September 14 — Shana tova!
General Studies with Hilary Dear Third Grade Families, Let’s be honest: how perfect is it that Rosh Hashanah coincides with the start of a new school year, filled with new beginnings? What an exciting first two week of school we have had! Throughout their time in the General Studies room, students were not only able to take the time to get to know me, but also to learn more than they thought they knew about each other. As students played “Get to Know You Bingo” they learned fun facts such as, a few students play musical instruments, some students are... Read More
August 30 — The first day is just around the corner!
Dear Third Grade Families, We hope you had a wonderful summer! Welcome to an exciting year of learning in third grade! The first day of school is fast approaching and we are busy preparing the classrooms. This year, the third grade team includes both new and returning teachers. General studies teacher, Hilary Davis, Hebrew teacher Ilana Swisa and Judaics Studies teacher Aliza Donath are excited to continue their work in third grade, working together to create our third grade community. New to the staff is Margaret Piraino (Aliza’s maternity leave replacement), who is thrilled to be joining the Senesh community.... Read More
The LAST Day!
Dear Third Grade Families, Wow! What an amazing year we had that zoomed from September to June FAR too quickly! Talia and I want to say thank you to all of our families for your wonderful support, moments of laughter, and selfless volunteering — the year would not have been as successful without each and every one of you! Third Graders had an AMAZING performance, of the NYC Play, on Wednesday! They sang their hearts out, acted and spoke lines like professionals, and truly had a ball up there on stage. They wow’d EVERYONE in the audience, bringing... Read More
Biography Share – June 8
Dear Third Grade Families, Over the past several weeks, our third graders have been working SO hard on their biography writing. Last Friday, they finally got to share their writing and show off everything they learned with our seventh grade buddies! Students (some in fabulous costumes!) sat around our desk groups, and got ready be interviewed. Seventh grade buddies came prepared with all kinds of questions for third graders. They wanted to know facts the third graders had learned about their biography subjects, but also wanted to know about the writing strategies third graders used for their essays. The seventh... Read More
June 1 – Our Journey Through Ellis Island
Dear Third Grade Families, “This is the best trip we’ve ever had!” “Look how big the Statue of Liberty is!” “28 people waved to me on the boat!” “Can I have another peppermint?” “Not the button hook!” “I’VE BEEN DETAINED?!” These are just SOME of the phrases we heard out of our third graders during the trips to Ellis Island, over these past two weeks. The students began their journey at Battery Park, where they embarked on a ferry. We sailed past the Statue of Liberty and were able to see and discuss all they have learned about her... Read More
Immigration and Biographies – May 25
Dear Third Grade Families, Can you believe it’s already the end of May? Time is flying and, boy, are we having fun! During the end of April and beginning of May, each student took the time to read through the biography of his or her important person in history. As previously mentioned, students took notes about their person (be it King Tut, Steven Spielberg, Helen Keller or Ruth Bader Ginsburg), and placed those notes into at least four categories. These categories became the chapter titles for the biography each student is writing, and the chapter titles look different for each... Read More
Brooklyn Bridge – May 18th, 2018
Dear Third Grade Families, Our class had an exciting week, full of music and motion! Brooklyn Bridge Over the past few weeks, students have been learning all about bridges! In Science, they learned the best shapes to use in bridge building, how caissons work, and how cables are put together. In Social Studies, they learned how the Brooklyn Bridge was designed and created, all about the Roebling family who managed the building, and about the workers who did the physical labor. After much patience, the students were able to visit the bridge itself! The fun began on the bus,... Read More
Math, Math, Math!
Dear Third Grade Families, Our first full week of May has gone by in a flash! We’ve had two rehearsals for our NYC Play, numerous math lessons, a strong focus on research writing (or information writing), book clubs and social studies. Math: We have talked about many topics this week, some of which we will be going more in depth with next week. For fractions, we looked more closely at equivalent fractions AND how to make a whole by using pattern blocks. Specifically using the red trapezoid, the blue rhombus/parallelogram, and the green triangle. The goal was to find as... Read More
May 4th – Lag B’Omer and Kesher Day
Dear Third Grade Families, Just like that, we are now in May! We’ve had adventures this past week, both literally and figuratively, as well as in the classroom and outside. Let’s explore just SOME of what we have done: Social Studies For homework, last week, students were asked to find out where their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were born. Then, each student placed a pushpin in each country represented by their family, in a large world map. We learned a few different things from this: Each student has at least one family member who immigrated Our class represents 6 of... Read More
April 27: The Statue of Liberty, Book Clubs and Fractions — Oh My!
Dear Third Grade Families, Another week has gone by, and there’s still so much to learn and do before June! We have rescheduled our Brooklyn Bridge trips for May (which are listed towards the bottom of this section), which is very exciting, and we are also headed to Ellis Island at the end of the month. We look forward to exploring some of our community members’ family members, who stopped at Ellis Island on their way to America. Math: This week, we delved into fractions, specifically looking at how to create whole numbers when the denominator is the same. Connections... Read More