Like last year, LMS held its Exploratories program where the students get to try an activity that they would like to learn about. This year, there are 19 Exploratories for the students to choose from. You can try almost everything from paint by number, to curling. The students are sure to have a blast!

The Exploratories offered this year have something for everyone! For people who like to play sports, there are activities such as curling, bowling, and line dancing! And for people who just like to learn, there are activities such as baking, paint by number, and chess. If you feel adventurous, you can try the Science Olympics, Model rocket building, or Hiking! There is also an Exploratory for a few students, who will help out with the classes at the Lewisporte Academy, this is called the Leadership program! The Exploratories ran for 4 Wednesday afternoons.  Everyone at LMS had a great time!

            Every class in the school will be hosting an event or activity to help out or make the school a better place! The grade 9-1 class, also known as the Awesome Blue Crew, hosted a spirit week as their teaming project. Each day there was a special dress code if you wanted to earn points for your class.

    Spirit Week began on Tuesday, March 4^th   with Pajama Day,  the students were able to wear their PJs to school! The winners were Courtney Tetford and Jonathan Woolfrey.  

Wednesday, March 5^th, was Clash Day where the students wore a variety of colors and prints that were certain not to match. The winners were Heather Brace (1^st), Courtney Tetford (2^nd) and Stephen Brace (3^rd).

Friday, March 6^th was Super Hero or Sports Day! The students dressed up like their favorite super hero or dressed as their favorite athlete! Mark Colbourne wore a Listerine outfit that won him 1^st place! Heather Brace, Jessica Keeping and Stephen Brace came to school as Sailor Moon Scouts and they won 2^nd! Nancy Benoit dressed as her grandfather and won 3^rd place.

Monday, March 10^th was Twin Day! The students paired up with each other and dressed like twins or came to school as a popular group or duo! The winners were Stacy Hoffe, and Sacha Gale (1^st) and Heather Brace, Jessica Keeping, and Stephen Brace won (2^nd)

 For every student that participated, the class received 1 point. If the teacher of a class participated, the class would get another 5 points. Every day there was an additional 5 points awarded to the class who has the best dressed student. The class with the most points would be treated to an evening of bowling! The Class with the highest points was……(drum roll)……Mrs. Freake’s grade 5’s.

Science, Literature and Heritage Fairs

    On March 14^th the Science, Literature, and Heritage Fairs took place at Lewisporte Middle School. The grade five’s and six’s who were doing all three fairs set up in the common room, science room and the library. All the grade seven’s participated in the science fair.  Each group had to come up with a scientific invention. The grade eight and nine’s participated in all areas of the fair. They were each assigned a section of the gym.

     Some of the grade five’s and six’s projects included: Old Newfoundland remedies, School in the old days, and several science projects regarding electricity. Some of the winners in the three categories included:

     In grade five and six, the winners of the heritage fair were Tamara Hiscock and Megan Mews. The winner of the science fair was Mitchell Doucette and Andrew Chaulk. They did an experiment on electricity and did a consumer test comparing which battery lasted the longest.   In the grades seven, eight, and nine the winner for heritage fair was Sarah Clipstone. She did a project about the Ocean Ranger; it contained information on the disaster, and a scale model of the ocean ranger. The winner for the science fair was Matthew Wallace and Timothy Peckford.  They did a project on The Aerodynamics of Airplanes, and Bats. They also did an experiment involving the principle of Aerodynamics.  The winner of the literature fair in grades seven to nine was Matthew Legge.  Matthew’s project was based on the novel Lord of the Rings. Holly Coles won 2^nd place she did the novel She Said Yes! Sarah Rideout did “Into the Night (the Samantha Walsh story)”
     

    We would be remiss if we didn’t mention that our own Justin Ropson participated in the District Science Fair in Glovertown and then went on to St. John’s to receive an Award of Merit with the same project in the Aventis Biotech Challenge.

    Justin would like to thank Ms. Gosse for her support and words of advice as well as the people connected with the Aventis Biotech Challenge.

 Everyone put a lot of effort into their projects, and we’re sure it will be bigger and better next year!

Bullying

    On Friday, March 28^th, a group of 7 students from the Lewisporte/Gander School district came and gave a presentation to the students of our school. Each grade went to the learning resource centre for a period while the students gave their presentation. First, they  gave a slide show presentation where they went over important things involving bullying, such as the effects of bullying on people, why there are bullies, how to stop people from bullying you, etc. The second thing the students did was a “Mock court” where the defendant was accused of tripping his friend and then making fun of her. This skit stressed that it is not the impact bullying has on the person but it is the intent that the bully has that makes it bad. The audience was the jury and they had to decide whether the defendant was guilty or not guilty. The next thing the group did was a skit about dating violence. It reflected the early warning signs of dating violence. They then asked questions of the audience to see whether or not they think the couple would get back together or not. The last part of the presentation was a poem read by Mitch Wade, one of the students giving the presentation, who was also the author. His poem can be found at www.bullying.org, along with a lot of other helpful information on bullying.

