Grade 4 Makerspace Advertisements - Mrs. LeFrancois' Class

Students in fourth grade enrichment had an opportunity to work in small groups to create video advertisements for the RES makerspace and makerspace activities.  Students self selected topics and groups and then designed an advertisement using paper storyboarding.  Once groups had a plan in place they used iPads to record videos (and some included green screen and stop motion applications to add another layer of technology).  Next students imported their videos onto their Chromebooks and used WeVideo to edit and create their final videos (including voice overs, music, text additions, video splicing and more!) It was impressive to watch student creativity shine as they walked through this movie making process.

Here are the finished products from Mrs. LeFrancois' Class!

RES Cougar Cub Inventor's Workshop Success

The Thursday before November break RES families came together for the fourth year in a row to celebrate creativity and engineering at the RES Cougar Cub Inventor's Workshop.
What is an Inventor’s Workshop? The workshop was 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 worked with their families to create. Activities were facilitated by engineers and teachers. Families had an opportunity to learn together as they experienced the fun of making / building / constructing / designing and more.

I am so thankful for all of the school and community volunteers that made this evening possible. Volunteers from the Society of Women Engineers ran stations to build jitterbots, create rockets and lead our youngest makers in building marble mazes and floating objects for the wind tunnel. ECHO brought an amazing 34 foot Lego car racing tack and a 10 foot high wind wall that had students laughing and cheering all evening. Radiate Art Space brought a variety of spin art machines and created amazing art with students. CHMS educator, Quinn Keating brought a 3D printer and taught families how to use software that drives this tool. RES educators were on hand to support learning and challenge students as they learned to code in Scratch and build with various materials. Cardboard Tek donated some PinBox 3000s for the evening so students could get excited by the design possibilities they will get to have later in the school year.

Here is a video that captures some of the fun of the evening:

Grade 4 Makerspace Advertisements - Mrs. Berliner's Class

Students in fourth grade enrichment had an opportunity to work in small groups to create video advertisements for the RES makerspace and makerspace activities.  Students self selected topics and groups and then designed an advertisement using paper storyboarding.  Once groups had a plan in place they used iPads to record videos (and some included green screen and stop motion applications to add another layer of technology).  Next students imported their videos onto their Chromebooks and used WeVideo to edit and create their final videos (including voice overs, music, text additions, video splicing and more!) It was impressive to watch student creativity shine as they walked through this movie making process.

Here are the finished products from Mrs. Berliner's Class!

Grade 4 Makerspace Advertisements--Ms. Poncelet's Class

Students in fourth grade enrichment had an opportunity to work in small groups to create video advertisements for the RES makerspace and makerspace activities.  Students self selected topics and groups and then designed an advertisement using paper storyboarding.  Once groups had a plan in place they used iPads to record videos (and some included green screen and stop motion applications to add another layer of technology).  Next students imported their videos onto their Chromebooks and used WeVideo to edit and create their final videos (including voice overs, music, text additions, video splicing and more!) It was impressive to watch student creativity shine as they walked through this movie making process. 

Here are the finished products from Ms. Poncelet's Class!

Welcome to the Enrichment Classroom! Open House 2018

I am excited to meet with families at the RES Open House.  If you cannot be here or did not have a chance to visit the enrichment classroom....here is a peak into our room!

All students in fourth grade will be designing PinBox3000s this year during enrichment

We played with an 3D Augmented Reality iPad application called Quivervision

The puppet theater 

The kitchen area

A take a break spot

Kindergarten interests showcased

The classroom library is always open!

Save the date for the Flynn trips and plan to chaperone!

 And here are the videos which were playing while students and families explored the space:

If you ever have questions or ideas about enrichment, please do not hesitate to contact me throughout the year at darcie.rankin@cesuvt.org.

Celebrating Light in Grade 2 Enrichment

How does light travel?

How does light interact with other objects?

These are the questions that we investigated in our science study into light in second grade enrichment.  In our first meeting, students came into a dark enrichment space, and were challenged to think about light.  It is all around us, yet we found that we had not spent much time thinking about its properties.  If students closed their eyes, could they feel when a flashlight was shone on them?  What are some sources of light? What questions do we have about light?  We had a great discussion and then spent the rest of class using flashlights to develop observations and questions.  

Next we used our great science thinking to consider sources of light.  Students created tables to compare objects that produced light, and ones that did not.  I observed many great discussions as students considered what light really is.  

Next we investigated how light travels.  We used questions, observations, and careful note taking to share our results. 

Lastly, we studied various materials and how light interacts with them.  We tested many materials and discovered through investigation that  depending on the type of material light will interact differently. This realization led us to an engineering problem in which students had to select the best material to design a bike helmet.  Students used experiments to test out their hypothesis and did a great job showing and sharing their thinking.

Last week we wrapped our unit with a 'celebration of light'.  We made our own flashlights with LEDs and batteries and we built light mazes and forts.  Second graders learned a lot about light and did a great job connecting real life ideas and problems to their discoveries.

Kindergarten Enrichment Students Drive Their Learning

The Kindergarten enrichment programming is a play based exploratory environment that supports social and academic learning driven by student choice.  A key component of the program is that each kindergarten student gets an opportunity to create a station which other students in their class will visit during exploratory play. Each student conferences with Mrs. Rankin to discuss their interests, passions and ideas.  During that conference we develop a plan for their student driven center.  We develop a list of materials that will be needed and what students will 'do' when they visit.  Over the course of the rest of the year each student will have an opportunity to share their center with their class. 

It is truly amazing to see all of the topics that students come up with and how they want to learn with their classmates!  During their share week students have a chance to answer questions from the whole class about why they chose their topic and what we will be doing.  They really step up to present and classmates are respectful and excited to learn from their peers.  Student driven centers began two weeks ago, and we have already learned about horses, how to make snowflakes, art, stars, space, gymnastics and fairies!  It promises to be another amazing year in enrichment exploring and learning from and with each other.