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We’re Back on Track with a Busy Full Week

Dear Third Grade Families,
What a whirlwind of a first full week in October! Our Third Graders were ready to jump right into the flow of school, and were focused and dedicated workers all week.
Over the last couple weeks we started working in partnerships across three of our subject areas. They include:

  • Social Studies → We partnered together in order to create a definition AND draw a picture of a specific landform or waterform that can be found in New York State. In our group, we had to decided the important characteristics that define each specific water- or landform and how to represent it. The seven choices were: peninsula; lake; mountain; river; valley; ocean; and island. These will soon be displayed outside our classroom on the bulletin board!
  • Writing → While we have independently been expanding our personal narrative writing, we have also been learning how to confere with a peer. We have partners in class who we can use to assist us with our writing, helping us to find moments we can zoom in on (or stretch out), places where we could use juicier language, or sections where we have questions about what is happening.
  • Spelling → We recently started working on small spelling groups, which are individualized to fit each student’s need. Together, we try to figure out how to sort our words into 3-5 categories, based on our spelling pattern. Some students are working on long vowels, such as the difference between “-ai” and “a_e’ (or using the magic “e”), some are working on the “Bossy R” vowel sound, while others are working on “aw” or “ow” vowel patterns. Throughout the year, our groups will change based on the new spelling patterns that are best of us to learn.

This week in writing, we have been focusing on our story starters. While we first wrote our personal narrative a few weeks ago, on Tuesday we zoomed in on what authors do to grab the attention of the reader. In our table groups, we read through the first sentence of the first page of MANY picture books, looking for characteristics of great introductions. We realized that a few ways authors do this is by starting:

  • In a description of the setting
  • With an introduction the characters
  • With dialogue
  • With a problem
  • With descriptive language (or “juicy language”)

After analyzing picture books, we looked at our own personal narrative introductions and picked three different strategies to try.

  • A student example of using descriptive language is, “It was a dark and scary night, and I was in my bed reading a great book called The Land of Stories: The Enchantress Returns.”
  • One student chose to start with an action and wrote, “Can’t think. Brain’s empty. Can’t think. Brain’s empty. Writing? Boring. Can’t do it.”
  • Another student tried starting with dialogue by writing, “‘Hello! I’m your commentator today,’ says the commentator. ‘We’re starting a 1 vs. 1 game!’ The ball is spinning in the air. Upwards. Downwards. Sideways. Diagonal ways.”
  • Some students tried using a few strategies for one introductory sentence. One student  used descriptive language, introducing the character, and starting with an action. That student wrote, “I felt my mom wake me up and I smelled my breakfast. I saw her smile and she said ‘We are going to Great Wolf Lodge!’”

Throughout this week, our grade has put in a lot of hard work into all academic areas. The Third Grade Team couldn’t be prouder!
Shabbat Shalom,

Hilary and Alisa

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Judaic Studies with Aliza
This week in Yahadut, third graders began our food justice unit in preparation for our social action project. Just as we traced where our families came from around the globe, we also traced the “background” of our food. That is, the sources of the ingredients for some of our favorite dishes. Kids discovered that some of their favorite flavors can be locally sourced or can travel from as far away as India, Vietnam, or Japan! We also continued reading our Chelm stories together on Folktale Friday. Next week, we will look into the problem of food waste in our country, as well as what we can do to help solve the problem. 
Hebrew with Ilana
This week the third grade learned a new song “Tyul Beretz Israel” – “Trip In Israel”. We practiced and reviewed the vowels and reading correctly.  Also we practiced pronouns and match them to the correct verb. Here is the link for the song: