Learning opportunities, including the important character trait of giving back, extend beyond the school day at Minisink Valley Intermediate School.

An example is the school’s Junior Great Books After School Program, a strong, inquiry-based language arts program that refines and extends students’ skills in reading, thinking and communicating. The program is a model of student-centered learning in which students work with complex ideas and rigorous texts.

Led by Ellen Holcombe. fourth and fifth-grade students meet twice a week after school and are involved in a variety of work and projects.

Soon-to-be published Haiku authors

Recently, students from both grades submitted Haiku poems to the Young American Poetry Digest contest. Winners get their poems published in this yearly digest.  Poems are selected by a panel of educators based on creativity, age-appropriate language, sensory/figurative images, structure and poetic techniques.

“All of my fifth-graders will have their poems published in the digest, and I am still waiting to hear about my fourth-graders as they submitted their poems later than the fifth-graders,” said Mrs. Holocombe.

Fourth-grade students are: Hannah Wieboldt, Sorcha Schultz, Landon Ordway, Madilyn Greenberg, Tristan Valentine, Braden Genao, Dempsey Depuy, Ava Burton, Samuel Vicaretti and Branden Bonet.

Fifth-grade students are: Mitchell Demberg, Joshua Geller, Colin Hansen, Kessler Hirsch, Gavin McGinnis, Alyssa Redd, Ashlyn Burke, Elenna Rodriguez, and Ember Therien.

Supporting deployed Orange County soldiers

Both groups also collected a wide range of sundry items in response to a video and email by County Executive Steve Neuhaus (who is currently on active duty overseas with the Navy) to help about 200 Orange County deployed soldiers who don’t have many of these products available to them.

They collected baby wipes, eye drops, sunscreen, foot sprays, lip balm and more. Those items will be dropped off to the Orange County Office of Veterans Affairs in Goshen.