Fort Day

Last week students earned Fort Day!  It was a great opportunity for teamwork, planning, and flexible thinking.  It was a blast! 

Thank you Rick Ross!!!

Rick Ross came on Friday and shared with students about his real life coding job!!  A lot kids left saying "I want to be a coder when I grow up!!"  Thanks Rick for inspiring and teaching us.

New Science Unit

2nd graders have been learning about Matter (solids, liquids, and gases) and that materials have properties and purposes.  For example a wool sweater has the property of being thick because the purpose is to keep you warm. Or a raincoat has the property of repelling water because its purpose is to keep you dry.  Last week students engineered hats to wear to protect our heads and necks from the hot sun out of various materials (paper bags, paper plate, tin foil, paper towels, string).

Students thought about the material and its purpose- foil is reflective, paper towel is absorbent, paper bag is opaque, paper plate is stiff

 

New Area Rug!!

Thank you Brian Cherry and New England Flooring for donating carpet tiles to our classroom!  Students created a new area rug for our classroom on Wednesday!  This was a great connection to our math unit about making arrays with rows and columns.  Students were instructed to make a checkerboard area rug with 5 columns and 7 rows.  It was a great lesson in teamwork as well!  Thanks again Brian, we love it!

Cougar Cub Inventors Workshop

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 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!

Pilgrim Day Tomorrow (11/7)

Good Day Families!

On Wednesday, November 7th second graders will be celebrating all of their learning about Colonial Life and the Pilgrims!  We will do some cooking in the classroom, rotate through fun Pilgrim centers, and pretend we are in a one room schoolhouse! Students are encouraged to dress like a Pilgrim.  No need to buy anything. Girls can wear dresses with an apron and boys can roll up their pants and wear a button down shirt! Students will be making hats and bonnets in school as well.  

Electronic Day

2nd graders have been working very hard to earn a special class celebration, Electronic Day!! Students have showed respect to others, themselves, and their environment. Today we got to read on computers, play math games with friends using technology, and then we ended the day with free explore time. 

News and Announcements!

Announcements week of 10/8:

• Wednesday-delayed start-Classrooms will open at 9:30
• Thursday-Library Books due
• Friday-Reading Logs due
• Parent Teacher conferences start this week!  I am looking forward to meeting you and sharing your child's progress!

Last week, students learned a new money game to help us learn the coin names, values, and equivalences!

In writer's workshop, students have begun writing true stories based on their memories and experiences.  We have been working on starting our stories with an interesting beginnings so the reader wants to read more! 2nd graders are using dialog, sound words, and LOTS of descriptions to "hook" their readers!

Looking for Volunteers!

We are looking for volunteers who are willing to wash our tie-dye t-shirts.  If you are willing or interested you can contact Mrs. Robinson or the art teacher Ms. Morrison.  Thanks!
jacqueline.robinson@cesuvt.org
julia.morrison@cesuvt.org

October Parent Teacher Conferences

Dear Families,

Parent Teacher Sign Up forms went home today (9/27) in your child's home school folder.  Please fill it out ASAP and return it to school.  I will try to be as accommodating as possible. Please email me with any questions.  

jacqueline.robinson@cesuvt.org

Story ideas in second grade

2nd grade writers have begun to think about their ideas for writing a true story.  We brainstormed what we love and who we love.  Students then recorded their ideas in their Tiny Topic Notebook!  We're so excited to being writing!

Classroom News and Announcements!

Upcoming Dates:

• Open House: Wednesday, September 26th
• Scholastic Book Fair (information went home today in folders): September 26th and 27th
• Friendly Reminder: our classroom and school has a No Toy Policy.  If toys do come in for after school plans they must remain in backpacks.  Thanks for your understanding.

What's Happening in the classroom?

• Students having been working on their reading stamina and are currently reading for 18 minutes with no interruptions.  We are also focusing on reading Just Right Books-not too hard, not too easy, but just right!

• In math we have been reviewing combinations of 10.  Students are expected to just know these with no think time.  

• Last week we began our first social studies unit on the Founding Families-Pilgrims.
• Homework starts this week!  Students are expected to read nightly, Monday-Thursday for 15 minutes.  Please see your child's home school folder for more information.

Reading Stamina!

This week second graders have been working on their reading stamina as part of our Reader's Workshop.  The expectation is that students should be able to read without stopping for 20 minutes!  We are working towards that goal.  Today we read for 14 minutes!! Keep up the great work!

Book Fair!!!

We are having a school wide Scholastic Book Fair on          

Wednesday, September 26 and Thursday, September 27 in the library.                                    

The RES Scholastic Book Fair will be open:

Wednesday, 9/26  -7:15-8:10 am, 2:45-3:30 pm & 5:00-6;30 pm.

Thursday 9/27  -7:15-8:10 am, 2:45-3:30 pm & 5:00-6:30 pm.

We will have a raffle for a basket of books during the fair.   1 ticket for .25 or 5 for $1.00.

First Week of Second Grade

We had an amazing first week together playing, sharing summer memories, seeing old friends and meeting new friends!

2nd and 3rd grade have recess together this year! 
It was a fun game of basketball!

We even got to explore the new gazebo!


In the classroom students began exploring math materials and showed some great teamwork!

We even learned a new math game that helped us review our combinations of 10

RES Spring Fling

Annual RES Spring Fling-Click on the link below for more information!

RES March 23rd Spring Fling Sign Ups