Third Grade

Music – Mr. Shaw

Before the end of the school year students will perform their final vocal assessment. The children will have the option of singing in a small ensemble (duet, trio, and quartet) or solo. We will use many of the songs that we have been working on this spring. Students may select the song that they will perform the best from the following list: Do-Re Mi, Give My Regards to Broadway, God Bless the USA, Home on the Range, I’ve Been Working on the Railroad, If I Had a Hammer, Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’, Oh! Susanna, Over My Head, Puff the Magic Dragon, This Land is Your Land, Take Me Out to the Ball Game, Yesterday, and Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah. These songs are from the Get America Singing Again anthology. This project was created by the Music Educator’s National Conference to emphasize the need to preserve songs that are part of our American cultural heritage, which includes folk songs and many other favorites. The campaign’s main objective is to establish a common song repertoire that Americans of all ages know and can sing.

Concepts and Understandings Highlighted in Music Lessons

• Discuss music as a means of expressing emotions and how it can evoke images and feelings.
• Describe elements of music heard in a given selection using appropriate music vocabulary (tempo, pitch, dynamics, instrumentation, and mood).
• Keep a steady beat while singing.
• Read, sing, and play visual symbols that indicate rhythm and pitch.

Physical Education – Mr. Lindquist

Spring is a very busy time at HMJDS with our observing the sixty-fourth birthday of Israel (Yom HaAtzma’ut), Art Adventures, and Fitness Week. I hope your student(s) picked activities for Fitness Week that will provide them with a fulfilling experience.

What’s Going On?

Your Third Grader just completed a volleyball unit. They started out learning and practicing eye-tracking and striking skills using beach balls. During the second half of volleyball students were taught a modified volleyball game called “nuke ’em,” where they learned conventional positioning, front line and back line player rotation, conventional underhand serving, and scoring.

What’s Next?

After volleyball we will venture outside (weather permitting) to play soccer in addition to a variety of assorted games. Earlier in the school year we played different versions of line soccer, but this spring the games will be closer to official soccer. Students will play different positions and learn the difference between offense and defense. We will finish the school year as we always do, playing softball in the warm sunshine.

Please be aware that Fitness Week is the week of May 28 so look for volunteer opportunities.

Technology – Ms. Olson

The Fruits of our Labors

Third graders have been learning to keyboard the entire year. They have been picking up skills at differing rates which is why we use a self-paced program. Soon, you are going to have a chance to see exactly how your child’s work translates into a real typing situation. Your student will soon be required to type a paper in Ms. Coats’ class. You will likely be amazed by what you see! Some students will type quickly, while others may slowly plod one letter at a time. This is an opportunity for you to evaluate your child’s typing skills

Each year, students will be required to type longer papers. In fourth grade at HMJDS, there is a multi-page typed research paper due. Beyond that, every paper your child turns in will need to be typed. If your child is typing properly and fairly fast, their progress should continue to improve as will their speed. If your child is typing improperly and very slowly it is time to PRACTICE! For students who are typing slowly, parents can share the task of typing with their child. The child can type for 10 minutes, then the parent types for 2 back and forth until typing is complete.

As you watch your child type, ask yourself, “Is this where I want my child to be?” If the answer is no, please make sure that your child continues to practice and work on keyboarding throughout the summer (with the keyboard covered!) to improve.

General Studies – Ms. Coats

It was a pleasure meeting with all of you during March conferences. I know that the students were very proud to show you their work, and it was exciting to see their growth from the beginning of the school year. I really appreciate the support, teamwork, and communication that we have shared in order to help your students succeed. Of course, there are still many more learning opportunities before the end of the school year. I hope all of you have a wonderful Passover and a relaxing Spring Break with your families!

FYI… The Terra Nova standardized tests for third grade will be given the week of May 7-11. We are giving the students an opportunity to take some sample tests to reduce their anxiety about test taking. IT IS CRUCIAL THAT STUDENTS GET A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP AND EAT A HEALTHY BREAKFAST DURING TESTING WEEK. Students need to have a chapter book at school that they can read from should they finish the tests early. Please keep in mind these tests are only a snapshot of your child’s capabilities.

