General Studies with Hilary

WRITING:

Throughout the end of January and into February, we have worked on coming up with a topic for persuasive speeches. Some students chose to write about people others should know about, such as our moms and great grandfather. Others chose to write about aspects of school that should be changed, such having more homework; having less homework; being more productive in a warmer climate; and tables in the lunch room. This week, the focus has been on the physical look of our paragraphs, as well as including strong, personal examples in our speech. Third Graders are learning the importance of their voice, and ways that they can make a change in our world.

Social Studies:

Third Graders ended our week by closely examining the physical features of New Amsterdam homes. The Dutch built two different styles of homes: townhouses inside the city and single story homes out in the country. As a point of comparison, third graders began by listing different features of their homes, including types of rooms, number of rooms, and electronic equipment and tools in their homes. Students then worked with their table to make observations of the exterior and interior of homes in New Amsterdam. Some of the observations made include: many dutch homes had step roofs, which made it easier to clean the chimney; there were small front porches with benches where people could gossip — sort of like what some people do on their stoops in NYC; their front doors were split in half, allowing pets to be kept inside the home, and livestock that roamed the streets to be kept outside. You can see the illustrations below:

In connection to Jewish history Third Graders learned in Judaics Studies, we discussed the constant cycle of Jews prospering in an area only to be given the choice of converting or leaving a country. This happened many times to Sephardi Jews who moved from Spain to Portugal to Brazil between 1492 and 1520. After A Brazilian city of Recif was captured by the Dutch and then recaptured by the Portuguese, the forced exile happened again in 1654. This brought the Sephardi Jews to the Dutch Colony of New Amsterdam! They moved here due to the kind treatment of the Dutch and the value of religious freedom. While New Amsterdam Jews had to deal with Director-General Petrus Stuyvesant’s dislike of them — just for the simple fact that they were not believers of the Dutch Reformed Church — they had strong connections to family and friends within the Dutch West India Company to help provide them with basic rights.

Soon after our return from break, artwork and maps about different aspects of life in New Amsterdam will be posted on our hallway bulletin board.

 

 

 

 

 

Math:

This week, we worked on multiplying bigger numbers and finding strategies to help us figure out how to get the product. And some of these numbers include 128×3, 87×4, and 325×5. Many of the strategies we used for one-digit times one-digit multiplication can be applied towards bigger multiplication equations. One strategy is breaking apart the bigger number, to make multiplying easier, and then adding the three products together. For instance, instead of 325×5, it would be: 300×5=1500; 20×5=100; 5×5=25; 1500+100+25=1625. Another strategy is repeated addition: 325+325+325+325+325. A third strategy is using a place value chart to help us with adding up, which has a similar feel to the break apart strategy.

A kind reminder to continue practicing multiplication facts with your student each night, to help with automaticity. This could be through:

• flash cards
• games (such as Multiplication Top It, which your student can tell you ALL about)
• online games (a recommended site is: http://www.multiplication.com/games/all-games )

Dates to remember:

• Fridays — dismissal is NOW at 2:30
• Monday, February 15 to Friday, February 24 — NO SCHOOL for February Break
• Thursday, March 14 — NO SCHOOL for Parent Teacher Conferences from 8:00am-6:30pm
• Monday, March 18 — Parent Teacher Conferences from 4:00pm-6:30pm
• Tuesday, March 19 — make up Wyckoff House Trip
• Tuesday, March 26 — Brooklyn Bridge field trip

Shabbat shalom!

Hilary

 

Judaic Studies with Aliza

This week, Third Graders began their new Parsha in Chumash, Parshat VaYeira. We learned about Abraham receiving three mysterious guests, who give him the news that within a year, Sarah will have a child. Students wrote diary entries as either Abraham or Sarah, reacting to this news. We also continued our Food Waste unit, and came up with a plan to educate all of HSCDS on the issue. Third Graders made posters with tips for preserving food and avoiding waste, which will go on display after the break.

Shabbat Shalom!

Hebrew with Ilana Swisa

This week the third grade worked on the story about Old Mr. Cohen. They had vocabulary, they wrote sentences using the vocabulary words and they worked on comprehension answering questions. The students had to record their reading this week and email it to me and they had a quiz on the vocabulary. In addition the students worked with partners and wrote a skit about the story. Attached you can find the video of skits.

Josef and Jacob L

Zelig and Itay

Ayala and Keren

Rohan, Jacob B and Elliot

Lev R, Adam and Ezra

Shabbat Shalom

Hebrew with Ilana NB

 

Hebrew with Tomer

 

Art with Iviva:

In conjunction with our study of New Amsterdam, Iviva showed us images of Delft tiles. She explained that blue and orange are official Dutch colors, and that tiles with bright blue patterns showed that a family had achieved a reasonable amount of wealth (blue was an expensive color to print).

Looking at the antique tiles, we made similar designs, first on paper and then on our own tiles. See our designs below: