Horses

Horses are  my favorite cinder of  animal.  I like black horses.  And I have  never gone horseback riding.

Have you gone horseback riding before?

Jasmine's awesome blog of everything

Hi!

My name is Jasmine, I love animals I also like science and technology and being scared.

Well that's all I need to say about me. Oh!  Wait I'm in 2 grade 

Here's two cool facts for you before you go 

Did you know everyone in the world is made up of star stuff ?

Did you know feathers are a tipe of scale ?

Knock Knock Jokes

Knock knock

Who is there

The interrupting cow

The interrupting cow mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Foot ball

I like. To play foot ball I play foot ball at school at recess. I like to play a lot of positions.  I really like to play football 👍👍👍 and I like the patriots 😀😀😀😃😃😃 and I have been to a patriots game before It was very fun 👍👍👍😃😃😃😀😀😀😄😄I cried at the end of the game because they lost. 😭😭😭 and I was mad to😠😠😠

Foot ball

I like the patriots.  My favorite players are Gronk and Brady.  I like the them because they are really good at playing football.  Gronk hurt his leg and for two games he could not play.  Now he is back!  What is your favorite team? The patriots are awesome!

Minecraft

If you kill a whither you will get a nether star.  You can build a beacon with a nether star.  I have not been able to build a beacon because it is really hard to kill a whither.  Whithers chuck skulls at you and it really hurts!  Have you ever gotten a nether star?

A Day in the Life of an Enrichment Teacher

One thing I love about my job as the enrichment teacher is that each day is full of learning and is different than any of my previous days teaching.  Sometimes I pause at the end of a day and marvel at all that I have gotten a chance to learn and do. Today was one of those days.  I began my morning with a professional development session with some of my teaching peers.  I had the chance to hear what others are working on and was inspired by school wide engineering challenges (watch out RES, because after our talk now I want to do a school wide cardboard building challenge!!) 

Next a teacher friend from another district came and helped me to install a harmonograph in the art room so that RES students can create.

As students smiled their way into the building I prepared my room for a morning of robot making with third graders.  I also set up a voting booth so we could vote for the name of our new classroom cougar mascot. In third grade students are being creative as they build with many materials to design 2D robots with 3d features.  This project is excellent in itself because of the collaboration and creativity, but it is even better because our long term goal is to make these robots light up when we begin our collaborative study of electricity in January.  And we had an excellent discussion about the importance of voting if you would like your voice heard...and the idea that voting gave every student an equal opportunity to make a class decision.(This was a memorable discussion for me and I hope one that they will remember in ten years when they can vote!)

My next two classes were unique this week as school wide we are participating in an Hour of Code. I am lucky to be collaborating with teacher/librarian Mrs. Redford to make sure every student at RES gets a chance to code.  Our first coding group was fourth graders.  They were excited, but they also had questions about why coding was important.  I love that our classrooms can be a place where students question why we are doing something.  There is so much power and learning that happens in respectful dialog.  Students worked through coding tutorials and wrote upwards of 100 combined lines of code.

Next I went to the cafeteria for my duty as a lunch monitor.  I am there to make sure lunch runs smoothly, but the part I like is chatting with second graders.  In this environment I often hear about the things that they are most enjoying about school, and it gives me a chance to understand them better.  We have also been sharing Knock Knock jokes, and I am building up quite a bank of good ones.

After lunch I got a chance to code with a second grade group.  This group was excited, but once we started coding many students became discouraged.  This was the youngest grade that was using a tutorial and it was challenging....but they did not give up and about half way through kids were coming up to me telling me how it was hard, but good, or hard, but they liked figuring it out.  To me this is great learning --- and to have them vocalize that tension between a challenge and success and failures was awesome.

Next I visited kindergarten.  Students had requested that we build, and so I came with lots of boxes and tape.  We worked in a small group to design a space rocket house.  Students worked together with joy for forty minutes, and when I left were making plans for additions during their next work opportunity.

My last class of the day was first graders. We are continuing our study of community, and today we were learning about a community helper we were interested in. We were lucky to have a police officer come in to work with one group, and I learned a lot about how outside community engagement spurs learning.  I also learned that some student groups do not work well together, even if they share a common interest, and I went  back to the teaching drawing board to figure out how I can improve this collaboration for next time.  

