The Chicks are Hatching!

<a href="https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/chick-hatching-egg_27547184.htm">Image by brgfx</a> on Freepik

 

For the last three weeks, we've been incubating chicken eggs from the UVM Extension Embryology program and this is the THE WEEK that they'll be hatching!  It's always an exciting time in school, so we've set up some LIVE cameras (via YouTube) to keep an eye on things, even when we aren't in the classroom!

Mrs. Ayer's Chick Cam

Mrs. Girouard's Chick Cam

When the chicks hatch and are moved into their brooders for the remainder of the week, we'll be sure to move our Live cameras too!

Looking forward to 4th Grade!

Clipart Courtesy: http://clipart-library.com/clipart/1121245.htm

It's that time of year again when we start looking toward the 2023-2024 school year! As our school teams look to make placement decisions for 4th grade, the following factors are considered when placing students in classes:

• Balanced Academic Ability:  An equal distribution of academic abilities in various areas.

• Student Learning Styles: Matching teaching styles with individual student personalities.

• Established-Friendships and Opportunities for Relationship Building: Attempt to pair at least one or two friends from the current year to carry over into next year, while also considering opportunities to build new, positive friendships. 

• Family Input:  Although your child's current teacher has had the opportunity to get to know the strengths and needs of your child throughout the year, your family input is also an important part of this process as well. Please consider completing [THIS] optional My Child As A Learner form to share additional thoughts and information helpful for determining future classroom placement (Please complete one form for each student). If you do choose to complete an input form, it must be completed by Tuesday, April 18th, 2023.             

 

Your child’s class placement will be sent home on the last day of school. Please feel free to reach out to Jeremy Rector if you have any unanswered questions about this process or if you need assistance in completing the My Child As A Learner family form. 

Coming Soon: Parents Night Out

 

Upcoming Author Visit!

 Hello RES Community!

I’m excited to announce that we will be hosting Christina Soontornvat for a virtual author visit on December 8!  Students will meet in grade clusters to hear from Christina on what it is like to be a real author and learn about her very amazing books.  I have read almost all of her books and have loved every single one of them!  She is an amazing storyteller.  

Christina Soontornvat is the award-winning author of over a dozen books for children of all ages. Her picture books include The Ramble Shamble Children, illustrated by Caldecott Honoree Lauren Castillo, and To Change a Planet, illustrated by Rahele Jomepour Bell. She is the author of the beloved Diary of an Ice Princess chapter book series. Her recent works include the middle grade fantasy, A Wish in the Dark, which was named a 2021 Newbery Honor Book, All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer Team, which was also named a 2021 Newbery Honor Book. Her latest novel, The Last Mapmaker, published April 2022 from Candlewick Press.

Christina Soontornvat grew up behind the counter of her parents’ Thai restaurant in a small Texas town with her nose stuck in a book. She is very proud of both her Thai and her Texan roots, and makes regular trips to both Weatherford and Bangkok to see her beloved family members (and eat lots and lots of Thai food!). In addition to being an author, Christina holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a master’s degree in Science Education. She spent a decade working in the science museum field, where she designed programs and exhibits to get kids excited about science. She is passionate about STEM (science, technology engineering, and math), and loves learning new things. She lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, two young children, and one old cat.

Christina’s books will be for sale from November 28- Dec 16th at RES.  Please use the order form that will be sent home with kids to pick out your next great read with your kiddos! This is a fundraiser, so money raised goes to help the school provide amazing opportunities such as this author visit. We THANK YOU for your support!

Sincerely,

Emily Wood

RES School Librarian

Options for Reading at Home

 

There are a couple of resources available for students to read and/or listen to e-books at home -- a great option for students to continue to build their reading lives to make reading a habit, not a chore!  Our goal is for students to be reading 20+ minutes a night, this means reading their own books, listening to an adult read, reading to a sibling, or listening to audiobooks.

1. RAZ Kids -- All third graders have been given an account (connected to their teacher) to read via RAZ Kids.  Students could read online at the website by logging on (www.kidsa-z.com) OR via apps on a phone or tablet.  Students have had practice doing this from school and will have login cards in their Book Bags to help with the login process.  As teachers, we work to make sure students are reading books at their "just right" level.  The books can be read to them, they can read them independently, and there is also an option for a quiz at the end.

2.  SORA -- (https://soraapp.com/welcome/login/202587) A virtual library of books (audio and ebooks) available for students to "check out."  Also available as an app for tablets & phones making it even easier!  Select "Mount Mansfield Unified Union School District" and sign in using Google login & password. 

3. Learning Ally -- An audiobook resource that uses real human voices to read current books.  Browse the collection and use an app to listen!!  Students use their Google email and passwords from school to login to the app.

 One of the best ways to see what's happening in our classrooms in real time is through our team Twitter account.  While we understand that not everyone wants to join this microblogging site, for our team it is a great way to share our learning AND stay connected with other students, schools, authors, etc. around the globe!

So...how can you follow us without your own Twitter account?  There are three pretty easy ways:

1)  Simply go to our Twitter page:  https://twitter.com/resgrade3

2) Use SMS Follow to receive Tweets via text message.  Visit Twitter Help to learn how!

