We are authors!

This has been a busy week full of writing, revising, illustrating, sharing, and publishing our Small Moment stories!  It was a special time today when we blended the three first grade classes to share our stories! We are so proud of our stories.  We can't wait to start our next unit in Writing Workshop!

This looks pretty fun!!

Richmond Elementary School, in conjunction with

the Society of Women Engineers, ECHO Science Museum, Radiate Art Space, CardBoardTek and  MMUSD Educators is proud to present the fourth annual:

COUGAR CUB INVENTOR’S WORKSHOP

Thursday, November 15th, 2018

5:30 – 7:30pm*

RES Gym and Library

Cost: 2$ per project (to cover the cost of disposable resources, scholarships available)

What is an Inventor’s Workshop?

This workshop is a family-friendly event to MAKE, create, learn, invent, craft, recycle, think, play and be inspired by celebrating arts, crafts, engineering, science and technology.  Students will work with their families to create! Activities will be facilitated by engineers and teachers, but tasks will be open ended and creative. Families will have an opportunity to learn together as they experience the fun of making / building / constructing / designing and more! A variety of activities will be available to challenge students from Grades preK – 8.

*RES PTO will be hosting a bake sale so bring some $$ to buy a treat (or 2!)

Activities planned for our workshop include:

PinBox3000!  Check out some awesome Cardboard pinball machines and learn about how we will create these games in fourth grade at RES this year.  

Lego Race Cars!  Join ECHO to design and then race an awesome Lego car that you build!(on a large indoor track)

Marble Maze Challenge:  Create a marble maze from ceiling to floor--the possibilities are endless!

Making a keyboard with bananas!  MaKey MaKey Boards are electronic devices that convert many regular objects into keys on your computer to control programs like Scratch or videos games.  Objects that are conductive, even slightly, like fruit or people, can be used with the MaKey.

Build and Launch a Rocket!  Using makerspaces materials we will build rockets that reach for the stars as they travel several stories into the night sky.

Creating interactive circuits with littleBits!  littleBits are electronic modules that snap together with magnets to make circuits.  Each bit has a specific function (light, sound, sensors, buttons, motors, etc), and modules snap together to make larger circuits.

Checking out a 3D printer in action!  CHMS and RES students have been using a 3D printer during technology/enrichment classes. Come and watch a 3D printer in action and explore the Tinkercad software we use to make our designs.

Make it Fly!: Create objects to fly in the wind tunnel

Creating abstract art with a digital microscope!  DinoXcope Art is artwork created using a digital microscope to photograph intentional arrangements of materials.  

Programming interactive games with Scratch!  Scratch is a visual programming language.  Use colorful interlocking building blocks of code like legos to build interactive games and programs.

Green Screen! Green screen technology is used to create background scenes for pictures in films and photographs.  Come and create your own background.

JitterBots!  Back due to popularity, you can create your very own jittery robot!

      SNAP Circuits, Art Creation with Radiate Art Space, ECHO Engineering Challenges, Keva Planks, Robots…and more!!!!

Please contact Darcie Rankin, RES Enrichment Teacher at darcie.rankin@cesuvt.org with questions.

We hope to see you there!

I scream you scream, Mrs. Poor's class screams for ice cream!!
Friday we made ice cream together with Ms. Virginia.  Ice cream, like butter and cheese,  is another product that we can make from milk! Boy, we owe those cows a lot!! 🐄🐮🐄🐮

Everyone had a blast using the ice cream ball to pour the ingredients into and then roll the ball around back and forth to each other! It was delicious when it was done! The first taste was a milkshake and the second was the hard ice cream! Yum!

Ms. Virginia came in on Monday and taught us about Fiber Farms.  These are farms that raise animals such as alpacas, sheep, and angora rabbits for their fur for clothing. They learned the many steps to creating usable fibers. They also made real cheese together!  Ella made an adorable sheep! 🐑

Hope everyone gets through the craziness of the night!!  We had a very busy day at school today!  We started our day off with taking a break from our Small Moment writing and had a Festive Free Write.  They were all soooo excited to write something that is fiction!! We then all shared our stories around a crackling fire!

Later when our "engines" were running a little high we did a pumpkin workout! I think I have found a great strategy for the future!! 

Thank you for all of you who donated delicious things for our celebration today!  The kids had a blast and were very proud of what they brought in! We then ended our day with a short walk out to the woods to get some fresh air and build a little!

Oh, one more thing!  Here are a couple of pictures of their STEM challenge yesterday in the Makerspace!  Challenge: To build a fence that could balance 5 little pumpkins on!

I wanted to share this powerful article I read recently on the importance of getting children playing and learning outside. There are countless benefits for everyone! 🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳⛅
Click the link below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XbGK41oZqzUJv91VzwqS_IGvfDp6_Jws/view

This week on Woodsy Wednesday we read The Little Red Fort.  Then we began building forts and little houses.  It was amazing to see the teamwork that was going on among this crew.  They showed creative building and did it in a safe way.  They were all very excited about this!  We had our Enrichment teacher, Mrs. Rankin join us and Mr. White did as well for a little bit, too!  Mrs. Rankin brought Stick-lets for us to try out.  They are used to combine sticks together for building. They were neat to try out however, most students liked the teepee style strategy best! We are looking forward to collaborating with her more in the future!