Language Arts:

Students are doing a fantastic job of collaborating to raise their level of interaction with their Mystery Books. We continue to “talk smart” about our books, use prediction and inference, and really get to know our characters. We will be responding to our texts in many ways: jotting notes, writing observations, and taking time to think about and plan longer responses. The group reading experience has encouraged many students to think about things in the story that might never have occurred to them on their own. Please encourage your student to continue reading for 20 minutes in their choice book (not the same as their classroom book) each night and record their times in their reading logs.

Children are excited to build upon their study of characters, predicting, studying elements of plot, making movies in their minds, and noticing details by sharing with a group. We are practicing “talking really smart” about books. We will use the language of prediction and inference in our discussions. We are reading between the lines to see what the author does not come right out and tell us (inference) and trying to guess what is going to happen (prediction). We will look closely at the important decisions characters make throughout the story and use what we find to ask ourselves questions like “What lesson am I learning from the character?” Look for Language Arts Homework to reinforce and support Book Club work from class.

Writer’s Workshop / Social Studies/Science

Our third graders are continuing to work on their research projects. While we know that the students will be acquiring interesting information about their topic, our ultimate goal is for your children to learn how to think critically as they engage in the research process. The students are using various resources to analyze and collect information in an effort to answer “big idea” questions. The process includes: reading extensively about their topics, taking notes in their own words, sharing and revising notes, as well as labeling and organizing topics. Next, students will start to develop topic sentences and begin their rough drafts.

Math:

Ms. Coats’ Math Group:

We are privileged to have Mr. Brown come every Monday to help us solve problems in new ways and grow our mathematical thinking. A recent problem Mr. Brown tackled with the class was “What number is as much higher than 25 as it is lower than 93?”

Some topics we will be addressing the other 4 days of the week include:

• Our fractions unit: part/whole, parts of a group, equivalent fractions and comparing fractions
• Multiplication and division with multiples of 10, 100 and 1,000
• Using mental math to multiply
• Partial products algorithm
• Factors of whole numbers
• Dividing money equally
• Introduction to lattice multiplication
• Products of 2-digit numbers

Math facts continue to play a huge role in daily class work. Please practice multiplication facts 10 minutes each night in order to help your child be successful! It really does pay off!

Mrs. Kaplan/Mrs. Mott’s Math Groups:

We just started our fractions unit. This unit will focus on writing fractions, using denominator and numerator terminology, finding equivalent fractions, improper fractions, and fraction number stories.

I would like to stress the importance of practicing math skills daily so that students don’t forget what they’ve learned.

Dates to Remember:

• April 6 to April 15: Passover Break– NO SCHOOL
• April 17: Poetry Party
• May 7-11: TERRA NOVA TESTS

Above are pictures from our field trip to the Bakken Museum…

Hebrew – Ms. Benjamin and Ms. Etzion

We are finishing up our work on Passover, which the children really enjoyed. We are moving on to learn about Israel and the water problems caused by the desert climate. Students will learn about the amazing solutions Israelis have come up with over the years to keep the nation hydrated. We will review what they already know about Israel and build on it by introducing new vocabulary. We also hope to enhance their love of Israel and spark many questions and interest about the topic.

Our emphasis will be on learning HaTikvah, (Israel’s national anthem), the symbols of Israel and their importance, and Israel’s capital city of Jerusalem. In the Israel unit, students will have many chances to express themselves by speaking and writing using descriptive words. This gives students a chance to engage in the pride and love of being Jewish. We will also teach many Israeli songs, which is always fun!

Hebrew – Ms. Bernstein

I wish everyone a wonderful Pesah holiday.

Passover: We spent time right before the break reviewing various aspects of the holiday. We did a short seder plate project that students brought home. I hope they have a chance to use it at the seder.

Shalom Ivrit: We are now working on Chapter 13 which is about Israel as we prepare to celebrate the modern Jewish holidays: Yom Hazikaron (Israel’s Memorial Day), Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel’s Independence Day) and Yom Yerushalayim (the day Jerusalem was reunited during the Six Day War).

