Stone Soup with Our Families

On Wednesday, December 21 kindergarten students cut vegetables and prepared Stone Soup for their families.  Thank you to the parents you helped us safely cut vegetables in the morning.  Thank you to the many families who came in and joined us for Stone Soup in the afternoon.  Kindergarten students are amazing cooks!

Pomanders

On Monday afternoon kindergarten students made pomanders with their fourth grade buddies.  The room was filled with the wonderful scent of citrus and cloves.  Students decorated their clementines with clove designs such as zigzags, swirls, faces, names, etc.  We certainly were using our sense of touch, smell and sight to create these festive decorations.   Another fun project with our fourth grade buddies.

Stone Soup

Dear Families,

You are cordially invited to join our class for Stone Soup (vegetable soup) on Wednesday, Dec. 21 from 1:50 - 2:30.  Students would also like to share a book or two with you. (They are amazing readers and writers.) If you would like to send in a vegetable or two for our soup please do so by Tuesday, Dec. 20.  We are making the soup on Wednesday. We are sure that this will be the tastiest stone soup ever!  

Indoor Recess

Indoor recess can be so much fun!  We went to the Maker Space today and had the best time cutting, building, engineering and creating.  We are a very artistic and creative group.

Snowman Project

Kindergarten students and their fourth grade buddies worked today on designing and building a snowperson that was the same height as the kindergartner.   They used a variety of materials to illustrate their designs. We will certainly have some interesting snowpeople to hang in our hallways.  The project is not quite finished but check out students' cooperative efforts and hard work in the video.

School Store

Here is the link to the new Richmond Elementary School store.
Check out the selection.  If you order from the school store before November 24 you
will receive your order before the holidays.  Thank you for supporting our school and our students.
https://richmondelementary.itemorder.com

Reading Celebration

This morning we had a reading celebration.  We invited our fourth grade buddies to our classroom.  We partnered up and each kindergarten student read four books to their buddy.  Fourth graders were amazed at how we pointed to words as we read and used picture clues to help us figure out words. Our buddies even brought a book to read to us.  It was a great way to celebrate all of our hard work in reading.

Leaf Man

We hope you enjoy our ebook!

Car Races

This morning we used matchbox cars to further develop our math skills (and have fun!)  Our cars were numbered from 1-21.  We put them in numerical order talking about which number came after a given number.  Then we took our cars to the front porch of the school.  We used ramps to see how far our cars could go and then measured the distance using unifix cubes.  What a great way to practice our counting and measuring!

Gingerbread Cookies

The cafeteria smelled especially yummy this morning.  We mixed our ingredients, rolled out and decorated our gingerbread cookies.  We also used our math skills to add no more than 10 of each decoration (m&ms, chocolate chips, raisins and heart sprinkles.  What beautiful cookies!  After reading so many different versions of the Gingerbread Man story we were a little worried that our cookies might hop out of the oven and run away.  We are happy to report that they stayed on the trays and we were able to have them as a tasty afternoon treat.  Yum Yum!

Audubon Field Trip

We had a great field trip today.  The rain held off until we arrived back from our field trip.   The Audubon teachers taught us about what animals are doing at this time of year to get ready for winter.  We played several games to learn about migration and hibernation.  We hid acorns and made squirrel and bird nests.  We matched color paint chips to colors we can find in nature at this time of year.  We observed salamanders up close.  It was so nice to hike through the woods and see all the colorful leaves.  It was a perfect fall day for exploring the Audubon.  The Audubon is free and open to the public.  They have ponds, a river, fields, forest and great hiking trails.  It is a great place for families to visit.  Thank you parent chaperones for coming with us.  We appreciated your help.

RES Lantern Parade

SAVE THE DATE:

Richmond Elementary School Lantern Parade

Thursday November 3rd, 2016

at 6pm

(Rain Date: Thursday November 10th)

We are EXCITED to announce that students from Richmond Elementary School will be working with talented visual artist Gowri Savoor, during a six day artist in residence in mid-October.  During this residency every K-4 student will create a paper lantern during their weekly art classes.  Students will have a chance to create something beautiful, using varied materials and will be supported by Ms. Savoor and art teacher Mrs. Kim Aucter as they create.

The lantern parade will allow us to showcase our work to families and each other and we hope you can support this great artistic opportunity for students by saving the date and attending! The parade will include a lighted walk, music and hot cocoa.

We are so thankful for our community partners who support amazing opportunities for our students!  This Artist in Residence was made possible by grants from the Vermont Arts Council and the Huntington Valley Arts.

Are you interested in helping to support the arts and this event at RES?

1. We are looking for a few recyclable items for the lantern making (drop off at school by October 14th):

Large Yogurt Containers (32 Ounces)

Shallow Plastic Containers  

Small Bubble Wrap

Yarn Scraps or rolls

Plastic Tablecloths (Perhaps a birthday party leftover?)

