Congratulations to the incoming 2024-25 Otisville K-Kids officers, who recently assumed their new roles during the group’s Fall Installation, where 21 new members were inducted. New officers are Jillian O'Sullivan, president; Quinn Lattimer, vice president; Peter Caputo, treasurer; and Ariana Rodriguez, secretary.
The Otisville K-Kids Club is sponsored by Minisink Valley Kiwanis, and is a leadership program for primary/elementary school age students. Club members improve their schools and communities — an experience that helps them develop a passion to serve, a desire to lead and the ability to engage and collaborate with others.
Minisink Valley Kiwanis President Grace White and K-Kids Advisors Andrea Yager and Logan Reggio attended the ceremony to support the club, its achievements, and vision for the future.
The group’s recent projects were the Little Free Library, Treats for Troops, "Souper Seniors", raising money for Room to Read and a local animal shelter, playground signs for the playgrounds at Otisville, and cards for patients at Garnet Medical Center.
"We are looking forward to a busy year of community service,” said School Club Advisor Danielle Ulbrich.
Lillian Preziosi’s Otisville fifth-graders have been working with their reading partners to learn about an ancient Maya myth that explains the creation of the Earth and its people. Afterward, they continued working together to answer comprehension questions about the chapter and discuss the characteristics of a myth. Kudos to them for their hard work to develop their partner reading skills and learn how to work together in order to complete activities in a productive and efficient manner. Take a look!
Their reading and comprehension work focused on learning that large complex civilizations, including those of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca, developed in the Americas before the arrival of Europeans. They learned about the geography, climate, flora, and fauna of the Americas as well as the overall history and timeline highlighting the rise and fall of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations. Students also learned the innovations and discoveries of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca; and their reading unit featured myths from these ancient civilizations.
Please join us in thanking and saluting Otisville School Resource Officer (SRO) Sean Burke, who is retiring from the Mount Hope Police Department. His last day as Otisville's SRO is today, Nov. 7.
Officer Burke has been a trusted, calm, caring and professional face at the Otisville campus who has always put the safety and security of Otisville students, faculty and staff as his first and most important priority. The school community will miss him tremendously, and wishes him much good health, happiness and fulfillment on his next adventures in life.
Today, Nov. 7, the Otisville school community honored Officer Burke with a special school celebration, with students, faculty and staff presenting him with notes, cards and signs.
CAN YOU HELP?
The High School's FBLA Club is hosting its annual Food Drive, with donations being accepted through Friday, Nov. 22.
Community donations may be delivered to the high school's main entrance, where it will be collected for distribution.
Lindsay Kane’s Otisville first-graders have completed a very important class election: Which fruit they liked best! Congratulations to WATERMELON!
The lesson tied perfectly with current events and civics. Students learned that voting is how they say what they want (which fruit they liked best); that when a group of people vote, it’s called an election; the “candidates,” in this instance, were different fruits; when people vote, they use ballots, or forms that show voters the choices they have in an election (sometimes paper, sometimes a machine); and people mark their ballots so they can indicate their choice – their vote.
But there was also an important math, data compilation, graphing and ELA component, too! Students had to count and tally up the results, graph those results and then write a sentence about the results of their fruit election
And of course, just like adults are offered at their polling locations, every student voter received a “I voted” sticker!
See more photos on the district's Facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/MinisinkValleyCSD
Skyler Klein’s Otisville fourth-grade music students have recently learned a "round" (type of song) called "Come to the Top of the Path in the Garden." This particular song choice was a "visual round," meaning not only was the song performed in parts at different times, but each group was represented visually by a circle performing movements as they sang. Take a look!
In music, a “round” is a short, repetitive song where multiple people sing the same melody, but each person starts singing at a different time. Rounds are a great way for students to develop musical independence, to perform and listen at the same time.
Otisville concludes its Spirit Week today, Nov. 1, with "Green and White"Day! As expected, students looked fabulous!
There’s always important ELA work for first-graders to complete, such as for Lindsay Kane’s Otisville first-graders, who were recently working on answering comprehension questions for the story "Lunch at the King's Pub." Once that work was completed, students worked on their “Pausing Point” pages that review skills they have learned throughout this unit.
Support the Class of 2025 and add to your collection of outstanding Minisink Valley attire! The selections are great to wear for any occasion and for any event in any building!
Checking work done in class is important! And, raise your hand if you know the answer! Erica Alders’ and Alexa Roach’s Otisville fourth-graders are ready to share what they know!
It's Day 3 of Otisville Elementary's Spirit Week! Today's theme: SILLY SOCK DAY! Students and staff did not disappoint!
