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!
Otisville students had a second gorgeous, sunny, brisk fall day to enjoy the school's annual Fall Festival, this past Friday! Take a peek at the fun from Day 2!
THANK YOU to the amazing Otisville PTO for sponsoring such a wonderful seasonal activity and to our special friends from the Otisville Lions Club for volunteering their time and their tractor and wagon to take everyone on a hayride!
It’s true, teachers like to “twin” with each other as much as students do!
Take a look at the awesome apparel of Otisville second-grade teacher fashionistas Tasha Buchler and Yvonne Brennan, aka “The 2B’s”
Twinning symbolizes connection and unity, and often acts as a visual cue for a shared team or relationship! And, that’s exactly what they are!
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
To help them with their continued mastery work, they recently played “The Bear Game.” In this fun math game, one person spilled beans, counted only red beans and them moved their “bear” the same number of bear paws to match the number of red beans they had. Then, his/her partner did the same. The person who reached the honey jar was the winner!
In math, one-to-one correspondence is the fundamental concept of matching each item in a set to exactly one number and each number to exactly one item, without skipping or repeating any item during the counting process. It's a foundational skill for early counting, ensuring accurate number sense and providing the basis for more complex arithmetic.
Otisville students had a gorgeous, sunny, brisk fall day to enjoy the school's annual Fall Festival, with the first day held yesterday, Oct. 9 and the second today taking place today. Take a peek at the fun from Day 1!
THANK YOU to the awesome Otisville PTO for sponsoring such a wonderful seasonal activity and to our special friends from the Otisville Lions Club for volunteering their time and their tractor and wagon to take everyone on a hayride!
See more photos on the district's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MinisinkValleyCSD
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!
Check out these adorable “Mini Ms. Manganellos!” Wearing their very snazzy and en vogue “Ms. Manganello glasses,” students (um… rather, the Ms. Manganellos) knew how to connect with their reading partners by sitting elbow-to-elbow, looking at the text their partners were reading to follow along and carefully listening to what their reading partners were reading. These sweet Ms. Manganellos knew to offer hints to their reading partners if a mistake is made to support their reading efforts.
Having a reading partner is important for first- graders because it improves their reading fluency and comprehension by providing practice and modeling, while also boosting their confidence and motivation. Partner reading encourages oral language development, enhances social skills like cooperation and turn-taking, and fosters a more engaging and less anxious reading experience by providing peer support.
"Chippity chop
"Cut off the bottom and cut off the top
What we have left we put in the pot
"Chop chop
"Chippity chop!"
District kindergarteners, like Otisville Music Teacher Skyler Klein’s kindergarten music students, are settling in wonderfully to their music classes and learning a lot while having fun!
His little students are really good at singing the spoken chant called “Chop Chop Chippity Chop," which teaches about steady beat through repetitive actions and a steady rhythm, often using hand motions like chopping to a beat, similar to preparing ingredients for pie. It also fosters improvisation and creativity by having children suggest and "chop" various fruits for their imaginary pie, and can even introduce basic rhythm concepts like compound or 6/8 meter when children vary the speed of their "chippity chopping."
Their imaginary pies sound quite tasty, too, as the ingredients included mangoes, blueberries, apples, tomatoes, pineapples and more!
A spoken chant is a rhythmic repetition of words or a phrase, often performed by a group, that falls somewhere between speech and song.
The moral of "The Fox and the Grapes" is that it's easy to dislike or say negative things about something you cannot have, because the fox, after failing to reach the grapes, decided the grapes were probably sour anyway. For a first-grader, this means you shouldn't pretend you don't want something just because you can't get it.
Students talked about working together, how it feels when one’s idea is used (or not); if those ideas will actually work; how to be a good team player and offer constructive comments to assist in the project’s completion, and more!
And because they’re in their physical education class, students had to “run” their “skyscraper parts” to a matching hula hoop, using all their materials to build their skyscraper tower as tall as the group’s tallest person. The last part of the task was placing the toy gorilla as the last item on the top of their towers. Then…they have to “run” those parts to the opposite side of the gym and repeat!
It's SPORTS DAY today, Sept. 25, at Otisville Elementary! Our students loved "repping" their favorites!
Take a peek at our students who attend the Middletown YMCA's Club Kid before/after school program at our Otisville campus!. 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/
During their group’s recent “Knowledge Time,” Mrs. Manganello’s shared some interesting facts with them as they dove deeper into “The Dog in the Manger” fable. They now know there’s a big difference between straw and hay even though they may look the same. “Straw,” she told them, is for animals to lie down on, while “hay” is food the manger keeps for animals.
They also now know that "The Dog in the Manger" fable teaches a lesson about selfishness and greed, warning against the kind of spiteful behavior where a person prevents others from having something they themselves cannot use or benefit from.
Teachers often use the concept of "knowledge time" with their students as a general description for any structured learning segment, often focused on building background knowledge and developing conceptual understanding within a specific curriculum framework.
As part of their efforts to increase awareness this month (which is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month) about pediatric cancer treatments and research and to support families dealing with pediatric cancers, the High School’s Youth Against Cancer Club (which is leading the district’s Going Gold Day on Sept. 30) is undertaking a drive to collect coloring books, crayons, books and stuffed toys for pediatric patients at Garnet Medical Center now through Oct. 11.
Collection boxes have been placed in all five buildings and the district’s Transportation Center. If you’re interested in being a part of this effort and joining the students and faculty/staff who are taking part, please email Club Advisor Erin Natalizio at enatalizio@minisink.com.
--- 6 p.m.: Third-grade
--- 6:35 p.m.: Fourth-grade
--- 7:10 p.m.: Fifth-grade
The Otisville Elementary School community marked International Peace Day this past Friday, Sept. 19, with an all-school assembly discussing the importance of treating each other with kindness, respect and empathy. In tandem with everyone reciting the Peace Day Pledge and singing, students also brought the pinwheels they made to spin in the very cooperative breeze on that sunny day.
Art Teacher Kara Welsh oversaw the school’s Pinwheels for Peace project which resulted in hundreds of individualized and color pinwheels spinning in the sunny air. This is a global art project and community movement where people, especially children, create and plant decorated pinwheels on International Day of Peace to express their hopes and desires for a peaceful world. Initiated in Florida in 2005, the project encourages participants to design pinwheels with peace-related messages and images, symbolically spreading these ideas.
International Peace Day, marked annually on Sept. 21, is a United Nations established global holiday dedicated to promoting peace and harmony worldwide, and for children, it's a chance to learn about empathy, respect, and how to resolve conflicts peacefully. Schools and communities use the day to encourage kindness, global citizenship and non-violence.
See more photos on the district's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MinisinkValleyCSD
