At LMS children explore their own identities as they  interact empathetically with people from diverse backgrounds.

LMS aims to nurture in each student the construction of a knowledgeable, confident identity as an individual and as a member of multiple cultural groups (such as gender, race, ethnicity, or class). We enable children to have comfortable, empathetic interactions with people from diverse backgrounds. We also foster each child’s ability to recognize bias and injustice, and cultivate each child’s ability to stand up, individually and with others, against bias or injustice.

LMS Middle School students often adopt roles of historical figures, whether in dramatic role-plays or in their written work. They analyze historical documents and images, often collaboratively. They learn to take notes in class and to study information for tests. They read primary source documents as well as textbooks, pulling out the main ideas and presenting them to peers. They are often asked to relate their readings to their own ideas, and to modern political and social issues.

Middle School is a time to learn to think like historians. We take the time to delve into big, essential questions about historical situations, studying a time period in depth: Why did so many people go along with Hitler when they knew it was wrong? How did all sides of the Mexican-American war feel like they were “in the right”? How much should government intervene in the free market? These developmentally appropriate questions engage the Middle School brain, with its strong sense of justice.

History work, like science and personal world, is done in thematic units.

Middle School students read, analyze, and respond to material from a variety of genres as they learn about literary techniques. They practice critical thinking as they explore how individual events in literature relate to general themes. They practice writing in a variety of genres as well, focusing especially on how to structure effective essays. The Middle School publishes an annual literary magazine.

Middle School students continue the movement begun in Upper Elementary from concrete thinking to abstract thinking. On the firm, concrete foundation of their earlier experiences, the Middle School students use textbooks, pencil, and paper to work with math abstractly. These students master abstract calculations using whole numbers, decimals, fractions and percents, as well as roots, exponents, negative numbers, and order of operations. They begin algebra work, using algebraic equations, quadratic formulas, y = mx + b graphing, and operations with polynomials.

The middle school math curriculum focuses primarily on pre-algebra and algebra. We use the math text series by Saxon Publishers. Students work in separate groups determined by their level of performance. In the math curriculum, there is an emphasis on understanding the how’s and why’s of the material, as well as how to apply what is learned.

The Middle School music program continues earlier vocalization, instrumentality and literacy. Students compose on the computer and improvise as a means of personal expression.

The Middle School music program continues earlier vocalization, instrumentality and literacy. In MS the computer is introduced as a compositional tool, and the individual is encouraged to explore composition and improvisation as a means of personal expression.  Lessons and discussions are also structured around social issues in music (protest, history, satire).  At this level music genres, music history, and ideas from world music and ethnomusicology are introduced. 

Through an exploration of African musical systems, the child is introduced to cyclical compositional structures. Various exercises involving body percussion (hand claps, stomps), vocalizations (“speaking” the patterns), as well as pitched and non-pitched instruments, engender a familiarity with pattern-making and interlocking rhythmic figures. 

The curriculum includes a survey of popular styles ranging from Blues to early and contemporary Rock. We discuss verse/chorus, as well as more extended formal schemes. Additionally, students prepare and record their own instrumental and vocal arrangements, which are subsequently edited and manipulated using GarageBand.

In the Middle School PE program, students refine motor combinations and learn to use specialized skills in sport and fitness activities. 

Traditional sports including soccer, basketball, volleyball, lacrosse, and floor hockey are practiced. The program also includes a weekly personal fitness class where students are introduced to aerobic training through cardiovascular exercises, conditioning and endurance activities, and agility and footwork drills.

The Middle School PE program distinguishes LMS from many other schools. We offer a “non-traditional” sports program in which students participate in after school sports held on Thursday afternoons. These include activities such as, fencing, golf, ultimate Frisbee, team handball, swimming, and rowing. By learning traditional sports during their regular PE classes and participating in these “non-traditional” sports after school, our Middle School students have the opportunity to be engaged in a very well rounded athletic experience.

Middle School students apply skills of care of self, care of environment, and grace and courtesy outside of the classroom, in the school and greater communities.

