Kimberly Jordan’s High School Biology students could be the next contestants on the BBC’s “The Great British Baking Show!”
In championship baking style, students recently had two periods and whatever edible baking products they wished to use to create an animal or plant cell "cake"---either solo or with a group of peers.
They are all “Star Bakers” in how they handled Mrs. Jordan's “Showstoppers Challenge!” Take a look!
Studying animal and plant cells in biology is crucial because these cells are the fundamental building blocks of all living organisms. They allow students to understand the basic processes of life, such as growth, reproduction, metabolism, and response to stimuli, which are essential for comprehending the complexities of multicellular organisms and developing solutions to biological challenges in medicine, agriculture and environmental science.
Look for more photos on the district's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MinisinkValleyCSD
Before the break, the Middle School’s Minisink Motivates Club traveled to Otisville Elementary for their annual reading of the "Weird" series by Erin Frankel to second-grade classrooms. Middle schoolers read a story from the series and then completed an activity with students.
For the third consecutive year, middle school students and elementary school students had a great time interacting with one another and completing the activity. This is wonderful example of inter-school cooperation and relationships!
Before the break Cynthia Muccari’s Otisville second and third-grade students made gingerbread houses out of milk cartons, graham crackers, frosting and candy! There were many creative and tasty creations! They also made beautiful gingerbread ornaments and listened to the story “The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School!” What a fun, seasonal activities! Take a look!
STAR MATH BAKERS!
Before the break, Lillian Preziosi’s Otisville fifth-graders completed their math unit on addition and subtraction with unlike denominators.
Students took part in a fun project which focused on the topics they’ve mastered!
To complete the assigned tasks, students pretended they were bakers on a competition show. They had to complete their baking competition by adding and subtracting fractions (planning and timing their morning, prepping in the kitchen, shopping for items, baking, etc.).
After they finished their “baking” project, they made and ate "Sprinkle Chow"!
Kudos to the Boys Wrestling Program, which has collected enough food items to create 10 to 15 non-perishable food baskets during this holiday season for Minisink Cares to help those dealing with food insecurity, Since 2020, the Boys Wrestling Program has partnered up with Minisink Cares to donate food baskets. WELL-DONE and thank you to all! Your kindness will make a difference!
Kudos to the Varsity Cheer team, which has continued its annual tradition of adopting a family this holiday season.
Before the break, the cheer “elves” gathered to wrap gifts for two families.
“We hope these gifts brighten the holidays for these two families,” said Head Coach Patti Archiere. “This is very meaningful to us. Our cheerleaders and their families look forward to doing this every year and we hope it brings smiles to the faces of the recipients.”
Girls Wrestling Varsity Head Coach Dan Gallo is thrilled to share that the Girls Wrestling Program held its first-ever female varsity wrestling tournament on Dec. 15! It was also the first-ever tournament hosted by at Section IX team!
The “Iron Maiden” Tournament featured 170 wrestlers from Minisink Valley, Middletown, Shenendehoah, Shaker, Columbia, Warwick, Valley Central, Burke Catholic, Warrensburg, Port Jervis and LaSalle.
Minisink Valley, the home team, won the team title with 327 points! Middletown finished in second-place with 226 points with Shaker in third-place just under 175 points.
Individual weight-class championships were won by Peyton Matone, Jaida Macaluso and Brooke Besson!
Congratulations to Keira Filip, Madison Thorpe, Sara Pauls and Patricia Deslandes for making it to the Finals; and to Summer LaRusso, McKenna Matone, Colby Furman, Trevon Costello and Amelia Patzelt for placing top three.
Congratulations and well-done to all!
Kara Welsh's Otisville fifth-grade art students have been creating gorgeous, vibrant watercolor mandalas inspired by the sand mandalas of the Tibetan Monks and the Aztec calendar.
