THANK YOU to the amazing Otisville PTO for organizing and hosting this time-honored tradition that continues to spark a love of reading in our school community!
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To enhance classroom engagement, students recently participated in a hands-on volcano experiment using an apple, baking soda, food coloring, and vinegar. Students enjoyed observing the “volcano” erupt and making connections between the experiment and real volcanic eruptions. This engaging activity provided a meaningful way to bring learning to life!
•The apple, baking soda, food coloring and vinegar volcano experiment is a fun way to show how a chemical reaction works. First, an apple is hollowed out to make a small “volcano” crater. Baking soda is placed inside the apple, and a few drops of food coloring are added to make the reaction easier to see. The apple acts as a natural container, helping students visualize how a volcano holds magma before it erupts.
•When vinegar is poured into the apple, it reacts with the baking soda. Baking soda is a base and vinegar is an acid, and when they mix, they produce carbon dioxide gas. This gas builds up and escapes as bubbly foam, pushing the colored liquid out of the apple like lava flowing from a volcano. The experiment demonstrates acid–base reactions and gas formation in a simple, safe, and exciting way.
Mat maids
Camila Calle
Alyssa Hendershot
Jazlin Sessoms Luna
Sofia Udasco
Wrestlers
Alexandro Cepeda, Jr.
Ramon Colon
Timothy Duke
Cody Dul
Tyler Dul
Antonio Felix
Zachary Filip
Leonardo Gangi
Shaheed Mitchell
Alex Nigro
Jayden Pressley
Nathanial Racz
Gabriel Simpson
Otisville's PBIS-STAR program focuses on creating and sustaining a positive school environment which embraces educationally sound methods that foster student character, safety, academic excellence and individual citizenship.
Seven swimmers qualified for the Feb. 19 to 21 Section IX Championships, based on their cut times:
•Senior Caleb Decker got 2 cuts in the 200 freestyle and 50 freestyle
•Senior Owen Skinner got a cut in the 200 IM
•Junior Eddie Edwards got cut times in the 100 freestyle and 100 backstroke in a previous meet.
•Sophomore William Monahan got his first 2 cuts in the 200 and 500 yard freestyle
•Freshman Jacob Yourman got a cut in the 200 freestyle
•Eighth-grader Marcus Earl got a Section cut time in the 100 breaststroke
•Seventh-grader Alex Marincenko got a cut in the 200 freestyle
Otisville Coach Jenna Coleman’s team will be presenting a response to Problem 5: “Taller Tales of John Jivery.” We’re not sharing “all” they’re doing to prepare, but it’s going to be a great performance!
The team will create and present a humorous performance about an original tall tale.
The tale will include a team-created hero or heroine that performs an incredible feat, a unique explanation of how something began or came to be and a surprise for the audience.
Each event will be accompanied by a visual weather effect that represents an emotion.
The original characters and unusual situations this team is creating will show their tremendous “out of the box” thinking!
This past Friday, and in preparation for last night's big game, these students "tackled" a different kind of challenge: Reimagining the shape of a football as something totally unexpected. And wow—did they deliver! Touchdowns for everyones! Their “something elses” are bursting with imagination, originality and first-grade brilliance.
New York Yankees vs. Miami Marlins!
--- Saturday, April 4
--- 7:05 p.m. at Yankee Stadium
--- Tickets: $45 each for Terrace Level seating
--- Online ticket sales close March 1
--- Tickets will be delivered digitally to the email address provided.
--- Transportation is NOT provided.
Purchase tickets here: https://minisink-pto-yankee-game.square.site/
Heather Cardena's and Dan Gallo's Middle School physical education students' volleyball matchups are a lot of fun! It's a great physical education unit because volleyball develops key physical skills like coordination, agility, and strength through full-body movements like jumping or diving.
PLUS: There's also other important life skills like teamwork, communication and strategic thinking involved. Volleyball is a fun, adaptable, and often low-contact sport, making it accessible for many students.
Back by request! Sign up today for the High School Art Club’s Feb. 10 “Paint & Snack” fundraiser! Have a wonderful afternoon painting a beautiful spring design under the guidance of a talented upperclassman art student! And, of course, there will be fabulous snacks! Open to all ages, but space is limited. Cost is $12 per adult, $10 per student and $5 for student siblings.
Sign up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSejmdJqNRluBrCttWfiMsXZ8Cu5-xqk0U9wP3GPo7oXlMKASw/viewform
--- Fifth-Grade: Tyler Sturge
--- Fourth- Grade: Hailey Barry
--- Third-Grade: Ansharah Usman, Leilani Romero Marin and Yaretzi Vazquez
Varsity Football Coach Kevin Gallagher said this is only the second time in program history that a Minisink Valley football player has won this award. Tom Redmond won it in the early 1970s.
“Zach Filip is a coach’s dream,” Coach Gallagher said. “He is a great athlete with good speed, a very smart athlete, strong, a great teammate, with an incredible will to get better and to win! Zach was our heart and soul and is as tough as anyone in the state, but off the field he is a great kid well-respected by everyone. Zach is also a very good student and is looking to play football in college and become a physical education teacher and coach.”
Class of 2010 alumnus Stefanie Dolson competed in Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (held in 2021 due to the pandemic), winning a GOLD MEDAL with Team USA in women’s 3×3 basketball! The 3x3 sport debuted in the 2020 games, with Team USA defeating the Russian Olympic Committee team 18–15 in the final! Ms. Dolson was a key contributor, leading her team in scoring with seven points and pulling down nine rebounds in the gold medal game!
