TODAY IS ARBOR DAY --- the day that celebrates planting trees! To help mark this annual day, Elementary School first-graders attended a special assembly earlier this week featuring guest speaker and certified arborist Mark Beamish of Orange & Rockland Utilities.
Mr. Beamish spoke to these young students about many different tree facts. For example, students learned that deciduous trees have leaves that grow in the spring and fall in the winter and grow in a round shape. In contrast, coniferous trees have needles that stay green all year and grow in the shape of a pyramid.
PLUS: Every first-grader went home with a coniferous tree sapling to plant at home! Coniferous tree saplings to promote reforestation efforts, enhance wildlife habitat, and provide aesthetic and environmental benefits. Conifers, with their year-round greenery, offer windbreaks, shade, and contribute to soil health. They also provide shelter for birds and other animals. THANK YOU, Mr. Beamish!
Arbor Day is a national holiday dedicated to celebrating and promoting the importance of trees and tree planting. It encourages communities to plant trees and learn about their benefits, with the first Arbor Day celebrated in Nebraska in 1872.
ADORABLE! Before the break, Carmela Sill’s/Stephanie Ewanciw’s ES kindergarteners had some special visitors! Mrs. Ewanciw’s bunnies, “Oreo,” “Marshmallow,” “Chocolate Chip” and “Rosemary” spent the day in class and mesmerized these little students with their cuteness!
In addition to tying into the seasonality of spring, students also had a fun lesson learning about bunny care. Students learned that bunnies need a safe and stimulating environment to live in, with a lot of space to move around; and it’s important for them to have a balanced diet of mostly hay, fresh greens and water (just like children need a balanced diet every day!)
And… they also learned bunnies need a variety of toys like stacking cups and chewing materials to keep them mentally and physically stimulated. They were also surprised to learn that bunnies can be trained to use a litter box, just like cats!
COMBINING EARTH DAY FUN AND IMPORTANT LESSONS!
Marjori Bobish's ES transitional kindergarteners, like many students districtwide, spent time learning about why Earth Day, which was April 22, is an important day to commemorate!
These cutie-pies made adorable Earth Day art projects and spent time time outdoors showing why they "Care for our Earth" by helping to clean-up outside! We appreciate their outdoor help!
Celebrating Earth Day gives students of all ages a chance to foster a sense of environmental responsibility and connect them with the natural world. This learning helps them develop a deeper appreciation for the planet and inspire them to become environmentally conscious citizens in the future.
Megan St Clair’s and Sarah Kocot’s ES second-graders, like all district second-graders, have been learning about the human body and many of its organs. In this recent and amazing lesson, students first worked with a miniature skeleton to place the organs they were learning about in the correct position.
Later, their teachers incorporated a fun art component to this science lesson by creating student-sized body outlines! In five different groups, students took what they learned on the smaller skeleton and correctly placed organs on the outlined body, labeling each organ. Each “body” was distinctively unique, with each group’s creativity giving their “body” its own personality!
Plus, a byproduct of this lesson was students had the opportunity to work in groups! Group work allows them to learn to share ideas, listen to others, and work collaboratively, which are valuable skills for both school and real-life situations. It also encourages critical thinking and problem-solving as they discuss and evaluate information together.
MORE HANGING WITH THEIR PEEPS!
Before the break, Shawne Demberg’s ES kindergartners learned a great deal about responsibility by caring for their PEEPS! Some of their tasks included keeping their personal PEEP safe, reading it a bedtime story and bringing it to and from school each day. They became stellar caregivers and had great lessons in learning about why caregiving is so important! Even therapy dog Addy was a great assistant, serving as a babysitter when the students left the room! Well-done, everyone!
HANGING WITH THEIR PEEPS
Before the break, Gemma Lyon’s ES second-graders explored PEEPS, those seasonal sugary sweet springtime treats we’ve all eaten, in a day full of fun ELA and science work! TAKE A PEEP….rather, PEEK!
Students completed multiple science experiments using their senses and incorporated new vocabulary words called “prediction” and “observation” into their expressive and written language. They even had some fine motor skill practice creating and decorating a special PEEP “house!”
Each student also adopted a PEEP and took their PEEP on some adventures over this past spring break! Mrs. Lyon is looking forward to hearing about the adventures and reading their journals now that her students are back in class!
•Just Born, the company that makes PEEPS Brand Marshmallow candies, produces enough in one year to circle the Earth twice.
•Yellow is America’s best-selling color of PEEPS chicks and bunnies.
•Yellow and white PEEPS chicks and bunnies came first, followed by pink, lavender, blue, green and orange.