3) Our Tweet Stream is always on our blog page, too!

We hope you'll follow us soon!

Bus Routes: 2022-2023

 

School Bus Routes 2022-2023

We are soooo excited to meet our new students in just a few days!  As a reminder, it is helpful for ALL of us to know your student's dismissal plans in advance to avoid miscommunication or confusion at the end of the school day.

Here is a letter from our MMUUSD Transportation director and the bus routes (& times) for both arrival & dismissal buses.

A couple of reminders:

• Provide your student's teacher a regular dismissal plan for each day of the week.  IF this plan is different for the first few days or school, please indicate that and provide the changes.  (It gets really confusing the 2nd week of school for students!)
• Please send in an to email resoffice@mmuusd.org AND your student's teacher with any changes from this routine plan.  If your student is riding a different bus home, please include the student they are riding home with the home address where they will be getting off of the bus.
• Please update this plan as necessary throughout the year.

Welcome to the 2022-2023 School Year!

Courtesy: <a href='https://pngtree.com/so/Back'>Back png from pngtree.com/</a>

August 2022

Dear Students and Families,

We hope you have been having a great summer and spending lots of quality time with each other!  We are excited to meet everyone as we begin our year together.  In the meantime, soak up these last days of summer vacation -- we are!

With our new school year just a few weeks away, we have been planning and getting really excited about this year! We’re really looking forward to getting to know each of you and working as partners in education with our students and  families. 

We will spend the first few weeks of school getting to know one another and building our classroom communities before we dig into our third grade curriculum.  Below is a brief outline of what we will study in 3rd grade this year. 

Science & Social Studies

Organisms (Plants & Animals), Independence,  Weather, and Force & Motion

World Geography & Cultures

Reading & Writing

We will read a variety of fiction and nonfiction texts, often using what we read to help us become stronger writers.   We’ll read a variety of genres including fairy tales, mysteries, historical fiction, realistic fiction, and many types of nonfiction.  We’ll write personal narratives (stories),  nonfiction books, opinion pieces, research articles, and fairy tales.

Math

We will continue working with computation and number sense, getting into larger addition and subtraction problems (3- and 4-digit numbers), multiplication, and division. We will also continue and expand work on money, time, fractions, and geometry. 

Technology

Technology is embedded throughout our third-grade curriculum, and we use it in many ways both to learn new things and to showcase and communicate what we’ve learned to others.  Each third grader will be assigned a Google Chromebook to use in school.

Supply List:

• 1  composition notebook with lined paper inside (hardcover, sewn-in pages, 100 sheets) -- We’ll be decorating the cover, so a plain & simple notebook is best.

• 1 two-pocket folder, preferably heavier quality for durability (for Home-School Communication)

• 1 box of #2 pencils for the classroom (we’ll collect & share throughout the year!)

• Headphones to keep at school for use with Chromebooks (earbuds tend to break and/or bother students)

Please do not send in any “special” pens or pencils.    Keep these at home to use for schoolwork!  

 

Classroom Wish List Items (optional—only if families would like to donate)

• soft Kleenex/tissues for classroom use

• Funky sticky notes (hearts, stars, animals, etc.)

• Skinny dry erase markers

• Black & Colored Sharpies  (various sizes)

• Large Expo Dry Erase markers

• Eraser Caps

First Day Of School

• For the first day of school, please bring in a healthy snack, a lunch (or you can order one from the cafeteria), and a note saying how you will get home after school for the first week.***

• Sunscreen, bug spray and clothing layers to be outside for longer periods of time

We are very excited about starting our year together! If you have any questions before school starts you can reach us by email, and once school starts you can also reach us by phone at 434-2461.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Marie Ayer               Mr. Carl Ellerkamp Mrs. Tonya Girouard

marie.ayer@mmuusd.org                 carl.ellerkamp@mmuusd.org               tonya.girouard@mmuusd.org 

Landform Dictionaries

 As an introduction to our World Cultures unit of study, scholars researched a variety of landforms using online sources (World Book Online, among others) to write a brief definition and to describe its importance to our world.  

Scholars in each class contributed pages to their class dictionary.

Reading at Home Digital Options

There are a couple of resources available for students to read and/or listen to e-books at home -- a great option for students to continue to build their reading lives to make reading a habit, not a chore!

1. RAZ Kids -- All third graders have been given an account (connected to their teacher) to read via RAZ Kids.  Students could read online at the website by logging on (www.kidsa-z.com) OR via apps on a phone or tablet.  Students have had practice doing this from school and will have login cards in their Book Bags to help with the login process.  As teachers, we work to make sure students are reading books at their "just right" level.  The books can be read to them, they can read them independently, and there is also an option for a quiz at the end.

2.  SORA -- (https://soraapp.com/welcome/login/202587) A virtual library of books (audio and ebooks) available for students to "check out."  Also available as an app for tablets & phones making it even easier!  Select "Mount Mansfield Unified Union School District" and sign in using Google login & password. 

Lost & Found -- Recognize anything?

