Minisink Valley Central School District -

What do fireworks, cake and a winter tablecloth mean? There’s only one correct answer: The 2025 edition of Vale, the high school yearbook, is complete and off for printing! Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration” blasted from Room 126 as the final pages were submitted. Editor-in-chief Aislyn Struble completed the final submission and then read her theme opening to “Out Loud!” to her yearbook staff peers! Did you know that staff operates as a high school art elective class and is taught by Kat Hoolan and copy advised by Laura Lalor? But, why the winter tablecloth, you may ask. That’s because the staff only has one for deadline celebrations, and it’s become part of the staff traditions no matter the season. Yearbooks will arrive in early June!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS NOW! One of the biggest district-wide events will take place Tuesday, May 20: The annual annual District Art Show/K-12 Exhibition! Over 400 student artists representing the High School, Middle School, Otisville Elementary the Intermediate School and the Elementary School will have work on display from 5 to 8 p.m. at the High School cafeteria and auditorium. It's always a gorgeous and vibrantly colorful exhibition, featured all kinds of art mediums! This exhibition is equally wonderful because of the smiles on the proud families and students! Please join us!

BRAVO! Plays are meant to be seen and experienced and there’s many times when students assume roles of characters and read the play out loud! Take a look at Jenn Thibodeau’s and Catina Brooks’ High School English 10 students, who recently read Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” out loud in class. This play that explores the struggles of the Younger family, an African-American family in Chicago, as they navigate financial hardship, racial prejudice, and the pursuit of the American Dream after the death of the patriarch, “Big Walter.” The play examines their conflicting dreams and aspirations, and the impact of their choices on their family's future. "A Raisin in the Sun" is often read in English classes to explore themes of race, class, family, and the "American Dream." By studying this play, students can further develop critical thinking skills, analyze complex characters, and examine how social and historical contexts shape individual lives. “This is a powerful play that relates to kids and the financial struggles that many families can face and realizing what is really important in life,” said Ms. Brooks. “The kids enjoyed the play and reading the characters of the excitable and frustrated Walter, the powerful matriarch Mama, the intellectual Beneatha, and other memorable characters. Having them actively engaged with the characters keeps them focused and leads to understanding motivation and having deeper comprehension. It’s a fun and memorable experience.” The play debuted on Broadway in 1959. The New York Drama Critics' Circle named it 1959’s best play, and in recent years publications such as The Independent[t] and Time Out have listed it among the best plays ever written.

Congratulations to the 17 students who were recognized at the NYSAHPERD Catskill Zone Leadership Awards Ceremony, held this past Saturday at Wallkill High School! This event honors top-grade-level students who exemplify excellence in fitness, leadership, and citizenship—key components of New York State learning standards. These students were selected for their commitment to an active lifestyle, responsible behavior, leadership qualities, and contributions to their school community. While athletic ability is not a requirement, each honoree embodies the spirit of personal growth and positive influence. "These students are role models who lead by example, showing us the power of character, effort, and service in physical education and beyond,” said Physical Education teacher Theresa Uhelsky, the organization’s past president. Students honored were: Middle School • Mason King • Ben Ziegler • Lennox Addo • Erin Arias • Lyla LeBarbera Otisville Elementary • Leah Galligan • Quinn Lattimer • Luca Artola • Eliya Graziano Intermediate School • Ella Manzie • Madison Worden • Jemma Marsala • Charlotte Kohler Elementary School • James Santos • Gary Boyajian • Declan Barry • Kaylee Jackler

¡Buenos días! Meghan Donahue’s ES first-graders spent some time yesterday learning about Cinco de Mayo and afterward, had the very cool opportunity to help prepare fresh guacamole! In addition to learning about Cinco de Mayo, students learned that an avocado is a fruit! Botanically, it's classified as a single-seeded berry. While it's often used in savory dishes and considered a vegetable in some culinary contexts, its development from the ovary of a flowering plant and the presence of a seed make it a fruit. Students used their five senses to describe avocados on the outside and inside, including tasting them! After exploring avocados, students followed a sequence of steps and directions and learned about authentic Mexican ingredients to make the perfect guacamole for their Cinco de Mayo treat! What a great history, science, culinary and multi-step direction lesson! •Cinco de Mayo, which means "Fifth of May" in Spanish, is a holiday celebrating the Mexican army's victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. While it's often mistaken for Mexican Independence Day, it's actually a celebration of Mexican pride and the courage of the Mexican army. •In Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is more of a regional celebration, especially in the state of Puebla, where the battle took place. Celebrations are also seen in other Mexican regions, like the Peñon de los Baños neighborhood of Mexico City. However, it's not a national holiday, and most businesses are open. •In the United States, Cinco de Mayo has evolved into a more widespread celebration of Mexican culture, with parades, festivals, and celebrations featuring Mexican music, food, and traditions. •The main ingredient in guacamole is avocado, which is mashed and then mixed with other ingredients like lime juice, salt, and sometimes cilantro, onion, and jalapenos. While the avocado is the core component, other flavors like onion, tomato, garlic, and spices like cumin can be added for a more complex flavor profile.

MORE BOWLING FUN! Anthony Pascarelli’s ES physical education kindergarteners are having a blast learning about bowling! They understand what a “strike” and “spare” means and are learning proper bowling form in class! Take a peek! Bowling offers numerous benefits for kindergarteners, fostering physical, mental, and social development. It improves hand-eye coordination, balance, and strength, while also developing focus, patience, and social skills like teamwork and sportsmanship. Bowling also subtly builds analytical skills through calculating scores and understanding angles.

Physical education teachers Stephanie Giufre and Tom Uhrig a recent SUPER FUN and colorful obstacle course for their K-1 students! Take a peek at these cuties and ask them about it! There are so many learning opportunities for these young students to gain besides the thrill of course completion! This obstacle course helps them to better understand concepts like “in,” “out,” “over,” “ under,” “around,” “through,” “up” and “down.” PLUS...the course also promotes overall physical fitness, gross motor development (using large muscles), bilateral coordination (using both sides of the body at the same time), perceptual motor development (receive, interpret and respond to sensory information), agility, coordination, spatial awareness, listening skills and balance.

We’re always grateful when our community education colleagues visit the High School to meet with students. THANK YOU to Javon Joslyn of SUNY Orange, who met with interested juniors and seniors yesterday, May 1, about SUNY Orange’s Plus Programs. These programs provide training for a variety of rewarding careers, including culinary arts, CDL training, certified clinical medical assistants, home health aides, security guards and more! Ms. Joslyn’s presented focused on the Work Force Development and FoodTec programs. To learn more, visit: https://sunyorange.edu/plus/

Theresa Uhelsky’s High School Adapted Physical Education classes recently wrapped up a fun and skill-building bowling unit in the gym --- then took those skills to the next level with a real-life trip to Pinstreet Bowling Alley in Warwick! Students learned how to select the right bowling ball, set up scoring, and use effective techniques to improve their game. With support from our amazing chaperones --- Christine Ertola, Christina Faline, and Tim Bult, students had the chance to put their skills into action and enjoy some friendly competition. THANK YOU to Pinstreet for welcoming our students and generously providing each of them with passes for two free games. What a wonderful way to connect classroom learning with real-world fun!

To embrace the flourishing spring season, students in Jonathan Bond’s “Mindful Self Design” class and Chris Ruckdeschel’s “SUPA Psychology” class recently took a field trip to the Pocono Environmental Education Center (PEEC) in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. The trip provided a perfect blend of outdoor adventure and personal growth, with a focus on team-building and individual challenges. Students were quickly immersed in a series of team-building exercises designed to foster confidence, trust, and communication. They participated in numerous small rope courses in which their classmates were their “spotters.” There were also several problem-solving activities that required students to act in a thoughtful manner, provide support, and implement teamwork. Students “snow-shoed” with wooden planks, carefully weaved themselves through a web, and even acted as beavers in a dam to get over a wall. These exercises not only broke the ice, but laid a foundation for further connection and team building among students! What a great and creative field trip idea!

If it's Spring, it means the Intermediate School's Bike Club is back on the road! Run by advisors Physical Education teacher Theresa Uhelsky and Security Officer Kevin Murphy, groups meet on Wednesdays and Fridays to learn how to become more proficient in bike riding. This includes important safety rules, too. And, everyone has a fun time!

Megan St Clair’s and Sarah Kocot’s ES second-graders, like all district second-graders, have been learning about the human body and many of its organs. In this recent and amazing lesson, students first worked with a miniature skeleton to place the organs they were learning about in the correct position. Later, their teachers incorporated a fun art component to this science lesson by creating student-sized body outlines! In five different groups, students took what they learned on the smaller skeleton and correctly placed organs on the outlined body, labeling each organ. Each “body” was distinctively unique, with each group’s creativity giving their “body” its own personality! Plus, a byproduct of this lesson was students had the opportunity to work in groups! Group work allows them to learn to share ideas, listen to others, and work collaboratively, which are valuable skills for both school and real-life situations. It also encourages critical thinking and problem-solving as they discuss and evaluate information together.