After graduating from Minisink Valley, Ms. Dolson played collegiately at the University of Connecticut and plays professionally in the WNBA, currently as a center with the Washington Mystics.
Class of 2017 alumnus Nicholas Abruzzese competed in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, representing Team USA in men’s ice hockey! In his Olympic appearance, Mr. Abruzzese played four games, recording four points (one goal and three assists) for Team USA. The team competed strongly in the tournament, but ultimately didn't medal.
After graduating from Minisink Valley, Mr. Abruzzese played collegiate hockey at Harvard University, where he was among the nation’s top point producers and served as team captain. He's is currently a center with the American Hockey League's Syracuse Crunch!
We’re so proud to have two ALUMNI OLYMPIANS!
Through simple prose and vivid illustrations, this her book encourages positive behavior by using the concept of an invisible bucket to show readers how easy and rewarding it is to express kindness, appreciation, and love by “filling buckets.” While using a simple metaphor of a bucket and a dipper, the book is a reminder that when we choose to be kind, we not only fill the buckets of those around us, but also fill our own buckets!
Afterward, the ambassadors oversaw kindness-themed activities for each grade level. This was another wonderful inter-school collaboration between both schools! WELL-DONE, everyone!
Brian Maione’s eighth-grade art students are creating pop art sculptures inspired by Claes Oldenberg.
They choose their favorite candy, cookies, chips or other items… so long as it comes from a bag! First, students drafted a sketch of their snacks which focused on composition, design and layout. The finals are done on 12x18 paper with acrylic paint and Sharpies.
Claes Oldenburg was a Swedish-American Pop artist famous for transforming everyday objects, like hamburgers or lipsticks, into massive, whimsical sculptures, including his well-known “Spoonbridge and Cherry.”
AMAZING! Congratulations to the Varsity Girls Indoor Track 4x400 meter relay team of Chloe Beck, Ferrah Hill, Ella Michelitch and Salma Samdaoui, who proudly represented Minisink Valley in the prestigious Millrose Games, held Feb. 1, finishing fourth in the Suburban division (4:00.37) and besting local rivals Monroe-Woodbury and Warwick Valley in the process! PLUS: It's the first time in program history that a Minisink Valley team qualified for these games!
The Millrose Games is a major indoor track and field meet held every year in New York City. It's one of the oldest and most respected track meets in the world, starting in 1908. High school athletes often look up to the Millrose Games because it features the best runners and field athletes competing at an elite level, showing what is possible with hard work and dedication.
The meet includes many events including sprints, distance races, hurdles, and field events. For high school athletes, the Millrose Games is inspiring because it shows the highest level of competition and motivates young athletes to train, improve, and dream big in track and field.
For professional athletes, The Millrose Games is one of the most prestigious indoor track and field competitions in the world and is a cornerstone of the international athletics calendar. The event attracts elite athletes from around the globe who compete in a range of sprint, distance, hurdle, and field events, often producing record-breaking performances
They used drawings and visual models to show different ways to group numbers, helping them solve multiplication problems and practice skip counting by 6s and 8s.
Using visuals made learning more hands-on and helped students build a deeper understanding of how multiplication works. That’s because it helps make abstract math ideas more concrete. Multiplication can be hard to grasp when it’s just numbers and symbols. Visuals like arrays, groups of objects, number lines, and pictures help students see what “8 × 4” actually means (8 groups of 4). Plus, visual models give them something tangible to reason with and help students to understand why multiplication works. Drawing objects can also make learning more hands-on and interactive, which increases focus and participation.
Students worked in groups to observe and explain how potential energy changes into kinetic energy using a domino chain reaction. During their lab, students set up their dominoes in a line or pattern. They were tasked with observing the dominoes standing upright and still (this is potential energy). Then, students were asked to tip the first domino into another and observe as the dominoes falling (this is kinetic energy) as the dominoes moved through the line. Later, everyone discussed their observations.
Dominoes are a great teaching tool for potential and kinetic energy because they make abstract physics ideas visible, simple and fun. That’s because when dominoes are standing upright in a line, they store potential energy --- energy waiting to happen.
But when a domino is tipped, that potential energy turns in to kinetic energy --- or motion. Each falling domino transfers energy to the next one. This can help students see the cause and effect of tipping dominoes and that energy doesn’t disappear, it just moves and changes form.
Congratulations to Junior and Girls Varsity Wrestler Sara Pauls, who is one of 12 student-athletes representing Section IX and 170 student-athletes statewide attending the upcoming New York State Public High School Athletic Association’s Student Leadership Conference in mid-April in Albany!
Current sophomores and juniors will have the opportunity to sharpen their leadership skills by listening to presentations from a variety of speakers and participating in workshops to help positively influence their teams, athletic departments, schools, and communities.
“We look forward to having Sara share with her peers all the important information she will learn at this conference,” said Athletic Director Tim Bult. “We’re proud she’s representing Minisink Valley and Section IX.”
The idea of the conference was developed by the NYSPHSAA Student-Athlete Development Committee (SADC) several years ago with input from the NYSPHSAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).
“This is a program we have been focused on developing for several years,” said Kristen Jadin, NYSPHSAA Assistant Director, in a statement. “We are a student-based organization and what better way to develop students than to have an in-person conference with outstanding speakers who can share their expertise.”
