Happy Purim and Happy March!!

Dear Third Grade Families,

March has come in like a lion, with it’s wacky weather!  Over the next four weeks, we’ll see if it goes out like a lamb.

For reading, we are working on a new Book Club system. In writing, we are coming to an end of our persuasive speech unit. In social studies, this week, we ended out New Amsterdam study by talking about the first Jews to come to New York in 1654 and started learning about the Erie Canal! As well, we had a BLAST celebrating Purim with our 7th Grade Buddies!

READING:
In reading, we have been restructuring how the next round of book clubs will run. Instead of having teacher-lead discussions, Third Graders are learning how to have successful and productive student-led conversations. The four jobs we have focused on, these past two weeks, are connector, discussion director, speaker and key detail finder. The connector takes parts from the book that can be connected to him- or herself, connected to another character or situation in a book, or connected to the world. The discussion director comes up with questions to ask the group, focusing on open questions. For instance, instead of asking “what does a Littmus Lozenge taste like?,” an open question would be “One of the ingredients in a Littmus Lozenge is sorrow — what sorrow would you feel if you ate one?” The speaker is in charge of summarizing the chapter and choosing the key moments that everyone needs to know about, in terms of the plot. Finally, the key details finder looks for excerpts from the text that evoked emotion — be it funny, infuriating, interesting, or sad. We used our whole-class read aloud, Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo, to use as the book for our jobs. This week, we got to experience the write up for one job, as well as the experience of having a ten to fifteen minute group conversation without teacher help.

WRITING:

Throughout the end of January and all of February, we worked on coming up with a topic for persuasive speeches. Some students chose to write about people others should know about, such as Jonathan, Eddie and family friends. Others chose to write about aspects of school that should be changed, such as the playground, having more PE, having less school days (though more homework), or getting to use slime/putty in class. A few students wrote about topics of change that needs to occur outside of school, such as the importance of every plane needing a doctor on-board for each flight. 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.

MATH:

We have transitioned from simple multiplication, of one-digit by one-digit, to multiplying a one-digit number by a multiple of tens or hundreds. Since we have been practicing our math facts all month, for homework, we are ready to take it to the next level! For instance, if we are able to multiply 5 x 4, it would make sense that we could then multiply 5 x 40. But what is the relationship between them? As one student said, “It’s just ten times more! If I can do 5 x 4, which I know to be 20, then I can times it by ten to get 200 — 5 x 40.” Another student mentioned, “Both say ‘5 x 4,’ but the second one adds a zero. So it’s 20, then you put a zero to the right of 20 to write 200.” We will be further exploring this throughout the rest of March.

SOCIAL STUDIES:

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. Starting Wednesday, artwork and write-ups about different aspects of life in New Amsterdam have been posted on our hallway bulletin board.

On Wednesday, we jumped forward 140 years, to the early 1800s. We began exploring American migration at that time, and how the Erie Canal helped turn New York into the heart of America. As a group, we looked at New York State geography and noticed that while there is a simple way of getting materials from New York City to Albany or Schenectady, it was VERY hard to transport materials to or from west and north New York State. This is due to the various landforms, such as mountains, lakes, plateaus, swamps, forests and more. Headed by New York City Mayor, De Witt Clinton, a push for a man-made waterway became stronger throughout the first 15 years of the 1800s. (This platform helped De Witt Clinton get the votes to become Governor of New York.) We learned that although Presidents Jefferson and Madison knew how a canal system could support and improve the American economy, they refused to provide federal money to the 7 million dollar project. Governor Clinton had to get bonds from the banks and investors in order to start the project. On July 4, 1817, the began digging the canal. More to come in the next few weeks!

Some discussion topics you can have with your student:

• Why is New York called the “heart of America?”
• How has Jewish immigration throughout the centuries (Spanish Enlightenment/Inquisition, Pogroms in Eastern Europe, related to the Native Americans?
• What is a simple way to remember how to multiply 3 x 80 or 6 x 400?
• After your student reads each night, ask questions about characters or the plot that are open to interpretation. For instance, instead of asking “what did the character do?,” ask “why did the character do ____?”

Dates in March to remember:

• Wednesday, March 7 — Purple Group field trip to UrbanGlass
• Wednesday, March 14 — Orange Group field trip to UrbanGlass
• Thursday, March 15 — NO SCHOOL! Parent-Teacher Conference Day from 8:00 am – 6:30 pm
• Monday, March 19 — Parent-Teacher Conference from 4:30 pm – 7:00 pm
• Wednesday, March 21 — Field Trip to the Recycling Plant
• Thursday, March 22 — Field Trip to the Brooklyn Bridge

Hebrew with Ilana

This week the third grade worked on opposite words from the song Tamid Nishar Ani (I’m Always Me). They practiced the vocabulary and had a quiz. We also worked in the workbook on a short story. Attached is the link to the song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwSCm-bcVwQ

Shabbat Shalom

Judaic Studies with Aliza 

This week in Judaics, third graders finished their Mishloach Manot projects, which are on display on the bulletin board in the hallway. We also learned about the Halachot (laws) and Minhagim (traditions) of Purim, including reading Megilla, giving gifts to the poor, having a feast, wearing costumes, drowning out Haman’s name, and eating pastries stuffed with filling (Hamentaschen are far from the only ones!).

The third grade scientists are nearing the end of their unit! They have completed their mineral field guides (running various tests on the minerals) and are now using their data to officially identify the minerals. Last week, the students completed 12 short readings describing each mineral’s use. Since a minerals use is related to its properties, these reading were helpful clues for identification. Students worked in an app called Flipgrid (a video discussion platform) to record videos sharing their opinions on the identity of each mineral. They were also able to watch some of the videos of students from both 3rd grade sections to hear their peer’s opinions. This week, the third grade scientists received their final identification clue, mineral field guides from adult scientists. They compared these field guides to their own field guides and to the minerals in front of them to again try to identify the minerals. Next week is the big reveal! Your students are excited to finally know which minerals they have been working with.