Otisville’s Family Craft and Tie Dye Night, held this past Friday night, was a huge success! Everyone had a great time and there’s lots of wonderful crafts which now have a place of distinction at home! Thank you to the Otisville PTO and everyone who contributed to the evening’s success!
Art teacher Kara Welsh used fabric dye given to her from former art teacher for tie dying over 160 people tie dyed items! Students also had fun at paper airplane/origami, air dry clay sculpting, tissue flowers, magnet decoration and pom-pom coaster stations!
See more photos on the district's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MinisinkValleyCSD/
Tara Frawley’s and Kelly Manganiello's Otisville fifth-graders recently completed a science experiment about energy using Hot Wheels cars!
The purpose of this energy transfer experiment was to test two predictions that students know about potential, kinetic energy and friction. They did this by taking a car and placing it on a track higher than another car will travel further along the track and then covering the track with salt to see if the car will not travel as far as one without salt on the track
During the experiment, students taped Hot Wheels tracks together and built a stack of books 40 centimeters and 20 centimeters high. They positioned a Hot Wheels car on the edge of the slope and released it.
Students then measured the distance travelled in centimeters after three releases on their data sheets. They also tested what happened to the Hot Wheels cars’ distance once salt was added to the track. Finally, students calculated the average distance to determine which height the car travelled further on- the high or low height.
•Potential energy is stored energy within an object or system, waiting to be released and used.
•Kinetic energy is the energy of motion. It's the energy possessed by an object due to its movement.
•Friction is a force that opposes motion between two surfaces that are in contact,
•According to manufacturer Mattel, eight Hot Wheels cars are sold every second. There’s more than 800 models and 11,000 variations.
Lillian Preziosi’s Otisville fifth-graders, like all district fifth-graders, are studying ocean ecosystems as part of their science lessons.
During their recent CKLA Grade 5 Pilot Unit “Lesson 1: Introducing Ocean Ecosystems and Their Inhabitants,” students explored the diversity of animal and plant life within six ocean ecosystems.
When an image was displayed, students brainstormed about the characteristics of the ecosystem and then took turns recording their observations. And after reading Chapter 1, they worked together to identify unique characteristics of each ecosystem (coral reefs, kelp forests, estuaries, mangrove forests, the open ocean and the deep sea) by looking closely at their biotic and abiotic features. They had a great time collaborating and learning together…and collaboration is an important life skill!
In an ecosystem, biotic factors are the living organisms (like plants, animals, and bacteria), while abiotic factors are the non-living, physical and chemical components (like sunlight, water, and soil)
TODAY IS EARTH DAY!
Today’s gorgeous weather and temperatures was the perfect opportunity for Jessica Kahn’s/Julia Ferguson’s and AnneMarie Guido’s Otisville kindergarteners to spend some time outside enjoying the outdoors and appreciating nature and the sunshine. Erica Alders’/Alexa Roach’s fifth-graders and Rachel Sebold's third-graders did the same, too, along with a very cool Earth Day-related scavenger hunt!
Earth Day is an annual event celebrated on April 22 that focuses on raising awareness and promoting environmental protection. It's a time to demonstrate support for the environment, with a wide range of events coordinated globally to encourage action and behavioral changes to protect the planet!
Otisville Elementary was proud to have a small role in welcoming home veterans who were part of Hudson Valley Honor Flight's recent Mission 35 to Washington, D.C.! This WELCOME HOME banner was signed by everyone at Otisville! Students also made beautiful cards of appreciation!
Reminder: The 2025-26 student calendar has been available for everyone's use!
Today, April 11, Otisville Elementary welcomed members of its incoming kindergarten class for a fun morning learning about the library and music classes they will attend this fall! It's always an adorable morning when these little ones and their parents/grandparents/guardians visit to see all that awaits them. Take a peek at their cutie-pie faces!
We always appreciate Librarian Erin Andersen's and Music Teacher Skyler Klein's making them feel so welcome!
