Congratulations and best wishes to members of the senior members of the Varsity Cheer team, who were honored and recognized for their many contributions to the team’s success during their recent Senior Night and Cheer Showcase: Jillian Babcock, Natalie Christiano, Sara Delmar, Cara Durlester, Emma Gutzeit, Kaitlyn Howell and Mia Lockowitz!
Members of the Minisink Youth Cheer program and the team showcased their routines during this gathering!
The varsity girls and boys indoor track & field programs capped their invitational season in winning style this past weekend at the Garden State Open, hosted by The Armory Track & Field Center. The teams had nine podium finishers and six event winners in their final tune-up for the Section IX State Qualifier.
Minisink Valley once again drew on the strength of its relays, sweeping the boys' and girls' 4x400 meter relays to close the meet, outdueling Section IX rivals Monroe-Woodbury in both races.
The girls quartet of Zoey Terpak, Kaleigh Murphy, Lyla LaBarbera and Ferrah Hill eased to the win in 4:07.07, good for #1 in the section this season. Not to be outdone, the boys' squad of Benjamin Spevak, Robert LaBarbera, Jon Mausling and Samuel Anderson stormed to victory in a thrilling lean at the tape, establishing a new program record and New York #2 mark of 3:21.02 in the process.
Also earning gold medals for Minisink Valley were Samuel Anderson (:48.75, 400-meter dash), Ella Michelitch (5' 6", high jump), and Delila Kronimus (11' 6") and Logan Schupner (15' 6") in the pole vault.
Tyler Cloidt (11' 6", pole vault) and the girls 4x200 team of Murphy, Chloe Beck, Terpak and Kessler Hirsch earned fifth place medals, while Michelitch nabbed the final podium position in the long jump (16' 3").
The teams now have their eyes set on advancing individual athletes and relay teams to the NYSPHSAA/Federation Championships, with the Section IX State Qualifier to be hosted by The Armory Track & Field Center on Saturday, March 1.
Take a peek at rehearsals of the Middle School Drama Club's production of Disney's HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL JR.! do you have your tickets yet?
GET THEM HERE: https://www.onthestage.tickets/.../678076f055ebc03250cd5693
Girls Modified Basketball Coach Kelsie Doller is proud to tell everyone about her teams’ work, passion and drive this season!
“What makes this team truly stand out is their coachability—they’re always ready to learn, improve, and support each other,” she said. “That kind of mentality doesn’t just make great basketball players; it builds strong, determined young women who will go far in whatever they do. I have no doubt that their futures—both on and off the court—are bright.”
lana Kaufman's ES kindergarten art students are taking the seasonality of Valentine's Day and creating Alma Thomas-inspired heart paintings, made with tempera paint!
Alma Thomas was a part of the Washington Color School, a 1950s-1970s art movement in response to Abstract Expressionism. These artists used bold colors to form simple, flat shapes, stripes, and fields of color, rather than focusing on emotion, gesture, and movement. Ms Thomas became an important role model for women, African Americans, and older artists. She was the first African American woman to have a solo exhibition at New York's Whitney Museum of American Art, and she exhibited her paintings at the White House three times.
Congratulations to the winners and runners-up of Otisville Elementary’s 2024-25 Yearbook cover/back cover contest!
Fifth graders were invited to draw covers for the yearbook focusing on the school’s theme of "Reach for the Stars" and the results, based on a school vote were:
•Cover: The duo of Liam Card and Nicholas Raponi
•Back cover: Leah Galligan
•Runners-up: JJ Karpinski, Lucas Artola; and the duo of Dejana Rosa and Olivia Bianchi
Otisville physical education teacher Stephanie Giufre has been taking her fourth and fifth-grade students outdoors for snowshoeing fun during their physical education class. They’re getting a great workout!
Snowshoeing is a winter activity that involves walking on snow with the aid of snowshoes, which are a type of footwear that distribute body weight over a larger area, which helps prevent sinking into the snow.
DID YOU KNOW
There are great health benefits to snowshoeing:
•Exceptional cardiovascular workout – you can burn up to 1,000 calories per hour!
•Low-impact muscle building.
•Endurance building.
•Balance strengthening and agility.
•Improves your sense of well-being by connecting to nature
Erin Chase’s ES first-graders are learning about how the Mayans used observatories to look at the sky! As part of their discussion, her little students practiced writing in complete sentences and drew a photo of a Mayan observatory.
The Maya built observatories so that they could examine the nighttime sky to track Earth's journey around the sun, which led to the development of their calendar.
