Ross Potter's IS third-grade physical education students have been learning about moving the soccer ball down to the goal, and also defending that goal! They're have a lot of fun getting more proficient with these soccer skills!
• FIFTH-GRADE: Sarah Casillo's class for “The Lorax”
• FOURTH-GRADE: Cornelia Caligiuris’ class for “Dumbo”
• THIRD-GRADE: Stacey Dronke’s class for “The Fox”
The Halloween season means it's time for the Intermediate School's annual Pumpkin Decoration Contest, sponsored by the Intermediate School PTO. This year's entries prepared by each 3rd, 4th and 5th grade class, are beyond superb! Who will win in each grade level? We'll find out when all the votes are tallied and the coveted Pumpkin Decorating Contest trophies are awarded Thursday afternoon. See all the photos on the district's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MinisinkValleyCSD/
Singing in rounds helps to train the students' ears, improve pitch and rhythm skills, build confidence and independence, and helps them develop harmonic awareness. These skills are needed to prepare for their upcoming winter concert in December.
A singing round is a musical form where multiple voices sing the same melody but begin at different times, creating harmony through the overlapping. For example, when the first person finishes the song and starts again, the second person who started later also reaches the beginning and restarts. Popular examples include "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and "Frère Jacques."
First, they created their own “best pumpkin in the patch,” each vibrantly colorful and unique. Then, they were tasked with writing an opinion paragraph which provides details about why they believe makes their pumpkin the best. What a great way to blend ELA, art and the Halloween season into a learning experience! Take a look!
Opinion writing helps students develop critical thinking, organize their thoughts, and communicate respectfully. By 3rd grade, students have a strong enough grasp of expressing preferences to begin structuring a more formal, reasoned argument, or opinion. It’s also part of a larger, structured literacy progression that moves from informal communication to more advanced writing skills.
JOIN IN on the seasonal art fun and support the High School's Art Club!
The High School's Art Club is hosting its next "Paint n' Snack" fundraiser on Tuesday, Oct. 28 at 4:30 p.m. in Room 217 at the High School.
A talented Minisink Valley Art Club student will guide participants in creating a beautiful fall-themed painting. There'll be apple cider to sip and yummy treats to snack on while painting.
Adults and children of all ages are welcome, but seating is limited to 25 people, so act fast if interested! All supplies and food are included with admission and all proceeds will go toward art scholarships, museums field trips for art students, future events, and additional supplies for the Art Club studio. THIS EVENT WILL SELL OUT, so sign-up now and don't miss out!
Pricing (cash at the door): Adults - $12; children/students - $10; and siblings discount: $5 per additional sibling. To reserve your spot, click here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeFcFIzph-R4RHdlh3S0YmBrlAi_BxFCxZ7woOyck9kGSe2rQ/viewform
As part of this, they used tape diagrams to better understand division. Students worked together to solve division problems where “the unknown” represented the number of groups, using drawings, specifically tape diagrams, to visualize how numbers can be split and shared equally.
As they built their diagrams, students connected their models to both division equations and multiplication equations with unknown factors, discovering how the two operations are related. This hands-on approach helped them strengthen their skip counting skills and deepen their number sense.
The classroom was filled with collaboration and mathematical conversations as students explained their reasoning, compared strategies and proudly shared their work. Using visuals and drawings allowed them to make sense of abstract math concepts in a meaningful and engaging way.
A tape diagram is a visual tool in math that uses a rectangular bar, like a strip of tape, to represent and solve word problems. It helps students visualize the relationships between numbers in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems by breaking the problem into parts and showing what is known and unknown.
Students were tasked with creating their own instrument made out of recycled materials, identifying which sound family their instrument belongs to: Aerophones (instruments that vibrate when air is blown into them); chordophones (instruments that vibrate when strings are plucked); membranophones (instruments -- drums -- that vibrate when a stretched surface is hit); idiophones (instruments that vibrate themselves --- rainsticks, maracas, jingle bells, shakers, etc.); and electrophones are instruments that vibrate through electricity.
Studying the science of sound is important in music because it provides a deeper, more concrete understanding of musical concepts like pitch, volume, and rhythm by explaining the physical principles behind them. This interdisciplinary approach helps students grasp how sound is produced and travels, making music more accessible and meaningful while connecting it to the broader world of science.
The Otisville Elementary and Minisink Valley Intermediate K-Kids clubs launched the new school year with a joint service project: The K-Kids Lemonade and Warm Cider Stand!
Their stand, which was recently stationed next to the concession stand at Greenville Park, was staffed by six members who volunteered for one-hour shifts to sell their special beverages. They sold $31 in beverages PLUS received $100 in donations! AMAZING!
The $131 will be split between the two clubs and used for community service projects. Their lemonade and warm cider stand also gave them a great opportunity to further refine their socialization, communication, team work, math, service and gratitude expression skills. Watch for more great community work from these two clubs! Well-done to all!
“Rattenborough's Guide to Animals” is a Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) third-grade reading and language arts unit that uses the fictional explorer named Rattenborough to teach students about animal classification, characteristics like being warm-blooded or cold-blooded, and concepts like vertebrates and invertebrates. Rattenborough, the unit’s nonfiction reader, provides factual information and reinforces vocabulary and content. Their students have been reading about the differences between herbivores, omnivores and carnivores and later completed the lesson with a craft project and word search puzzle.