READY, SET....GO!
THANK YOU to everyone who helped make the annual Otisville Kindergarten Spring Egg Hunt (it may have been more like a race ) so much FUN for these little ones, who joyfully and gleefully ran around to gather as many eggs as they could! Everyone went home with eggs filled with goodies and smiles on their faces! It's a wonderful school tradition, which involves the "big kid" second-graders who set up the "hunt!"
Lillian Preziosi's Otisville fifth-graders surprised Assistant Principal Nikachi Griffin with this wonderful poster to show their appreciation for all she does! Many schools are doing the same and we thank all our district's assistant principals for all they do to support students, faculty and staff every day!
Please join us in congratulating these Otisville fifth-graders for their wonderful performances at last weekend’s NYSSMA Festival at Monroe-Woodbury Middle School:
• Elizabeth Claus
• Charlotte Coppola
• Leah Galligan
• James Karpinski
• Amelia McCarey
• Zoey Perkins
• Lucas Rider
• Lydia Rider
• Iliana Rivera
• Avery Slomka
• Harper Walsh
They each performed three major scales from memory, a solo for their instrument, and short sightreading example. Each musician had fabulous performance at the festival earning top scores in addition to receiving invaluable feedback from their judges!
For the past two months, these hard-working musicians attended extra help sessions before and after school with band teacher Maria Fenfert, and their hard work certainly paid off! Well done to all!
Meet the student scientists of Otisville Elementary! They wowed their peers, families and guests at last evening's SCIENCE FAIR! Take a peek at their displays and the evening's very cool science presentation! THANK YOU to everyone who played a role in this event's success; we appreciate you!
See more photos on the district's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MinisinkValleyCSD
Earlier this week, Kayla Fischer's, Lindsay Kane's and Melissa Manganello's Otisville first-grade classes went on a fabulous field trip to the Hudson Highlands Nature Center in Cornwall-on-Hudson!
Students learned about and met about “local” animals including the black rat snake, a house mouse, a toad and a rare albino pigeon. They learned about distinguishing characteristics, life cycles, special adaptations and habitats!
As part of their great day of learning and fun and a day out of the classroom with their peers, students hiked through the local forest and spied woodpecker holes, tree rubs made from white tail deer, plants that appeared to be growing out of rocks and the path that the great glaciers made through the land thousands of years ago!
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!
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!
Otisville families: Be sure your calendar is marked for Thursday, April 3 for the Otisville Elementary Science Fair at 6 p.m.! Our wonderful student scientists have been working hard and with great creativity and are looking forward to sharing their work!
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.
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.
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!
ST. PATRICK’S DAY FUN: ROLLING FOR GOLD!
Kelly Bernice’s Otisville second-graders also had some St. Patrick’s Day-centric math fun playing several rounds of the “Rolling for Gold Math Game!”
Students rolled the dice, added the dice and then move along on the gameboard. They took turns rolling and adding. If they landed on “a Leprechaun’s hat” they had to move back several spaces on the gameboard. If they landed on a shamrock, they were able to move forward several spaces. Whoever reached the “Pot of Gold” at 100 won the game!
This fun game reinforced addition skills, promoted number sense and fluency and encouraged strategic thinking and problem-solving!
ST. PATRICK’S DAY FUN: MAGICAL MATH
Jessica Kahn’s and Julia Ferguson’s Otisville kindergarteners celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with some fun, “magical math” work!
First, students took the marshmallow bits in Lucky Charms cereal and sorted them by shapes. Then, they counted each type of marshmallow bit, took those numbers and graphed them on a bar graph. Lastly, the teachers and students discussed which marshmallow but was “the greatest and least” for each student, including if any had the same amount.
Bar graphing is important in kindergarten because it helps children develop foundational math and data skills, including counting, comparing, sorting, organizing, vocabulary and understanding basic data representation, all while making learning fun and engaging.
