Third Grade 11/6

Social Studies, Reading, and Writing

Over the past few weeks we have been gearing up for the 2020 elections. We learned about the history of democracy and studied as well as wrote about 2 timelines of voting rights throughout the years. We read articles about the presidential jobs, the branches of government, and why we vote on Tuesdays. We also had a visitor join our class, our very own Lower School Coordinator, Shelley Fogelson, to share her experience becoming a citizen. Shelley asked the third graders the questions she had studied to become a citizen, it was awesome to see that we knew the answers to so many of them! She also showed us her naturalization certificate and a letter signed by the president. We have been so engaged in learning about this year’s election as well as the history behind our election process.

Math

3rd graders have been hard at work practicing their addition skills. They’ve worked on mental strategies such as making tens, making friendly or benchmark numbers (e.g. 15, 25, or any tens), doubles or near doubles, and breaking apart by place value (add the ones, then add the tens, etc). They have also worked on the standard algorithm for addition, sometimes called up&down math, including regrouping. Our next unit focuses on subtraction where we will cover more mental math strategies and more traditional strategies.  If you’re child is looking for a fun way to practice their math skills, encourage them to spend a few minutes on https://www.prodigygame.com/ and https://www.mathplayground.com/

Here students are having fun with their fact fluency practice!

Music

Our third grade ukulele players are working on tuning, the C chord and the G chord. I have just added all students to a Seesaw classroom where they have an assignment to post a short video of their ukulele work. I’ve had a few students share excitedly with me that they have also been supplementing our ukulele work by learning from YouTube videos, and others have said they’ve been picking out some melodies on their own. Very exciting! I can’t wait to see everyone’s work on Seesaw, and I look forward to seeing everyone back in class with their ukulele’s at hand on Tuesday, November, 10th.

Art

We started a new unit about the Lenape, Native Americans who lived in what is now Manhattan, parts of New Jersey and Delaware before colonization. We looked at a map of the Northeast with Native American names instead of English names, and viewed many objects used by the Lenape. Some of the objects were made hundreds of years ago and some were made in the last 50 years. To prepare for making our own artifact inspired by what we’re learning about the Lenape, we made a sketch this week. Next week, we hope to go outside to collect leaves, bark, acorns and other plant materials to make colors for paint and dye, similar to methods used by Native Americans.