Whew!  The school day ended for students with a chance for me to take my group out to their bus...saying goodbye and hearing about tidbits of their day...and then back into the building to meet with special educators and hear ideas for how to better meet the needs of all of the learners in our classrooms.

Everyday is different and everyday is full of great learning.  Thanks so much for giving me the opportunity to be a teacher at RES!

Who is Writing this Blog Anyway?

For the last two weeks the Enrichment at RES blog has been taken over by students!  Second graders have been using the blog as a forum to post their ideas on everything from fish to Minecraft to American Girl Dolls!  After spending several enrichment classes learning about blogs by paper blogging and commenting, students were ready to create their first posts.  This has been very exciting for students as they think about their voice being heard beyond our classroom walls.  What do they want to share?  Who will read their work?  How do they create something interesting for their audience?

Over the next few weeks second graders will continue to blog.  We would love to receive some comments.  In fact we will be tracking how many comments we receive.

In order to comment, you can sort blog posts by using the sort feature on the blog to search for Grade2, or by classroom teacher name.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Community Helpers

In first grade enrichment students are continuing to think about community.  We began our study of community focusing on our school, but now we are taking time to learn about a bigger community...our town.  We are all part of our town community because it is where we live!

 I asked students to think about all of the community helpers that are part of Richmond.  Their list was a big one and included:  police officers, firefighters, mailmen, farmers, chefs, construction workers, teachers, librarians, veternarians, doctors, dentists and more!  I was amazed and proud of how many strong connections students made to our town community.  Next students used some great school resources to investigate a community helper they were interested in learning more about.  Students used Pebble Go (online books provided by the RES library), Scholastic Community Helper online books, and many library books.  We created a bulletin board for the enrichment classroom that lists interesting facts about a community helper.  Did you know the police are here to keep us safe?  Did you know that vets have a hard job because the animals they help cannot tell them what is wrong? Did you know firefighting can be dangerous?  Students worked hard to share their learning.  

Over the next week students will research even more about a community helper of their choice, making a poster to share their learning.  Today we had a special guest when Police Officer Brett Lindemuth visited our class to answer questions about his job.

Do you know a community helper who would like to talk to our first graders?  They love making these connections.

Funny Poem

Sofa?!

On my way?!

Flower lover?!

It'l be a good day?!

Ant eater?!

Poems

           

                    Odin

                    Daring

                    Intelligent

                    Nice

Adelia

Daring

Exalint

Lovely

Inteligent

 Awesome

Dolphins

 Dolphins have bio hole.they have tail and fin to help them swim.

Kinetic sand

I think it sticks like a magnet.  Do you know how kinetic sand works?

Did you know?

Mine blocks is a rily fun game.  I fawnd a chest.have you playe the game?  By Coop

The igloo

I am Cameron who built a igloo and my friend just destroyed it but it was a acsadint but it's okay I am sad though there still my favorite friend I couldn't take a picture since they have decided to destroyed it.

Endangered animals

Helooooooooooooooooo !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My name is Kingston. Did you now that maincoon cats are rare just like snow leopards,Cougars,and monarchs?Here is a picture I drew of a snow leopard. Hope you like it!

Amazing sharks

Sharks live in water and are mammals.i wish i saw a shark on a boat. Do you like sharks ?

Turkeys

Do you like turkey? I do! I Like to make trukey.do you? This is my friend Josslyns  turkey. Do you like it?       By aubrey

.

Zane's Minecraft world

Mine craft is a video game 🎮 it is awesome 😏. There are three worlds. i won a trophy🏆🎩 with  Miy friends.

Did you know

Minecraft is super popular more than  100 people play this 🎮.do you play this game?

Lily's American girl blog post.

I think American girl is awesome because they make awesome dolls and have great ideas for the dolls. I love American girl. Do you like them? 

Fallon's Elsa blog

I love Elsa, I am an Big fan of Elsa too, Elsa has ice powers, She is awesome, she's the best thing ever. This is a picture of her.

Luke's Blue Macaw

 Blue macaw like Brazil nuts and are from Mexico and Central America and South America. 

Do you know where blue macaws originated from?

Myblogisabawtfish

Fish  is    Fun  to swim  with  bcus  fish  hav   Fins.