Studying the Maya civilization in first-grade introduces young students to a fascinating ancient culture, exposing them to concepts like different writing systems (hieroglyphics), basic astronomy through their calendar system, and the idea of complex societies with impressive architecture.
It’s time for volleyball for Anthony Licata’s IS fourth-grade students! They’re not ready to play with a net just yet, as they need to learn the fundamentals of the game first. Take a peek at his students learning how to “bump” the volleyball! They’re picking up this new sport really quickly, too!
The ”bump” is a basic volleyball pass that uses the forearms to move the ball to a teammate or over the net. It's also known as a forearm pass or dig.
Library classes are always the best --- students can take out books and bring them home to read either solo or with a family member! It’s even better when you can take a book that was read to you in class and then use Play-Doh to create your own animal tracks!
That’s what Mia McLean’s ES kindergarten library students had the chance to do! She read them Mia Posada’s “Who Was Here? Discovering Wild Animal Tracks.” The book focuses on the footprints of wild animals from all around the world. For each animal, there's a rhyming verse, followed by the refrain "Who was here?" along with a life-size footprint on the appropriate terrain.
Afterward, students were given cans of Play-Doh so they could create their animal track of choice! A bear, by far, were the most popular animal track choice, followed by a kangaroo! What a great way of connecting a story with some fine motor skill work! Take a peek at these adorable little students proudly showing off their creations!
It’s always fun to read a big, oversized book, isn’t it? District kindergarteners, like AnneMarie Guido’s Otisville students, often gather together to do just that!
Mrs. Guido and her students have been reading stories in their CKLA Skills 6 reader called “Kit.” This particular story was called “Kit’s Mom.” (Kit’s mom is really, really, really busy in the morning, by the way!)
In CKLA Skills Unit 6 for kindergarten, a student is expected to be able to read simple decodable texts with CVC (words created using a consonant, vowel and a consonant) words, identify rhyming words, recognize consonant blends, and confidently blend letter sounds to read short words. This is all part of building a strong foundation in phonics skills and having the ability to decode basic text independently, often focusing on high-frequency words and simple sentence structures.
Big books are a crucial component of early childhood literacy curriculum because they allow for interactive shared reading experiences, enabling teachers to explicitly point out and discuss key literacy concepts like print awareness, word boundaries, and vocabulary development with the whole class, all while engaging children with large, easy-to-see text and visuals that support comprehension and participation in the story.
The Intermediate School’s Kindness Ambassadors were recently “on the road” to visit the Elementary School’s students! Every year to wrap up Kindness Week, these ambassadors visit the younger students to present a lesson on kindness followed by an activity.
During their recent visit, the ambassadors presented a recorded read aloud of Trudy Ludwig’s “The Power of One.” Her book tells the story that when one child reaches out in friendship to a classmate who seems lonely, she begins a chain reaction of kindness that ripples throughout her school and her community. One kind act begets another, small good deeds make way for bigger ones, and eventually the whole neighborhood comes together to build something much greater than the sum of its parts.
Their recording was made possible through the kindness of Kat Hoolan’s High School “Media Production” students, who took the ambassadors’ recording and created a more polished video of the book for them to use. 👏👏THANK YOU👏👏 to everyone who played a role in this visit’s success!
DID YOU KNOW
The IS kindness ambassadors are a before-school enrichment program for students who want to spread kindness. Ambassadors are involved in many things throughout the school year, including preparing hygiene kits around the holidays for needy families, creating artwork for the building and serving as liaisons to their classrooms to pass along information regarding the current “Valentines for Veterans” drive as well as sharing information about different holidays.
Harlem Wizard John “Big J” Smith visited the Intermediate and Elementary schools and Otisville Elementary today, Feb. 11 to remind students about the upcoming March 12 Harlem Wizards vs. Minisink Valley Faculty/Staff Basketball game!
“Big J,” who stands 6 feet, 8 inches tall, delighted students with his antics and awesome basketball skills as he reminded students the game is a big fundraiser! He’s been a member of the Harlem Wizards since 2011 and in last six years, has played basketball in 25 countries!
Tickets will be on sale soon for the March 12 game! Basketball aficionados will be treated to great skills, teamwork, slick dribbling, alley-oops and crazy slams. The non-hoop fans attending will find out that this is much more than just a basketball game. The night is funny, theatrical, exciting and spectacular and the gym will reverberate with oohs & aahs, laughter, enthusiasm, and much more!
The Harlem Wizards have been dazzling audiences since 1962 and have played many games with members of our faculty and staff over recent years! Watch for tickets and be sure to come out and support the faculty/staff team!
