3rd Grade: 10/7

Happy New Year! Though we’ve been through 2 short weeks (and we have 2 short ones coming up), we have been very busy!

We are already engrossed in our first class read aloud, Stone Fox. It is about a 10 year old boy who lives on a potato farm with his grandfather. While reading, we stopped and did a comprehension check and asked who is in this part, what happened, and does this fit with what already happened or is it new. We also talked about what mind work the author is asking us to do: is this a part where we are supposed to envision what’s happening or simply gather information? We started making predictions about what might happen in the story based on what we know about the character (Willy is very determined!) and how stories usually go. We furthered our predictions by saying HOW something might happen, not just WHAT. We practiced retelling the story, taking big steps to mention the important parts of the story.

In writing we learned about using a storyteller voice in our writing. A storyteller uses dialogue, tells how people talk (ie.whisper or shout), uses descriptive words, and tells the story bit by bit. After writing our drafts, it’s onto revising! We looked at some other stories in our classroom to see the different ways an author might start their story. Some start with a question, dialogue, a description, or an action. We then tried out different leads for our story and chose the best one. We talked more about adjectives and looked for places in our stories to add more descriptions. We also talked about dialogue and the difference between My mother told me to put the laundry in the basket and “Sweetheart, put the laundry in the basket,” my mother said. We then added dialogue to our stories. Finally we added thoughts, wonderings, and feelings. We will continue to revise our stories and use our writing partner to help!

In social studies we spent our time looking at the Hudson River. Looking at different maps, we realized it was very long and passed a lot of different cities. We found out that the Hudson River is in New York State. It starts at Lake Tear of the Clouds and ends in New York Harbor. It is 315 miles long! We also learned that it starts as fresh water and drops altitude (height) so it is fast and has rapids. Then it become very wide (3 miles!) and slow towards the end. We also learned a new word: estuary! This is where fresh water meets salt water.

 

STEAM with Sammi

As the kids have been saying- these weeks are bananas with the holidays! Luckily, with STEAM 3 times a week normally, we have still been able to see each other 4 times over the last two weeks.

 

For science, we have been focusing on the qualities of a scientist. Each table got a group of index cards and answered the following questions with one answer on each card:

• How would you describe a scientist?
• What are different types of scientists?
• What do scientists do?
• What do scientists look like?
• What tools do scientists use?

Each group is now working on building the tallest tower possible with these index cards. Like a sculpture of qualities! In the upcoming classes, these qualities will be related back to the students as they dive deeper into the question “What does a scientist look like?”

 

For technology, we are just getting comfortable with our chromebooks. Students are learning the special buttons and features on a chromebook. We also dove into a breakdown of Google when I discovered that many students didn’t understand what Google really is, what a website is, and what kind of information Google gives back to you. 

 

Judaics with Shira

Third graders have been learning about all the Tishrei holidays. We are now close to mastering singing the names of all the Hebrew months, and know to list the four holidays that occur in Tishrei. This week students started to learn about the arba’at haminim, the four species. We reviewed their names and played a Simon Says type game to practice. Ask your child to teach you! Next week we will continue our learning to figure out what the four species might symbolize in our lives!

 

Math

3rd grade have been very kind to me this past week! Justin’s last day was Friday, September 30th, making this week my first “real” week. We’ve (mostly) completed our beginning of the year growth assessments, and just today, wrapped up our unit on comparing and ordering numbers, counting, place value, and rounding. We’ve been playing with ten-sided dice to generate random numbers for us to round, and starting to use websites Gimkit and Mathigon for fun practice, using our newfound chromebook skills as a jumping-off point! Justin had a tradition of doing fun math games in class on Fridays (that I will keep in place!) and the 3rd graders were generous enough with me to let me finish unit 1 with them today and in exchange, lock in many fun Fridays to come. Next week, we’ll start doing all about addition – patterns, tips, tricks, strategies, mental math, and much more. 

 

Music

In Music class, students have been learning about ukuleles: how to hold ukuleles, the difference between picking pitches and strumming chords and the open string pitches. Please make sure to help your student sign into Seesaw. They’ll have their first Seesaw homework assignment next week, and they’ll receive their school ukuleles on October 19th!

 

P.E. with Anne

Third graders are playing fun tag games such as “Mirror Tag”  and other favorites to increase their stamina and strength. In addition, third graders are practicing; team buidling exercises, underhand throwing, movement patterns designed to improve coordination, and the sport of pickleball.