Music with Eyal

Something to warm you up in this freezing weather:)

Art with Iviva

Students have been working on Tu B’Shvat collages. Here are some pictures of them in action.

General Studies with Hilary

Dear Third Grade families,

Happy February! We are gradually returning to our full third grade selves after a week of colds and flus. We hope you all a healthy start to February!

This week, in Writing, students continued working on their persuasive speeches. We learned that in addition to writing persuasive speeches focused on making a positive change to the world around us, writers also think about people, things, and ideas that deserve attention. At the beginning of the week, third graders practiced writing powerful thesis statements, with a focus on hooking their audience into their speech. To start with, we learned that using the word “know” is more powerful to a listener than the word “think.” Some speech starters we came up with included:

• • I know you might be thinking/writing/worrying/feeling …
  • If you are wondering/worrying/asking …
  • Let me explain …
  • You might wonder/ask/imagine …
  • “‘WHAT?!’ you might be thinking …”
  • Have you ever …. ?
  • Do you wonder … ?

In Social Studies, we deepened our investigation of life in New Amsterdam. We learned that the first thirty families who moved from Holland to the New World, were not Dutch, but rather originally from Belgium, and they were called “Walloons.” Prior to coming to the New World, these families immigrated to Holland in search of religious freedom. We started our conversation by brainstorming a list of necessary jobs needed to run a successful city. Students came up with jobs such as, seamstresses/tailors, fur traders, builders (carpenters), farmers, bakers, soldiers and storekeepers. We learned about new jobs that we had never heard of, such as “milliners” (people who create hats) and “coopers” (people who creates butter churns, casks, barrels and pipes).

Multiplication is the name of the game, and we have finished learning our one-digit by one-digit multiplication facts! Students played many games to help them practice the math facts (games such as “circles and stars” and “multiplication top it’ were written about in our last blog, from January 18). We reviewed strategies that can help us solve multiplication facts, such as drawing pictures, using a number line, or making an array. It turns out that we can ALSO use those strategies when solving division problems! How cool is that?

It is important to continue practicing the multiplication flash cards with your student. These facts, of multiplying simple numbers (0-10) will be helpful in our next unit: multiplying multi-digit numbers together (such as 45×9). If we are to take that example, a way to solve it would be to break apart the number 45 into 40 and 5. You then multiply each by 9. The easier step is 5×9, which equals 45. While 40×9 might be hard, if I know my 4 times tables then I know that 4×9=36, so then 40×9 MUST be 360. 360+45=405, so 45×9=405. But that will be next week’s lesson …..

Dates to remember:

• Fridays — dismissal is at 2:30
• Wednesday, February 6 at 9am — 3rd and 4th Grade Talent Show
• Tuesday, February 12 — field trip to the Wyckoff House
• Monday, February 18 to Friday, February 22 — NO SCHOOL for February Break
• Tuesday, March 26 — field trip to The Brooklyn Bridge

Shabbat Shalom!
Hilary

Judaic Studies with Aliza

Hebrew with Ilana Swisa

This week the third grade worked on short stories. We worked on comprehension, writing questions, and working on longer sentences using the word “because.” On the extra class in Hebrew we had an activity about working in partners and the students worked on present poses that they planed together and support each other. Below you can find pictures of their poses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shabbat Shalom!