A mandala, the Sanskrit word for “circle,” is a circular, geometrical design with repetitions of patterns, symbolizing the cyclical nature of life and the idea that everything is connected. All lines and shapes are organized around a singular, central focal point, which can be understood as a map of the pathway between the external and the internal.
Carmela Sill’s ES kindergarteners recently had a fun time some great fine motor skill practice work using cotton balls and clothespins to make “melted snowmen.” Everyone is unique!
Nichole Gaucher’s and Toni McGinn’s High School Living Environment students are learning about body systems. During this recent class, students explored the respiratory system.
As part of their exploration, students selected and researched a respiratory system disease in order to learn how that disease can disrupt the body's homeostasis. In their research, students learned about the disease's symptoms, how to diagnose it and treat/cure it, what causes it and if it’s contagious. They also learned how this disease affects the respiratory system and its ability to help the body maintain homeostasis. Students created mini-posters to show their findings and participated in a gallery walk where they learned about the diseases their peers researched. Take a look!
In biology, "homeostasis" refers to the ability of a living organism to maintain a stable internal environment despite changes in its external surroundings, essentially keeping key bodily functions like temperature, fluid balance, and pH levels within a narrow, optimal range for proper functioning.
A gallery walk is a teaching strategy that involves students moving around a classroom to examine a collection of artifacts, texts, or student work. The goal is to engage students and help them learn and synthesize concepts.
Jenn Kemmerer’s, Cheryl Wilson’s and Jessica Venettozzi's IS fourth-graders recently visited each other’s classrooms to see their outstandingly creative New York State Native American dioramas. Students displayed their work as their peers stopped by their desks to ask questions.
Students were tasked with designing and building either a longhouse or wigwam to show their specific understanding of Iroquois an Algonquian housing. As part of their project work, students were also tasked with writing about their home, who lived in t and other details. While this was a student-centered home project, families were encouraged to also take part!
Building a longhouse or wigwam is much more than just a creative project. This project helps students understand how Native American tribes adapted their housing to their environment and lifestyle, particularly the importance of communal living in a longhouse for large families and the flexibility of a wigwam for nomadic tribes who needed to move frequently depending on food sources. It teaches them about the practical reasons behind different types of shelters based on the needs of the people who built them.
Thank you to the Otisville PTO, which sponsored a two -day “Earth Dome” enrichment program on Dec. 18 and 19!
The Earth Dome is a gigantic inflatable earth balloon standing 19-feet high and 22-feet in diameter. It's made of 24 huge panels silkscreened with photographs shot from satellites of the surface of the world on cloud free days. It has been used extensively across the U.S. to educate students about geography as well as environmental issues. The topics presented were appropriate for each grade level ---- ask your student about this!
Among other topics, students saw and better understood the scale of concepts such as continents, time zones, latitude, longitude, and more! Major cities, in comparison to the total Earth, were also recognized! What a great Geography and Earth Science program!
ALL ABOARD, TICKETS PLEASE!
Sherri Jennings’ Otisville kindergarteners “took” a train ride to the North Pole today, Dec. 19, on THE POLAR EXPRESS! They needed their punched ticket in order to board the train and enjoyed hot cocoa on their ride! Wearing PJs made the ride even more comfy!
If you need help finding the perfect holiday ornament, ask Kimberly Jordan’s High School Biology students! They can definitely help!
Students were tasked with creating two ornaments, all created at home! The first was an organelle of a cell that they thought was most important; and the other was a cell type. All types of colorful and creative ornaments were created focusing on muscle cells, neurons, sex cells...and much more all showcasing the diversity within us and how organelles and types of cells keeps us alive. What a fun and creative twist to biology class!
An organelle is a subcellular structure that has one or more specific jobs to perform in the cell, much like an organ does in the body. Among the more important cell organelles are the nuclei, which store genetic information; mitochondria, which produce chemical energy; and ribosomes, which assemble proteins.
