RES Newsletter #4

Dear RES Community,

This past week has been a lot of fun with everyone delving deeper into learning together and exploring new ways to join together as a RES community. On Monday, we held an “All School Meeting about All School Meeting” where mixed-age groups tackled the question: What should All School Meeting look like this year? Later that week, classrooms thought about the question: Why do we have All School Meeting? Why is it important? From our conversations, we created the basic scaffold for an All School Meeting that reflects the hopes and ideas of our students. It is not surprising that the common sentiments echoed from each class was that ASM is a way for us to gather together, celebrate as a community, problem-solve as a group, and have fun and share joy. We are excited to see how our ASMs are shaped throughout this year with our students leading the way in how it is created and run!

Two important announcements:

1. To echo what Matt Corrente wrote in his email, we are so grateful to everyone for your patience as we work through these bus challenges.

Erin sent out a school-based email earlier today, but if you did not also receive an email and phone call from ACSD (sent by Matt Corrente, Director of Finance and Operations) please let us know and we will ensure that you receive all future emails/phone calls.

Ripton bus for Monday (9/18):

• The morning Ripton bus will run as usual, with a substitute driver.

• The 3:00 Ripton bus is not available, but thanks to Ken’s kindness we are able to offer the 4:15 bus option for families.

• The Hancock-Granville bus is unaffected.

2. Please save the date for Ripton Elementary School’s Open House: October 10th from 5:00 - 6:00pm.

Thanks to the generosity of FORS and kindness of helping families and community members, our playground is now home to its very own Gaga Ball pit! This game has quickly become a favorite activity during recess. Ms. T, our amazing P.E. teacher, worked with students during P.E. class to understand and practice the rules. Students are having so much fun playing the game, while also being mindful of being positive and “good sports.” Disagreements arise and are talked through, even sparking a discussion that resulted in an “official” rule change to reflect what the students felt was fair. With Gaga Ball students are practicing conflict resolution while also having a ball! (pun intended :) )

This week, Ms. H’s class read a kid-favorite story, “The Pigeon Has to go to School.” To practice the skill of checking for understanding, second and third graders walked around the classroom in a thinking scavenger hunt where they answered “who, what, where, when” questions about the story, with a partner. The activity was a wonderful way for the students to check their understanding, practice reading aloud, listening and working together with a partner, and practice time management skills as they moved from one question to the next. Kiddos were smiling and moving about the room buzzing with thoughts and answers together - learning in a way that practiced social as well as academic skills!