2.  We need to borrow:

Small Hand-Held Pruning Shears (label and we will return)

3.   We need as many adult helpers as we can get—!  If you have some time to come in and create with a class (or two) or could help us to organize materials and the parade. Parade organizers include helping set up materials, serve hot cocoa, and sharing your musical talent!  Please sign up here:  www.SignUpGenius.com/go/805084FABAD292-lantern

Celebrations

This week we had two celebrations!  As a class we had a movie and popcorn day on Tuesday.   We earned this celebration by listening and following directions.  We watched the Wild Kratts bats video.  We enjoyed the video and learned a lot about bats.  Today we had double recess.   Our whole school earned double recess for positive behavior.  We can't wait for our next celebration, Stuffed Animal Day!

Fourth Grade Buddies

We started off our morning by meeting our fourth grade buddies in Ms. Senning's class.  Each year Kindergarten students are paired with fourth graders.  Throughout the year we get together with our buddies for fun activities, reading, projects, play time, sharing work, etc.  It is a great way to build community between younger and older students.  Everyone loved the Kinderbuddy Challenge today.  They had to work together to build a boat out of tin foil and 4 straws.  Then they needed to test the boat to see if it would float and how many pennies it could hold before it sank.  This was a fun way for kindergarten students to get to know their fourth grade buddies, practice problem solving skills, practice social skills and counting.

Open House

Thank you all for coming to Open House Thursday evening.  It was wonderful to see everyone. Kindergarten students were very excited to be your tour guides and show you their classroom and work. Thank you for sharing your children with me.  They are amazing and I feel lucky to be their teacher.

Open House

PreK, Kindergarten and First Grade Open House is Thursday, September 29, 6:00-7:00pm.  We hope all kindergarten families will be able to make it to our Open House.  Students are excited to show you their work, their classroom and their school.

Kindergarten Potluck Dinner

What a great evening!  Thank you all so much for coming to the Kindergarten Potluck DInner.  We had a wonderful turn out.  The food was delicious.  It was nice to see everyone and have a chance to visit.

Our Special Guest Reader

Thank you Mrs. Layton for coming into our classroom today and reading to us. We really enjoyed the book you read, When Sophie Gets Angry--Really, Really Angry by Molly Bang.  We are excited to share our pictures with you showing what we would do to calm down when we are really, really angry.

KIndergarten Potluck Dinner at RES

Richmond Elementary School

Kindergarten Potluck Dinner   

Kindergarten families are invited to a potluck in the RES cafeteria on Thursday, September 22, 5:30 - 6:30 PM.  RES will provide plates and utensils.  Please bring a dish to share!  We have created a signup genius form online so that we have an idea of how many people plan on attending....but even if you do not have a chance to sign up, all are welcome! http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C044EAFAA2FA1FF2-reskindergarten

This is an opportunity for families to get together in a casual atmosphere!  We hope you can make it!

DATE: 9/22/16 (Thursday, 5:30PM - 6:30PM)

LOCATION: RES Cafe

****Note: Each grade level at RES will be having a potluck dinner during the school year.

Tie Dye T-shirts

Hi Everyone,

We are excited that our school will be tie dyeing t-shirts next week.  We will all have t-shirts in our school colors (yellow or purple).  We are in need of adult help with the process.  I have included the signup genius link 

Volunteering for Tie-dye

Please consider signing up to help us.  Thank you.

Mrs. Gilbar and class

Pajama and Stuffed Animal Day

What fun to wear pajamas to school!  Our kindergarten class earned pajama and stuffed animal day for their respectful behavior.   Students loved bringing in their stuffed animals and sharing them with the class.  Stuffed animals also became the focus for reading and writing today.  We read with our stuffed animals and we even drew and wrote about them.  After all we are experts on our stuffed animals and we wanted to teach our friends all about them. Students were proud that they earned a special celebration for their positive behavior. They are an awesome group!

Recess

Our class is always ready for recess.  We love to run and play outside!  We have now explored and played on both large play structures.

Pajama and Stuffed Animal Day!

Friday, September 9 We will be having a classroom PBIS celebration of students’ RESpectful behavior on Friday, September 9.  Kindergarten scholars can wear pajamas and bring a stuffed animal to school on that day. **The stuffed animal should be small enough to fit in a backpack.  

Day 3

On Day 3 we explored books in our classroom and began to notice the difference between books that teach and books that tell stories.  Kindergarten students explored math materials and had a great time discovering different ways to use materials and create.  Lots of smiles from our kindergartners.

Day 2

What an enthusiastic group of learners!  Today we learned that we can "read the world".  There is a lot of writing around us, on signs, in stores and even in our classroom.  We also discovered that we are writers who have stories to share.  During math we explored pattern blocks.  We earned so many links for expected behavior that we filled our link jar and lit a bulb on the RES light board.  We are so proud!

First day of Kindergarten!

We had a busy and fun first day!  Kindergarten students enjoyed playing with classmates and exploring materials in the classroom.  Students began learning expectations for the playground, cafeteria and classroom.  They even started earning "links" for demonstrating expected and respectful behavior.  Great first day!

Kindergarten Orientation

Thank you families for coming to kindergarten orientation this morning!  We had a wonderful turnout.  It was so nice to see everyone.  Kindergartners, I hope you liked our classroom and got a chance to play with different things.  If you were not able to make it today I missed visiting with you.  I can't wait until we get together next Wednesday for our first official day of kindergarten. See you then.  The classroom is ready and waiting for you and so am I.