It’s not over yet, Yankee fans! Think positive….and as part of that positivity, Otisville Elementary presented students with their Aaron Judge ALL RISE Summer Reading Programs certificate received earlier in the week!
Congratulations and well-done to Adam Weber and Aria Basso!
The Aaron Judge ALL RISE Foundation, founder of this group and the Yankees’ captain, is a nonprofit that aims to inspire children and youth to become responsible citizens. Its summer reading program is a literacy initiative that encourages children and youth to read. This past summer, Minisink Valley invited all students to participate in this summer reading initiative, organized by Physical Education Teacher Theresa Uhelsky.
Alyssa Pagano’s and Mary Louey’s Otisville fifth-graders are using differentiated math games which work perfectly for students who have different needs in math!
Students who need to work on their multiplication facts are playing a multiplication game called “Multiplication War,” while other students are playing a division game with remainders called “Remainders Wanted.” It’s a fun and innovative way to meet the math needs of all students!
Math games like these help students in many ways, including: Improving math proficiency, developing problem solving skills, building computational fluency fostering collaboration, personalized learning and even reducing math anxiety!
REMINDER: Tomorrow, Oct. 31, Otisville Elementary and the Elementary School will hold their annual Halloween parades! 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!
It's Day 2 of Otisville Elementary's Spirit Week: Today is "Inside out --- Backwards---Mismatch" Day!
Stephanie Guifre and Tom Uhrig’s Otisville physical education students are having a “pumpkin palooza” time in their Halloween-themed classes which combine literacy, seasonality and physical activity!
The teachers used Dan Yaccarino’s “Five Little Pumpkins” (which is read in kindergarten classes) as a springboard to physical fitness fun and games!
Students read the book’s poem and reviewed the book's hand gestures. Then, students threw balls to knock over the little pumpkins on the cones of the opposing team. (Each side has five pumpkins.) The lesson also offered students a chance to work on throwing/rolling skills while learning the beginning elements of offense and defense in addition to working together as a team!
Spirit Week kicks off at Otisville Elementary today, Oct 28, with USA Day1 Take a peek at a sampling of the marvelous patriotic attire seen throughout the building!
Did you know that this past Saturday, Oct. 26 was National Pumpkin Day? Cynthia Muccari’s and Tasha Buchler’s Otisville second/third-graders did! They spent last Friday marking the day with a STEM-filled afternoon of amazing pumpkin activities!
Students were divided into small groups and went from classroom to classroom to take part in different math and science centers. In Mrs. Muccari's room, they practiced estimation and measuring by using cubes to measure the height and circumference of a pumpkin, as well as their counting skills by counting the seeds from inside of the pumpkin. Students also practiced making small groups of 2s and 5s to practice their skip counting. The pumpkin was 16 cubes tall and 37 cubes around with about 500 seeds inside (students practiced rounding too)!
In Ms. Buchler's room, students completed a STEM challenge of creating a tower using toothpicks and candy corn pumpkins and also saw what happens when they put candy corn in different liquids! The candy corn dissolved the fastest in warm water, with vinegar being next, and then dish soap being last. The dish soap liquid turned brown when it was fully dissolved!
They took a quick break to author Joe Troiano read his story “The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin,” which was part of a live virtual program via Scholastic's “Storyvoice.”
Finally, to conclude the afternoon, students went outside on a beautiful to see what happens when baking soda and vinegar mix together inside a pumpkin: It becomes a pumpkin volcano! Plus, adding in dish soap makes it foamier! What a wonderful STEM lesson tied to seasonality!
Kudos to Otisville fifth-grader Leah Galligan and second-grader Brielle Bucksbee, who represented students as they read a heartfelt morning announcement noting the school's appreciation of Principal Julia Downey. October is National Principal Appreciation Month!
Instead of decorating pumpkins this year, Otisville Elementary involved the entire school in a scarecrow competition, with a grade-level scarecrows and scarecrows created by the school’s administrative offices created. Students were invited to vote (they could not vote on their own) on their top choice, all entries were presented anonymously. Take a look at the amazing creativity of all scarecrow designs! Winners, as selected by students:
1st Place:
“Beetlejuice,” concept created and scarecrow made by the Occupational/Physical Therapy Department.
2nd Place:
“Spider Witch,” concept created and scarecrow made by the Main Office.
3rd Place
“Unicorn,” concept created and scarecrow made by the School Psychologist’s Office.
Honorable Mentions
• Kindergarten for its “Bucket Filler Superhero Scarecrow”
• First-Grade for its “Book of Scary” words.
