The Pulse of the Pride
Lyme School Friends,
We have had a wonderful two weeks! Last week, we finished up some of our school-wide assessments. This week, we had our Open House! Our students continue to do great work at school!
We still have some families that have not completed the ALMA Start Forms and Tasks in ALMA. It is very important that you do so and we have extended the date you can do this through Friday, October 13th. If you need assistance, please contact Amanda Perry in the office.
The PTO will be printing a directory this year. We encourage parents to opt in to the PTO directory in ALMA. To opt in to the directory, you can click on the link for “my info” or get there through your profile icon in the top-right corner. You can toggle your visibility in the directory. You cannot control what information is displayed. If you opt to include your information, the directory will ONLY show the following information:
Name
Email(s)
Phone number(s)
Opting in to the Directory gives us permission to share your information with the PTO for the directory.
Thank you for attending Open House! It was great to see so many families! We love seeing our students show their parental units around the school!
Today was a full day for our teachers. We spent time looking at grading and report cards in our student information system (ALMA), planning for reading instruction K-5 and working in various small groups. There is always much to be done and further details will be coming out about how we will be reporting out on standards on report cards as we get closer to the end of the first trimester.
The next newsletter will hit your inbox on October 20th.
As always, please feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions and have a wonderful long weekend! Please remember school is closed on Monday, so we will see our students back on Tuesday, October 10th.
Regards,
John P. D'Entremont, Principal
Do you take photos?
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!
ALMA - Latest Updates
So far, things continue to progress with our new student information system.
So far, you should have:
- Gotten yourself logged in.
- Received an emergency alert.
- Double checked your contact information.
- Completed ALMA Start Registration for this year.
- Been given instructions to opt in to the Directory. [To opt in to the directory, you can click on the link for “my info” or get there through your profile icon in the top-right corner. You can toggle your visibility in the directory.]
When you log-in, you will be able to see assignments and grades. This is a change from last year. We will continue to update you with each newsletter.
We have not shown our students how to get in to ALMA yet, but older students will be able to access soon.
We have been working on grading and report cards. More details will come out on that soon!
If you are having trouble, please reach out to Amanda Perry or John D'Entremont.
Lyme School Apparel Store
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
School Receives AHA CPR in Schools
Under the leadership of Nurse Miller, Lyme School was gifted a CPR in Schools Kit courtesy of the American Heart Association and Dartmouth Health. The kit will be used to teach compression only CPR to our students in the future as Nurse Miller and Mrs. Damren work out those details.
Pictured Right: Mark A. Creager, MD (Dartmouth Health Heart & Vascular Center Cardiologist and former AHA President), John D'Entremont (Principal of Lyme School), Kati Miller (Lyme School Nurse), and Ashely Luurtsema (Director, Dartmouth Health Heart & Vascular Center Admin)
STANTON TIME ROUND-UP
Hello Lyme Families and Happy FALL! 🍂🎃🍎
Hope you are enjoying the colors starting to POP as we transition to autumn in the Upper Valley! I wanted to take a moment to share what has been happening during Stanton Time in lower school. Lot of Good Stuff 👍.
Kindergarten - Students are wrapping up their LISTENING Unit! These wonderful K-Kids discovered that we listen for three important reasons:
To LEARN (we listen to get new information!)
To Stay SAFE (we listen to know instructions and important information)
To show people we CARE (we need to listen to help people feel supported and cared for)
Students continue to practice whole-body listening each day - we check in with our eyes, ears, mouths, and body in order to stay engaged in our learning and take care of each other and ourselves! We also learned a new game that involves supersonic listening called “Elf on the Shelf”. Check in with your K-Kiddo to learn how to play! Next week we’ll be learning about Expected and Unexpected Behaviors as well as Green Thoughts and Red Thoughts!
First Grade - These Bucket Filling friends learned all about how what we do and say in our school, home, and community, matters! We played some fun games as we explored what it means to be a Bucket Filler and Bucket Dipper - Next class we’ll be reviewing expected and unexpected behaviors and launching into the Size of the Problem! Our goal is to get students to think about the SIZE of our PROBLEM, the SIZE our REACTION, and if they match!
Second Grade - These folks also rounded out their Bucket Filling unit and carried out a TOP SECRET Bucket Filling mission - they worked in pairs and made personal buckets for staff members in our building - truly a day-maker! They did a phenomenal job as partners - sharing materials, being flexible, being focused, best effort, and being respectful during the bucket-making. We will be exploring one of our Lyme School Values - RESPONSIBILITY, next week!
