Artist in Residence-Miriam Block

Miriam Block-- Coming to RES  -- March 2019

We are excited to announce that RES students will be working with Miriam Block, a textile artist and designer, during art classes. They will learn about the way textile designers use texture, color, and pattern to plan and create woven fabrics. This three week residency will be an amazing opportunity for students in pre-k - 4 grades to discover the many ways fabric is used in our lives. During this residency, students will have an opportunity to design and weave a fabric for a specific end use.

In order to support this residency we are SEEKING A FEW DONATIONS of supplies.  If you have any of these supplies, or are willing to collect them over the next few weeks, it would be REALLY appreciated!  

1.  Recycled Netted Bags (from Lemons, Limes, Clementines, Potatoes, Oranges)

The best bags will have small even openings on the top (see picture to right).

2.  Yarn, plastic strips, rope, ribbon

3.  Old tablecloths or bed sheets (we will be cutting into strips)

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.