Otisville Elementary's and the Elementary School's annual Halloween parades is just one week 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!
Nora Fitzgerald and Erin McCawley’s ES first-graders are using their recently read story, “The Trip Back,” as part of their ELA work which will include rereading the story using buddy reading. Buddy reading builds reading fluency, comprehension and vocabulary.
Anthony Licata's ES physical education students are learning about verbal (talking) communication, nonverbal (silent) communication, and teamwork. They recently played a game a game called "Birds Nest," where communication and teamwork to swap nests with the other birds in the class.
For verbal communication, a student starts out in a nest (hula-hoop) and call out to another bird (classmate) and ask them to switch with them. For nonverbal, a student would try to get a bird’s attention without speaking, and using different hand signals and get them to switch with him/her without speaking or making noise.
Students would then switch up the movements they would do to each nest by rolling a dice, and doing the movement based on whatever number the dice landed on (Example: If the dice lands on 1 the students would walk, 2 run, etc.)
For the final round, students would add "hawks" to the game. The hawks would not have a nest, and if a bird left the nest to switch with somebody, the hawks could occupy the empty nest, becoming a bird. The bird who lost its nest would then become a hawk! What a creative way of learning verbal/ nonverbal communication and teamwork skills to use in the game.
Ilana Kaufman’s ES first and second-grade art students have been studying Austrian artist Gustav Klimt’s “The Tree of Life.” They identified his unique use of the color gold and spiral lines. Inspired by his work, her student artists experimented with gold paint to create their own beautiful spiral line trees with repeated shape and line designs.
Gustav Klimt was an Austrian painter and a prominent figure in the Vienna Secession movement. He is known for his symbolic and decorative paintings that often include hidden meanings. His painting The Tree of Life is a masterpiece that exemplifies his artistic style and is considered a symbol of the complex nature of life.
Maureen Cardinale’s ES first-graders are enjoying partner reading, sitting “elbow to elbow, knee to knee” as they perfect their reading proficiency!
Partner reading is a cooperative learning strategy where two students work together to read a text, take turns reading, and provide feedback to each other. It's often used in first grade to help students improve their reading fluency and build confidence!
SO SWEET! Jessica Paglia's first-graders and Joseph Ferara's second- graders are showing their admiration to Kevin Murphy, School Security Aide/Intramural Assistant , who was recently honored by the Mid-Hudson School Study Council (MHSSC) with its Award of Excellence in Staff Support!
Measurement skills are also an important life skill! Second-graders, like Joseph Ferara’s ES second-graders, recently went outdoors to apply the estimating and measuring skills they learned in the classroom.
Students estimated and measured objects as big as the playground and as small of as a blade of grass. They had to decide if it was more appropriate to use a meter stick, a ruler or a tape measure to measure the outdoor objects. Then, they wrote their measurements and drew pictures of the objects the measured with their partners! What a great outdoor “lab!”
THINK PINK! The district is "going pink" on Thursday, Oct. 24 to support National Breast Cancer Awareness Month efforts!
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!
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.
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!
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.
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!
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."
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!
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.