Israel: We’re looking at maps, and beginning to understand some of the issues facing Israel. We will be focusing on Water in Israel and learning about the different ways Israel deals with water. This is the focus of our Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration.

Our Core Value for April is “Because you were strangers in a foreign land…” Although the connection to Pesah is central to this Core Value it also reminds us to be welcoming to all in our community.

There is another art project coming soon—it’s a mystery project! Students will create all the pieces without knowing what it will be until we put the parts together. Students always have fun trying to figure out what our final product will be.

Hag Kasher V’Sameah! (Have a Happy Passover!)

Judaic Studies – Hamorah Esther, Mr. Zadaka, and Ms. Cytron

Dear Third Grade Parents,

We are continuing to prepare our students for Pesah. We are going through the Hagaddah to learn a variety of Pesah songs and to delve deeper in to the holiday’s rituals. Students are learning the special kiddush for the first night of seder, which falls on Shabbat this year! We hope that your child will take an active leadership role in your family seder.

In Torah we are wrapping up unit five, which discusses the shepherds of Lot and Abraham. We are learning how the characters in the Torah resolve their differences. We will use the characters in our stories to learn how we can resolve our differences appropriately.

The next unit that we will begin learning is unit six. We will learn about Abraham as a master of kindness. Our stories will include:

• Abraham and how he treats his guests
• Abraham praying for the people of Sodom
• Abraham burying Sarah at a great expense

Thanks so much to everyone who visited with us at conferences! We enjoyed talking about your amazing children. If we missed you, feel free to contact any one of us individually to discuss your child’s progress in Judaic Studies.

Hag Kasher V’Sameah! (Have a Happy Passover!)

Art – Ms. Thor

Ongoing work: Night Collage – students will have one more class session to complete their collage.

MIA Art Adventure Program: Presentation #3 – Shiva Nataraja (Lord of the Dance) and Lakota Dress.

• Both pieces represent creation. The beaded decoration of the Lakota Dress represents their Flood story – similar to our tradition. Instead of Noah, a turtle saves the world.
• Dancing is an activity associated with both pieces.
• Students created a “bear scare” bracelet using leather strips and wooden and plastic beads.
• To see the entire Art Adventure Theme, “Let’s Celebrate Life,” click on the link below. http://www.artsmia.org/viewer/index.php?v=12&op=568

Up Next:

• Sumi-e painting – Students will have a day to explore the artwork of Japan and China as they paint with sumi-e ink on rice paper. Here is a video on YouTube that I will be sharing with the students: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HKaZoXnwf8
• Portrait Mask – Students will create a self-portrait mask. This project takes about five weeks to complete and will take us to the end of the school year.

Library – Ms. Oskow

The library buzzed with excited students at the Scholastic Book Fair March 25-30. We earned more than $2,200 in profit for the HMJDS library budget. In addition, we took $1250 worth of books directly from the Fair for students’ immediate use, and earned $400 in book vouchers for more materials to order to complement classroom materials. Students are already excitedly checking out new books. People also donated books directly from the book sale to the classrooms or library.

A big thank you to the Book Fair Chairs, Beth Jasco, Ellen Berkelhamer, and Micki Litton, for all of your hard work!

And thank you to all of the great volunteers:

Judy Finkelstein, Gail Freedman, Michelle Gendlin, Alyssa Golob, Diane Greenberger, Michael Keller, Wendy Khabie, Becky Madigan, Melissa Mark, Emer O’Connor-Keller, Mark Roth, Laura Schmieg, Heidi Schneider, Beckie Skelton, Lisa Villalta, Kim Kotzen Wear, Lauren Weiser, and Dana Beth Weisman.

And student volunteers:

Talia H., Daniel H., Felicia & Haley J., Liang J., Avia K.-R., Chyna L.-L., Isaac M., Talia N., Ora R., Emmy S., and Zachariah W.S.

Teachers and Students Win Prizes in Book Fair Drawing

Two Grand Prize winners won $25 in Book Fair merchandise for the student, and $25 for his or her teacher to pick out books for the classroom: Sammie W. and Ms. Dorman/Schochet, Josh M. and Ms. Norton. Twenty-two other students in grades K-8 won posters. Students entered another drawing by creating a poster about a favorite book on a pineapple-shaped paper. Sydney W. won $25 worth of books from the Fair in that contest.

