Even the district’s transitional kindergarteners get introduced to what an acronym means! In this instance, Marjori Bobish’s ES transitional kindergarteners learned that someone who has performed better than anyone else, especially in sports, can be considered the “Greatest of All Time!” If you take the first letter of each of those words, you can simplify that phrase by saying “GOAT!”
Mrs. Bobish and her students talked about why gymnast Simone Biles is a “GOAT” as they read their Scholastic readers together, learning about the important attributes of a GOAT!
The term "GOAT" is believed to have originated in hip-hop music in the 1990s and was popularized by rapper and actor LL Cool J.
lana Kaufman's ES kindergarten art students are taking the seasonality of Valentine's Day and creating Alma Thomas-inspired heart paintings, made with tempera paint!
Alma Thomas was a part of the Washington Color School, a 1950s-1970s art movement in response to Abstract Expressionism. These artists used bold colors to form simple, flat shapes, stripes, and fields of color, rather than focusing on emotion, gesture, and movement. Ms Thomas became an important role model for women, African Americans, and older artists. She was the first African American woman to have a solo exhibition at New York's Whitney Museum of American Art, and she exhibited her paintings at the White House three times.
The Intermediate School’s Kindness Ambassadors were recently “on the road” to visit the Elementary School’s students! Every year to wrap up Kindness Week, these ambassadors visit the younger students to present a lesson on kindness followed by an activity.
During their recent visit, the ambassadors presented a recorded read aloud of Trudy Ludwig’s “The Power of One.” Her book tells the story that when one child reaches out in friendship to a classmate who seems lonely, she begins a chain reaction of kindness that ripples throughout her school and her community. One kind act begets another, small good deeds make way for bigger ones, and eventually the whole neighborhood comes together to build something much greater than the sum of its parts.
Their recording was made possible through the kindness of Kat Hoolan’s High School “Media Production” students, who took the ambassadors’ recording and created a more polished video of the book for them to use. THANK YOU to everyone who played a role in this visit’s success!
The IS kindness ambassadors are a before-school enrichment program for students who want to spread kindness. Ambassadors are involved in many things throughout the school year, including preparing hygiene kits around the holidays for needy families, creating artwork for the building and serving as liaisons to their classrooms to pass along information regarding the current “Valentines for Veterans” drive as well as sharing information about different holidays.
Harlem Wizard John “Big J” Smith visited the Intermediate and Elementary schools and Otisville Elementary today, Feb. 11 to remind students about the upcoming March 12 Harlem Wizards vs. Minisink Valley Faculty/Staff Basketball game!
“Big J,” who stands 6 feet, 8 inches tall, delighted students with his antics and awesome basketball skills as he reminded students the game is a big fundraiser! He’s been a member of the Harlem Wizards since 2011 and in last six years, has played basketball in 25 countries!
Tickets will be on sale soon for the March 12 game! Basketball aficionados will be treated to great skills, teamwork, slick dribbling, alley-oops and crazy slams. The non-hoop fans attending will find out that this is much more than just a basketball game. The night is funny, theatrical, exciting and spectacular and the gym will reverberate with oohs & aahs, laughter, enthusiasm, and much more!
The Harlem Wizards have been dazzling audiences since 1962 and have played many games with members of our faculty and staff over recent years! Watch for tickets and be sure to come out and support the faculty/staff team!
See more photos on the district's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MinisinkValleyCSD
FROSTY PHYSICAL EDUCATION FUN!
ES/IS Physical Education teachers Leyla Johnson and Ross Potter took their students outdoors for snow tubing for their physical education classes today! Students, who dressed for the weather, had fun rides down the hill....and then they needed to get that tube back up for the next rider's run! It was a great workout! The plan is to offer snow tubing opportunities for as many classes as possible, weather conditions permitting!
•Snow tubing originated in the 1820s in Northern America, when people used inflated tire tubes to get around on snow.
•Snow tubing allows for faster speeds than sledding because of the low friction between the snow and the rubber tube.
