Enrichment at RES
Monday, November 30, 2015
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 ?
Friday, November 20, 2015
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.
Monday, November 16, 2015
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?
Friday, November 13, 2015
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
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?
My little pony
This is a blog about mlp⚡️q🐾. I love cats 🐯
I
I like ponys because well I donte know why i just do.this is fluttershy.i bilt her out of legos.
IWednesday, November 11, 2015
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? 🐴🐵🐹🐘🐷🐱🐍🐯🐺🐬🐼🐙🐧🐺
🐦
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Inventor's Workshop this Thursday!
COUGAR CUB INVENTOR’S WORKSHOP
DON'T MISS THIS AWESOME EVENT!
Thursday November 12th, 2015
Thursday November 12th, 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!
Thursday, November 5, 2015
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
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!
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?
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!
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!
Monday, November 2, 2015
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.
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!
 |
| 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!
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