Did you know?💋⚡️🔷💍❤️💓💞💕💝💘💖💗💔💥👑💃👛💎👙👠👗🔮💠🔱🍩

Did you know house cats are so active at night!💠💎🔱👙💥👑👠💃👗💖💘💝💕💞💔👗💍😈😻💋👄⚡️🐾❤️🎿💄👠🌂👗👛💎👙🔷I love cats ❤️🎤

Cool sports

I love sports!!! Two of my favorite sports are swimming and gymnastics. What is your favorite sport or sports? By Ellie 

Cool places to go to

I like to travel do you? My favorite place to go is France. What is yours?

Watch out for chimps

 I read in  a book  that chimps are dangerous 😮 Because they have sharp teeth.  What do you think the worlds most dangerous animal is?

Awesome Everything blog post

What do you think we should name it?

                               

My little pony

 This is a blog  about  mlp⚡️q🐾.  I love cats 🐯

I like ponys because well I donte know why i just do.this is fluttershy.i bilt her out of legos.

I

my 1st blog post

Joke. What does a creeper do in your face ?

Answer :  Boom!😃

Bunnies

Bunnies Or    Cute    And  Fre  And Osum.   Bunnies Hop    A Lot.  What Is  your  favorite animal?

Sean's minecraft

You should really play minecraft. Because it is really fun I like to bilud.

Farthest jumper

This mit spris you but the farthest jumper is a kind of frog! It can jump over a small house front to back .  

Animals

I love animals but I mostly love dogs I love there colors and shapes.Do you like animals? 🐴🐵🐹🐘🐷🐱🐍🐯🐺🐬🐼🐙🐧🐺

🐦

Inventor's Workshop this Thursday!

COUGAR CUB INVENTOR’S WORKSHOP

DON'T MISS THIS AWESOME EVENT!
Thursday November 12^th, 2015

5:30 – 7:30pm

RES Gym & Library

Cost: 2$ per Student (to cover 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 K – 8.

A Sampling of Activities Planned for Our Workshop Include:

Cardboard Challenge:  Create with cardboard! The possibilities are endless!
Building a fort with Bloxes!  Bloxes are life-sized cardboard building blocks. They're used as furniture, walls, and forts by Google, Twitter, Mozilla, and many more.  Now you can try building with this elusive construction material.
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.  
Creating lighted origami!  LED Throwies are LEDs connected to coin batteries to create artwork with light.  We will have a number of origami options including participating in a lost bird project which supports endangered species awareness.
Squishy Circuits:  Make three dimensional artwork with lights and moving parts out of play dough!  
Creating abstract art with a digital microscope!  DinoXcope Art is artwork created using a digital microscope to photograph intentional arrangements of materials.  
Programming Arduinos!   Sparkfun Inventor's Kit with Arduino Uno & breadboards allow you to build simple circuits and control them using a programmable microcontroller.  Lilly Pad is a test board with lights and sound to which you can upload Arduino code.  
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.

AND MORE!!!!!

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

We hope to see you there!

The Pumpkin Seed Project

In late September I saw an online announcement for a technology project that involved pumpkins and Halloween.  I checked out the site and found "The Pumpkin Project" , A Project by Jen (http://projectsbyjen.com/).  After sending out information to our K-2 teachers Mrs. Gilbar and Mrs. Riggs expressed interest in working on the project with their classes.  The great thing about this project was that it encouraged classrooms to weigh and carve a pumpkin and count the seeds.  Classes could do this anyway that made sense, and just had to report their data and experience in two ways: submit their data through a Google form and create a page on a common Google presentation.

I was lucky enough to get to work on this project with Mrs. Riggs class.  It was really fun!  Mrs. Riggs blogged about it here:
http://hriggssecond.blogspot.com/2015/10/integrating-math-technology-and.html

Students were very excited to estimate, count and report their data. They also enjoyed an additional aspect of the project in which we skyped with another class that was doing the same project.  I think that the authentic audience for their results really made them think hard about their data and be careful to get it right.  When it was time to discuss our results students did a good job of giving math clues to challenge our new Kansas friends to guess how many seeds we had counted! I also observed many skills that students had to have during this interaction.  Students had to be clear in their presentation of information (so the other class could understand them).  Students had to take a risk as they participated in introductions in a new technology medium.  Students also had to be excellent listeners.  For me, this inclusion of the technology component really added a new dimension to the learning that carving a pumpkin created.  I am thrilled to be working in classrooms where technology is an integrated component of learning, and not a separate stand alone learning objective.  I am excited to contemplate a time when we will make a quick call to a class in Kansas to share some new learning--and that authentic audience will lead to bigger and better projects!