The ES' "Glowing Up Special Someone Second Grade Dance," held this past Friday, was great evening for everyone who attended. Thank you to everyone who played a role in its success, particularly our awesome ES PTO! Take peek at the fun!
See a photo gallery on the district's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MinisinkValleyCSD
Erin Chase’s ES first-graders are learning about how the Mayans used observatories to look at the sky! As part of their discussion, her little students practiced writing in complete sentences and drew a photo of a Mayan observatory.
The Maya built observatories so that they could examine the nighttime sky to track Earth's journey around the sun, which led to the development of their calendar.
Studying the Maya civilization in first-grade introduces young students to a fascinating ancient culture, exposing them to concepts like different writing systems (hieroglyphics), basic astronomy through their calendar system, and the idea of complex societies with impressive architecture.
Library classes are always the best --- students can take out books and bring them home to read either solo or with a family member! It’s even better when you can take a book that was read to you in class and then use Play-Doh to create your own animal tracks!
That’s what Mia McLean’s ES kindergarten library students had the chance to do! She read them Mia Posada’s “Who Was Here? Discovering Wild Animal Tracks.” The book focuses on the footprints of wild animals from all around the world. For each animal, there's a rhyming verse, followed by the refrain "Who was here?" along with a life-size footprint on the appropriate terrain.
Afterward, students were given cans of Play-Doh so they could create their animal track of choice! A bear, by far, were the most popular animal track choice, followed by a kangaroo! What a great way of connecting a story with some fine motor skill work! Take a peek at these adorable little students proudly showing off their creations!
It’s the perfect time of year for Lindsey McKernan’s ES kindergarteners to read Maureen Wright’s “Sneezy the Snowman” and follow this story up with a sweet project!
The book tells the story of Sneezy, who was very, very cold from being outside and was looking for a drink to warm himself up. But! After drinking a hot cup of cocoa, he melted! With help from some shaving cream and glue, the students’ follow-up project showed what Sneezy looked like after he melted. And, these little ones also got to practice working on their writing and fine motor skills, too!
Physical Education teachers Anthony Pascarelli and Leyla Johnson have been introducing their ES kindergarten students to basketball, and teaching them about the bounce pass and chest pass techniques.
A bounce pass in basketball is a pass where the ball is thrown to the floor and then bounces to a teammate. It's a useful pass when a direct pass might be blocked by a defender. A chest pass in basketball is a pass where the ball is thrown from the chest to another player on the team. It's a fundamental skill that's often used in short or medium distance passes. While they’re not yet working with basketballs, they will as they move up to higher grade levels.
As part of continued Asian Lunar New Year studies district-wide this week, Sally Mankoo’s ES kindergarteners had a fun companion art project: Making their own snakes! (It’s the Year of the Snake, as we know!)
Students created their own snakes, painted them, cut them out and then added eyes and a popsicle stick tongue. This was a great fine motor activity to tie into the Asian Lunar New Year celebration!
•In Chinese culture, the snake is often linked to the element of fire, which signifies passion, energy and transformation. The year itself is considered a time for reflection, deep thought and personal growth.
•People born in the Year of the Snake are believed to be perceptive, intelligent and graceful
ES Physical Education teacher Anthony Pascarelli took some of his second-grade classes out for snowtubing this past Tuesday so they could have some outdoor fun now that temperatures have climbed a bit and before much of the snow disappeared. Students brought their warm snow clothing to school and quickly dressed for a super fun outdoor physical education class!
And, they got a great workout, too, because once they’ve zoomed down the hill….they had to walk back up! Everyone was eager to do as many snowtubing runs as possible before class ended. Plans are to do this with more classes, weather permitting! Thank you to everyone who helped make these physical education sessions so much fun!
Happy Asian Lunar New Year from Carmella Sill's ES kindergarteners! It's the Year of the Snake!
Joseph Ferara’s ES second-graders, like their peers, have been learning about the life cycles of different species as part of their science lessons in recent weeks.
