THE TRADITION CONTINUES!
Now in its 25th YEAR, the Intermediate School Fifth-Grade held its annual Thanksgiving luncheon on Nov. 26!
Fifth-grade teacher Mike Conklin offered comments before the luncheon began reminding everyone about the importance of being thankful, kind and generous and that there's always something to be thankful for. He also noted he believed they would remember this day during the rest of their school careers as well.
The luncheon was made possible due to the kindness and generosity of parents, faculty and staff who provided all turkeys, hams, side dishes and desserts and related treats to have a delicious hot Thanksgiving meal!
THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to the luncheon's success. Everyone had a great time eating and socializing...and they were very well-fed! SEE MORE photos on the district's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MinisinkValleyCSD
Jenna Conklin’s High School chemistry students recently completed a “Flame Test” lab during class. Do you remember this from your Chemistry class --- When electrons gain energy (in this case with the fire from the Bunsen burner) they move to an outer orbital of an atom, which is called the “excited state.” When the electrons come back down from the excited state, they emit energy in the form of light. This is usually a quick process, but in this instance, students elongated the color by saturating a wooden dowel in a solution, which allows for a longer burn. In the instance for the Flame test, this is visible light --- or colored light. Every element has its own distinct color, meaning one can determine an element from its characteristic flame! This is the same chemistry behind the color of fireworks, or the "color changing campfire" packs found in stores. Green fireworks are usually made from copper salts, Purple/lilac fireworks are made from potassium salts and red fireworks are usually strontium!
As part of the recent Otisville K-2 Quarter 1 Awards Ceremony, K-2 students were treated to a special performance of the Aseop’s fable, “The Tortoise and the Hare.” Guest performers third-grade teacher Bryon Imbarrato narrated the fable, with musical accompaniment by Music teachers Maria Fenfert on the French horn and Sklyer Klein on piano. What a creative way to impart a lesson! In the fable "The Tortoise and the Hare," a boastful hare challenges a slow-moving tortoise to a race, confident in his superior speed. However, the hare becomes complacent, stops to take a nap during the race, and ends up losing to the tortoise who steadily continued moving without stopping, illustrating the moral that "slow and steady wins the race." Aesop was a Greek fabulist and former slave credited with inventing the genre we now call fables. He caught the attention of many ancient Greek poets, playwrights and historians with his stories. Aesop's fables are intended to be told to children. The fables’ characters are generally animals with human characteristics, and the stories provide an entertaining way to impart life lessons to young people.
Motivational speaker, former Harlem Globetrotters player and eight-time Guinness record holder Corey “The Dribbler” Rich visited the Intermediate School yesterday, Nov. 25, for two character education assemblies showcasing his very cool basketball talents...which often included students and faculty! Take a peek at the fun Most important: As Corey spoke demonstrated his skills, he spoke to students about the importance of working together with their “team,” treating others like you would like to be treated and the importance of working hard to achieve goals. His incredible ball-handling skills include dribbling six basketballs at once! Cory has appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, ESPN First Take, Comcast Sportsnet, Fox News and is widely considered the “World’s Greatest Dribbler!” Along with performing his amazing talents at NBA Halftime Shows, Corey travels the country inspiring students with his character education message: The 4Rs for success: Respect, responsibility, ready to learn and reading is power. Character education programs take place in all our buildings throughout the year. THANK YOU to the IS PTO for sponsoring this important program!
Elementary School kindergarteners have been practicing gratitude and learning about what it means to be thankful. Since the beginning of the school year, they've been celebrating new friendships and understanding the importance of being thankful. Today, Nov. 25, they celebrated their progress with a Gratitude Walk, enjoying the crisp weather and sunshine with friends....a perfect activity to do during this season of thanksgiving! Plus: Principal Deborah Gallant made sure everyone knew how grateful she was for them by giving them special sparkly stickers to wear on their walk around the bus loop!
Rodney is the classroom pet of Gemma Lyon’s ES second-graders, and he’s clearly living his best, pampered life in this class!
But Rodney is more than just the class’s tortoise. He’s helping students explore and practice their social-emotional skills in class. Students routinely practice how to stay calm and safe while Rodney moves around on the carpet with them. Who wouldn’t want to have a tortoise hang out with them on the carpet? Since Rodney is fairly “new” to the classroom,
Mrs. Lyon talked with students about the emotions Rodney might be feeling at his new school and how even they can have similar emotions. Then, students spoke about how they can best handle similar emotions should they arise.
