BRAVO to the students and staff who participated in the Middle School's Operation Giveback yesterday, Dec. 11!
Scarves were made for local veterans organizations; Christmas tree ornaments were made for nursing home residents; bird feeder garlands, made up Cheerios and berries, were made for their bird friends at home; and bags for use for future breakfast bag use for the local warming station in Middletown were created.
And as a special treat for their very kind work and thoughtfulness, everyone got to decorate (and, of course, eat) fresh, homemade gingerbread cookies baked by FACS teacher Victoria Ingrassia.!
KINDNESS MATTERS! Thank you to all who participated and to those who organized this gathering.
“Everybody Wants to Be a Cat!”
Take a peek at rehearsals and set design work for the Intermediate School Drama Club's upcoming production of "Aristocats KIDS!" Students are working hard to learn choreography and dialogue in addition to creating the sets for the performance. The IS production is a joint venture with the High School's Drama Club --- high school students are serving as wonderful mentors and assistants to to help create magical performances on Jan. 27 and 28! Stay tuned for ticket information!
Working in small groups, students have been practicing the concepts covered in their daily lessons. Through these math-based games, students are building their automaticity and fluency with addition, subtraction, and making partners of 10. The hands-on practice helps reinforce student understanding while keeping learning fun and interactive. Teachers use this to help students build strong addition and subtraction skills, because knowing which numbers make 10 makes math faster and easier.
Do you know all the partners of 10? We’ll help:
• 0 and 10
• 1 and 9
• 2 and 8
• 3 and 7
• 4 and 6
• 5 and 5
Book swaps are an additional way of keeping students excited about reading and are a fun social event, too! Students had the opportunity to feel pride in swapping out a book they enjoyed so someone else can have the experience of knowing that story. They also were able to recommend a book title to their peers, too! PLUS: Choosing a new book to read during the swap can give students a feeling of positive empowerment --- they’ve chosen that book to read and enjoy versus reading an assigned book. Everyone gets something new to read!
Thank you to the Otisville PTO for organizing this wonderful literacy event!
This "color the stairs" concept refers to a visual and hands-on activity where students arrange linking cubes to create "number stairs." By coloring each step to represent a number, they can see that each subsequent step is one more and can also see the one less pattern as they count down. This exercise helps build a foundational understanding of number order, one-to-one correspondence, and the concepts of adding one and subtracting one.
Students were first “chaining” words with “ai” spellings. “Chaining” is simple vocabulary and phonics activity where students change one letter at a time to make a new word. It helps them understand how letters and sounds work.
Then, Mrs. Kelly dictated words with the 'ai' spelling (such as maid, aid, wait, paid) and words with the short /a/ spelling (such as mad, pat, cat, cap) and students sorted them as they wrote them.
Understanding the "ai" spelling for the long /a/ sound is useful in second grade for improving both reading and spelling skills, as it helps students recognize a common pattern and apply it to writing. It builds reading fluency by allowing them to decode words like "maid" or "paid" and enhances spelling by giving them a tool to write words like "train" or "aim" with the correct vowel team.
In Oaxaca, Mexico, a large part of the culture is the art of the Alebrije, colorful and lavishly decorated fantastical creatures. Students have been tasked with identifying three of their own "spirit animals," or "tona," to create a unique and new fantastical creature. They’re currently working on their armature (skeleton of the sculpture) and will soon be plastering and painting their work. You can already see the creativity and uniqueness in each one!
•Folk art is typically created by individuals from a specific community, often with humble or traditional materials, and reflects cultural heritage and social history.
•Alebrije sculptures originated in the 1930s in Mexico City by Pedro Linares Lopez, who fell ill with a high fever and dreamed he was in a strange land filled with fantastical, brightly colored creatures shouting the word “Alebrije!” Upon recovery, Linares began recreating the creatures in a “cartonería” (papier-mâché)- surrealist dream-state.
•His art caught the attention of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, who commissioned him to create more.
•In the 1980s, artisans in the central valleys of Oaxaca adapted the Alebrijes by carving them from copal wood.
HOW FUN! Half-days are great for PJs, milk and cookies!
BOCES Otisville Satellite Principal Pilar Rocha and Acting Assistant Principal Terry Reynolds read wonderful books to all Otisville and BOCES satellite students during Otisville’s “Milk and Cookies” gathering, held this past half-day on Friday, Dec. 5, an annual event where the Otisville and BOCES PTOs supply the refreshments.
This year's book selections were:
•Michael Rashad’s “Everything for Christmas”
•Adam Wallace’s and Andy Elkerton’s “How to Catch a Gingerbread Man”
•Jennifer Jones’ “Gingerbread on Strike”
•Matt Taveras’ “Dasher Can't Wait for Christmas”
•Erin Guendelsberger’s “Little Red Sleigh”
Otisville and the BOCES Otisville Satellite Program have a wonderful partnership, and events like this reinforce this special relationship. Thank you, Mrs. Rocha and Mrs. Reynolds!
Thank you to everyone who supported the High School’s Youth Against Cancer (YAC) Club’s effort to bring awareness to the many health issues impacting men in November, particularly during its Nov. 21 GOING BLUE DAY. The group’s coin jar collection efforts at Perino’s Market, Slate Hill Market and Callie's Coffee Café raised $121.50. THANK YOU to everyone who donated to these jars and to our friends at Perino’s, Slate Hill Market and Callie’s Coffee Café for agreeing to have these jars on display.
