Dear Third Grade Families,

This week was one of new beginnings. We started new Social Studies, writing AND math units! As well, so many students have brought in money to support Hannah Senesh’s Penny Pot Drive, lead by the 6th Grade. Please make sure to keep sending in spare change to bring us to first place!

Math

We are working on division. We learned two new vocabulary words this week: quotient and remainder. Quotient is similar to “answer,” though we tried to reinforce that it does NOT mean the whole number, like the answer would mean in addition or multiplication. Remainder is synonymous to “left over.”

As we’ve discussed in prior weeks, there is a strong connection between division and multiplication. Whenever we get stumped by a division equation, it can be very helpful for students to turn it into a multiplication equation. In part, this is due to multiplication being seen more often and more comfortable to solve. So instead of seeing 960 ÷ 30 = ?, it would read 30 x ? = 960. Trying repeated addition is another strategy to help students get to the correct answer.

We also started to investigate what it means to have a remainder. What can we do when the division equation does not make equal groups? We started by thinking about shells on the beach. If four friends find eleven perfectly shaped seashells, how many shells will each person get? Students worked together to figure out that each person gets two shells, but there are three more left. Unlike apples or cookies (basically any food) that can be divided into fractions, other materials are REALLY hard to divide equally. Who would want a piece of a shell when you could have a whole one? So we recognized that you need to do something with what is left over. Some students said that they would leave the shells for someone else at the beach. One students mentioned that even if a fifth person were included, there would STILL be a remainder because 11 is a prime number. The next day’s activity was being provided with a stack of books at each desk group, and students needing to divide the books evenly and equally among the table members. This activity helped students to spatially and physically understand the idea of remainder, and writing a division equation to fit the situation.

Writing

Students have returned to information writing this week! Having informally pre-assessed students on this topic in both November and March, we saw stronger writing across the board. Students are remembering to include hooks in their writing (especially in introductions), as well as organized paragraphs. Spelling and remembering punctuation/capitalization has also strengthened in use for every student.

This week, students have been working on starting small with their ideas and writing. On Monday, students were asked to pick a topic they are an expert at, and list five subtopics that could be expanded upon. We used our hands to physically think about what those five areas would be. Students then partnered with another student and asked to share the five aspects of the topic, as well as expand on one subtopic, in 60 seconds. They rotated partners a few times, which provided the class with an opportunity to refine ideas and practice how to articulate them in an effective way.

On Thursday, we were able to create a fast and furious draft about our topic. We termed this a “throwaway draft,” because students were just supposed to figuratively throw their ideas onto the page. As a class, we also talked about the concept that writers change their ideas or the focus of their stories/research ALL. THE. TIME. It’s okay to refocus our writing as we write, because it might help open our minds to more aspects to write about. Students talked to a partner about different ways they could organize their subtopics.

Social Studies

Last Friday, we began the conversation about bridges and what they are used for. We observed primary sources of bridges around the country, and discussed physical attributes of each. This lead to our new topic — The Brooklyn Bridge! This structure helped put Brooklyn on the map, and making it an important borough in New York City. As a class, we are reading The Brooklyn Bridge, by Elizabeth Mann, which tells the story of how the idea of the bridge came to be, and how it was actually built. Through this story, we are learning about the important family, the Roebling family, where many members had a vital role to the success of the bridge. John Roebling was passionate about the need for a bridge and created the design. Washington Roebling, his son, lead the construction — even from his sick bed! (He got a bad case of Caisson’s Disease, or the Bends.) Then there was Emily, Washington’s wife, who helped as the head engineer while her husband was stuck in bed. We will be learning more about her over the next few weeks.

On Tuesday, we had visitors come from The Brooklyn Historical Society. They lead an interactive lesson about the importance of the bridge and many of its stages. Students investigated primary source documents, and inferred the importance of each. In partnerships, they used a venn diagram to compare two or three images. Then, as table groups, they tried to put 4 or 5 images about the bridge into chronological order. They needed to use aspects of the pictures, such as the mode of transportation seen or prior knowledge about the steps taken in the construction of the bridge, to support their ideas.

Our 100 boxes theme is…

Celebrities!

On Wednesday, your child should come to school dressed as their favorite celebrity! Think movie stars, TV stars, singers, reality TV stars and more! A quick reminder that costumes must be school appropriate and no weapons are allowed! Please email us with any questions

Topics you discuss with your student

• What is a caisson? How does it work? How big is it?
• How would you divide 35/7 ? (Remember, you can use multiplication! 7 x ? = 35)
• How are the terms “quotient,” “sum,” “difference” and “product” similar?

Dates to remember

• Thursday, March 29 — LAST day to donate to our Penny Pot Drive
• Friday, March 30 to Sunday, April 7 — NO SCHOOL for Passover
• Monday, April 8 — first day back to school!

Shabbat Shalom,

Hilary and Talia

Hebrew with Ilana

Judaic Studies with Aliza 

This week in Judaics, third graders finished learning about unique Pesach traditions from around the world. Now we have only to design the covers and bind our Pesach Tradition Guide Books next week! Students learned about their Jewish Hero of the Week, the author Judy Blume, and heard some Pesach folk tales to get them into the spirit of the holiday.