At the end of every week,a student gets to take RJ (Rodney Junior, the class stuffed “buddy”) for the weekend!
Tortoises can help develop social-emotional skills by providing a calming presence, fostering a sense of responsibility through caretaking, encouraging gentle interactions, and offering a low-demand companionship that can be beneficial for individuals struggling with anxiety or stress, particularly when used as therapy animals in settings like schools or senior homes. Their slow, predictable movements can also be soothing and help with self-regulation.
Imagination and physical education fun : Anthony Licata’s ES physical education students can “bearly” contain their excitement!
Students have been playing "Hibernation Preparation" in physical education class! They’ve been told to pretend they’re bears in a forest trying to stock up on food for the upcoming winter.
There’s an imaginary river down the middle of the gym and the students do “rock, paper, scissors” with a “bear” classmate from the other side of the river. If they win, they take a beanbag “fish” from the river and take it back to their "storage den." But! If they lose, they go to the "workout zone" and do 10 jumping jacks.
Throughout the game the required movements would change. For example, in Round 1, the bears would jump to the river; in Round 2, they’d leap, and in future rounds, they may gallop or jog. The game is designed to help students practice different locomotor and social skills while also being able to use their imagination and have fun!
Kudos to Class of 2025 officers Jon Bublio, president; Ryan Capo, vice president; Salma Hassen, secretary; and Sameer Roopchand, treasurer, who have worked every Varsity football game at the Concession Stand and were able to raise a large amount of money to help support the Senior Class with upcoming events. The officers working on future Senior Class fundraisers, helping the community with holiday food donations and with Minisink Cares. Thank you to everyone who supported and will continue to support their efforts.
Saturday evening Volleyball update:
Our Varsity Volleyball team played hard, with determination and tremendous grit, winning one out of three matches at today's NYSPHSAA Volleyball Championship Class AA semi-finals, but the team will not be advancing to tomorrow's final meet. But! The team earned third-place honors...the third best Class AA team in New York State!
This team achieved a level of achievement not seen in 24 years at Minisink Valley, and there's much to celebrate!
Please join us in congratulating the players and coaches for a magnificent season.
Otisville Elementary physical education teacher Stephanie Giufre’s Grades 2-5 students are seeing how feeling grateful can be part of physical education class!
First, she and students talked about what gratitude is and things they are grateful for. Then, she tasked them with creating a “Gratitude Wreath!” The object was for teams to work together to create a unique gratitude wreath.
On the start signal, one student from each team rolled the 🎲die.🎲 The entire team performed the activity determined by the number rolled/exercise identified on the activity card.
The team’s movement “earned” them one item to add to their gratitude wreath. One student from the team went to the center of the activity area and brought one item (bean bag, scarf, deck ring, yarn ball, etc.) back to add to the team’s wreath and says something he/she is grateful for. Every student had a chance roll the die and choose (and place) the item added to the wreath.
Students continued this process until wreaths are complete or until they heard the stop signal. What a creative class tied to this season of being grateful!
The big parade is just a few days away!
Jennifer Levin’s ES second-graders have been learning about how the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade originated! After hearing Melissa Sweet's story “Balloons Over Broadway,” which tells the story of the master puppeteer who invented the first balloons for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, students designed their own parade balloons. These will be used in the creation of their own Thanksgiving Day Parade poster, complete with awesome balloons.
THANKSGIVING-THEMED MUSIC FUN!
Cliff Loretto's ES kindergarten music students have been working on keeping a steady beat and using their singing voices to sing simple songs. "Five Fat Turkeys" is a song where they can do both while playing a fun guessing game!
Students take turns being the "cook" and covering their eyes while "five fat turkeys" are selected. When they open their eyes they are tasked with keeping the beat on the bass bar while the class sings the song.
They then go on a "hunt" to find a turkey amongst the group. Once they find a turkey, that student becomes the new "cook" and the game starts again until everyone has had a turn to play the instrument! What a fun, seasonal way for them to learn about steady beats!
AND....THEY"RE OFF!
What a great, fun CLAP OUT! Go get 'em, ladies! We're rooting for you You got this! Good luck at the NYSPHSAA Volleyball Championships!