 The following items are currently in the RES Lost & Found.  If you recognize them, either remind your student to pick it up before next Friday, September 30th OR email your student's teacher and we'll remind them.  All items will be donated at the end of next week.

Learning Outdoors -- Be Prepared!

We are excited to take our learning outdoors again this year and take advantage of the beautiful outdoor classrooms created with help from our incredible community.  Please be sure to send your learner prepared to learn outdoors -- see the attached letter with recommendations for outdoor clothing.  

Outdoor Classroom Clothing Recommendations

Welcome to Third Grade (2021-2022)

We are excited to welcome all of you to 3rd grade very soon!  By now you should have received a welcome letter from us in the mail sharing a bit of what to expect in 3rd grade AND a list of supplies to help with you back to school shopping.  Of course, health and safety guidance is constantly changing, so be sure to check your email for updated information from the district and from our school as we get closer to the start of the school year.

We look forward to meeting you in just a few short weeks. In the meantime, feel free to reach out to any of us with any questions.  We (teachers) will return to RES on August 20 for a few days of preparation before school starts on August 25th.

See you soon!

Our Celebrated Authors Share Their Fairy Tales

 Third-grade students have worked hard to not only write their fairy tales and publish them, but they just worked to create a video read-aloud for you to enjoy!  Please feel free to leave comments to let each author know what you enjoyed most about their stories.

Note: Not all students are finished with this ambitious project.  Keep checking back as they are added as they finish.

 

PTO Pizza Fundraiser!!

 

Hello and Happy New Year!

 

The RES PTO has an exciting and delicious new fundraiser to share with you: The Little Caesars Pizza Kit! 

 

Here's how it works:

 

Go to PizzaKit.com
Click on Products, then Shop
Select Ship My Order to the Group
Enter the Fundraiser ID#, set up your account, and place your order!

Your Organization Name: Richmond Elementary School

Fundraiser ID #: 388634

$6 of every item sold goes directly to RES PTO.

This fundraiser is open January 4th through January 15th, 2021 at 11am. **Your pizzas will be delivered to RES where you will pick them up to take home** (The specific date will be confirmed after our final order is placed, but it will be the week of February 1st).

 

Thank you again for your continued support!

  

Dear RES Families, You’re invited to shop our Scholastic Book Fair online from 10/12-10/25! All purchases benefit our school and connect kids with new books, favorite characters, complete series, and more. You’ll love the NEW option to shop for Book Fair exclusives directly from the interactive booklist and enjoy these special online shopping features: Over 6,000 items, including new releases, best sellers, and value packs All orders ship direct to home FREE shipping on book-only orders over $25* All purchases support our school and earn 25% in rewards Visit our Book Fair Homepage and click “Shop Now” to get started: tinyurl.com/RESbookfair20 Happy reading,   Emily Wood School Librarian *Free standard shipping is available on book-only orders of $25 or more, after all discounts are applied. Free standard shipping (books) must be selected during checkout. Orders containing products other than books are not eligible for this shipping promotion.

Happy Summer, RES!

Third Graders...er...um, Fourth Graders!  From all of us at RES, we wish you the best summer ever!

Fairy Tale Anthology

During this time of distance learning, third graders spent many weeks watching videos of lessons, workshopping their stories at home, and creating amazing fairy tales!  Students were given many choices throughout this unit: to write adaptations of fairy tales, to write in notebooks, to write and publish as a document, or even to publish in a story book creator application!  The result: MAGIC that truly captures the unique qualities of each writer!  Enjoy!

Third Grade Fairy Tale Anthology

End of the Year Celebration!

While we can't gather together and celebrate the end of our year as we would like to, we still wanted to take just a few minutes to reflect on ALL that we have learned and experienced together in this crazy year!   We will miss you!!!

Advice to Next Year's Third Grade Class

Virtual Field Trip: Lake Champlain Maritime Museum

 

Lake Champlain is a treasure trove of history and most of us would never even know!  The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum (at Basin Harbor in Vergennes) is a wonderful place to discover the history of our lake and all of the mysteries hidden beneath the surface!

While you're staying socially distant this summer, try exploring underwater shipwrecks and learning even more about the history of our lake.  

Check out the website here: https://www.lcmm.org/

Friday's Celebration....Build a Fort Day

Students can build a fort either outside or inside for Friday!  It would be super cool to see them all in their forts for our Friday meeting! 
:)

RES School Parade Video

THANK YOU all for coming out to see us last week.  Your smiles, waves & signs were definitely the highlight for each of us!  We miss you terribly!

RES Teacher Parade

RES Teacher Car Parade!

WHEN: Thursday, May 21st-starting at R.E.S. at 1:00

WHERE: Main roads throughout Richmond.
If you live on a side road you will want to come to the main road so we don’t miss you! 

WHAT: RES teachers will be chanting, cheering, and honking from our cars. 

We would love to see your waves, signs, posters, and hear you make some noise!
You can wear your R.E.S. gear or purple and yellow!

PLEASE NOTE: It is important for us to be mindful of social distancing and safety during this time.
Please do not approach the cars as they drive past.
Please follow all social distancing and safety guidelines provided by the state of Vermont.