RES Ambassadors of STEM

A few months ago I blogged about an opportunity that Richmond Elementary School was part of through a grant from the Vermont After School Program and Montshire Science Museum. That Tinkering Grant award allowed us to have some awesome materials for engineering exploration both in school and in an after school class that I hosted.  The relationship that RES established with the Vermont After School program has led to excellent learning for students as well as professional development for myself as the RES enrichment teacher. It also led us to an opportunity to visit the Vermont State House in Montpelier last week and talk to state representatives about all of the great engineering activities, and the amazing makers and scientists that we have at RES.

I was proud to bring six students to Montpelier to participate in a day that included engineering design challenges, a visit to floor of the State House (where our Richmond representative called out our students by name!) and time to engage representatives in making through our RES marble maze display (Students designed elements and created on the spot).

It was great to share about the importance of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math)---and to see RES students SHINE!  At RES this year we are on a journey to bring making, creating and engineering to all students through the creation of a Makerspace.  It is a journey as we figure out how this work fits into our curriculum as well as our after school programming.  Connecting to the Vermont After School program has been an excellent way to engage in dialog about how we can provide multiple avenues for all students to access these skills and opportunities.




If you have ideas about this topic--I would love to hear from you. This journey is a collaborative one that invites all of us to think about how to provide awesome opportunities for our kids!

Today in Second Grade Enrichment

We are going to WONDER together!

We are at the beginning of your second grade inquiry projects and we are going to get started using the website tool Wonderopolis.  We are going to learn about how to wonder and then we are going to use words, pictures and videos to answer our question!

Today's Class Question:
Are Sloths Lazy?

Wonderoplis Link:
http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/are-sloths-lazy

Step 1:
Talk to your partner about the question. What do you already know about sloths?  Do you think they are lazy?

Step 2:
Go to the website link:
http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/are-sloths-lazy

Step 3:
 Listen or read the information about sloths.

Step 4:
Look at the pictures of sloths.

Step 5:
Watch the sloth video.

Step 6:
On a sticky note write something you learned from Wonderopolis today and place it in our Wonder Jar!

Step 7:
Explore other wonders OR comment on blog posts!

RES 17th Annual Science Fair Success!

Last Thursday evening over one hundred people gathered at Richmond Elementary School to celebrate science and learning!  The RES Family Science Fair is a tradition at our school that brings family and friends together to share their learning.  There are no awards, or winners......just students learning and sharing and excited about all of the great and amazing concepts that science brings to life.  Each year I am inspired by students--the extra work they do and the depth of their thinking is awesome!  This year we had a large range of projects. The below video is an attempt to capture some of their great work.

My cat Lulu

One summer day August 14th 2016 I got a cat called Lulu from a animal shelter called random rescue🐱. She is a orange tabby cat. She is one year old. She was once stranded in the woods once but safe here and now.

Guest post by Elise

Taylor's animal blog

Tigers have stripes. Tigers have sharp teeth. Tigers are mean. Tigers are my favorite animal.  Do you like tigers or lions better?

Guest post by Taylor L.

Space!!!

Space is huge. Think of stars as grains of sand.  If you put them all on a beach the beach would have a thin amount of sand on 100x50 foot spot.  Scientists have just discovered seven planets that may have water. They are all orbiting the same star forty light years away.  A light year is the distance that light travels in one year

I think Jupiter should not be a planet. Do you know why? Because Jupiter has asteroids that are orbiting with it and my mom told me that in order for a planet to not be a planet it had to have bigger things than the object itself orbiting with it. And then I figured out that the dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt should be a planet.  

Space xDragon was launched in February of 2017 and I hope you like space.

Guest post by Elliott

Back to class blast for girls!

If it is the end of summer and you are about to start school.you should read my blog it is about dream lockers and pencil blocks and more.so let's get started.Well I love❤️😍 pretty and cute things.and I am going to show you a picture of my blog.

And these are pictures of my friends.

Bye.

Guest blog by Maddie C.

Zacs fire cry game blog

Weapons

in this game there is a rifle.

Vehicles 

There is a vehicle called a jeep.

Have any of you played this game?

Guest post by Zachary

JRs Awesome Minecraft

I play Minecraft most all the time.I made so many things.  I made a safe house that I am still working on. I like to watch videos of Minecraft.  I would like to learn how to get mods on my computer...do you know how? Do you think we can get 100 comments on our blog? If you think we can..thank you!

Guest post by JR