Making Ice Cream

What looks like a hamster's exercise ball but isn't?!  An ice cream maker, of course!!  Earlier this week, first graders had their last visit with our farmer friend, Miss Virginia. During this final visit, students learned how to make ice cream with the help of a simple contraption, and a lot of hard work!  With a few ingredients, namely one that comes from cows, and a lot of arm power, they were able to roll their way to an enjoyable treat. Although it came it a little mon the soft side, it was clear it was still a big hit!

Math Commercials

Two or three times each week, the RES math specialist, Amy Roberge, has been popping in for quick number sense activities, or as we like to call them, math commercials!  She brings in different tools to use to represent, and look at, different numbers.  First graders are doing a lot around the number ten, and investigating how the tens frame helps us compare a given number to ten (or more).  

Cool Cow T Shirts

At our last visit with Miss Virginia, first graders were surprised with a t-shirt making party!!  They continued learning about dairy farms, sampled some cottage cheese (with and without pineapple) and created some mooooovelous t-shirts!!  We have our finial visit with Miss Virginia this week and rumor has it that we will be making ice cream!!

Family Movie Night!!

Have you heard?  There is a family movie night at RES this Friday, Nov. 13 at 6:30. Come and enjoy!

Halloween Math

Have you ever played a spooky math game?!  Well, first graders did and they loved it!!!  Using a haunted house game mat, they grabbed various amounts of ghost and pumpkin counters to lay on their houses and wrote equations to match.  

We also did our first estimation jar (a HUGE thank you to the Waite family for creating it for us!!).  It was very challenging as it had quite a variety of items in it.  But we rose to the occasion and made some very smart estimations!!

Skeleton Hiccups

Have you ever heard of a skeleton with the hiccups?!  First graders listened to a story about one!!  After, they created their own skeletons and came up with their advice for curing a skeleton's hiccups. Come check them out in our hallway!

Sheep, Alpacas, Rabbits, Oh My!

First graders enjoyed their third visit with our Farmer friend, Miss Virginia of the New England Dairy Council.  This visit focused on farms that produce wool and other natural fibers - sheep, alpaca, and rabbit farms.  Students learned about the process that fiber goes through starting from the animal and going all the way to a sweater, or the end product.  They experienced pulling raw wool, and touched carded wool, saw three different types of yarns, as well as three different examples of finished products.  After learning about the process, the items and steps were mixed up and first graders worked to put them back into the correct order.  Did you know that alpaca fiber is 8 times warmer than sheep wool?!