The district has equipped its entire bus fleet with cameras to catch vehicles that illegally pass a stopped school bus. If you see a bus’ red lights flashing and stop-arm extended, STOP! Otherwise, you and the vehicle you’re driving will be photographed and you WILL GET A $250 FINE.
Don't say we didn't tell you: Please pay attention and drive safe!
READ MORE: https://www.minisink.com/article/2365311
BE BOLD! BE COLD!
FREEZE FOR A GREAT CAUSE!
Minisink Valley is again creating a team for the 2025 Orange County Polar Plunge to support Special Olympics New York! The plunge will be held Saturday, Nov. 8 at the Rez in Highland Mills!
JOIN OUR TEAM and help us retain our title as the “Cool School Challenge” winner! Last year, Minisink Valley won the 2024 Cool School Challenge (retaining this title earned in 2023) and raised $4,022! We are looking to exceed this amount this year!
The “Cool School Challenge” is a friendly competition between local schools as part of the 2025 Orange County Polar Plunge. Not only are our school clubs and teams as well as families and students invited to join us our team, we’re looking for community members to be a part of it, too! It was great to see the large number of people participating last year and we’re hopeful to see this number grow this year!
Director of PPS Jeff Finton is overseeing Minisink Valley’s efforts to create a team. JOIN US and BE COLD: Email Jeff Finton at: jfinton@minisink.com.
Thank you for whatever you’re able to do to support this initiative!
She demonstrated to students how germs travel with germ gel and a blue light. They were able to see how washing one’s hands the right way makes the germs go away, versus how just using water doesn’t work. This demonstration made and abstract concept like germ transmission concrete and memorable because it offered an immediate and undeniable visual consequence related to hygiene practices.
Make handwashing a habit by reminding yourself and others to wash hands at key times: Before preparing or eating food, after using the restroom, after coughing, sneezing, or blowing your nose, after touching animals or their waste, and after handling garbage. Use soap and water to thoroughly scrub hands for at least 20 seconds, focusing on the backs of hands, between fingers, and under nails, to prevent the spread of germs
Using germ gel and a blue light is a hands-on, visual way to demonstrate how germs spread and the importance of proper handwashing. The "germs" are simulated using a gel or powder that contains tiny, fluorescent particles that are invisible under normal light.
NOODLE DANCE TAG! Who’s in? Leyla Johnson’s IS third-graders are!
In this fun physical education activity, students were recently tasked with performing the designated locomotor movement (walking, skipping, galloping, etc.). If they were tagged with a foam pool noodle, they were tasked with dancing in place until the music stops.
Many students also demonstrated the very cool dance moves they’d do if tagged ahead of time! What a fun physical education class which included dancing to some iconic music!
Locomotor movement is important because it is fundamental to daily life, builds the foundation for lifelong health and fitness by developing gross motor skills like balance, coordination, and endurance, and supports overall development by fostering confidence, independence, and engagement in social activities and sports.
Reading about book care, and especially book care disasters, reinforce important concepts like respect, responsibility, and empathy. Seeing the consequences of book negligence makes the abstract concept of "taking care of a book" tangible for readers of all ages.
The concept of respect for shared resources in a library reminds library students that book damage affects others because, for example, a damaged book may not may no longer be available to, and disappoint, others who want to read it.
PLUS! Proper book care can be considered a foundation life skill that can extend to other areas, such as reminding students that carelessness in other things they might do could have a negative impact. It also reinforces the importance of accountability for one’s actions as well as problem-solving and proactive thinking --- how to prevent incidences of possible damage. Equally important is proper book care reinforces the value of what books offer --- important learning opportunities and the joy of reading!
As part of this, she tasked her students to work with their partners to talk about a time someone had been kind and/or helpful to them. After sharing, students identified that "character’s" trait using evidence from their own experience to support the claim.
Why is Identifying character traits with evidence important? This skill improves reading comprehension by helping students understand character motivations, predict plot developments, and grasp a text's deeper meaning and themes. This skill also develops crucial analytical thinking, allows students to make strong inferences from the text, and provides a foundation for more complex literary analysis in higher grades by preparing them to understand and create their own complex characters.
As the game continues, each round gets more challenging. The game’s focus includes teamwork, taking turns, communication, and leadership. In order to be successful teams must be able to work out a plan and stick with it. The groups who work well together are usually the teams that have the most success.
It’s a great game (which also involves running) to play in the opening weeks of school because it gets students to come out of their shell and feel good about accomplishing a common goal! And as an added bonus, because they have to build a hula-hut, there’s STEM components of physics and engineering!
Take a peek at our students who attend the Middletown YMCA's Club Kid before/after school program at our ES/IS campuses. Our YMCA partners offer our Minisink Valley families safe. affordable before or after school child care at our two campuses and are loaded with indoor/outdoor fun, socialization and even homework time! We bet you recognize many faces!
To learn more about Club Kid, visit: https://middletownymca.org/club-kid/
