Tiffany Guareno/Stephanie Ewanciw’s ES kindergarteners recently completed their Knowledge Unit on the five senses. Students created a book of things they like to see, hear, touch, smell and taste. Part of their learning experience was to take advantage of the beautiful weather to take a nature walk to find some leaves to observe using their five senses!
Leyla Johnson’s IS fourth-grade physical education students are learning the basics about controlling a soccer ball as they begin their soccer unit. Maybe here’s some future World Cup players in this group!
Support the Class of 2025 and add to your collection of outstanding Minisink Valley attire! The selections are great to wear for any occasion and for any event in any building!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
The Middle School’s annual Library Halloween Writing Contest was a success! Students were asked to write an “ode to the season” or create a Halloween themed character and write about it. All students, faculty and staff were invited to vote for their favorites in three categories. The winners are:
• Most Halloween Spirit: Molly Yourman, sixth-grade
• Best Artistic Design: Isabella Kaminski, eighth-grade
• Funniest: Sophia Tropiano, sixth-grade
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Briana Barrett’s and Nicole VanderDrift's IS fifth-graders are masters at completing the Candy Corn Tower STEM Challenge...on National Candy Corn Day! First, students had to brainstorm and sketch their candy corn tower design with their group. Then, they had 20 minutes to use 25 toothpicks and 25 candy corn pieces to build their design. The highest tower reached 7.75 inches tall! Well-done!
The High School’s Youth in Government Club hosted the recent and annual Platform Convention, with over 200 students from 12 Orange and Ulster County schools participating. Students prepared mock legislation for debate in committee.
Aside from hosting the convention and providing a stellar rendition of the National Anthem, the Minisink delegation won the convention by passing the most pieces of legislation in both committee and floor votes. Congratulations and well-done! The Youth-in-Government program has a long history in Orange County dating back to 1944 and has many current government officials and employees who are alumni.
It’s not over yet, Yankee fans! Think positive….and as part of that positivity, Otisville Elementary and Intermediate School presented students with their Aaron Judge ALL RISE Summer Reading Programs certificate received earlier in the week!
Congratulations and well-done to Otisville students Adam Weber and Aria Basso and IS students Callan D'Antono, Nico Santiago, Rehan Usman and Mariah Carrion Castenada! (Aaron Judge did personally sign their certificates, BTW!)
The Aaron Judge ALL RISE Foundation, founder of this group and the Yankees’ captain, is a nonprofit that aims to inspire children and youth to become responsible citizens. Its summer reading program is a literacy initiative that encourages children and youth to read. This past summer, Minisink Valley invited all students to participate in this summer reading initiative, organized by Physical Education Teacher Theresa Uhelsky.
Elizabeth Hagerty’s Otisville fifth-graders, like all district fifth-graders, have been spending quality time during ELA lessons working on reading and writing personal narratives.
For her class, this recent lesson was near the end of the unit where students are writing a personal narrative about a time they were “surprised.” Students used organizers to make sure their stories were in a logical sequence. They were tasked with adding sensory details as well as similes and metaphors to give their readers a clearer mental image and to make their writing more interesting. Some of their topics included being surprised with a new pet, having a birthday surprise, a surprise snow day, and a surprise trip!
Kindergarten work is always impressive! Take a peek at Carmela Sill’s ES kindergarteners, who are working in their fine motor letter centers and using their Amplify reading software on their Chromebooks! Her little students have been sharpening their ELA skills via Amplify and working on their fine motor skills through the use of manipulatives and dot markers.
Manipulative materials are objects that students interact with to help in the learning process. They can be used to make learning more fun and engaging, and can help children understand different concepts, often times in math.
REMINDER: Tomorrow, Oct. 31, Otisville Elementary and the Elementary School will hold their annual Halloween parades! You're invited to view the parades! It's one of our most memorable days of the year for our elementary students!
CALL FOR PHOTOS: Share a photo of your student's parade costume for a Halloween photo gallery!
REMINDER: A friendly reminder to previous emails sent to juniors and their families: Junior Parking is suspended tomorrow, Oct. 31 because of the expected large crowds visiting the Slate Hall campus for the Elementary School's Halloween Parade.
The Intermediate School’s annual GREAT PUMPKIN Decorating Contest, sponsored by the IS PTO, was a grand success and great time for all! All classes, under the guidance of IS Art Joan Giardina, designed and decorated a unique class pumpkin. All were on display and everyone voted on their favorite (Note: they could not vote on their own pumpkin). Take a look at these very creative pumpkins! The votes were tallied and the winners are:
•Fifth-grade: “Devil Bat,” created by Briana Barrett/Nicole Vanderdrift/ Kendra Soule’s class
•Fourth-grade: “King Bob,” created by Jessica Venettozzi’s class
•Third-grade: “Hot Chocolate,” created by Andrew Fenner’s class
Mrs. Giardina delivered the coveted GOLDEN PUMPKIN trophies to the first-place winners for each grade level, who will now proudly display them in their classes. THANK YOU to the IS PTO for providing these very awesome trophies!
Anthony Licata's ES physical education students are learning about verbal (talking) communication, nonverbal (silent) communication, and teamwork. They recently played a game a game called "Birds Nest," where communication and teamwork to swap nests with the other birds in the class.
For verbal communication, a student starts out in a nest (hula-hoop) and call out to another bird (classmate) and ask them to switch with them. For nonverbal, a student would try to get a bird’s attention without speaking, and using different hand signals and get them to switch with him/her without speaking or making noise. Students would then switch up the movements they would do to each nest by rolling a dice, and doing the movement based on whatever number the dice landed on (Example: If the dice lands on 1 the students would walk, 2 run, etc.)
