ES second-grade teacher Gemma Lyon has trialed a “Book-to-Art” Club with a second-grade group and it’s been a great success!
This group has been using art and all of their senses in a creative approach to dive further into the meaning of the text. The club, plus ELA boost sessions, incorporates a hands-on creative project that participants make during the discussion to extend and expand their understanding of the text. Their art is directly aligned to the focus text and author study.
Students explored author Eric Carle and took a deep dive into some history of his life and his illustrative style, creating their own characters that follow Carle's style. Students created their own textured paper as Carle himself typically used and then collaborated and shared their paper to create art.
“I selected authors for this club based on popularity for this age group,” she said. “Most children are already familiar with Eric Carle and enjoyed digging into the familiar characters that they have grown up reading. The phonics boost is added in, as we do shared readings at each session. The students take turns reading and supporting each other through decoding those unfamiliar words based on the reading strategies they are being explicitly taught in their home rooms during ELA.”
With a phonics boost intertwined throughout the session, students are responding and connecting to literature through the use of visual arts as well as revisiting beginning reading skills. As a bonus, they’ve explored how color, lines, shapes, drawing, painting and other elements of art communicate messages to the viewer. Take a look!
Kristine Ostensen's eighth-grade classes recently completed a very “sweet” (and edible) DNA lab lesson!
Students created the DNA’s twisted helix by using mini marshmallows, toothpicks and Twizzlers. Then, they copied a DNA sequence and matched the nitrogenous base pairs to create a DNA model.
Once completed, students were able to twist their models into the double helix shape and, finally, they were able to devour their tasty lesson! What a fun and creative way to reinforce science terminology!
•DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the molecule that carries genetic information, like a blueprint for how a living thing is built and functions, and is found in the cells of all living organisms.
•DNA's "double helix" refers to its structure, a twisted ladder shape formed by two intertwined strands of nucleotides.
•A DNA sequence refers to the specific order of the four nucleotide bases (adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine, abbreviated as A, T, C, and G) that make up a DNA molecule, which carries the genetic instructions for an organism.
•In DNA, the nitrogenous base pairs are formed by adenine (A) always pairing with thymine (T), and guanine (G) always pairing with cytosine (C).
Part of district fourth-graders’ studies of the American Revolution include more than just learning the historical facts. It also includes taking the material and applying an ELA application to it: What do certain words actually mean and pulling examples from their readings to demonstrate this, in addition to other ELA elements.
Take a look at Susanne Balfour’s Otisville fourth-graders, who are working on this through their activities workbook which work in tandem with the Amplify Reading Program’s Unit 7. This unit focuses on the American Revolution, covers the causes and events of the revolution, including the establishment of the thirteen colonies, the French and Indian War, key figures, and major ideas in the Declaration of Independence.
Understanding verb/tense agreement is an important skill for district fifth-graders to master! Take a look at Mary Louey’s and Alyssa Pagano’s Otisville fifth-graders, who are practicing identifying present tense subject/verb agreement during this recent ELA lesson. They’re really good at this, by the way!
There are 12 verb tenses in English, encompassing the simple, continuous, perfect, and perfect continuous forms across the past, present, and future.
Today, April 1, Middle School eighth-graders attended a special “Break the Cycle” assembly which featured keynote presenters Pat and AnneMarie D’Aliso, who were Minisink Valley residents and have spoken to students here in recent years, as well as other speakers.
Their son Patrick died by suicide at age 16 and Mr. and Mrs. D’Aliso have become important champions about undiagnosed depression and paying attention to anything that may seem out of sorts in the lives of young people. Mr. and Mrs. D’Aliso do this because they hope by telling their story, they may help to save the life of someone in crisis. We remain grateful for their ongoing interest in speaking to our students and thank them and the other speakers who were part of this important presentation.
This topic is understandably a sensitive one, but one which we feel is very important to share to our students. Eighth-grade parents/guardians, to follow-up on a note Principal Michael Larsen sent to you in late March, please remind your child know you know that this assembly took place today and continue the important conversation of if he or she needs help for any reason, we are here to provide all the assistance we can.
As a reminder, the middle school counseling team is always available to our students for assistance they may need on any topic or issue of concern. Likewise, if you have any concerns about your child’s mental health and wellbeing, please reach out to us. We are here to help.
To learn more: https://www.breakingthecycle.com/
Today, April 1, an important High School all-student assembly took place featuring Stephen Hill, founder of Speak Sobriety. He spoke to students about his journey from drug and alcohol addition to recovery and the importance of making good vs. destructive choices. Given our societal climate, we all know this is a very important topic. The high school administrative team felt all students needed to hear Mr. Hill’s message and his "comeback story."
Mr. Hill is a young person in recovery, bestselling author, recovery coach and a defense attorney in addition to being a renowned national speaker on substance use prevention and mental health. Mr. Hill has presented in front of thousands of people at over 900 schools, drug-free community coalitions and organizations across the country, sharing his cautionary tale of addiction to recovery and beyond.