A few hours later I was in the hallway and observed two second grade students looking at a U.S. map and hunting for Kansas (the state we had skyped).  Their interest was authentic and driven by a real world connection and I felt so lucky to witness it.  Encouraged by the great student engagement in this project and the fun we had skyping, we are working on how we can use this new relationship to engage in future projects together. 

Paper Blogging

Students in second grade enrichment are learning about the online communication medium of blogging!  Before we begin blogging online, we are creating paper blogs.  Paper blogs are a method for us to understand the key characteristics of a blog before we jump into the world of online communication.

My goal for this unit of learning is to have students understand that blogs are a way of sharing information, including: words, pictures and videos.  That all blogs have a title and a background that creates a recognizable space for their work.  Next we understand that blogs are made up of posts.  Posts are dated material with their own title and information.  Students create a paper blog as well as a first paper blog post.

Students are working hard as they think about what is important to them and what they might want to share on a blog.  I love seeing their creativity as they develop their own ideas!  Students are making paper blogs about everything from dinosaurs to American Girl Dolls.

This week we will learn about the skill of commenting (a way to get feedback on your blog,connect with others and start great learning conversations!)  We will have some special guests come in to comment on our blogs and will have a chance to comment on other student blogs in our class.

Students have been highly engaged in this process, but they are all asking "When can we blog online???!!!"  Stay tuned for that work later in the month!

Minecraft as a Learning Tool for Geography

I was approached by the third grade teaching team to consider possible ways that the Minecraft game application might be used to enhance and enrich learning and technology use for students.  I love when teachers are working to engage students with tools they know the students are passionate about...and Minecraft is definitely one of those current high engagement tools, so I was excited to collaborate on this idea.  We decided that it would make sense to try a pilot project in which a small group of students would extend their learning about geographical biomes by creating them in Minecraft.

With a teaching goal in mind, we next had to consider:  software availability, student knowledge and ability to use the technology, and any project guidelines.  Currently RES does not have a school or class Minecraft license, so this project was done on personal and library iPads with a tablet Minecraft version.  Before the project began I gauged student knowledge through a small group discussion.  Students ranged from feeling they were experts, to only a basic understanding of the application.  Due to the small group nature of our project we were able to team students together so that experts could support novice players (I believe this would work in a whole class as well). Next, we explored the application.  I quickly learned that guidelines needed to be developed to ensure that students could stay focused on the task at hand.  (It does not make sense to create a group of sheep in your biome if you are creating a jungle....despite how fun it is to watch them run around and bleet!)'

When students understood the tool useage expectations, they got right to work! I could clearly see their informational knowledge as they designed, built and created!  Students had to problem solve how to create animals, stop ice from melting, and more.  They also collaborated on how to add labels (most settled on capturing a screenshot of their biome and them editing it in Explain Everything, but then others found a way to make signs inside of Minecraft!) 

This project was a way to share already understood information.  Students could have certainly drawn a picture or written a description of their understanding...but I believe the Minecraft tool added three additional components to their learning:  a need to collaborate and learn from each other, high (very high!) engagement, and problem solving.  My opinion is that technology tools are an amazing avenue for students to develop creativity and Minecraft has a lot of potential as we look at methods for sharing our work and knowledge. As a group of teachers we will continue to look for ways to leverage this tool in our work with students.

Below are two images created during our small group pilot.

Do you use Minecraft at home or in your classroom?   What do you think is the best way to enhance learning with this tool?

Our School Community

Students in first grade enrichment are learning about community.  A community is a group of people that have something in common, work together, or live in the same place.  Students brainstormed all the different communities we are a part of including: our class, our school, our family, our sports teams, our church, our town (Richmond), our city. our state, and Earth!

Since students have already been learning and talking a lot about their classroom community in their classrooms, we decided to focus first on our school community.  Students were challenged to think about all the different people in our school community, and then develop a question that would teach them more about that person and their role in our school. Next, students created a drawing that represented the person they would like to learn more about.  Over the next two weeks we will be using a "new to them" technology application called VoiceThread to add our questions and pictures to our School Community VoiceThread. The great thing about this technology application is that all the people they want to learn about will be able to answer their questions right in the application and then we will have a record of all the great answers! Stay tuned for those VoiceThreads to be posted on this blog too!

