New Amsterdam Explorations

Dear Third Grade families,

Happy February! We are gradually returning to our full third grade selves after a week of colds and flues. We hope you all a healthy start to February!

This week in Writing, students continued working on their persuasive speeches. Last week, we learned that in addition to writing persuasive speeches focused on making a positive change to the world around us, writers also think about people, things, and ideas that deserve attention. At the beginning of the week, third graders practiced writing powerful thesis statements, with a focus on hooking their audience into their speech. Some speech starters we came up with included:

• I know you might be thinking/writing/worrying/feeling …
• If you are wondering/worrying/asking …
• Let me explain …
• You might wonder/ask/imagine …
• “‘WHAT?!’ you might be thinking …”
• Have you ever …. ?
• Do you wonder … ?

To conclude our week of writing, students took a break from drafting to reflect on their progress so far. We looked at a rubric to know the different aspects of speech writing we would be working on. Students were encouraged to think honestly and critically about their writing throughout the process in order to guide what they focus on as they work.

In Social Studies, we deepened our investigation of life in New Amsterdam. We learned that the first thirty families who moved from Holland to the New World, were not Dutch, but rather originally from Belgium, and they were called “Walloons.” Prior to coming to the New World, these families immigrated to Holland in search of religious freedom. We started our conversation by brainstorming a list of necessary jobs needed to run a successful city. Students came up with jobs such as, seamstresses/tailors, fur traders, builders (carpenters), farmers, bakers and storekeepers. We learned about new jobs that we had never heard of, such as “milliners,” who create hats, and “coopers,” who creates butter churns, casks, barrels and pipes.

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; 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:  

Dates to remember:

• Fridays — dismissal is at 2:30
• Thursday, February 15 at 9am — Grade Talent Show
• Monday, February 19 to Friday, February 23 — NO SCHOOL for February Break
• Wednesday, March 14 — field trip to Urban Glass (date might change)
• Thursday, March 22 — field trip to The Brooklyn Bridge

Shabbat shalom to everyone!
Hilary and Alisa

Judaic Studies with Aliza

This week in Judaics, our focus was on Tu B’Shvat, the holiday of the trees. We learned about the various Brachot (blessings) on food, Birkat HaMazon (the blessing after eating), and enjoyed playing our first class game this year: the Brachot Bee! The whole class did very well and had a great time learning about the blessings and categories of food. We also read stories for Tu B’Shvat, including the classic “Honi HaMa’agal”. 

Shinshinim

The third grade has continued their study of different Edot (or nationalities of Israel) with Phyllis and the Shinshinim.  We spent the last few months learning about immigrants from Poland and Germany (in accordance with the first through fourth aliyot).  Students learned about the reasons why Jews wanted to move to Israel, and what life was like once they got there.  Most recently we learned about the Morroccan Jewish community, and this week we had a special guest visitor.  The students were so excited to see their first grade teacher, Ilana Elmkies, and hear about her parents’ aliyah story.