Social Studies - American Presidents, USA flag and Growth in America...

This year we chose to learn about President Abraham Lincoln. We learned how he saved the union and stood up for his beliefs of equality for all Americans. We learned about his love of books and words. We saw a picture of the items that he had in his pocket on the day he was assassinated and talked about what those items say about him. Then we each brought in a bag of our own 5 personal items and we let the class guess who they belong to and what they "say" about us!

We learned about how the flag changed over time and what it means to our nation. Each part of the flag symbolizes our nation and each star stands for one of our states. We learned the 'Pledge of Allegiance' that was written for a 'raising the flag' ceremony. The Pledge helps Americans remember the ideals of freedom and justice that make our country proud! We each made a flag for our family - with one star for each person. Each student chose the colors that they feel are important for their family and included any other symbols that are important to them.

We learned about the growth that took place in San Francisco - its population grew in the year 1849 from 600 to 25,000! This was because of the gold that was discovered there. We learned about how the city grew, what changed, developed and how they had to constantly rebuild. Now the population is more than 750,000! We learned about the Senate and House of Representatives that decide the laws of our country. The senate has 2 representatives from each state and the House of Representatives has seats allocated according to population. It was very important then to know the exact population of each state! we learned about the census, how workers came to each house originally and now we can fill out forms ourselves. We learned about the importance of the census - how city planners use the information to plan: schools, malls and for emergencies. We learned about how America has grown every time the census has been taken. We looked at a population map and made our own, each state colored in according to its population. This week we will be asking our parents where our ancestors came from and showing our class on the map where they moved to. A lot of people from other countries came to the United States to live - that is why our country grew so much!

Middah of the Week

This week we discussed the Middah of "Dan L'chaf Zchus" - Judging others favorably. That means that when one of our friends does something we don't like or we feel wronged, we try to think the most positively about them. For example, we can think: " She did it by mistake", "she didn't notice", "she had a good reason for behaving like that which I didn't know..." etc.

We don't jump to conclusions and we try not to be judgmental of our friends!

If there is an opportunity to practice or discuss this hard middah with your child, it will be a great reinforcement! Please fill out a middah note!

Mazal Tov!

We would like to wish a really big MAZEL TOV to Morah Ariella on her engagement to Rabbi Mendy Weg.

Ariella invites all parents to her engagement party tonight at the JCM (Jewish Children's Museum - downstairs hall) at 8.30pm.

Our Purim Party on Friday...

Basket of Compliments

This year we prepared a special kind of Mishloach Monos for our friends. We made a basket of COMPLIMENTS!

check out the compliments that your child received from her friends!

Happy Purim!

Science Chapter 6 - Weather

The big question of this chapter is "How Does Weather Follow Patterns?"

In this chapter we will discover:

-Patterns of weather

-How people measure and predict weather, and

-Ways people stay safe during a storm

Our key words are :

• Weather


• atmosphere


• hurricane


• tornado


• Blizzard

On Thursday, we did an exploration: "How can we measure wind speed?" We made a wind speed meter and went outside to read the wind speed. We will be recording the wind speed over the next few days to see if there are any patterns...

Pictures from our trip to the JCM...

We had a busy program at the JCM last monday. We made Hamantashen and masks. We had a game show and toured the 3rd and 4th floor exhibits with a twist on purim...

Our Writing -Update...

Our Touchstone Texts:

We used "What You Know First" by Patricia MacLachlan to learn about 'internal conflict'.

We used 'Freedom Summer' by Deborah Wiles to learn about "snapshots" and internal conflict.We Used 'Baby' by Patricia MacLachlan to learn about "Luscious leads".

We used "Hello, Harvest Moon" by Ralph Fletcher to learn about 'memorable language'.

We used 'Water Dance' by Thomas Locker to learn about text structure.

We used 'My Chinatown' to learn about 'word choices.

We have been immersing ourselves in the writing of excellent authors. We have used our "reading like a writer" eyes to notice memorable writing, good word choices and interesting text structures: circular, alphabet, repetitive words and phrases. We have seen how writers pull their readers into the writing with strong leads...

Last week, we began generating ideas for a piece of our own. We saw how writers often create pieces in which characters have 'internal conflict'. Internal conflict is when a character is being pulled in two directions at once and has to decided between two things. It is a dilemma/problem.

We then brainstormed ourselves of times when we had 'internal conflict'...

We saw how some writers create 'snapshots' - by zooming into a moment of time and focusing on all the details of that moment to make the writing really interesting and 'juicy' to read. We then chose a moment - wrote it regularly and then we made a 'snapshot' of the moment and zoomed in to describe and frame all the details!

Our class has really enjoyed noticing and practicing these strategies! We have become experts at "reading like writers"!

Purim Play IN HEBREW!!!!!

Morah Ariella has been teaching our class the Purim Story in hebrew! Today 3rd grade performed the purim story for the rest of the school - in hebrew! We said each word with such expression that even the 1st and 2nd graders understood us!

Check out the video...

Adar Activities...

Getting ready for Purim: Morah Ariella has brought the theme of the Purim story -"Ve'nahafoch Hu" ( how everything in the Purim story had an 'about turn' and became the opposite) to our classroom everyday in a fun and exciting way. Everyday we turned something around and did the opposite of the norm! We even managed to learn with our pajamas on!

On friday we had a special Rosh Chodesh rally. we all brought fun hats to school!

Preparing for the State Exams...

Yesterday we discussed the different parts of the state exams that we will be taking...

Math: 1) Book 1 - multiple choice math questions

2)Book 2 - questions which require more working out and showing our work.

English: 1) Reading

2) listening and writing conventions
3) writing and responding

We have had alot of practice in all these areas:

• Math book 1 - we have done many past papers and feel confident in the kind of questions that are asked.
• Math book 2 - we have done 1 or 2 past papers and we are now clear about what is expected of us in this part and we will continue to practice...
• From the beginning of the year we have become familiar with the reading - multiple choice questions format.
• We have been building on the reading skills neccessary to anwer the kind of questions that are asked in the test
• We have been listening to many read alouds and discussing.
• We know how to edit our own work,
• And, we have got used to responding and writing about books that we read.

Now it's time to put our skills into practice and learn how to take a test!

We wrote up some 'Reading Test Tips':

-Always read ALL answers

-Choose BEST answer

-Think about the MAIN IDEA of the text and the author's PURPOSE in writing the text

-When the answer is in the text - underline the words in the text.

-When the answer is not in the text - we need to infer and 'read between the lines'

-Check your work carefully

I was so proud of our class that they were able to come up with these tips on their own!!!!

We will be continuing to work on all these skills and we will be writing tips for ourselves for the 'listening' section and 'writing' section too!

Masquerade Party in School...

We will be having a fun Purim party in school in which your child should bring a purim costume to school in a bag. Your child should come to school dressed in school uniform and then we will change into costumes before the party.

Please make sure that your child dresses up as something that encourages good values and behavior and has a positive theme!

Morah Ariella and I will be having our 3rd grade class party on Friday 18th of March.

Math - Unit 8

We had a test today on Unit 7 and tomorrow we will be starting Unit 8. Your child has a family letter all about unit 8 to give to you, in their homework folder, which can be kept and used to guide your child with their homework.

In addition to learning Unit 8, we will also be spending time over the next couple of months doing general math practice for the state exam.

Unit 8 - overview: Fractions

In this unit we will review the uses of fractions and fraction notation and develop a solid understanding of equivalent fractions. The approach to equivalent fractions in 3rd grade is informal and includes many hands-on activities. We will be exploring fractional and spatial relationships; Introducing the number line for fractions; Finding equivalent fractions and solving number stories involving fractions.

March Trips...

• Jewish Children's Museum (JCM) Purim Program: 14th March - 9:30am - 1:30pm

About the program: We will gear up for Purim by making delicious hamantaschen and decorating face masks! As an added touch to the Purim fun, we will dress up as the characters of the Purim story and will receive a framed group photo for our classroom. We will be touring the 3rd and 4th level exhibits and be having a special Purim Game Show!

• Model Matzah Bakery at Chabad Neshama Center: 30th March - 12:15 - 2:00pm

About the program: At the Matzah bakery the children learn how matzah is made. Dressed in baker's hats and aprons, the children participate in a full live presentation of the matzah baking procedures as well as forming and baking their very own matzah to take home. In addition, children will step back in time to experience ancient Egypt and watch as the miraculous escape is brought to life in an educational and entertaining voyage through history.

Hat Day

Tomorrow is our rally for Rosh Chodesh Adar-2!

To get into the purim spirit we will be dancing and all wearing a fun hat! Please help your child choose a hat to wear for the rally tomorrow.

Thank you!

Our Favorite Books...

Thank you so much to the parents and grandparents who made it in to read a story to our class... We loved hearing stories from our friends homes...

Our morning at the Library and literacy fun lesson...

On Monday we had a really nice and productive morning at the library. We first had a tour of the library with an experienced children's librarian. She showed us how to find books, where different genres of books are and generally how a library works. She knew about all the popular books that children our age like to read, the new ones and old favorites. We felt so good that we know where things are and can navigate ourselves and figure out how to find books we want! Then we got to choose 2 books each and we checked them out with our library cards. (Books are due back to library in 3 weeks - The children's cards and receipts will be returned tomorrow). The bus ride back to school was very quiet. We were all very busy reading and enjoying the books that we checked out from the library!

In the afternoon we had a special literacy fun lesson - for the last day of literacy month. We got into pairs, chose a book and mimed out scenes from the book until our friends guessed which book we were acting. We also chose a book and made up a new ending...

We are all real fans of books!