Middle School students apply skills of care of self, care of environment, and grace and courtesy outside of the classroom, in the school and greater communities.

Practical Life activities help children develop their independence. In the Middle School skills pertaining to care of self, care of environment, and grace and courtesy are still important. However, these students use these skills outside of the classroom, in the school and greater communities.

Some of the most prominent examples of Practical Life in the Middle School involve:

• Class business: in which students learn numerous entrepreneurial skills, including conducting surveys, profit analysis, working with a board, and running all aspects of a business with the guidance of adults.

• Class committees: in which each student works as a co-chair responsible for the operations of a committee which serves the class and school communities.

• Fall trip: in which students participate in a three-day, off-campus excursion with Kroka Outdoor Expeditions in Marlow, NH. Activities included: farm chores; cooking; camping; wilderness skills; canoeing; and rock climbing.

• End of year trip: in which students travel for a week to Puerto Rico. Activities included: collaborating with a Puerto Rican Montessori School near San Juan; hiking in the rain forest; cooking; exploring a bioluminescent bay at night; camping, and site-seeing.

• Preparation for next schools: in which students learn and practice the skills necessary for success in their next school and beyond. Such skills include: interviewing, note-taking; studying from text books; and test preparation.

Middle School science labs provide students with opportunities to interact directly with natural phenomena and with data collected by others in order to compare theories and laws with observations.

Middle School years are a pivotal time in students’ understanding of and enthusiasm for science. A hallmark of science in the real world is that it generates theories and laws that must be consistent with observations collected during laboratory investigations. Middle School labs provide students with opportunities to interact directly with natural phenomena or with data collected by others using tools, materials, data collection techniques, and models. At times we give cookbook-like “recipes” for lab investigations, but our students also have many opportunities to make hypotheses, design investigations, engage in scientific reasoning, manipulate equipment, record data, analyze results, and discuss their findings. They think critically and logically to define the relationships between evidence and explanations. 

Students learn to communicate scientific procedures and explanations clearly, using mathematics in all aspects of their inquiry. They collect data and learn to make sense of graphical and other abstract representations essential to scientific understanding. They learn to make accurate measurements using a variety of instruments, as their experiments become increasingly quantitative and their physical models more precise.

Students also read about science, use computer simulations, create models, observe teacher demonstrations, and attend short lectures. As NSTA recommends, our Middle School students are engaged in laboratory work for 80% of their science instruction time.

Science, like history and personal world, is studied in broad thematic units.

Middle School Spanish includes studies organized around listening comprehension, reading comprehension, speaking, writing, and cultural aspects of Hispanic countries.

Middle School Spanish students participate in activities organized around the following skills:

Listening Comprehension: Understanding passages, including some unfamiliar material, and recognizing a speaker’s attitudes, emotions, and points of view.

Reading Comprehension: Understanding written texts, including some unfamiliar material, and recognizing an author’s attitudes, emotions, and points of view.

Speaking: Answering simple questions in an unpracticed conversation; and answering questions following a presentation; telling a story or relating the plot of a book or film including offering opinions.

Writing: Writing formal and informal texts in the appropriate style, including emails, reports and letters conveying opinions and points of view.

Culture: Understanding appropriate gestures and oral expressions for greetings, leave-talking and common classroom interactions such as: formal and informal greetings. Cultural studies including biographies of important Hispanics, and studies culture and life in Hispanic countries.

At the Middle School level, students learn about advanced elements of drawing and painting, printmaking, form and sculpture. 

Middle School art involves an in-depth approach to advanced elements of drawing and painting, printmaking, form and sculpture. The Middle School students develop art skills through deep explorations of work, often spending an extended period/semester exploring a single theme. They reflect on their progress through group critiques and continual self-assessments. Students keep a sketchbook and have regular drawing practice for homework. A subscription to Scholastic Art Magazine provides opportunities for discussions in art class, and helps students foster visual literacy and critical thinking skills.