High School parents/guardians: Please follow-up with the note Principal Kenneth Hauck sent to you in late March advising you today's presentation and continue this critical conversation at home. We are committed to always being your ongoing partners in ensuring the safety and wellbeing of your children and everyone in our school community. As a reminder, the high school counseling team is always available to our students for assistance they may need on any topic or issue of concern. Likewise, if you have any concerns about your child’s mental health and wellbeing, please reach out to us. We are here to help. Thank you!
To learn more, visit: www.SpeakSobriety.com
Every chess master was once a beginner! The High School Chess Club is back! If your student is interested in learning more about how to play chess and joining the club, he/she should stop by Room 138. The team hopes to set up tournaments and compete against other schools in the future! •The recorded history of chess goes back at least to the emergence of chaturanga—also thought to be an ancestor to similar games like xiangqi and shogi—in seventh-century India. After its introduction in Persia, it spread to the Arab world and then to Europe. The modern rules of chess emerged in Europe at the end of the 15th century, with standardization and universal acceptance by the end of the 19th century. Today, chess is one of the world's most popular games, with millions of players worldwide. •Chess is considered a sport by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and many other organizations. While it's not an Olympic sport, chess is played in colleges and is recognized as a sport in over 100 countries.
Lindsey McKernan’s ES kindergartners have been using “manipulatives” during math lessons! They using beans and chips to help with counting so they can visually see “how many” there are as they dive deeper in addition and subtraction work!
In this instance, the counters have a different color on each side. When using the beans, students counted how many red, and then added in the white ones. For the red chips, students counted how many they started with then took some away and counted how many we were left. Manipulatives help us visualize our adding and subtracting.
Math manipulatives are beneficial in kindergarten because they help children understand abstract concepts concretely, enhance engagement, and develop problem-solving skills by allowing them to physically interact with mathematical ideas. There are so many different types of manipulatives, too, such as counters, blocks, beads, geometric shapes, tiles, cubes and more!
March is “Music in our Schools Month” and the Middle School Music Department has been busy sharing music education facts (and some jokes) to students! This year’s theme is “United through Music.” To represent this theme, band, chorus and general music students made puzzle pieces which express their love for music. This display can be seen outside of the music suite!
•Music is a natural stress reliever, which is good for blood pressure and heart rate. Studying music helps people better express their emotions and manage anxiety. Musicians are also using their muscles when playing an instrument because they’re using their arm, core, and back muscles. Vocalists and instrumentalists also build stronger lungs.
•Like sports, music helps improve hand-eye coordination and also helps children develop their small motor skills. Music also promotes teamwork. Whether playing in a band or singing in a choir, teaches people how to work and get along with each other.
Spring is here! And our youngest students are learning about some of the signs of Springtime they may be seeing outside!
Did you know Springtime is a good time of the year for “rainbow spotting?” That’s because spring weather patterns often feature sunshine alongside rain showers, a perfect combination for rainbow formation.
After Marjori Bobish’s ES transitional kindergarteners learned about the signs of Spring, they made edible rainbows using Fruit Loops cereal and marshmallows! What a fun project for these little ones, which, by the way, also gives them some fine motor skill practice!
•Rainbows are formed when sunlight passes through raindrops, causing the light to bend and reflect, creating the colorful arc.
•The "April showers" proverb is a good reminder that spring is a time when rain is common, and when combined with sunshine, rainbows become more frequent.
Otisville Elementary’s PBIS and Diversity committees worked together today, March 28, to continue the school's “One Book, One School” year-long initiative, with faculty and staff switching up classrooms to read James Catchpole’s “What Happened to You?”
The book is first-ever picture book addressing how a disabled child might want to be spoken to. It tells the story of a boy living with a physical impairment of the leg. Joe is faced with a slew of questions on the playground about what happened to his leg: “What happened to you?”
When Joe continually diverts the questions posed by the other children, their imaginative guesses become more elaborate much to Joe’s frustration. The book offers a gentle, yet matter of fact way, that makes the reader (no matter the age) on asking about one's disability in a respectful and empathetic way.
Earlier in the week, students were given clues as to who their mystery reader would be.. Each classroom had two staff members read to the students in each room. Teachers from the previous grade read to their older students. It was a lot of fun, with some students getting a chance to visit with last year’s teacher! Most importantly, it was a great opportunity to reinforce important themes of respect, caring, empathy when encountering any one with a disability. Ask them about it!
High School Regents Biology teacher Kimberly Jordan is proud to share her students’ stellar project work tied to their recent unit on heart health and the circulatory system!
Through interactive and immersive learning experiences, students gained a comprehensive understanding of the heart's structure and function, as well as essential strategies for maintaining cardiovascular well-being through nutrition and exercise. They took part in interactive lessons that emphasized the importance of healthy habits in preventing circulatory disorders, and had a lot of fun designing and building creative 3D model of the heart using various mediums!
It’s true….even the big kids have fun using Play-Doh in class!
“By exploring real-world applications and potential health consequences, students developed a deeper appreciation for the value of self-care and proactive wellness,” Mrs. Jordan said. “This engaging and informative unit has empowered students with essential knowledge and skills to prioritize their heart health and overall well-being.”
