Have a great vacation!

Thanks to all those parents who made it to the PTA yesterday. It is really good to be working together as a team for your child. If you were not able to make it, you can still arrange a time with the school office to meet during school hours.

Our class is really looking forward to our winter vacation and spending some time with our families. I have kept homework minimal, so the children can use this time to relax and refresh. My goals for the week of vacation for each child are: to read 10 mins everyday and do some draft writing. Other than that, they only have 2 standard friday homeworks, which should not take longer than one nights homework or less.

Enjoy and looking forward to seeing everyone in 2011!

Morah Rivki

Interviewing...

Today we interviewed Morah Jessica! Morah Jessica has worked in nature centers and did a great job of answering all our questions...

Then we wrote a list of all the topics we want to include in our draft and we made sure that we have all the information we need...

Now we're ready to begin drafting!

Social Studies: Our Country

We have learned so much about New York State! Some of the topics we have covered are: September 11th 2001, geography and NYS flag. Our key words have been: freedom, patriotism, heroes, landscapes and symbolism.

Now we are starting our new unit on Our Country - The USA. We will be covering: American Symbols, national parks, national holidays, american presidents, USA flag, growth in America, American leaders and patriotic songs.

We will be bringing home letters to our parents about what we are learning and mini-projects to do. The projects will be due for the following social studies class on wednesday... Its a really nice opportunity for your child to discuss with you what they know and reinforce what we have been learning!

Our "Readerly" Lives

When we are reading lots of us have this question: "What does this word mean?"

It is so good to have questions when we are reading because that shows that we are really thinking about the text!


And over these couple of weeks we have discovered strategies in which we can independantly figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word:

• Look out for the base word. If i know the base word then I can figure out the meaning together with the prefix and suffix too...


• Look out for compound words - 2 words joined together. If we know what each one means seperately then we can probably figure out the meaning of the compound.


• Look out for Idioms and sayings. They dont have literal meanings.
  
• Look out for context clues. There are so many unfamiliar words that we can understand when we look at the sentences and ideas around it...
  

We are practicing these strategies in our independant reading. And if your child asks "What does this mean?", see if they can use one of the above to figure it out...

Our Trip to Brooklyn Historical Society

We found the program "It Happened in Brooklyn" very interesting and our tour guides were so informative - we learned lots of new information. It was an experience for us being in the oldest Brooklyn Exhibit, that was made for people to research and learn about brooklyn in the 1900's!

Middah of the Week - Vatranus - Giving in...

The Middah we learnt this week is a hard one and we're looking forward to seeing how we can carry it out...

Vatranus: Giving in to others even when we really badly want something. For example letting someone go before us or giving up something we want for somebody else...

Trip to Intrepid - 19th Jan

We will be travelling together with 4th grade by school bus at 9:30am and arriving back to school at 1:30pm.

We will be having a special school 'Aviation Workshop' program there:

About our program - "UP, UP and AWAY": The science of flight comes to life as students tour the ship's Flight Deck to discover how nature influenced airplane shape and design. Participating in demonstrations of the four forces of flight, students experiment with the concepts before creating their own flying vessels.

We're looking forward to this new and exciting experience!

Middah of the Week

Hashovas Aveida: Returning lost objects

Today we talked about trying very hard to find the person who lost an object and returning it to them. We spoke about when we see things around we should not ignore but pick it up and return it to its owner...

Our Writerly Lives...

We have been immersing ourselves in Gail Gibbons' non fiction books and generating ideas for a piece of writing of our own using Gibbons strategies, like: Looking for the "How?" of everyday objects, thinking about topics that are very interesting to us and that we have lots of questions about etc. We then learned from Gail Gibbons that writers select a topic that they are excited and curious about, are able to illustrate, have lots of questions that they will be able to find answers for and will be able to find more information on... We shared our topic choice with the class and we're enthusiastic to begin...

We are ready to start collecting more information on our topic. How does Gail Gibbons collect information and research? She reads what other authors have written on the subject. We have been spending these last couple of days finding books and materials on our topic. We have searched our libraries in school, at home and some of us even went to the public library to find appropriate books! Then we took sticky notes and marked parts of books that has information we want to include in our writing.

Gail Gibbons also researches her topic by interviewing experts. In our next writing workshop on Tuesday we will be preparing interview questions to find out more about our topic.

We would love if some of our parents who are "Experts" on the topics we have chosen would be able to come in on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday to answer our questions and be interviewed by us...

These are the topics our class has chosen: sharks, giraffes, computers, human bodies, butterflies and horses.

Any parents who love animals or know about computers or know about the way our bodies work, please let me know if you are able to make it into school one day next week for a half hour. It would be so meaningful to our class!
Thanks!
You can email me or call me!

Morah Rivki

POWER OF JEWISH CHILDREN competition

Tzivos Hashem is celebrating their 30 year anniversary with a special competition for Jewish Children!


We are encouraging our children to join! I have discussed it today with our class and it sounds like that we all have lots of ideas and were excited about it. We each took home a flyer to show to our parents.

There are 3 awards to choose from:

• The Heart Award: Chessed - act of kindness




• The Hand Award: Performance - display of talent




• The Head Award: Acheivement - exceptional studies
  

Your Child can choose together with you which award they would like to compete in. Then, you can submit your childs work on http://www.powerofjewishchildren.com/.