As we work to bring you a completed VoiceThread, I hope you will enjoy some of the great portraits students have made of people in our RES community!

Andes Manta Visits RES Third Graders

Today third graders had the amazing opportunity to make musical instruments with the musical group Andes Manta.  Students visited the Flynn for a performance this morning. Students and chaperones got to experience quite a show. 

At the Flynn Ready for the show

Here is an example of a similar performance of one amazing part of the show, when the Lopez brothers create a rainforest:


We were very lucky to not only see this great performance, but to welcome Andes Manta to our school to create payas, an Andean musical instrument.  Each student created their very own paya and participated in small group discussions with the artists.  Students talked about music, creating instruments, Ecuador (culture and geography) as they worked alongside great musicians!

This work connected to students study of South America in Spanish classes as well as their third grade geography unit (biomes, landforms, and culture!).

This great opportunity was made possible by the Flynn Education Department, collaboration between enrichment, Spanish and third grade teachers AND a very generous donation from Cumbancha (http://www.cumbancha.com/). Thanks to everyone who supported this effort to bring an enriching experience to our school!

Cougar Cub Inventor's Workshop Information

I am so excited to be hosting another inventor's workshop. I love seeing families and students work together to create and build in a FUN learning environment AND I have some new items to try this year! I hope you can make it! Here are the details:

Richmond Elementary School , in conjunction with Vermont State Science Fair and the Society of Women Engineers is proud to present the:

COUGAR CUB INVENTOR’S WORKSHOP

Thursday November 12^th, 2015

5:30 – 7:30pm

RES Gym

Cost: 2$ per Student (to cover 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 K – 8.

A Sampling of Activities Planned for Our Workshop Include:

Cardboard Challenge:  Create with cardboard! The possibilities are endless!

Building a fort with Bloxes!  Bloxes are life-sized cardboard building blocks. They're used as furniture, walls, and forts by Google, Twitter, Mozilla, and many more.  Now you can try building with this elusive construction material.

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.  

Creating lighted origami!  LED Throwies are LEDs connected to coin batteries to create artwork with light.  We will have a number of origami options including participating in a lost bird project which supports endangered species awareness.

Squishy Circuits:  Make three dimensional artwork with lights and moving parts out of play dough!  

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. Just as LEGOs allows you to create complex structures with little blocks, littleBits are small, simple, blocks that make creating sophisticated electronic circuits a matter of snapping pieces together.

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

Programming Arduinos!   Sparkfun Inventor's Kit with Arduino Uno & breadboards allow you to build simple circuits and control them using a programmable microcontroller.  Lilly Pad is a test board with lights and sound to which you can upload Arduino code.  

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.

AND MORE!!!!!

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

We hope to see you there!

Our Place in this World is AWESOME!

"We all have a place in this world and this is ours!" cried third grade students in the final wrap up of their geography projects today.  For several weeks during enrichment class, students have been working in small groups to think about their geographical place in this world. From our town, to state, to country, to continent and planet....we have a place in this world! Students chose to depict their place in various ways. I was amazed at their creativity and ability to work together to design something that would reflect their understanding of place. Their work is shown in these videos and is also on display outside of the enrichment room.

Please enjoy these videos created using iMovie with the excellent pictures and recordings made by our third grade classes.

Mrs. Ankerson's Class

Ms. Darby's Class

Mrs. Ayer's Class

Thanks for watching! We would love to hear from you in the comments!

Andes Manta to Visit RES Third Grade

RES ENRICHMENT and SPANISH PROGRAMS  in collaboration with the FLYNN EDUCATION DEPARTMENT are excited to announce an: AMAZING THIRD GRADE OPPORTUNITY!

After our attendance at the Flynn theater on Monday November 2nd to watch Andes Manta perform,      ANDES MANTA WILL BE COMING TO RES!!!  

The four Lopez  brothers will spend an hour and a half in the afternoon creating authentic Andean musical instruments with our students. Each student will create an instrument to bring home!

This opportunity has been sponsored in part by World Music Record Label, Cumbancha (based in Charlotte Vermont), http://www.cumbancha.com/ and we are very thankful for their support of music and making at RES.  