For the final round, students would add "hawks" to the game. The hawks would not have a nest, and if a bird left the nest to switch with somebody, the hawks could occupy the empty nest, becoming a bird. The bird who lost its nest would then become a hawk! What a creative way of learning verbal/ nonverbal communication and teamwork skills to use in the game.
Eighth-grade Life Science students are studying characteristics of life and in this instance, had the chance to have close encounters with earthworms! Students used touching and water and vinegar to elicit different reactions from the earthworm before returning them to the teachers.
In a life science lab, when studying earthworms with water and vinegar, you can observe their response to stimuli, specifically their sensitivity to changes in moisture and acidity, as earthworms breathe through their skin and are highly sensitive to environmental conditions, causing them to move away from harsh substances like vinegar, which is acidic, and towards areas with more moisture like water.
Stephanie Guifre and Tom Uhrig’s Otisville physical education students are having a “pumpkin palooza” time in their Halloween-themed classes which combine literacy, seasonality and physical activity!
The teachers used Dan Yaccarino’s “Five Little Pumpkins” (which is read in kindergarten classes) as a springboard to physical fitness fun and games!
Students read the book’s poem and reviewed the book's hand gestures. Then, students threw balls to knock over the little pumpkins on the cones of the opposing team. (Each side has five pumpkins.) The lesson also offered students a chance to work on throwing/rolling skills while learning the beginning elements of offense and defense in addition to working together as a team!
Instead of decorating pumpkins this year, Otisville Elementary involved the entire school in a scarecrow competition, with a grade-level scarecrows and scarecrows created by the school’s administrative offices created. Students were invited to vote (they could not vote on their own) on their top choice, all entries were presented anonymously. Take a look at the amazing creativity of all scarecrow designs! Winners, as selected by students:
1st Place:
“Beetlejuice,” concept created and scarecrow made by the Occupational/Physical Therapy Department.
2nd Place:
“Spider Witch,” concept created and scarecrow made by the Main Office.
3rd Place
“Unicorn,” concept created and scarecrow made by the School Psychologist’s Office.
Honorable Mentions
• Kindergarten for its “Bucket Filler Superhero Scarecrow”
• First-Grade for its “Book of Scary” words.
Pumpkins and Playdoh! Those are great “letter P” words!
Karen Ruoti’s ES kindergarteners used Playdoh to decorate the pumpkins they picked at the Elementary School’s Oct. 24 Fall Festival! These pumpkin faces are adorable! Plus: Her little students had a chance to work on their fine motor skills. Fine motor skills are crucial in a child's development because they enable small, precise movements with the hands and fingers, which are essential for everyday tasks like eating, dressing, writing, and manipulating objects, contributing to a child's independence and self-care abilities, as well as supporting academic learning and overall cognitive development.
Did you know that this past Saturday, Oct. 26 was National Pumpkin Day? Cynthia Muccari’s and Tasha Buchler’s Otisville second/third-graders did! They spent last Friday marking the day with a STEM-filled afternoon of amazing pumpkin activities!
Students were divided into small groups and went from classroom to classroom to take part in different math and science centers. In Mrs. Muccari's room, they practiced estimation and measuring by using cubes to measure the height and circumference of a pumpkin, as well as their counting skills by counting the seeds from inside of the pumpkin. Students also practiced making small groups of 2s and 5s to practice their skip counting. The pumpkin was 16 cubes tall and 37 cubes around with about 500 seeds inside (students practiced rounding too)!
In Ms. Buchler's room, students completed a STEM challenge of creating a tower using toothpicks and candy corn pumpkins and also saw what happens when they put candy corn in different liquids! The candy corn dissolved the fastest in warm water, with vinegar being next, and then dish soap being last. The dish soap liquid turned brown when it was fully dissolved!
They took a quick break to author Joe Troiano read his story “The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin,” which was part of a live virtual program via Scholastic's “Storyvoice.”
Finally, to conclude the afternoon, students went outside on a beautiful to see what happens when baking soda and vinegar mix together inside a pumpkin: It becomes a pumpkin volcano! Plus, adding in dish soap makes it foamier! What a wonderful STEM lesson tied to seasonality!
The Middle School Craft Club kicked off the school year with a canvas painting project called "Ghost in the Woods, a perfect choice for this spooky season!
At each session, students followed a painting tutorial while also adding their own creative touches to the paintings. Teachers Kaitlin Santos and Alison Miller are planning many creative craft projects for future meetings! To learn more, email to ksantos@minisink.com or amiller@minisink.com!
A baseball rivalry steeped in tradition begins tonight when the New York Yankees take on the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2024 World Series! The last time the teams met in World Series competition was in 1981, and the last time the Yankees won a World Series was in 2009…so fans are very ready for victory!
Given the World Series excitement in the district, Elementary School Principal Deborah Gallant felt it was the perfect day to present first-grader Everett Camia with his Aaron Judge ALL RISE Summer Reading Program certificate that she received earlier in the week. It was a surprise presentation to Everett, who was coincidentally wearing his Aaron Judge Yankees t-shirt to school, like others who were sporting Yankees attire today!
The Aaron Judge ALL RISE Foundation is a nonprofit that aims to inspire children and youth to become responsible citizens. Its summer reading program is a literacy initiative that encourages children and youth to read. This past summer, Minisink Valley invited all students to participate in this summer reading initiative, organized by Physical Education Teacher Theresa Uhelsky.