This is a great opportunity to join in with tens of thousands of Jewish Children worldwide, imbue Jewish pride, and produce a great project. It is also really simple and easy to join and there are loads of prizes to be won!

Check out flyer and website for more info...

Science - End of Chapter 3

We will be having a test on Chapter 3 on Tuesday 21st Dec.
We have kept the 4 lessons of this chapter inside our homework folders so we can study and review for the test.

Students can read through their lessons and answer the checkpoint questions to themselves. An adult reading with them and checking for understanding can help us too!

Upcoming Trip: Tue Dec 21st - Brooklyn Historical Society

We will be taking a one hour guided tour called "It Happened in Brooklyn":

students will meet a diverse range of residents from Brooklyn's earliest Native american settlements, to the men and the women who fought in the revolutionary war on Brooklyn's shores, to the Brooklynites who worked to abolish slavery, immigrants from all over the world, and the women who kept america going by working in the brooklyn Navy Yard during WWII. With primary sources from the Brooklyn Historical Society collection, such as photographs, artwork, documents and oral histories students will engage with key moments in our nation's history and learn how they played out on Brooklyn's streets.

We will be leaving school at 9:30 am and be back by 12:30pm.

We will travel by school bus.

Math - New Unit 5

Today we had a test on Unit 4. I am really proud to say that we all did amazing on the math test. We're really getting the hang of 3rd grade maths! Now we need to concentrate on the Open Response questions which require a more thoughtful approach. Students need to use methods such as 'trial and error' to work out these problems...

Overview of Unit 5:

It is nearly impossible to "do" mathematics without having a basic understanding of our notational system for numbers. It is a remarkable system: With just ten symbols- the digits 0 through 9- it is possible to express any value, no matter how large or small. Children who develop a good understanding of our numeration system will not only define their sense of the size of the numbers represented by numerals, but will also develop their estimation and computation skills. Unit 5 has 3 main areas of focus:

• To extend previous lessons on the base-ten place-value system to whole numbers through millions and to decimals through thousandths,


• To apply these concepts to reading, writing, comparing, and ordering whole numbers and decimals, and


• To use whole numbers and decimals in real-life contexts.

Middah of the Week - Hakoros Hatov: Gratitude

This week we are learning about showing gratitude and appreciation for those who do things for us.

We can: Say thank you, write a thank-you card or give a gift to someone who we want to show gratitude to. When we eat a food we make a bracha to thank Hashem.

All Ready for the Recital...

Performing at The Senior Center

Chanukah Recital - Thursday!

We are so excited to perform for all our parents this Thursday at our School Chanukah Party!

On Thursday your daughter should come dressed with:

• A white shirt
• Black or blue skirt
• Solid color tights

Thanks so much!

Happy Chanukah!

Middah of the Week: Emes - Truth and Honesty

We Discussed:

• We show respect to Hashem and acknowledge His presence and ability to see everything by not lying...
• Emes is telling the truth and being honest even when it might cause us problems,
• Not copying others work, and
• Not touching anything that doesn't belong to us.

Upcoming Mini-Trip: Perform at Adult Senior Center

Following the success of our last trip to the Adult Senior Center, we have been invited again...This time to perform chanukah songs!

The performance will be on Tuesday 7th December at 11:30 am.

We will be getting there and back by school bus. If your child has any relatives that would like to come and see please let them know!

Middah of the Week: Sholom- Keeping peace

Sholom means:

• Trying not to argue and fight,


• Compromising and


• Being quick to forgive and forget.

Fact Power

Playing with Multiplication/Division Fact Triangles

A habit is an automatic behavior that comes from doing something over and over again!

Developing basic number- fact reflexes is developing a good habit!

In Everyday Mathematics, fact habits are referred to as Fact Power!

We are encouraging our third graders to learn the multiplication and division facts so that they can solve multi digit multiplication and division problems!

When you have opportunity please review over the multiplication facts (times table) with your child. In your child's homework folder you will see a bright-green Fact Power sheet - to record the times tables that they know. On the back is also a Fact Table up to 12x12 to assist them in learning the facts. In addition each child has received an extra set of fact triangles to cut out and play and practice at home. I will be testing them in school on each times table when they are ready.

Thanks so much for your support!

Our New Writing Unit - Non-Fiction Author Study - Gail Gibbons

We have a "New Teacher" in our classroom now - Gail Gibbons! We will be studying her books and learning writing strategies and illustration styles from her.


By the end of this unit we will all have produced our own Non-Fiction writing!


Please check out the letter sent home about this new writing unit. Included is a list of the Gail Gibbons books we will be using throughout this unit. Should you have the opportunity to visit the library, you may want to get some books that will help your child learn more about their topic.

Have fun learning about Gail Gibbons together!

Publishing Party...

• We shared our writing with the readers in our class...


• We received feedback from the readers in our class...


• We got a certificate for our published writing with feedback about our writing on...


• We found a quiet spot in the classroom to reflect on our writing from the beginning of the process until the end. We noticed how our writing has changed and how we have improved. We also set ourselves a goal for our next piece of writing. Good Authors always reflect on their pieces and make their next ones even better!


• We all got a special 'Star Student' pencil with an erasor for working so hard!!!!!