Hunger Games Mockingjay Pin Raffle

A limited-edition Hunger Games trilogy boxed set at the Book Fair contained a hotly desired Mockingjay pin. Mr. Gawronski and Mr. Portnoe were kind enough to buy boxed sets, keep the books, and donate their pins back for a raffle. Winners of the pins and a Hunger Games poster were pulled on Thursday, April 5.

Thank you to everyone who bought books, donated books or pins, or entered the Mockingjay raffle! Your purchases will enable us to buy many new books to enhance curriculum and aid students’ love of reading, as well as help us to update the library with electronic resources for the 21st Century.

Music – Mr. Shaw

Please enjoy a glimpse in to our classroom with an example of a movement lesson that we completed recently. The first group to perform will be the students from Mrs. Kaplan’s homeroom, followed by those in Ms. Coats’, and then Mrs. Mott’s. There are more videos of what is happening in music at the HMJDS YouTube Channel.

During the month of April and into May, third graders will start working on a unit where they are expected to write descriptions of music recordings using appropriate vocabulary. Developing the ability to listen to music with understanding and describe what is heard is an important part of our music curriculum at HMJDS. To complete this objective we will be studying the Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921). The work is in fourteen sections—delightful music that describes turtles, elephants, fish, donkeys, birds, and oh yes—a couple of piano players practicing their scales! This particular unit of study takes four or five music classes to complete.

Concepts and Understandings Highlighted in Music Lessons

• Discuss music as a means of expressing emotions and how it can evoke images and feelings.
• Listen and analyze/respond to instrumental timbre (unique sound).
• Describe elements of music heard in a given selection using appropriate music vocabulary (tempo, pitch, dynamics, and mood).
• Keep a steady beat while singing and playing.
• Read, sing, and play visual symbols that indicate rhythm and pitch.

Physical Education – Mr. Lindquist

Greetings Third Grade Parents,

I enjoyed meeting with you at spring conferences and sharing fabulous Fitness Testing results. In case we didn’t have a chance to connect at conferences, fitness results will be presented on report cards. As the school year draws to a close there are some wonderful events to look forward to including Fitness Week!

What’s Going On?

Your third grader is in the middle of our volleyball unit. We started out learning and practicing eye-tracking and striking skills using balloons and beach balls. Students started out performing individual and cooperative partner skills. They were given many different volleying challenges using different body parts. During the second half of volleyball students will be taught a modified volleyball game where they will learn conventional positioning, player rotation, and scoring.

What’s Next?

After volleyball we will venture outside (weather permitting) to play soccer in addition to a variety of assorted games. Earlier in the school year we played different versions of line soccer, but this spring the games will be closer to official soccer. Students will play different positions and know the difference between offense and defense.

Please be aware that Fitness Week is penciled in for the week of May 28. Look for volunteering opportunities.

Technology – Ms. Olson

How Did They Do That?

Third graders are going to learn all of the tricks of formatting in Microsoft Word. Not only will they be learning where some of the basic tools are, but also how to find new tools if needed. Students will learn about the following:

• Font, size, and color
• Bullets and numbering
• Line spacing
• Headers and footers
• Alignment
• Special elements such as WordArt and shapes

Students will continue to learn about these skills and use them throughout their school career and learning now is a wonderful way to launch them in the right direction.

General Studies – Ms. Coats

I hope that all of you had a safe and fun filled mid-winter break with your kids. I look forward to meeting with you again at spring conferences later in March. I know that students are excited to show you their work, and it is always great to see students’ academic growth from the beginning of the school year. I appreciate your support and partnership in helping your students to succeed.