A "cell type" refers to a group of cells that share similar characteristics and functions within an organism, distinguished from other cell groups by their unique morphology, gene expression patterns, and specialized roles within the body. It’s essentially a classification of cells based on their distinct properties and what they do within the organism.
CAN A McDONALD’S HAPPY MEAL BE USED IN A LAB EXPERIMENT? YES!
Carolyn Russell’s and Jonathan Hannes’ High School Living Environment classes recently completed a very innovative “Mc Mush” lab! Students used a McDonald’s Happy Meal to test for the presence of organic compounds normally found in the body.
After the burger, fries, apples and drink were blended into a compound which was called a “McMush,” groups used chemical indicators like Benedict's solution, iodine, and Biuret reagent to test for carbohydrates, lipids and proteins in their samples. Remember, the term “organic” in science indicates that a compound contains carbon which is very different from the organic choices at the grocery store. (Who kept the Happy Meal toys? We don’t know!)
Every student led their group through an experiment and determine if McMush had the organic compound in question!
Believe it or not, a standard McDonald’s Happy Meal has some nutritional value because three biomolecules are present in the meal. The starch, protein and lipids found in the Happy Meal solution are three biomolecules essential for nutrition. These biomolecules are crucial for bodies because they provide an important source of energy, storage for minerals and to build and repair muscles. Without them, it can lead to lack of metabolism, hormones, energy and blood sugar.
LITERACY LESSONS TIED TO SEASONALITY
Like all district kindergarteners, Lindsey McKernan’s ES kindergarteners are learning about “tricky words” and realizing that tricky words are those that do not "play by the rules!" Making candy canes and adding a variety of tricky words to their art work is a fun way to practice reading, writing and remembering those tricksters!
Thank you to everyone who participated in today's "Operation GIVEBACK" at the Middle School! Take a peek at some of the fun work done by students who made holiday cards for veterans, scarves for the Middletown Warming Station, pine cone bird feeders and ornaments for a local nursing home! Your kindness makes a HUGE difference in the lives of others!
Deanna Feuerbach’s IS fourth-grade music students have been having a great time using boomwhackers in class, which includes using them for holiday song play-along videos!
Boomwhackers are percussion instruments that are lightweight, color-coded plastic tubes that are tuned to different musical pitches. They are tuned to a C Major scale.
Each student is given a different colored pitch, and must wait their turn to play their note when it appears on the screen. The students are able to perform together as an ensemble to create music which helps enhance social skills and work towards a common goal.
Boomwhackers are a popular instrument in elementary music classrooms because they’re a fun and engaging way to teach music concepts such as rhythm and pitch, harmony and melody as well as timing, focus and concentration, teamwork, collaboration and hand-eye coordination.
Craig Ramsell invented the instrument in 1994 while cutting down a cardboard gift-wrap tube for recycling. He noticed the different tones produced by the two pieces of the tube and realized he could tune them to play music. Ramsell experimented with different plastics, eventually settling on plastic mailing tubes. He and his wife created the first plastic model in 1995.
Did you know that dominoes can be used in short STEM challenges to teach students about energy transfer, chain reactions and critical thinking? Just ask Teresia Parker’s and Jill Stramiello’s Middle School technology students!
The teachers have used dominoes as part of their "do now" or "anticipatory set" activities at the beginning of lessons. The intent is to immediately engage students, activate their prior knowledge about a topic, and mentally prepare them for the new information that will be presented. This is essentially setting the stage for the lesson by grabbing their attention and connecting them to the upcoming material.
Dominoes are perfect because they provide a hands-on, engaging way to explore fundamental concepts life force, motion, cause and effect and problem solving. Designing and building complex domino runs requires students to plan, analyze, and adjust their designs based on trial and error, promoting critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.
The Elementary School kindergarten team held its annual "Holidays Around the World" program today, Dec. 17, where students visited different classrooms to learn about holidays and customs in Israel, Switzerland, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Australia and Mexico!
