To Ice or Sand??? That is the question....

Kids did an interesting investigation today in our classroom! They explored the way in which road crews clear roads in the winter to keep us all safe - does sand, salt, or just plain time accelerate the melting process when the roads are super icy???  Which is the best?  Students decided how they would investigate this question, and performed their experiment with the cooperation and help of a peer science buddy!  Be sure to ask us about our results and what we've concluded about using salt and sand on our wintery roads.....lots of science going on here.....and more to consider than we ever realized before!  

Mission Accomplished!

Thanks, Mr. Berliner, for delivering the BRAND NEW BOOKS to the Children's Hospital at the University of Vermont today!  Mission accomplished!

Inside each book was written:

This book has been donated to

The University of Vermont Children’s Hospital

With love and warm wishes

from the Students at Richmond Elementary School

Richmond, Vermont

December 2016

Our Book Sale was a SUCCESS!

On Friday, December 9th, students at RES were invited to the Annual RES Used Book Sale!  Thank you to all of the families who donated books to the sale this year - there were so many beautiful books for the children to select!  Our class worked hard to set up the sale, labeling the types of books available and displaying them carefully for friends to see.  Thank you to all of our adult helpers as well, who helped to work at the sale and keep things running so smoothly throughout the day.  We are so happy to see these books loved by their new owners.  The day was filled with amazing thoughtfulness by the students, too. Many comments were heard from students about how they were buying gifts for friends, siblings, neighbors, and even their parents!  It was beautiful and definitely filled our hearts.

Thank you to the community for making this such a fun tradition at our school.  Money raised from the sale will help 4th graders fund Vermont Studies field trips in the spring. Some of the money raised will also be used to buy new books to donate to the Pediatric Unit at the University of Vermont Medical Center - a gift from the Students of Richmond Elementary School.

Math Celebration Today!

Today we finished another math unit and after our assessment we each chose a special math activity to do during math menu time.  Here are some pics from our celebration!  Great work, kids!  Thoughtful choices, too!  Tomorrow we begin our Data Unit!

Tangram Puzzles by Zander....

Great work, Maggie!

Zander goes for it!

his bird....

...another bird....

Lila, Sarah, and Malia doing Prodigy...

Hannah, Jordan, Haley and  Aurora....time out for a smiling pic..haha! :)

Way to go, Malachai!

Nice work Ben, Miles, and Ethan!

Maggie working hard! Nice job!

Zander...proud of his puzzles today.... :)

Carter and Eben psyched with their Prodigy progress!

Today's "State" Debate!

So, if we're pretty sure about the states of matter...the properties of matter....can we always classify things as a solid, liquid, or gas?  Does everything fit neatly into one of these categories?  Today we investigated.....SHAVING CREAM....to try to determine what it was!  It was quite a stumper for us!

Some observations and questions from the student scientists:

"It melts over time and disappears into your skin!"
"How does it grow when it comes out of the container?"
"My penny sinks into it over time!"
"It's a liquid because it makes my hand wet when I touch it...."
"I think it's a solid because it keeps its shape"
"The penny sinks into it when it's placed on its side, but when it's placed level it stays on top"
"I don't think it can be a gas because I can hold onto it"
"Since the hole is moving that was made by the penny, it has to be a liquid"
"It can't be a gas because you can see it"
"I think it's a little of everything!"
"It has to be a liquid because liquids change their shape to be the same as the container and it does that"
"It's does not have a certain shape and it just disappears so it's more like a gas!"
"It's a solid because you have to physically move it, a liquid because it soaks into the paper, and NOT a gas because it doesn't rise and it's not invisible"