3rd Grade – 6/9
What a year this has been!
Our study of New York, from the original inhabitants, the Lenape, Hudson’s voyages, the Dutch, to the construction of the Erie Canal and Brooklyn Bridge, culminated in an amazing and exciting production! The kids did a fantastic job and I am so proud of them! Next stop, Broadway!
We read Stone Fox and were devastated at the ending (no spoilers!), Because of Winn Dixie and sympathized with Opal’s journey, and Save Me a Seat and learned about perspective and assumptions. In between, we read books independently and participated in book clubs.
We were prolific writers, starting with a personal narrative which showed our personalities, non-fiction informational books about the Lenape, opinion pieces about something important to us, biographies about an important African-American, and an anthology of poetry.
This past week we’ve had a chance to reflect on our entire year together. These are some of our thoughts:
What are you proud of?
- Doing my homework as soon as I could
- The play
- The books I read
- Writing books
What do you wish you did better?
- Punctuation
- Pay attention
- Not call out
- Not get distracted with my friends
What advice would you give the next 3rd grade?
- Memorize your lines within the week Shannon gives you the script
- Don’t call out
- Always support each other
- Listen and keep your desk organized
- Don’t make Shannon mad
Thank you to all of the students for working hard this year. I hope you are as proud of your accomplishments as I am. Thank you to the parents for being partners with us to make sure your children were successful. I wish everyone a restful and enjoyable summer. Good luck in 4th grade! Don’t forget to come say hello!
The 3rd-grade scientists have been hard at work on their truss bridges. Those blueprints you just saw at the New York, New York play have now come to life with a lot of popsicle sticks and glue! The students are so proud of these final builds and can not wait to take them home to you next week. As older grades pass by the art room and see students building, they are all reminiscing on their own 3rd-grade bridge building experience as it is something that has really stuck with them through the years. I hope this build is something that stands out as a 3rd-grade highlight for your student too. It has been such an amazing year getting to know all of your students even more and I am so excited to see them back in the (brand new) lower school STEAM lab in the fall for 4th grade!!!
In Music Class, 3rd grade students celebrated how much they’ve learned on the ukulele. They also learned how they can continue with ukulele, if they’d like, by finding simple ukulele song tutorials on YouTube. Through “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz, they learned the Am chord and that they can play 100s of songs using the chords they now know. One class also played “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin. Have a wonderful, musical summer!
In math class, we’ve been playing a long and thorough game of slightly modified Jeopardy to end the year. Third graders have been working in teams and applying their new and/or refreshed knowledge of symmetry, angles, area and perimeter, time, and vocabulary. Thousands of points were accumulated. Friendships are all still intact.
Teaching math this year has been such a joy! It sounds sappy, but I will truly miss teaching the 3rd graders over the summer. They are more than prepared for 4th grade and I am so proud of all that they have accomplished this year. Have a wonderful summer!
Judaics with Shira
We had a greta trip to Park Slope Jewish Center on Tuesday. We started by meeting Rabbi Carter and learning about the history of the historic building where the synagogue is housed. Students observed symbols and stained glass on the exterior of the building and heard about signs that have important values to the community. Inside, each child was able to choose a personal head covering from a choice of doilies and kippot. Students who wanted to, were also able to pick out a tallit, which many students chose to do. Once inside the beautiful sanctuary, we had the chance to use grownup siddurim and to sit in the wooden pews. Every child that wanted to, had a chance to lead a tefilah (prayer) from the main bimmah in the center of the sanctuary. The students had many observation about the siddurim, painted ceiling, balconies, and stained glass windows. We capped off our visit by going up to the platform leading to the Aron Kodesh, where the Torah scrolls are kept. Students counted the many Torahs in the ark, and heard a story about the making of a few of them, before kissing the Torahs goodbye.
This week we read the book, Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag . The book tells the true story of Harvey Milk, a Jewish man from New York, who was also one of the first openly gay politicians in the U.S., and his connection to the gay pride movement and the making of the rainbow flag. Students learned about 3 different versions of the flag: the original 8 stripe design by Gilbert Baker, the six stripe design, and the Progress Pride Flag. We also heard from Siobhan, who works in communications at our school, who recounted to us about when she heard Gilbert Baker speak at her synagogue.
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