See more photos on the district's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MinisinkValleyCSD
FORGET MARCH MADNESS, IT’S 'MOZZ' MADNESS!
We love, love, love it when members of the business community visit our schools to offer our students a memorable learning experience!
Meet Master Mozzarella Maker Gregory Lararia of Adams Fairacre Farms in Newburgh and Middletown! Mr. Lararia, who runs Adams’ mozzarella shops, visited all of Victoria Ingrassia’s eighth-grade FACS classes earlier this week to give students a tutorial on how to make fresh, homemade mozzarella!
He shared his “mozz mastery” with students, explaining and demonstrating the very simple process to make mozzarella using curds, milk, hot water, some salt with a mixing and stretching technique sprinkled in. Then, students made their own “mozz!” And, it was simply delicious!
Students had a great time with a great hands-on learning experience. Thank you, Mr. Lararia, we appreciate your time and interest in teaching our students!
Tasha Buchler’s Otisville second and third-graders are so “eggs-cited” to have six fertilized chick eggs in their classroom, and are on stand-by to welcome the soon-to-be born chicks, which have an estimated due date of April 1!
The eggs arrived on March 11 as a gift from Zoe Lockburner, the 4-H Livestock Program Manager at Cornell Cooperative Extension in Orange County. Ms. Lockburner recently visited their class to check on the eggs and to help students “candle” them. Candling an egg means shining a bright light through it to examine the contents, especially the embryo's development, and assess the egg's quality, fertility and viability.
Chick eggs have an incubation period of approximately 100 days. They’re staying warm in an incubator, set at 100 degrees, and are turned about 15 times a day to mimic what their mother hen would do.
As part of her visit, Ms. Lockburner read students Sauer’s “A Little Chicken,” the story of a chick who faces her list of fears one by one, ultimately catching a bouncing egg just as her new sister hatches. Thank you, Ms. Lockburner, for the visit!
Last Friday evening's Elementary School Family Folk Dance night was so much fun! We love seeing families gathering together to take part in activities...it's even better when students can show their families what they're learning in the classroom...in this case, it's music class!
Thank you to everyone who participated and a special thank you to ES Music Teacher Cliff Loretto for putting this evening together!
THANK YOU to everyone who attended and/or contributed in some way to Project Graduation’s March 22 Tricky Tray! The event raised enough to fund this year’s All-Night Graduation Party! Organizers said the evening was a huge success and they’re thankful for all of the donations made by families and local business as well as for all the volunteers who assisted in the evening’s success!
Kudos to the Minisink Valley High School Mock Trial Team, which was one of 13 school district teams participating in the first round of the State Mock Trial Tournament at Orange -Ulster BOCES on March 23!
For months, the mock trial team of Sean Bellew, Noah Haley, Morgan Varian, Landon Ordway, Malunga Kinzonzi, Josephine Witherow, Callie Hitt, Julia Wodzinski and Evan Washalski, guided by advisors Jonathan Grady and Ezra Clementson, prepared remarks focusing on a defamation case of a public figure to present their interpretation in a courtroom before a county judge. The team was also given valuable assistance from attorney consultants Michael Wolfs and Len Kessler---thank you to both!
To prepare for the tournament, each school has teacher-coaches as well as local attorneys working with them to help them with the nuances of the courtroom and presentation skills, an experience that cannot be duplicated in the classroom.
While the team is not advancing to the next level of competition, their tenacity and grit is certainly an example for everyone to admire! Well-done!
This recent Otisville Elementary lunch menu featured hot pretzels as part of the day's lunch offering! And it was a big hit, too! Take a look! REMEMBER, breakfasts and lunches are free to everyone! Please encourage your student to try both, and as an added perk, there's two less things for you to take care of each school day!
Guest readers from Cornell Cooperative Extension recently visited Otisville Elementary to read to students as part of their activities to mark Agricultural Literacy Week. Students were read a book about pumpkins and given a planting kit so they could plant pumpkins this spring! Thank you to former Otisville teacher Karen Krogslund, Gerda Krogslund and Ed Fairweather for stopping by!
Cornell Cooperative Extension's New York Agricultural Literacy Week (ALW), held annually in March, is a state-wide initiative that connects volunteers from the agricultural community with elementary school classrooms to share the story of agriculture through book readings and hands-on activities.
Leyla Johnson’s ES physical education students have been working on flexing and extending their muscles, moving through dynamic and static balances using different bases of support.
Students got to pick a letter of the alphabet or a number and try to create the shape of the letter or number with their body alone or with a partner. They had a lot of fun being creative and trying to guess what letters and numbers their classmates were making.
Then they got to try a variety of yoga poses and balances, along with working on mindful breathing to help them calm down and relax. They discussed how taking slow breaths in through their nose and out through their mouth can be helpful if they are ever worried, angry, upset or even out of breath from exercise to help calm down their minds and their bodies.
PLUS: As part of this, Mrs. Johnson’s music choices even looked to help set the mood for the class: Classic artists like Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee! Take a peek; these little ones were having a great time!