But... it gets better! A Buildings & Grounds collection drive raised an additional $325. THANK YOU to everyone who donated! All these funds will be donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, a favorite charity of retired Maintenance Mechanic Joseph Palazzo, who initiated the district’s men’s health awareness initiative years back, with funds raised donated to St. Jude.
And... it still gets better! Mr. Palazzo, though retired from the district but who holds the St. Jude mission in high regard, IS MATCHING the amount raised! A GRAND TOTAL of $893 will be donated to St. Jude, which treats children with serious illnesses and finds cures, no matter their family’s ability to pay. THANK YOU, THANK YOU ---this total amount is the highest amount ever collected!
Yes, we know teams can’t “redshirt” themselves.... but we did it anyway for the 2025 Special Olympics New York Polar Bear Plunge. Next year, we will be back!
We’re grateful to officials from Special Olympics New York’s Hudson Valley chapter who visited us this past Friday, Dec. 5, to present us with the 2024 Cool School Challenge Trophy (we raised $4,022) and brought celebratory pizza for anyone from the 2024 team who was able to attend. They gratefully recognized the efforts of the 2024 team and are completely energized to work with us to get an awesome team in place for 2026.
However, the trophy didn’t stay in our possession very long. It’s now in the safekeeping of our friends at the nearby Chester School District, the Cool School Challenge winner for the 2025 plunge at The Rez in Highland Mills. Congratulations, Chester, but you better watch out: We’re coming after you in 2026 to reclaim our title!
Kudos to members of the Middle School Student Government for making breakfast bags for the Marilyn Pierce GMIC Warming Station in Middletown. The bags were filled with muffins, granola bars, clementines and a juice box. These caring students hope they will provide some healthy morning nourishment to those who stayed overnight because they had nowhere to go and needed to get out of the cold weather. WELL-DONE, everyone!
Don't make lunch, remind your student to pick up lunch (and breakfast) too!
Andrew Hulle’s IS trombonists are continuing to review their first 5 pitches (Bb, C, D, Eb, and F) and showing the difference between whole notes (4 counts), half notes (2 counts), and quarter notes (1 count). His trombonists have been practicing each pitch and rhythm and then applied those skills to their concert music.
•The trombone's ancestor was an instrument called the sackbut. It first appeared in the 1500s during the Renaissance music period. Over many years, the sackbut slowly changed and improved into the trombone known today.
•Beethoven was the first composer to add trombones to a full symphony orchestra.
•Trombones are used in many different kinds of music because of their special sound. They can be heard in orchestras, concert bands, marching bands, brass bands, big bands, swing bands, ska bands and jazz groups.
Marjori Bobish's ES transitional kindergarteners discovered that wearing snow pants on a slide makes them move down the slide faster and fresh snow provides a very soft landing on the ground. Who knew?
Her students also learned that the sun doesn't melt the snow, it's the warmer temperatures that do! They figured out a very important truth that all snow fans eventually learn: Not all snow is good for making snowballs! While things might be different now.,.students weren't able pack the snow together while outside this past Wednesday.
"As the children make these discoveries and communicate what they have learned with each other, they're building their early literacy skills which is the foundation for future reading and writing," said Mrs. Bobish.
K-5 FAMILIES: Be part of the fun and merriment for a great cause! Pull out your student's finest Grinchy (or green) attire and sign up to attend a special fundraiser showing of “The Grinch” on Friday, Dec. 12, beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the ES/IS Auditorium! The evening runs until 8:30 p.m. so you’ll even have a chance to grab a bite to eat or do some holiday shopping while your student is having a great time!
The ES PTO and High School’s Youth Against Cancer (YAC) Club are hosting this fun “Kids Night Out” evening! Cost is $10 per student, with snacks, a souvenir and a very special visit from the Grinch himself! Don’t miss out!
All proceeds will benefit the good work of the ES PTO and the YAC Club. Sign-up via this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsKNmEfJdvoBl6ZMtFJi6pvYE6LSWbf23qvUHGJbIG78tuUQ/viewform
Laura Hulle's 7th and 8th grade band students and Danielle MacKenzie's 6th grade band students are putting the finishing touches on their music for the upcoming Middle School Winter Concert on Dec. 8...one week from tonight! The bands have been practicing using the circle rehearsal format.
A band circle rehearsal is a non-traditional setup where a band sits in a circle to improve listening skills, musical independence, and communication. This method changes the usual dynamic by breaking up standard sections, forcing members to listen to a wider variety of instruments and their neighbors, and creating a more interactive and focused rehearsal. It is especially useful for developing musical independence and is often used for workshops or as a creative exercise.
Be sure your calendars are marked for this upcoming, wonderful musical evening!
The distributive property is a math rule that helps simplify multiplication by showing that multiplying a number by a sum is the same as multiplying the number by each part of the sum separately and then adding the products.
WOW! SIMPLY AMAZING!
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the recent High School FLBA Food Drive! The group shattered its past collection drive efforts with over 1,000 items donated, weighing an estimated 800 pounds! The FBLA Club will be making a very healthy donation to Minisink Cares, the group which distributes the food to the community. Thank you for helping those who are coping with food insecurity; your donations will make a difference!
