March 8 — 15 miles on the Erie Canal
Music with Eyal
Students have been learning a new song on the xylophone!
Hebrew with Ilana
Judaic Studies with Aliza
General Studies with Hilary
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, we have learned about the process of creating the Erie Canal!
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 “Does Edward change from the beginning of the book to the end?,” an open question would be “How does Edward change throughout the book” 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, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane 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, all of February, and the beginning of March, we worked on coming up with a topic for persuasive speeches. Some students chose to write about people others should know about, such as our parents. Others chose to write about aspects of school that should be changed, such as the playground, having more recess, having no homework, or get a lunchroom with tables attached to the floor. A few students wrote about topics of change that needs to occur outside of school, such as the world’s issue with pollution. Throughout the process, the focus has been on:
- the physical look of our paragraphs
- having a 5 paragraph essay, with an introduction,
- using strong, personal examples in our speech
- including transition words
Third Graders are learning the importance of their voice, and ways that they can make a change in our world. Today they had the opportunity to stand on a soapbox and tell announce their beliefs to the class! Below are the pictures of each volunteer reading their speech aloud:
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. The correlation between
SOCIAL STUDIES:
Our in-class lessons about the Erie Canal came to a close this week, but it would be underwhelming to describe the students as interested in it’s construction. They were ENTHRALLED by the history of how it came to be, how and by who it was made, and how it affected each city or town that had a lock.
Last week, 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.).
The process to build it took eight years, from 1817-1825. The digging started on July 4, 1817 in Rome, New York (who knew that there was another Rome??), led by De Witt Clinton. During the time they cleared the pristine, untouched forests of Central New York, two inventions were created to help laborers remove trees, and involved using a VERY large wheel and chains. The main issue for laborers came when they got to the Montezuma swamps. They found that the tools they were using with sink in the mud, and everything had to happen or be dug by hand. As you can imagine, being waist high in the muck of the swamp was not a favorite experience for the laborers. As well, a few different insects made the work that much harder and that much more dangerous. An assistant to the engineer, James Geddes, realized that the best way to take through the swamps was to dig in the winter instead of the summer. After putting an advertisement in the regional newspaper, in central New York, the women of the area knitted over 300 pairs of gloves for the laborers use as they were working in harsh winters. Men definitely appreciated this, and, through the support, pushed forward in completing the first 70 miles of the Erie canal. On October 22, 1819, the first section of the Erie canal, called the Middle Section, was open for use!
Another thing we have learned, and briefly practiced, has been the famous song “Low Bridge, Everybody Down,” written by Thomas S Allen, in 1903. A fun fact about this song is that while it is about the experiences of a hoggee worker on the Erie Canal, it was never SUNG by workers on the Erie Canal (though the captains of the boats WERE known to shout “Low bridge — everybody down!”). Many of the grades have been hearing the Third Graders singing this song as we walk to each class. We cannot WAIT for June, where you will get to see and hear the song performed at our New York City Musical! Below are some youtube links of informational videos about the Erie Canal:
America’s Heritage: The Erie Canal (1957)
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?
- 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 ____?”
- If you have any spare change in your pocket, let your student count the amount!
Dates in March to remember:
- Thursday, March 14 — NO SCHOOL! Parent-Teacher Conference Day from 8:00 am – 6:30 pm
- Monday, March 25 — Parent-Teacher Conference from 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm
- Tuesday, March 26 — Field Trip to the Brooklyn Bridge from 8:30-2:30
- Tuesday, April 9 — (make up) Field Trip to the Wyckoff House from 10:00-1:30
Shabbat Shalom!
Hilary
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