Kudos to High School students Zoe Schultz, Morgan Varian, Zuri Poinsette, Erin Huggins-Williams (and her mom Cindy), Gia Gangi, Baylie Touw and Cheyann Kumar for their volunteer assistance at last Saturday’s “Hike for Hope,” at Bear Mountain State Park, an event organized by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. They ran the arts and crafts tables and healing activities to over 500 participants. We always love it when our students give back and help others! THANK YOU and WELL-DONE!

Did you know that today is National Tie Dye Day? Otisville Elementary does! With their bright colors and smiling faces, these photos were just too cute to not share! PS: All these shirts were created at the PTO's recent Family Craft and Tie Dye Night!

SOLDERING SUCCESS! Rich Budd's seventh-grade technology students recently had the opportunity to work more on their soldering skills in a project which allowed them to make their own LED night lights! Prior to this, students used a wiring diagram to properly arrange the components on the circuit board. The Night Light kit uses a photocell to automatically turn on a super bright LED as the room darkens and turns off the LED as the room lightens. Now, they have an extra light to make their favorite "dark" rooms a bit more brighter!

Please join us in wishing the Varsity Boys Golf Team much success as it heads to the Division 2 championship match today, April 30! The team is on a current FOUR match win streak and is excited to compete! "The guys are having a lot of fun and improving on their game every day,” said Coach Dave Benedetto. “We have a great group of players working very well together." He’s also proud to share these player highlights: •Chris Rickard is off to another great season averaging 3 over par He has qualified for States the past two seasons and he is looking to make another run at a state title in June. •Ben Danielson, John Falzon, and Matt Murtaugh are all on track to qualify for the OCIAA championship tournament held on May 12.

There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes every concert season! Take a peek at Laura Hulle's eighth-grade band, which has been intensely practicing together to be ready for the Spring Concert! Every member in this ensemble is important and contributes to the overall band's success!

Tara Frawley’s and Kelly Manganiello's Otisville fifth-graders recently completed a science experiment about energy using Hot Wheels cars! The purpose of this energy transfer experiment was to test two predictions that students know about potential, kinetic energy and friction. They did this by taking a car and placing it on a track higher than another car will travel further along the track and then covering the track with salt to see if the car will not travel as far as one without salt on the track During the experiment, students taped Hot Wheels tracks together and built a stack of books 40 centimeters and 20 centimeters high. They positioned a Hot Wheels car on the edge of the slope and released it. Students then measured the distance travelled in centimeters after three releases on their data sheets. They also tested what happened to the Hot Wheels cars’ distance once salt was added to the track. Finally, students calculated the average distance to determine which height the car travelled further on- the high or low height. •Potential energy is stored energy within an object or system, waiting to be released and used. •Kinetic energy is the energy of motion. It's the energy possessed by an object due to its movement. •Friction is a force that opposes motion between two surfaces that are in contact, •According to manufacturer Mattel, eight Hot Wheels cars are sold every second. There’s more than 800 models and 11,000 variations.

What do fireworks, cake and a winter tablecloth mean? There’s only one correct answer: The 2025 edition of Vale, the high school yearbook, is complete and off for printing! Per yearbook tradition, on Thursday night before the deadline seniors and editors meet in the evening to run the index. But because of last Thursday’s networking issues at the High School, staff quickly pivoted and used one of the Middle School technology rooms for this important step in the process. This past Friday, Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration” blasted from Room 126 as the final pages were submitted. Editor-in-chief Aislyn Struble completed the final submission and then read her theme opening to “Out Loud!” to her yearbook staff peers! Did you know that staff operates as a high school art elective class and is taught by Kat Hoolan and copy advised by Laura Lalor. But, why the winter tablecloth? That’s because the staff only has one for deadline celebrations, and it’s become part of the staff traditions no matter the season. Yearbooks will arrive in early June!

Otisville’s Family Craft and Tie Dye Night, held this past Friday night, was a huge success! Everyone had a great time and there’s lots of wonderful crafts which now have a place of distinction at home! Thank you to the Otisville PTO and everyone who contributed to the evening’s success! Art teacher Kara Welsh used fabric dye given to her from former art teacher for tie dying over 160 people tie dyed items! Students also had fun at paper airplane/origami, air dry clay sculpting, tissue flowers, magnet decoration and pom-pom coaster stations! See more photos on the district's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MinisinkValleyCSD/