See more photos on the district's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MinisinkValleyCSD
It’s the perfect time of year for Lindsey McKernan’s ES kindergarteners to read Maureen Wright’s “Sneezy the Snowman” and follow this story up with a sweet project!
The book tells the story of Sneezy, who was very, very cold from being outside and was looking for a drink to warm himself up. But! After drinking a hot cup of cocoa, he melted! With help from some shaving cream and glue, the students’ follow-up project showed what Sneezy looked like after he melted. And, these little ones also got to practice working on their writing and fine motor skills, too!
Maria Fenfert’s Otisville fifth-grade trumpeters are practicing new music during in-school lessons! In-school musical instrument lessons like these are important because they provide a range of cognitive, social, and emotional benefits, including improving memory, coordination, self-esteem, creativity, and critical thinking skills. Lessons also foster a sense discipline through ensemble playing.
The trumpet is one of the oldest brass instruments, and has been around for over 1,500
The trumpet holds a central place in the world of jazz. Legendary artists like Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and Wynton Marsalis significantly influenced the development of jazz and are known for their trumpet mastery. years.
Due to their resonant tones, trumpets have been used for military signals, significant moments and ceremonial purposes for centuries. Military buglers, equipped with trumpets, played crucial roles on the battlefield, as they used specific calls to communicate orders, signal attacks, and announce ceasefires. In ceremonial contexts, the trumpet adds a regal touch to events such as state ceremonies, parades, and formal events
Vincent Napolitano’s High School Earth Science classes are learning about dew points and relative humidity.
As part of their studies, a recent lab tasked them with determining determine the dewpoint and relative humidity of different locations to understand how different conditions can influence weather variables. They undertook testing in their classroom, at high school’s natatorium and outdoors using pool water, a beakers of water, infrared thermometers and strips of paper.
They held paper at each location for two minutes, and used infrared thermometers to record the dry temperature. The same procedure was repeated after dipping the paper into their water source, waving it for a minute and then recording the wet temperature.
Their findings reinforced that in air which has very few water vapor molecules (dry or arid air), evaporation will greatly exceed condensation and cooling will exceed heating. As the amount of water vapor in the air (humidity) increases, more and more condensation occurs and the net energy loss decreases until at saturation, there is no net cooling.
Understanding dew points and relative humidity in Earth Science class is crucial because they are key indicators of the amount of moisture in the air, directly impacting weather patterns like cloud formation, precipitation, fog, and even our perceived comfort levels, making them essential tools for interpreting and predicting weather conditions. These factors help us understand how much water vapor is present in the atmosphere and when it might condense into liquid form, like dew or rain.
Hopefully everyone remembers that Senior amd Varsity Flag Football quarterback Vanessa Tepper was selected by the New York Giants organization as its 2024 "Heart of a Giant" award recipient! As part of her award, the district is receiving a $10,000 grant for its Flag Football Program. And...Vanessa was given a trip and tickets for two to the game! She took her dad, Varsity Flag Football Coach Mike Tepper with her!
We know they had the best time at the game and represented Minisink Valley with distinction!
Bryon Imbarrato’s Otisville third-graders have been practicing how to partition whole objects into equal parts when given a fractional unit. It is an important skill they’re getting really good at doing!
Students were given the fractional unit for each station, and then had to partition the object equally to create the equal parts of the whole. They used fraction strips, baking pans, CDs and cups of water to practice this skill.
Learning fractions in third grade is crucial because it lays the foundation for more advanced math concepts like decimals and percentages, enabling students to understand parts of a whole, which is essential for real-life applications and future mathematical success, especially in algebra and beyond; a solid grasp of fractions in third grade can significantly impact their overall math performance later on.
Physical Education teachers Anthony Pascarelli and Leyla Johnson have been introducing their ES kindergarten students to basketball, and teaching them about the bounce pass and chest pass techniques.
A bounce pass in basketball is a pass where the ball is thrown to the floor and then bounces to a teammate. It's a useful pass when a direct pass might be blocked by a defender. A chest pass in basketball is a pass where the ball is thrown from the chest to another player on the team. It's a fundamental skill that's often used in short or medium distance passes. While they’re not yet working with basketballs, they will as they move up to higher grade levels.
Congratulations and best wishes to the senior members of the Girls Varsity Wrestling Team: Patricia Deslandes, Giavanna Gangi, Shelby Potter and Vanessa Tepper! They were honored for the many contributions to the team’s success during the team’s Feb. 4 Senior Night!
