Friday, April 21, 2017

Some GREAT Eco-Friendly Ideas for Earth Day 2017

Our class did some pretty fancy and thoughtful homework this week!  They came up with some great ideas for our school and local community to help protect the Earth and keep our environment healthy!  Everyone chose a way to share and it was pretty exciting to see and hear about things that matter to them....
Here are pictures from our presentations!


Lila shared the power and benefits of buying in BULK!

Carter talked to us about the benefits of putting solar panels on RES!

Great idea from Hannah --- recycle crayons and make them new again!

Finn told us some excellent ideas about how to reduce our use of paper!

Eben shared ideas about light sensors and saving energy! 

Ben reminded us to not litter and showed us pictures of his OWN Green Up efforts in town!

Malia created a flow chart explaining how we can plant trees after having a bottle drive to raise money!

Solar Panels are on Miles' mind and he thinks they would be a great addition to RES!

Zander explained how kindness can lead to positive behaviors.

Aurora shared her thoughts about how important it is to reuse plastic bags.

Sarah had some great ideas about how to reuse paper and use it with care at RES!

Jordan believes that hydropower should be used more in Richmond and built a model to help talk about it!


Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Here's Our School Song!

Fourth graders had the honor of working with Jon Gailmor.  Jon Gailmor is a talented songwriter, singer and educator.  We invited Jon Gailmor to RES to help us write a new school song!  Fourth graders focused on our core beliefs: Respect Yourself, Respect Others and Respect Your Environment. They thought about how these words that we live by make Richmond Elementary School such an incredible community and place.


Monday, April 17, 2017

Jon Gailmor Day at RES

Thank you to Jon Gailmor for a very fun day at RES!  The 4th graders worked all day on a new school song!  It's called "The RES Quest"  Have your student sing it to you!
Here's some student feedback about the day:

  • "It was fun to meet Jon Gailmor and write a song with him! I feel special." - Aurora
  • "It was exciting to be writing, learning, and performing a song for the whole school!" - Ben
  • "It was cool to learn about songwriting!" -Lila
  • "I liked performing, it was just fun! It felt good!" -Sarah
  • "Thank you, Jon Gailmor!  I liked the songs you sang!  It was really fun to write and sing the new school song!" - Jordan
  • "Learning how to write songs was fun!" - Malia
  • "(Jon Gailmor) You're the best!" - Eben
  • "Writing lyrics was my favorite part!" - Zander
  • "It was amazing and exciting!" - Carter
  • "I'm proud that we made the song because it's a good one!" - Miles
  • "I didn't know we were actually going to make a song!" - Ethan
  • "It was incredible that I got to meet Jon Gailmor!" - Finn
  • "The day was awesome!" - Malachai
  • "When we say the lunches are legit, we mean it! Thanks Jon Gailmor for coming to help us write a new school song!" - Haley
  • "I'm excited that we all got to see Jon Gailmor! It was cool to see him!" - Hannah
Good Morning, Jon!

Writing our verses......and chorus....

Rehearsal.....

Sharing with the whole school!

Enjoying an afternoon concert!!!


Thursday, April 13, 2017

Audubon "Untapped"

So, what happens when your Audubon Sugaring Trip gets postponed and happens a full month after it was originally scheduled? Well, of course you learn an awful lot, as we always to at the Audubon (thanks, instructors!) but you ALSO get to take the taps and buckets OFF of the trees! haha!  The kids had a wonderful time yesterday, learning about lots of things....the bird friendly environment at the Audubon, climate change, tapping trees, forest & sugarbush diversity, and how syrup is made.  Of course, we also did some taste testing.....yummy!

All in a full day's work!  Nice job, 4th graders!

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Busy Day Traveling Vermont

On Tuesday, 4th Graders at RES had the chance to visit the State House, the Vermont History Museum, and the Ben and Jerry's Factory in Waterbury!  It was a great day of learning and exploring!  I was proud of the thoughtfulness my students brought to this trip, as evidenced in their questions and answers at the State House and the attentiveness at the History Museum.  Great work, Kids!  (oh, and way to gobble up the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream!  Right on!)














Representative Gardner Visits our Class!

On Monday, April 10, our Richmond Representative, Marcia Gardner came and spoke with our class about her job at the State House in Montpelier.  It was a wonderful visit, and the students had a chance to ask her some thoughtful questions about how ideas can become laws, and about her role in the House.  We personally presented our own ideas to her (we gave her our letters) and learned about how each person in a democracy has the opportunity to use their voice to help their communities locally and beyond!  We are thankful for Representative Gardner's time and her service!


Monday, April 3, 2017

Dear Representative Gardner......

Have you ever thought about taking your passion, something you cared about, to the VT Legislature?  What is something that you think is so important that you think it should be a LAW?  Last week, our class thought about this idea and drafted letters to our local Representative, Marcia Gardner, which will be given to her personally next week when she visits our class. (copies were sent home today!)  Her visit, and our trip to the State House the day after, will cap off our study of VT Government.  This week we're exploring how ideas are debated by doing a "mock legislature".  Our topic:  taxes on sugary beverages........stay tuned.....



Way to Go, Kids! Wow!

It looks like all of the students' hard work has paid off!  I'm so proud of my students, who last Friday, took their VT Geography Tests and completely ROCKED IT!  Here are some pics of the games they made to support their learning!  Thanks to all of the families as well, who clearly supported students on this journey and who hopefully had some fun along the way!







Our Peaceful Classroom Community

These first few days of school we will have lots of conversations about setting up our classroom community so that everyone feels and is abl...