of 4 activities that required physical and mental strength and endurance to be able to accomplish this challenging task.

There was no lack of effort and the kids have much to be proud of!

Our most recent team sport in team tournament play is called “Ultimate Ball”. This is a fast moving game that incorporates similar standards of play as ultimate frisbee and utilizes the skills of a passing similar to basketball.

After breaking a few ties and an exciting final, team blue claimed victory in the championship game. Congratulations to all players from all four teams, who kept this sport competitive and exciting!

Happy Friday, Lyme Families!

Lyme Halloween Candy Drive!

The fabulous team – Eleanor Shafer, the Converse Free Library, and a few amazing volunteers – are at it again! They've kicked off our candy collection and distribution for our neighbors along the trick-or-treating route, and we need your help to make this Halloween extra sweet! Consider donating a bag (or two!) of candy to ensure every trick-or-treater has a spook-tacular time!

Drop-off Location: The Converse Free Library – look for the candy bin outside!

Donation Deadline: October 29th at 12 noon

Live near the Common and need candy? No tricks, just treats! If you live around the Common, simply fill out this form to request some Halloween goodies.

Let’s make this Halloween fang-tastic for everyone!

Also, we’re CALLING ALL STUDENT ARTISTS! Does your child have a picture idea for our school directory? Whether it’s a drawing of their favorite school activity, our Lyme School values in action, or a welcoming place, room, or person at the school, we’d love to see their artwork! Encourage them to create their masterpiece—drawings with strong black lines reproduce best—and have them return it to the main office. Deadline is Friday, October 25th. We can’t wait to see what they come up with!

Looking to get more involved in our wonderful school community? Joining the PTO is a fantastic way to support our dedicated teachers and staff, while also helping to organize events that raise money for the Artist-in-Residence program, fund extra class field trips, and much more. We’d love to have you on the team!

We meet quarterly on the following Mondays @ 7:30 pm:

November 18th

February 10th

May 12th

Feel free to reach out at pto@lymeschool.org if you'd like to join us!

Have a beautiful weekend!

Cheers,

Fauve Dela Cruz (she, her, hers)

Chair

Lyme School PTO

pto@lymeschool.org

We do collect photos for our newsletter as well as the yearbook. If you have a photo from a school event such as the first day of school, please feel free to send to aperry@lymeschool.org or jdentremont@lymeschool.org. We have a place to store these electronically for those that work on these important celebrations! Thank You!

Our School District is hoping to continue to improve our communication with the community. I

want to take a few minutes today to update you on the work of the Strategic Planning

Committee.

The school board contracted with the New Hampshire School Boards Association to provide a

consultant to lead us through this important process. The board met with our consultant,

Kathleen Cuddy-Egbert, for the first time at the Board Retreat on August 20 th. A plan was

developed to move the process forward, and to identify important stakeholders for inclusion.

The goal is to have the broadest possible community involvement through forums, meetings,

surveys and conversations, ensuring a Plan that will reflect the values and wishes of Lyme

residents.

On September 24th the committee met for an organizational meeting at the SAU office. The

purpose was to get organized, discuss roles, the process, meeting norms and the “Why” of

having a Strategic Plan and its importance as a guiding document for decision making. A

meeting schedule has been developed. Our next meeting is on Oct 8th at 4 o’clock at the SAU

office. We hope to keep the public informed of our progress as we go. I will continue to write

summaries of our work as it happens. We do expect to have several community forums and

opportunities for every voice to he heard.

The Strategic Planning Committee is composed of the following people: Jonathan Voegele, Judy

Brotman, Owen Wohlforth, Jennifer Wilcox, Tori Thayer, Elizabeth Glenshaw John D'Entremont,

Geoff Tomlinson, Frank Perotti and our facilitator, Kathy Cuddy-Egbert. We believe this is good

balance of community, school board and educators. Community members are always welcome

at our meetings, and we look forward to a very dynamic, inclusive and transparent process.

and product.

Respectfully,

Frank S. Perotti Jr., Ed.D.

Strategic Plan Committee Meeting Minutes can be found here.

Lyme School Community,

Welcome returning and new students and families to the 2024-2025 school year. Please

refer to the following information from the Nursing Health Office.

Additional School Nurse information can be found on the Lyme School website under

the Student Support tab.

Staffing:

The Nurse's office is staffed Monday-Friday by a Registered Nurse. Please email

nurse@lymeschool.org and/or call the Main Office 795-2125 if your child is absent from

school due to illness or injury.

Duties include Nursing care, Health Screening, Medication administration, First

Aid, Emergency care, Individualized Health Planning, Health Education, and

collaborative work with families, teachers, special education services, our

guidance counselor and behavioral coach.

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

Matthew Greenway RN BSN: Wednesday/as needed coverage

Celeste McCool RN BSN: Wednesday/as needed coverage

Medication Administration:

If your child requires emergency medications (epipen, inhaler, etc.) to be kept securely

in the Nurse's office, please contact nurse@lymeschool.org to set up a time to deliver

the medication along with an updated allergy or asthma action plan from your child's

Healthcare Provider.

Returning students need an updated allergy or asthma action plan at the start of each

school year.

For daily medication administration, please complete and return the forms below with

your child's Healthcare provider.

All medications need to be dropped off before the first day of school.

Authorization for RX Medication Administration

Medication or Procedure Order Form

Student Influenza Vaccine Clinic:

The Flu Clinic for students will be held this year at Lyme School on October 22 2024

during the school day. Registration forms will be provided as we get closer to this date.

COVID-19 Information:

Please review the provided link regarding COVID-19 recommendations from the Center

for Disease Control (CDC) if your child is experiencing respiratory illness symptoms or

has tested positive for COVID-19.

CDC Guidelines

The Lyme School Nurse's office is here to support you and your child and to promote

healthy outcomes for students and staff.

Please contact me with any questions or concerns you or your student may have

regarding the upcoming school year.

We look forward to a new school year and appreciate your cooperation.

Kati Miller RN BSN

Lyme School

As of March, 1 2024 The Center for Disease Control and Prevention updated guidance to provide "practical recommendations and information to help people lower risk from a range of common respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19, flu and RSV."

We follow these guidelines. Please review the following links from the CDC for more information and reach out to me with any questions/concerns.

Thank you for your efforts in keeping our Lyme School students, staff, and families healthy.

Preventing Spread of Respiratory Viruses When You’re Sick

Testing and Respiratory Viruses

Masks and Respiratory Viruses Prevention

If you are having trouble logging into ALMA, please reach out to Amanda Perry.

Please complete the required forms for 2024-2025 in ALMA for all returning students. You will see this on the main page when you log-in to ALMA under your student(s) name.

In ALMA, you will find your child's teacher(s) and schedule, a way to message teachers directly, and paperwork that needs to be completed for this school year.

The Lyme School Apparel Store has a variety of apparel and accessories all customizable with a variety of school logos. The Lyme School PTO earns 12% of all sales. Thank you for supporting our school and go Lions! #LYMESCHOOLROCKS

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