WRITER’S WORKSHOP

We will spend the month of March writing persuasive reviews of books, movies, restaurants, and video games. The skills necessary for writing a persuasive piece involve:

• making a strong argument for or against something
• using supportive details to describe the topic
• using opinion, passion, strong words to convince the reader
• summarizing a movie, book, or video game (without giving away any secrets!)
• writing with a target audience in mind
• connecting and/or comparing with another book, movie, restaurant, or video game
• using examples to build an argument

Assignment sheets will come home with your child Mondays and Wednesdays (Coats/Mott) or Tuesdays and Thursdays (Kaplan) and assignments should be written in your child’s planner. Thank you for your support in raising the level of accountability by having parents sign completed homework sheets.

SCIENCE / SOCIAL STUDIES / WRITER’S WORKSHOP

We have been continuing our study of magnets, the Mississippi River, and persuasive reviews since returning from mid-winter break. Soon we will begin working on the third grade expert projects, for which students will choose a science or social studies topic that we have studied this year and study that topic more in-depth. They will be incorporating their reading and writing skills as they make their way through the research process. Children will be searching through numerous books and resources to gather information. They will be learning how to identify the main ideas and take notes as they organize the important information that they collect. Students will also be utilizing skills such as paraphrasing and summarizing.

MATH:

Mrs. Kaplan/Mrs. Mott Report…

In math we will be starting the unit on multiplication and division. This unit is a review and extension of facts, extended facts, estimation, and number models with parentheses. Again, I stress the importance of all students knowing their basic facts. It will make the transition to fourth grade that much easier.

Ms. Coats Reports…

Last month Mr. Brown had students measuring and estimating the number of tiles needed to roof a doghouse. He will continue to stretch students’ math brains with such real-life applications of concepts of geometry and multiplication. In the next unit we will be extending our work on multiplication and division. Students may be asked to do two pages of math homework on some nights. If your child is not yet working on multiplication facts on timed tests, please help them practice their addition and subtraction facts so they can work on mastery of multiplication and division facts. This unit takes the basic facts and builds on them.

LANGUAGE ARTS:

Welcome, Book Clubs! Your children are so excited to build upon their study of characters, predicting, studying elements of plot, making movies in their minds, and noticing details by sharing with a group. We have been practicing “talking really smart” about books and our connections to books. We will be using the language of prediction and inference in our discussions. We will be finding clues as we read, reading between the lines to see what the author does not come right out and tell us (inference) and trying to guess what is going to happen in the end (prediction). We will also be looking closely at the big, important decisions characters make throughout the story and using what we find to ask ourselves questions such as “What lesson am I learning from the character here?” Look for occasional Language Arts Homework to reinforce and support Book Club work from class.

LOOKING AHEAD:

• Poetry Party—Tuesday, March 13
• VOICE NIGHT—Tuesday, March 13
• Field Trip to Bakken Museum—Wednesday, March 21
• Demonstration speeches—Monday, March 19, Tuesday, March 20, and Thursday, March 22
• Conferences—Wed., Thurs., March 28-29/EARLY DISMISSAL

Hebrew – Ms. Bernstein

It has been a wonderful month of learning!

• Grammar: Number and gender agreement! Masculine nouns need adjectives in masculine form, and feminine nouns need adjectives in feminine form. We are learning strategies for remembering to check for all the patterns.
• Sentence Building: It’s great to see how good the students are getting at building sentences with increased complexity.
• Reading: Students’ Hebrew reading continues to improve and we are getting in a lot of practice.
• Our Core Value for March is, “The world stands on three things: Torah, service to God, and acts of loving kindness.” We are finding the many ways we can live this core value on a day to day basis. I am always impressed with the depth of thought my students possess about the Core Values.
• Purim: It has come and gone but we spent a little time reviewing the holiday and how it is celebrated in Israel.

Hebrew – Ms. Etzion and Ms. Benjamin

We are finishing up our work on Purim, which the children really enjoyed, and are moving on to the holiday of Passover. We will review what students have learned about the holiday in previous years. We will then be learning the story of the exodus in Hebrew. We will build on their strong foundation of knowledge by introducing new vocabulary, which will focus on the past tense. Reading fluency and reading comprehension will also be emphasized. In the Passover unit students will express themselves by speaking and writing using more descriptive words.