 

Collaboration and Teamwork

Collaboration and Teamwork--it is not easy! Even as adults many of us struggle with how to best work in teams.  Almost every week I see a funny cartoon making the social media rounds that describes the different members of a team (not so kindly).  I look back on my engineering career before I became a teacher and I remember those certain 'team meetings' that I dreaded attending each week!

But even with all of the challenges that teams cause, I strongly believe that teamwork is a critical learning component for students.  While there are some life choices that do not lead to constant teamwork, I believe that most will require some level of collaboration.  Each year I begin my enrichment classes discussing the idea of teamwork with students.  I think it is important to let students know that it is difficult, to give them tools to make it easier, and to help them see the positive power of collaboration.

After discussing the reasons teamwork is important, we make a list of reasons teamwork might be positive (this gives us some back up for those frustrating times!)Here are some of the ideas that students have generated about teamwork:

-Teamwork is fun
-When you don't know the answer someone else in your group might
-When you have more people you can work faster
-When you are in a team different people can have different jobs that they are good at
-You get more ideas and you are more creative when you work with more people

What might you add to this list?

Next, we do a variety of teambuilding and collaborative challenges.

We learn to turn and talk with each other (listening as well as sharing).

We create clay sculptures in pairs ( not two different sculptures, but one agreed upon one!)

We build towers out  of spaghetti and marshmallows or straws and tape.

We have successes and we have failures, but with each project we celebrate working together AND we figure out ways to make teamwork easier.  Is it all fun and cheering?  Unfortunately, no.  There are times of frustration over sharing of materials, or rejection of ideas, there are disappointments at fallen towers or unfinished sculptures......but teamwork is not easy and by working together we will continue to improve our collaboration skills. My hope for students is that through our shared experiences they will come to enjoy working as part of a team and have some strategies to make the quality of their participation both fun and meaningful.

Do you have to work as part of a team for your job?  We would love to hear from you with some real world examples of why teamwork is important (you can leave a comment on this blog, or feel free to contact me directly).

GO TEAM!!

Our Place in This World

Students in third grade enrichment are currently working on a project to showcase their 'place in this world'. Students are studying geography in their classrooms as their first social studies unit of the year and we are connecting with this learning to create a project which has teams working in groups to understand our geographical place in this world while they build, make and work collaboratively.  Each student selected a place they wanted to work on and then jumped into a group to define how they would showcase that place.  Each week before we set to work we discuss that our place begins with ourselves and then extends to our town (Richmond), our state (Vermont), our country (U.S. of A.), our continent (North America) and our planet (Earth). 

Students will create something physical that we will then photograph and video to create a composite project of our concept of our place in the world. I have been impressed with student teamwork and creativity. It is also amazing to walk around the room and watch as students support each other in both their knowledge acquisition and by providing positive comments!  Students are making everything from banners to showcase our country, to a 3D map of the solar system, and more.

Stay tuned to checkout the finished product!

Just in Case You Missed Open House in Enrichment!

I enjoyed talking to many families at Open House over the course of two very busy nights! If you did not have a chance to connect with me, or ever have questions about enrichment programming at RES, please contact me via email at darcie.rankin@cesuvt.org. I am looking forward to an excellent year of learning with everyone!

If you did not make it to Open House, here are a few of the things that were on display in the Enrichment classroom.

I also noted the dates and time of some enrichment events during Open House (they are also on the school calendar, but it does not hurt to mention them again! ):

Flynn Trips

Grade K:

11/3/2015  Noon  Caps for Sale

Grade 1: 

3/8/2016  9:30am  Dr. Suess's The Cat in the Hat

Grade 2:

4/15/2016  Noon  Peking Acrobats

Grade 3:

11/2/2015  9:30am  Andes Manta

Grade 4: 

3/9/2016  9:30am  Math Dance

All School Events

Cougar Cub Inventor's Workshop

Working with the Vermont State Science Fair, the Society of Women Engineers and Technology Teachers at the Middles School we will provide an evening of making!  Last year many teachers visited/hosted booths. 

Thursday November 12th, 2015 Evening (Exact Time TBD)

RES Science Fair

Students and families are invited to work together to create projects and share at this family oriented science fair. 

Thursday March 10th. 2016 5:30 - 6:45pm

My goal  for all of these events to provide enriching opportunities for as many of our students as possible.  From guaranteeing that every student in K-4 see a live performance once a year, to evening opportunities to extend learning in science and engineering.  I am always open to add other events....so let me know if you have ideas!