Terracycle Reminders

Mrs. LeFrancois' 4th graders reminded us this week that RES is a Terracyle'ing school!  Here's a quick video reminder of which things can be terracyled instead of trashed or recycled.  Feel free to bring in items from home to help our school save the environment!!

#Makerspace Expectations

Our RES Maskerspace is open and ready for creative business!  Students in Miss Darby's 3rd grade class helped Mrs. Rankin develop and share the expectations of the space with other students at RES.  Check out all of their hard work!

 

For a visual tour of the Makerspace, you can check out Mrs. Rankin's Enrichment at RES blog.

Mrs. Rankin will continue accepting donations of consumables for the makerspace, too.  Please collect items (egg cartons, toilet paper/paper towel tubes, etc.) and send them in to the Makerspace.

Library Independence in Third Grade!

This is a guest post from our library media specialist, Beth Redford.

Third graders are learning skills to help them find books independently in the library. First they learned how to use the library's online catalog, OPALS, to find the call numbers for books.

Great teamwork searching for call numbers!

Then they practiced putting things in alphabetical order, including letters, words, and finally call numbers on students posing as books.

Are these "books" in alphabetical order yet?

After the alphabetical order practice, the scholars were able to find fiction books on the library shelves, because those books are in alphabetical order by the authors' last names. The third graders are so proud of their skills in searching and finding books independently!

Huntington River in Review #ngss #fieldtrip

Last week, we visited the Huntington River at the Audubon Nature Center as part of our science unit about Interdependence and Organisms.  While at the river, groups of students completed three different activities.

At one station, students were working with Mrs. Ankerson to conduct a "BMI" (benthic macroinvertebrate) count of the Huntington River.  This required us to use our identification skills to determine which organisms we found in the river.  Photos of some of these organisms are in the slideshow.

At another station, students played a game with Mrs. Ayer to learn about the food chain within the Lake Champlain Basin.  Students were either algae, macroinvertebrates, or yellow perch.  During the game, students also learned about ways that the watershed can get polluted.  Some examples of pollution include dog poop, cow manure, road runoff, oil, etc.  We'll revisit this topic again later.

Finally, with Miss Darby, students spent time observing the environment in two ways.  First, they used their senses (sight, sound, touch, smell) and took notes of their observations.  Then, they drew a scientific drawing (accurately detailed with labels) of their surroundings.

A huge thanks to the Audubon for allowing us the opportunity to use their land for our field experience!  (Donations to the Audubon would be greatly appreciated!)

Open House Week

     Today students come home with our weekly newsletter on yellow paper.  Our newsletter lets you know what we will be focusing on this week in school and some highlights from last week's field trip.  Check out the back for a few photos from our science trip to Huntington River.  More photos coming soon!
      Also, we look forward to meeting you all this Wednesday from 6:00-7:00pm for our Open House!  Your children are so excited to show you their classroom and what they are learning!

Click on this link to access our weekly newsletter!

Coming Soon: Tie-Dye Celebration ~ Help Needed!

Students are working hard at RES to follow expectations!  They are doing such a great job that we anticipate they will light the second set of lights soon!  This time our celebration is giving scholars a chance to tie dye their white shirts they brought in at the start of the year in RES colors!

Kim Aucter has graciously agreed to lead this activity during our art classes, but she still needs help.  We need extra hands to help with the tie dying of the shirts with students, rinsing out shirts, and also laundering all the new shirts.  Please look through this Sign-Up Genius and sign up for as many slots as you think you can help with. 

Thanks for all you do to help support your children and us!

Welcome UVM Interns!

This fall, third graders at RES have a very important responsibility.  We are helping six Elementary Education undergraduate students from the University of Vermont learn all about teaching and learning in our classrooms.  We have opened our classrooms for their "Lab Experience in Inquiry" class this fall.  The focus of their lab experience will be mathematics and social studies, but they'll experience all the great learning that happens throughout our days!

We're happy to welcome these future educators to RES Third Grade on Tuesday mornings and all day Thursday!

In Mrs. Ankerson's Class: Sarah Long and Caroline Gribble

In Mrs. Ayer's Class: Hannah Tobey and Caroline Connolly

Miss Darby's Class: Brenna Nolan and Kate Ahearn

If you happen to come by and see them, please help them to feel welcome!

Classroom Schedules 2016-2017

As we start our year, we are establishing routines and building our classroom communities.  In just a few short weeks, however, we'll be digging into our studies for the year and it will be important for students to be present during each of those academic blocks as much as possible!  Please refer to this schedule to help in planning for appointments, etc.  Thank you!

3rd Grade Team Schedule 2016-2017