Stay warm……

Judaic Studies – Hamorah Esther, Rabbi Ettedgui, and Ms. Cytron

We enjoyed studying and celebrating Purim with your children! Our work included reviewing the blessings, songs, and special terms that connect to this holiday. Now, on to Passover!

In our Torah studies we have begun our unit on Conflict Resolution. We will begin by discussing a disagreement between the shepherds of Lot and those of Avram that is resolved by the two men separating. As with most disagreements between family members, however, there is more to this story than meets the eye! Students will learn that there are a variety of ways to analyze and resolve conflicts.

We will also continue to increase students’ text reading skills. They will learn to identify key narrative words in the text. Children will also begin to identify basic biblical declensions, including some frequently used possessive endings.

We look forward to seeing you at conferences!

Art – Ms. Thor

The artist is the antenna of the race. ~ Ezra Pound

Picasso may have left us a bit dizzy, but we put things right by exploring symmetry with a Shrek in our sketchbooks.

Up Next

MIA Art Adventure Program

• Presentation #2 – Hand drum from the Iatmul people of Papua New Guinea and a ceremonial mask from the Bwa people of Burkino Faso, West Africa.
• Both works were used in maturation ceremonies that marked the end of childhood and the beginning of adulthood.
• Students created a tag board mask in the Bwa tradition. We made observations on how Jewish children have a maturation ceremony, a bar/bat mitzvah. We also made connections to Purim and the tradition of wearing a mask and costume and feeling transformed.
• To see the entire Art Adventure Theme, “Let’s Celebrate Life,” click on the link below. http://www.artsmia.org/viewer/index.php?v=12&op=568

See you at March Conferences!

Library – Ms. Oskow

HMJDS Scholastic Book Fair March 25-30!!

Biggest fundraiser of the year for the library

Books available for preschool through adults at Scholastic’s discounted prices. 25% of money collected goes to the library.

Book Fair Hours:

Sunday, March 25 - 9:00 AM-1:00 PM

Monday, March 26 - 8:00 AM-7:15 PM – HMJDS Class Preview Day

Tuesday, March 27 - 8:00 AM-7:15 PM – HMJDS Class Preview Day

Wednesday, Mar. 28 - 8:00 AM-8:00 PM – HMJDS Conferences PM

Thursday, March 29 - 8:00 AM-7:15 PM – HMJDS Conferences PM

Friday, March 30 - 8:00 AM-4:00 PM

Student Preview Days

Each HMJDS class visits the Book Fair Monday, March 26 or Tuesday, March 27. Students write a Wish List of books and may buy books.

Teacher Wish Lists

Teachers post Wish Lists and families can buy books or Gift Certificates to dedicate for classrooms, specialists, or the library.

Contests to Win Free Books

Parents or adult relatives can enter their students in a drawing anytime they stop by the Book Fair together through Thursday, March 29 (once per student). On Thursday, March 29, two students’ names will be drawn to win $25 worth of books—and a winning student’s teacher also chooses $25 worth of books! Students’ names are drawn for other prizes, too.

Additional drawing: for students who design posters celebrating their favorite book to decorate the library. Posterboard available from Ms. Oskow. Posters due by March 22.

Visit the Book Fair Online

http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/homepage/hmjds

The Online Book Fair:

• allows your child to send wish lists, and invite family and friends to participate in the Book Fair
• offers an expanded book selection – books for all ages, even adult titles
• is available for an extended time: Monday, March 19 to Sunday, April 8.

Volunteers Needed For Book Fair

• Set up the Book Fair on Friday, March 23
• Tear down the Book Fair on Monday, April 2
• Staff the Book Fair during open hours

Please contact Book Fair Chairs Micki Litton, Beth Jasco or Ellen Berkelhamer – or sign up on the sheet that will be posted outside the library.