Reminder: The 2025-26 student calendar has been available for everyone's use!
Our youngest students always have big smiles on Fridays at lunch time, as it's PIZZA DAY! Our dedicated Food Services team prepares homemade pizza for all who are interested! (You can smell it being prepared in the hallways, too!)
Take a peek at our youngest ES students with their traditional, pepperoni or "grilled cheese" slice options! Remember, everyone eats from free! (But, some student families do put funds in their children's "My School Bucks" accounts to purchases extras, like ice cream, or on pizza days... an extra slice!)
MARSHMALLOW FARMING?? Well…maybe…
Kimberly McDermott’s ES second-graders completed a fun and creative lesson about marshmallow farming this past Tuesday, April 1. Did you know that marshmallows grow only under the best conditions? Students learned about critical marshmallow climatology, including how long it takes for a marshmallow bush to grow and for marshmallows to blossom as well as all the important aspects of marshmallow harvesting.
A marshmallow farming video served as guidance for them to complete a marshmallow life cycle worksheet; and an art component was added to this science lesson when students were tasked with drawing a marshmallow bush and labeling its parts. The farm even sent Mrs. McDermott fresh marshmallows for students to sample as well!
What an innovative STEM lesson that combined art and food and….APRIL FOOLS FUN! (Did you spoof anyone on April Fool’s Day?)
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!
Understanding digraph sounds is an important ELA skill for kindergarteners! Digraph sounds are important because they are two letters that come together to make a completely new sound such as (/th/, /sh/, /ch/, /ng/, and /qu/). Ask the kindergartener in your life about this!
Take a peek at Tiffany Guareno’s ES kindergarteners, who recently played a fun Digraph Headbands Game where they walked around the room, found a partner, read the word on their partner's headband (which contained a digraph) and practiced writing the word What a fun way to reinforcing these special sounds!
Learning digraph sounds is crucial for developing strong reading and spelling skills because they help children decode words accurately and fluently, and represent sounds correctly in written language.
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.
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!
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!
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!
Ilana Kaufman’s second-grade art students grade students are exploring fiber arts by learning how to weave on a loom.
Here’s the fun part: Students made their own looms by painting paper plates with decorative line details! Students are using yarn and an “under/over” repetitive pattern to create a circle weaving work of art. Each design is beautiful and unique!
Paper plate looms also give students a chance to further build fine motor skills. There are even some math connections, too, as students have to think about measuring and pattern making.
"Top of the morning" to you and Happy Saint Patrick's Day!
Meghan Donahue's ES first-graders have made some spectacular leprechaun traps with the intention of capturing any mischievous leprechauns that may have made their way into their classroom. Students will be arriving shortly, so it'll be interesting to see if any were trapped!
Leprechaun traps are craft projects usually made from household items like boxes, tin cans, or paper, and these little students made
The tradition of leprechaun trapping is similar to the Christmas tradition of leaving cookies out for Santa Claus.
Author and Minisink Valley parent Stephanie Lock visited the Elementary School on March 14 for a “Meet the Author” visit, sponsored by the ES PTO!
Mrs. Lock’s book, “If Goldfish were Bluebirds,” is a story about self-acceptance that follows five animal characters' thought processes in wishing they were like other animals. However, they ultimately come to realize that their own attributes are what makes them so special and unique. The story is a great reaffirmation to everyone that we all are unique and special!
Thank you to the ES PTO for arranging this very fun visit!
Sally Mankoo’s ES kindergarteners, like other district kindergarteners, have been learning about seasons and weather. In the last lesson of the unit, they learned a big word: Meteorologist! Students also learned about cumulus, stratus and cirrus clouds as well.
A project aligned with these lessons was the creation of “cloud spotters.” Students made their unique “spotters” so when they went outside, they could identify the type of clouds they saw. They glued the cloud pictures on their spotters decorated them with paint and other personalization items and used them during a recent windy day to identify the cumulus clouds in the sky! Take a look!
Cumulus clouds are puffy and white like cotton balls, while stratus clouds look like flat white sheets hovering overhead. Cirrus clouds come with rain-free weather and look like white wisps high up in the sky.
WHAT A GREAT, GREAT NIGHT!
So much fun and fundraising (the amount raised is still being tallied) at the March 12 Minisink Valley vs. Harlem Wizards game! THANK YOU to everyone who had a part in its success and to everyone who came out to be awesome spectators! There's four amazing photo galleries on the district's Facebook page for everyone to view: https://www.facebook.com/MinisinkValleyCSD
For the record...our team was super gracious and "allowed" the Wizards, our visiting guests, to win in a 63-46 final!
