These last few days of 2020 at LOLHS have been quite festive. Faculty kept our spirits light and bright while celebrating 8-days of levity with lots of laughs and fun activities. And then to top it off, on Wednesday at the end of the day, we held our annual  holiday assembly - live streamed. This was quite a hit! We enjoyed some holiday music from our Wind Ensemble and Select Singers as well as some fun holiday competitions between classes like the jingle bell hop, ornament toss, the Santa limbo, and balloon pop!

Thank you to our Student Leaders for organizing this event, our Select Singers and Wind Ensemble for their AMAZING performances, WLYM for their technical savvy, wonderful flexibility, and finally Oliver Berry and George Danes for being our funny and festive MCs. Below you can find the entire recording of the event along with some other videos and photos that show our Wildcat Holiday Spirit. I hope you enjoy!

Alli Behnhke, LYSB's Prevention Coordinator, is hosting a workshop the week after the Christmas Holiday focusing on healthy choices, nutrition, wellness, etc.    She is a certified Health Coach and believes in our own bio-individuality to make the best choices for wellness, health, and empowerment.
 Please join her to learn more about how your body detoxifies and more!
​Registration information and link below!

The Unified Sports spread some holiday cheer last week in Ms. Corah's Workshop decorating gingerbread houses. Fun was had by all! Take a look.

Below is the revised school calendar reflecting last week’s snow day. Last day of school is now at June 16, 2021!

During unit 3, Influences of Beauty and Art, students studied and analyzed different sources and different points of view on whether graffiti is a form of art or vandalism.  Students were asked for homework to think about their favorite Spanish word and to create graffiti.  Students had to present in Spanish to the class in a circle the meaning of the graffiti and why they chose that word.  It was interesting to find how the words were connected with past sensory experiences; for example, students described smells, sounds, feelings, etc

Enrique Iglesias has sold more than 180 million albums worldwide and currently holds the record for most #1 charts in history. He is one of three artists we researched. We chose to do this topic for our bulletin board to show people in our community a type of music or genre they may have never heard before. In Spanish Honor Society we wish to educate ourselves as well as the community on Spanish speaking topics that may differ in our culture.
 
By: Franki, Sky, Sophie

AP European students added some levity while studying Absolutism and the  European State Consolidation (1650-1750). Each group, representing France, Russia, England and Central/ Eastern Europe,  were experts - in costume - presenting to their classmates and explaining how "their" monarch consolidated power and ruled absolutely. After the presentations, students took a "gallery walk" to each region in order to record pertinent information which enabled them to discuss how the absolute monarchies had similarities in consolidating their power... ultimately  through military might, control of religion, and economically by raising taxes.
Take a look:

The Sustainability Committee is excited to announce that over 300 pounds of plastic film has been collected by Region 18 in the Trex Challenge! Thank you to all that have participated! The challenge ends on April 15, so please continue to send in your film (see below for what kind of film is accepted).

As a reminder, the Trex Challenge is an opportunity to send in your plastic film with your students for a chance to win a Trex bench or other product for their school. Trex decking and railing is made from recycled plastic film and is a type of composite building material. 

We have added Trex collection bins at both Lyme (just inside the entrance) and Old Lyme Town hall (lower level entrance at the back of the building). Trex collection bins will continue to be  located near main entrances for each school.

Some examples of items that are NOT acceptable include: compostable film (usually labeled as “compostable”), film that has any amount of food residue, candy/ice cream wrappers, cellophane-type film (think floral arrangements or holiday gift bags that make a crinkly/crunchy sound), prewashed salad mix bags, and frozen food bags (frozen berry bags). 

When sending in your film from home, please remember, it must be COMPLETELY clean, COMPLETELY dry, COMPLETELY empty and COMPLETELY free from food residue. Please remove air from pillow pack bubble wrap. The diagram below says it all! If you stick to sending in items from the diagram, it will be greatly appreciated. When in doubt, throw it out; or you can email
Taylor.karencharlotte@gmail.com.

Thanks for your continued participation in the Region 18 Trex Challenge and helping keep our planet clean!

Student work Unit 3: Almodovar’s Spain
During the study of unit 3, students have learned about “Movida Madrileña'' a contra cultural movement that happened in the 1980s in Spain. Students watched a movie, “Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios”, (Women on the verge of a Nervous Breakdown), to contextualize a few important topics that were happening in Spain while it was moving from a dictatorship regime mindset to a democratic mindset.  Some topics that they discussed and analyzed were gender equality, police, religion, gender roles, music, clothes, drugs, homosexuality, woman emancipation, amongst others.  Listen to some of the students’ presentations as they presented with the role of college professors on NPR en español.
Below are exemplars from Nevin Joshy, Eleanor Dushin, and Michael DeGaetano

• Orders must be placed by December 4th.
• Pick-up will be on December 10th at​ ​the High School from 3:30 – 5:30 PM.

​
To ORDER ONLINE, please use this  DIRECT LINK: www.twobeescandle.com/discount/SAFEGRAD2021
to activate 30% of your total sales to Safe Grad fundraising.

PLEASE share this LINK with family and friends nationwide. Their orders will be shipped for a fee, and SAFE-GRAD will continue to receive contributions from Two Bees Candle Co. Questions? info@twobeescandle.com

​By: Juanjo Vazquez
Mr. Ordoñez, Technology Facilitator at LOLHS, was kind enough to share with the National Spanish Honor Society his journey from Ecuador to the USA. During his fantastic presentation, he showed us pictures about geography and cultural aspects such as food, the flag, sports, music, and the lives of indigenous people.
He also talked about adapting to a new culture, learning a new language, and maneuvering between the education in both countries. He answered many questions and shared tips on how to have a meaningful experience in another country.
The presentation was conducted in Spanish and the questions from LOLHS students were also in Spanish. On top of being a great professional at the school, he is also another resource for our students. We greatly thank Mr. Ordoñez for his time and the information that he shared with us.