A Poem by Mitch Wade

 I walk down the halls everyone looks away, talking,
I can’t hear them but I know what they say,
“What a freak, man he’s a loser.”
I try to tell the teachers but they always say the same thing “Don’t worry I’ll take care of it.”
At times it only makes it worse.
What is it with me?
Is it the music I listen to? “No”
I listen to the same music as they do.
Is it what I wear? “NO”,
I have the same style as they do.
I know why, it’s because They Can.
No one will stop them, no one can.
What can I do?
I can’t keep living in fear, in fear of the bullies.
I guess I can live my life, but how can I?
The bullies have taken it away from me.
You may see me walking down the street with my head down,
Or hear me say a word every now and then,
But to me my heart is dead.
So what I am trying to say is,
“Don’t let the bullies take your heart away, live your life and never be afraid to be yourself.”

♫ Kiwanis Music Festival!  ♫

     Lewisporte Middle School Jr. band, grade 7 intermediate band, grade 6 band, the Jazz band and choir went to the festival the week of March 17^th, and did an excellent job. They did so good that every band from our school came back to Lewisporte with a gold, or first standard! The bands we’re quoted as being “supreme”! The students had a great time and had a lot of fun. They can’t wait to go back next year!

LMS Appreciates!

        The staff and students would like to thank some of the people who help our school stay organized and run efficiently.  Some of these people include: our administrative assistant, Mrs. Langdon, our maintenance men, Mr. Hoddinott, Mr. Marshall and Mr. Edwards, and the many parent volunteers who help with the Breakfast Program and various school events.

           Mr. Hoddinott has been working in our school for 25 years, while Mr. Marshall has been at this school for 14 years. They enjoy their jobs, but think the students could take more pride in their school, and make their job easier by throwing things in the garbage and take more care of the school property.

Mrs. Langdon, the school secretary, is another great helper for the school!  She has been working for the school for 5 years, but has 24 years of experience as a secretary. Some of her duties are dealing with students and staff, photocopying, answering the phone, accounting, and doing attendance.

     NOTE: All the staff and students appreciate everything they do!

Grade 9 Year End Social

    On Friday,   June 6^th, 2003 the Grade 9’s will be having their year end social. The theme this year is Under the Sea in 2003.

    The Grade 9’s had a penny drive to help raise money for the year end social and they raised over $800.

       The social is going to be held in the gymnasium and they are going to be having wacky awards such as: The bubbliest person, the best morning person, and the worst morning person etc…

Following the ceremony, the parents, teachers and students will have finger foods followed by games and a dance.

This group of students in particular is the first group to go through every grade in the Lewisporte Middle School The year end social will be starting at 7o’clock.  The Grade 9 students look forward to sharing this special event with our parents, teachers, and invited guests.    

Teaming – Grades 7, 8 and 9

     In our last issue of The LMS Links, we gave you a general idea of what is meant by “teaming”. Our featured teams were the grade 5 and 6 teams. There is Mr. Nichol and Mrs. Freake in Grade 5; and Mrs. Legge and Mr. Preston in Grade 6.

In this Issue we are focusing on the grade 7 - 9 teams and their views of teaming.  The members the grade 7 team, Mrs. Sceviour of 7-2, Mr. Keeping of 7-1, and Mr. Clarke of 7-3.

 On the grade 8 team: Mrs. W. Wheeler of 8-1 and Ms. Gosse of  8-2, and on the grade 9 team there is Mrs. Blagdon of 9-1 and Mrs. Williams of 9-2.

In this issue we cover topics focused on how teaming affects the school environment.

Teaming helps improve the teacher’s way of teaching because it helps the teachers a great deal by letting them get more organized; it helps with things such as communication between teachers, to make rules and procedures, to solve problems and it helps to reach a common goal. It is also nice to see teachers working together on a regular basis.

Teaming also helps to improve the teacher’s jobs too. It reduces the workload on the teachers because they can prepare common tests and lesson plans. There is more support, and it is good for teachers to share ideas with each other and to talk to each other.

The teachers feel like they are not working on their own.

Quebec Note…

    Well, the 20 students from Lewisporte Middle School have returned from their trip to Quebec City! They left on Friday, May 16^th and returned to the school on Thursday, May 22. The fundraisers they had were a complete success and a great help to the students in paying some of the expenses. The students would like to thank all the people who helped out with the fundraising and those who helped plan the trip. They had a great time!!