A special thank you to Megan Earl Sullivan, a member of the 2000 Varsity Volleyball team ---the last time our Varsity Volleyball team went to the NYSPHSAA Championships --- who stopped by (wearing the silver medal the team won that year, btw)) to give a pep talk to the 2024 team! SO COOL!
THANK YOU to everyone who made this evening possible and who joined us! We appreciate you!
District second-graders, like Joseph Ferara’s second-graders, are learning about the concept of place value during their math lessons.
In this recent lesson, students take their knowledge of how three-digit numbers get split into hundreds, tens, and ones and apply that knowledge to learning how to manipulate these numbers.
Here, this lesson teaches them each place value can’t “exceed 9 dots,” and if it does, they have to trade those dots for the next place value. This is really an introduction into the reasoning behind addition with regrouping and teaches them how to exchange place values to create numbers in their standard form. These are important math skills to know!
When doing this, Mr. Ferara’s students use the word “transport” to show that they’re just moving the dots to a new place value, and not eliminating them all together. Think of it like cashing in 10 ones for 1 ten and 10 tens for 1 hundred.
HANDS UP!
Who needs jazz hands when you have “white board hands?”
Adrianna Ciccarelli’s IS fourth-graders are using “white board hands” to quickly answer rounding questions during math review. What a fun way to do work!
Members of the Middle School’s Pet Club recently welcomed another guest speaker who shared her expertise and experience with them!
Retired vet technician Crystal Sovak, who worked in the field for 20 years, shared stories and real-life experiences with students. This also included showing students x-rays and dental images from different species!
But the real star of the gathering was Marvel, Ms. Sovak’s dog, who was a rescue dog! Marvel happily allowed Ms. Sovak to brush his teeth and trim his nails, which are both an important part of healthy pet care. It was a great opportunity for students to learn tips from a professional as well as to learn more about careers in the animal care field.
November is National Men’s Health Awareness Month! Join us and wear purple attire to help bring awareness to unique health issues of men!
Please join the efforts of the district's Buildings & Grounds team to bring awareness to important men's physical and mental health issues!
November is also "No-Shave November" and "Movember," movements created to encourage conversations about cancer awareness among men.
Call for photos: Share your student's purple attire for a forthcoming photo gallery by emailing to communications@minisink.com by 3 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 22!
Lynda McKeon’s and Taryn Richards’ IS third-graders are getting really skilled at rounding two and three-digit numbers to the nearest 10 on a vertical number line!
During a recent lesson, students began by renaming numbers in unit form to help round to the nearest 10. This practice helps students to understand how many 10s are in the number and what the next 10 is. Then, they established the halfway mark between 10s. Students have to decide if the number is “more” than halfway or “less” than halfway. This practice helps the students round to the nearest 10 more efficiently.
This skill helps students to develop a greater foundational understanding of place value, estimation and simplifying numbers to make calculations easier in real-world situations where exact precision isn't always necessary.
The Otisville fourth-grade teaching team of Jenna Colman/Victoria Frascone, Erica Alders/Alexa Roach, Susie Balfour and Adriana Eichwald celebrated the end of ELA Unit 2, “Empires in the Middle Ages,” with a themed medieval celebration for their students!
During this unit, students learned about castles, knights and other topics. After taking a virtual tour of a medieval castle’s Great Hall, students learned about the long tables that the nobles would gather at for meals.
Sitting at these long tables under "candlelit chandeliers," students created beautiful stained-glass windows. During the unit, students learned about "rose windows," a type of stained-glass window that looks like a flower. Students used tissue paper and laminating pockets to make their own stained-glass creations that look beautiful when the sun shines through, just like a real stained-glass window.
Students also sat by the Great Hall’s roaring "fire" and created family crests, similar to what would represent a noble family during this time. What a fun and creative way to reinforce Middle Age lessons!
Studying the Middle Ages in fourth-grade is important because it provides a foundation for understanding Western civilization and introduces key concepts like feudalism, the role of the Church, and the development of early European societies and more, which significantly shaped the world we live in today. It also allows students to explore fascinating stories and imagery from this period!
GET WINGS and support the Class of 2025!
Buffalo Wild Wings in Middletown will donate 10% of your purchase on Saturday, Nov. 23 to support Class of 2025 initiatives. Make sure you bring this ticket!