How cool is this: His students used virtual reality to allow them to interact with each stage of a frog’s life cycle! First, they discussed each life cycle and then explored how that life cycle via Merge Cube technology!
A Merge Cube is a small, foam cube that allows users to hold and interact with 3D digital objects using technology which essentially let his students "touch" and manipulate virtual items like they would real objects. It makes learning more engaging and hands-on and often used to explore topics in science, history and more through interactive 3D models. They loved it! Take a look!
This STEM lesson included having students use Chromebooks, iPads, Google Slides and virtual reality to share what they noticed about each stage of the life cycle!
Tiffany Guareno’s ES kindergarteners are really good at determining the number of shapes in each column and then arranging those columns from least (number) to greatest (number). Take a peek at these cuties!
Being able to arrange numbers from least to greatest is important in kindergarten because it lays the foundation for understanding number magnitude, comparison, and sequencing, which are crucial building blocks for more advanced math skills like addition and subtraction. It helps children develop a strong sense of number order and paves the way for future mathematical concepts.
District second-graders, like Jen Levin’s ES second-graders, are learning about how “benchmark numbers” can be a huge help in solving math problems! Ask them about this concept, because they can explain it to you!
Benchmark numbers help solve second-grade math problems by providing easy reference points (like the numbers 5 and 10) that students can use to estimate and mentally calculate answers to addition and subtraction problems, making them easier to solve by rounding numbers to these familiar landmarks. This can help when dealing with larger numbers or comparing quantities. It’s kind of like having a “friendly” number that can help simplify calculations!
In second-grade, district students are introduced to opinion writing as part of the ELA studies.
We’d all agree there’s no better way to write an opinion piece about donuts than to have a fresh donut sitting on your desk just waiting for you to eat!
When ES second-grader teacher Gemma Lyon tasked her students with writing an opinion piece about donuts, she shared a fresh batch of cinnamon donuts with them as part of the assignment!
Students used their senses to create a collaborative vocabulary list that they would use in their final writing piece. The students described the donuts as fresh, sugary, sweet and squishy. They enjoyed their donut treats as they explored their sense of taste as they finalized their writing work, which included an introduction, the stating of an opinion, reasons to support their opinion, linking words and a conclusion. WELL DONE!
Today, Jan. 15, is the birthday of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The third Monday in January is the federal holiday which commemorates the nation's remembrance of Dr. King and his steadfast commitment to fighting for freedom, civil rights and equality for all people. In recent days, district students, in age-appropriate lessons, have been spending talking about Dr. King and his teachings.
That includes Meghan Donahue’s ES first-graders, who are in the process of completing a project focusing on the importance of one’s character. Their projects will soon be on display in the school’s hallway along with other similar projects completed by their peers!
Mia McLean's ES kindergarten library students are thrilled to show off the books they've picked to bring home!
Library class supports what goes on in the classroom by further developing kindergarteners' literacy skills through exposure to a variety of books, encourages a love of reading, provides a space for interactive storytelling, and can foster a sense of community while teaching them basic library skills like selecting books and respecting the space.
Gemma Lyon’s ES second-graders are not only making a creative fashion statement, they’re also having a lot of phonics fun as part of their ELA work by wearing letter vests!
Students incorporated movement and letter sounds as they reviewed beginning, middle and ending sounds, forming real and nonsense words! What a fun and interactive way to reinforce important language skills!
Beginning, middle, and ending sounds" refer to the first sound you hear when saying a word (beginning), the sound in the middle of the word (middle), and the last sound you hear when saying a word (ending); or the different sound positions within a word.
For example, using the word “cat”:
•Beginning sound: This is the initial phoneme (sound) of a word, like the "c" sound in "cat."
•Middle sound: This is the vowel sound usually found in the middle of a word, like the "a" sound in "cat."
•Ending sound: This is the final phoneme (sound) of a word, like the "t" sound in "cat."
The ability to discriminate between the beginning, middle, and ending sounds helps students progress faster in phonics skills.
