First-graders, like Erin Chase’s ES first-graders, are learning about digestion as part of their science lessons! They now know that the body’s digestive system helps turn healthy foods into energy and a body’s digestive system includes the mouth, esophagus, stomach, and small and large intestines. Ask them about this!
Be part of the district's KINDNESS movement!
Support the good work of the Middle School's "Minisink Motivates" Club and by getting yourself some great KINDNESS apparel! The club will earn $6 from every order and will use it to spread kindness around the district!
Otisville Elementary's and the Elementary School's annual Halloween parades are two weeks away! And you're invited to view the parades! It's one of our most memorable days of the year for our elementary students!
CALL FOR PHOTOS: Share a photo of your student's parade costume for a Halloween photo gallery!
Fire safety cuteness!
Carmela Sill's ES kindergarteners made adorable dalmatian puppy projects as part of their important lessons on fire safety and awareness. National Fire Prevention Month is celebrated every October to raise awareness about the importance of fire safety. The month-long event promotes life-saving practices and home fire safety education.
Meghan Donohue's ES first-graders have recently completed an "apple-lutely fantastic" apple investigation!
Students used all five senses to observe, understand, and record information on various types of apples. They learned about where apples come from and their lifecycle, how apples are used, and how delicious they can be! To complete a great lesson, they used apples to make their own apple orchard paintings!
Kimberly McDermott's ES second-graders have been learning about red wiggler worms that are are involved in vermicomposting. The students contribute items to the bin for the worms to eat!
Vermicompost is a nutrient-rich, organic fertilizer and soil conditioner made from the excreta of worms. The process of making vermicompost is called vermicomposting, and the worms used in this process are called earthworms, red wigglers, or white worms.
National Fire Prevention Month is celebrated every October to raise awareness about the importance of fire safety. The month-long event promotes life-saving practices and home fire safety education. As part of their fire safety lessons, Jess Paglia's ES first-graders created their own special posters noting their personal fire safety rule!
There’s A LOT that takes place during district elementary music classes! Take a peek at Cliff Loretto’s ES first-graders, who are getting an opportunity to play the bass resonator bar while singing the rhythmic “Peep Squirrel” as part of their class lessons!
"Peep squirrel, peep squirrel,
"Do da diddle-um, do da, diddle-um,
"Peep squirrel, peep squirrel,
"Do da diddle-um dee."
Fire safety lessons can be fun!
Rosamaria Acevedo’s ES first-graders discovered and identified ire safety items during a recent scavenger hunt around the school! Before beginning the activity, students discussed the different items on their provided sheet. What does each item do? Where might they see these items? Armed with clipboard and pencil, students walked around the school and were on the lookout for items from the list. As students found an item, they stopped to make a tally mark in the box. Once they returned to the classroom they discussed the findings and their importance!
It's Fire Safety Day at the Elementary School! Our students are learning so much from our area firefighters!
District first-graders are getting really good at identifying the finite set of two-part expressions! Jess Paglia’s ES first-graders have recently identified the finite set of two-part expressions that totals 6 through a guided, systematic approach using counter chips. Plus, they had fun playing a game to develop fluency facts that total 6!
Joseph Ferara's ES second-graders have been working on adding two-digit numbers using a number line. Number lines are visual representations that aid students' number sense for conceptual understanding of the magnitude of numbers and add to students' mental math for addition and subtraction.
Can you do this? Two-digit addition is a simple form of addition in which numbers are placed according to their place value of ones and tens and then added. Students start adding from right to left, that is, starting from the ones column and move on to the tens column. Once both the columns are added, they obtain the final sum.
Mia McLean's ES kindergarten library students are reading a perfect book which aligns with Hispanic Heritage Month: Roseanne Thong's "Round is a Tortilla." The book introduces these young students to some Spanish language words while reinforcing many shapes found in every child’s day! For example, rectangles are ice-cream carts and stone metates, while triangles are slices of watermelon and quesadillas!
Sally Mankoo's ES kindergarteners are working on fine motor and social/emotional learning skills using Play-Doh!
Students "found" a face they wanted to decorate with Play-Doh and used their fingers to make lines, shapes to put onto their face to show they are feeling that day! Plus, who doesn't love playing with Play-Doh?
Leyla Johnson’s ES K-2 physical education classes have been working on practicing locomotor movements, which involve moving the body through space from one location to another in different ways. Take a look!
Some locomotor movements include walking, skipping, galloping, sliding, running, jumping, leaping and hopping. Students have also been working on learning different pathways, which are the paths that people take as they move from one place to another A pathway can be “straight,” “curved,” “zigzag” or a combination of these.
As part of their physical education class, students get to take turns “following the leader” to music! They get to choose the locomotor movement and the pathway while the rest of the class follows along. Not only are they learning, they’re having a chance to be creative and silly!
It’s a big deal when you can pick out a library book and check the book out of the library by yourself! Kindergarten students, like Mia McLean’s ES kindergarten library students,, recently had their first chance to do just this! Mrs. McLean reviewed the process for picking out a book and how to check out that book with her. Take a peek! Now, with every visit to the library, these little students will be taking a book home to read.
Mary Kelly's second-graders are learning the six rules of partner reading while reading "The Snack Mix" from their ELA reader "The Cat Bandit."
Rule 1: Sit next to your partner (knee to knee, elbow to elbow)
Rule 2: Listen carefully to the partner that is reading.
Rule 3: Use a voice that only your partner can hear.
Rule 4: Be patient and give your partner a chance to sound out a difficult word.
Rule 5: Read the whole time and know your job.
Rule 6: If you finish early, reread the story or one already read.
GOING GOLD! Thank you to everyone for bringing awareness to the need for more research dollars to fund research for cures to pediatric cancer. The district glowed in various shades of yellow and gold!
Visit our Facebook page to see photo galleries of our students, faculty and staff in their gold/yellow attire! https://www.facebook.com/MinisinkValleyCSD
ES art teacher Ilana Kaufman is introducing her kindergarten students how to properly use a paint brush as part of their initial project work creating and coloring abstract lines using oil pastels and watercolor paint.
Ask your student how they know “if the paints are sleeping,” “how to wake up paint” and why they need to hold a paint brush as if it were a “ballerina on her toes!” They know what this means!
Tracey Salinardi's ES second-graders are learning about the metric system. They’re using tools such as meter sticks, centimeter rulers and centimeter cubes to measure different objects. Students are learning to choose appropriate tools according to the sizes of the objects. For instance, students measured the door with a meter stick but measured their markers with a centimeter ruler!
The metric system is a system of measurement that uses the meter, liter, and gram as base units of length (distance), capacity (volume), and weight (mass) respectively.