Third Grade - MISTAKES ARE…”important, helpful to learn from, proof that we are working hard and trying new things!” This is how 3rd graders finished this sentence starter. We have been learning about GROWTH MINDSET and a big part of that is understanding that we are always learning and should expect to make them. Not only in our academic world, but our social world, too! In our classrooms, sports arenas, and homes, we can model how WE recover from mistakes. We all agreed that making mistakes isn’t the best feeling and can be hard when it happens sometimes. We also agreed that the feeling changes and feels less BIG - having compassion for ourselves and others is so important. Only then can we make space to learn from the experience and move forward in our new experiences. Turns out, WE NEED MISTAKES - Ask your students about saving the chicken from the Big Hairy Gorilla…mistakes were ESSENTIAL ;-)
Fourth/Fifth Grade - Fourth and Fifth Grade do a lot of team-building initiatives during Stanton Time. We are focusing on the ACTS of the LEADERSHIP. We are exploring what being a “Leader” truly means and how that looks in our everyday actions. As Fourth and Fifth graders are the leaders of the lower school, we want to empower them to see themselves as leaders, perhaps with different styles, strengths, and areas of growth. We learned that a major part of leadership is thinking about others and doing the right thing even when others might not be. When it comes to leadership - self-reflection and self-awareness are really helpful tools to develope the type of leader you want to be.
It’s been a great month of exploring and fun during Stanton Time! Hope you all have a wonderful long weekend!
With Gusto,
Mrs. Stanton
Spanish Update by Mr. Harkins
The start of the year is a great time for a refresher on the philosophy of our Spanish program here at The Lyme School! Here is a portion of it:
In K-8 Spanish, we use the “Comprehensible Input” method of instruction which emphasizes a developmental approach to the acquisition of a new language. Acquiring a language is something that happens to you instead of something that you make happen. When you learned how to speak your first language, you acquired it naturally by listening to other people speak it around you for a long time; not by studying it. Our caregivers repeated words and phrases used often in daily life (high-frequency words) and we learned to recognize these words and phrases and responded to these “comprehensible inputs” long before we could actually speak the words and phrases. In the same manner, our K-8 students experience Spanish language acquisition, similar to how they learned to speak their first language at home with their parents. Therefore, almost all of our class time will be spent using Spanish--not using English to talk about Spanish.
In Kindergarten through 5th grades, we use the high-frequency words and phrases along with motions to help students build their listening comprehension in Spanish. Students quickly recognize and understand the many words and phrases they hear their teacher use. We use these words and phrases to make up stories in class, which we then use to make videos and little books. The stories serve as the backbone and focus of the class, and interwoven throughout each class are games, songs, mini-stories, and other activities designed to build listening comprehension and beginning spoken vocabulary. We believe strong listening comprehension skills are an important foundation for acquiring a new language.
You can click here for the full philosophy statement. If you have any questions, you can email Señor Harkins at tharkins@lymeschool.org. Have a nice weekend!
Can You Tell Me About Your Work?
Dear Families,
It was a pleasure to see you all at Open House!
Over the years, I have sent home various communications with the quote:
"The real product of art education is not the works of art, but the child.”
This comes from Lois Hetland, a senior research affiliate at Harvard’s Project Zero. The thought continues:
“We have to keep that firmly in mind–though it goes against several grains. If you are an artist and you want to make good art, I urge you to go into your studio and make good art. What you need to do as a teacher of art is create kids who make good art, create kids who think well as artists, who have an artistic mind.”
This is the argument for more autonomy on the part of student artists. So, if you are wondering why there is a dinosaur in the still life, this is why. This is also why I think it is important to ask questions about the artwork. There are a bazillion microdecisions that go into each of these proudly presented pieces of work. There are rich opportunities for making thinking visible. All you need to do is say something like:
“Can you tell me about your work?”
Fondly,
Ms.G
PE News by Mrs. D.
Students in the primary grades have been involved in a unit that encompasses using the eyes and the feet as a team, more commonly know as eye-foot coordination. This is a skill that involves taking in visual information to guide the feet. Students began this unit working independently, as they moved a ball around the gym, in general space. They have since been paired or placed in a small group to work with a classmate to demonstrate ball control and aiming toward a target with accuracy.
This helps with manipulative skill acquisition as well as being able to cooperatively work with another person, both of which meet the national standards in physical education as students continue to work on becoming a physically literate individual.
The fifth grade wrapped up an indoor soccer unit with a four team tournament . Each team played one another in regular game play and a semifinal game . Two teams advanced to the final and two advanced to play for third and fourth place . Each player was responsible for making and receiving a pass before a goal could be scored. This ensured a total team effort and an execution of skill.
Congratulations to the yellow team for capturing the championship title and a strong effort by the three other teams. Well done, fifth grade!
PE Elective News by Mrs. D.
The recent sunny skies and warm temperatures have brought team tournament play back outdoors.
Our latest sport activity has been ultimate frisbee, a great game of possession and throwing accuracy as students attempt to make short and long passes to reach the goal line. This is a highly active and involved game, where everyone is playing offense and defense without a sole defender to prevent scoring. Everyone on the team has an equally shared responsibility, as the game can shift from team to team at any time.
Congratulations to our non-pinnie team who captured the championship title in this game of movement and skill!
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