Music – Mr. Shaw

We had a lot of fun working on songs for Purim, such as Hag Purim, Ani Purim, and MisheniKhnas Adar. We will also use the Music Express magazine to continue to increase our ability to read pitch using letter and solfege names. We will use the melody from Symphony No. 9, movement 2, by Antonin Dvořák. This famous melody is from the “Largo” (slow) section of his famous Symphony from the New World. Besides listening to this beautiful musical work we will learn a lot about the composer’s life and that he was invited to the United States to compose music that reflected our country’s heritage. Dvořák’s main goal in America was to discover “American Music” and engage in it, much as he had utilized Czech folk idioms within his music. He supported the concept that African-American and Native American music should be used as a foundation for the growth of American music. He felt that through the music of Native Americans and African-Americans, Americans would find their own national style of music.

Concepts and Understandings Highlighted in Music Lessons

• Sing a varied repertoire of songs, either alone or with others.
• Keep a steady beat while singing.
• Identify where and why music is used throughout a community (country).
• Learn about famous musicians and the cultural aspects of music.
• Describe elements of music heard in a given selection using appropriate music vocabulary.
• Read visual symbols that indicate rhythm and pitch.
• Analyze compositions with ABA form or longer.

Physical Education – Mr. Lindquist

Greetings Third Grade Parents,

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a meaningful Sh’vat. In my lower school classes we recognized Tu bi sh’vat by incorporating the holiday theme into our warm-up activity.

What’s Going On?

Your third grader just finished their rope jumping unit and is now participating in gymnastics. This year we will use the balance beam, vault and the handstand spotter.

Third graders start out with the balance beam height at 30 inches. It is raised to forty inches during the course of the unit. They are introduced to different balance beam challenges to create four to five different skills in their balance beam routine. This includes the dismount onto the crash mat landing on their feet without dropping to their knees.

For vaulting they will learn the proper approach onto the spring board, hurdle onto two feet and either tuck or straddle over the 36-42 inch vault. Handstands will be introduced using the wall for support. If your student is capable of supporting their own weight they will be able to use the back handspring spotter.

Please be aware that Fitness Week willbe the week of May 21. Please look for volunteering opportunities.

Technology – Ms. Olson

Words on Word

So now your third grader knows how to type… In fact, I’m amazed at how well some of the third graders are taking to keyboarding. Recently, I had a class in the lab and every single student was typing using the homerow. Impressive! The reason we learn typing at such an early age, when you may have learned in jr. high or high school, is that your child will spend exponentially more time typing on the computer at a much earlier age than you did. If you are someone who types properly, imagine NOT having that skill and trying to do what you do on the computer for your work or personal life. If you are one who hunts and pecks… imagine how fast you could go if you knew where all of the keys were and didn’t have to look away from your paper to find the keys. (By the way, if you fall into the hunt and peck category and would like to learn how to type properly… come and see me.)

It’s now time to get your student typing some real work on Microsoft Word. We all know, however, that typing is not all you can do on Word and so in the next month we’ll be teaching the third graders how to use the tools Microsoft Word has to turn their words into a properly formatted paper. Students will learn the functions of the tabs at the top of the page, start to learn where commonly used tools are, and begin memorizing the icons that do those common tasks. Learning how to properly format a page will significantly aid students in putting together great looking projects and will cut down on the issues caused by improper formatting.

General Studies – Ms. Coats

The third graders are looking forward to our curriculum night on Thursday, February 16. They are very excited about their presentations and accomplishments so far this year. We hope that you will enjoy participating in their evening, and look forward to seeing you there.

A remarkable moment to share! Our students had a fantastic classroom t’filah last week. Mr. Portnoe and I just watched, amazed, as these incredible leaders took charge and worked as a group to begin prayers on their own, without an adult telling them what to do. I continue to be awed by the strength of their religious observance.

Language Arts:

Children are reading a variety of different chapter books. In the month of February, we will be working as Book Clubs to build upon the prediction/visualization/inference skills we worked on in January. At various times throughout their book they will be assigned individual jobs such as summarizer, word finder, connector, discussion director, or passage picker. Before beginning the next reading, the students will share and discuss their work with the other members of their group and/or myself. Critical thinking skills and deep responses to books are on tap as students continue to make movies in their mind and “read themselves awake.”

Students will continue to search their books to reinforce skills taught in Writer’s Workshop. We previously searched their books for good and bad examples of leads, endings, and dialogue. We are focusing on editing this month, so students will be using their sharp eyes to find examples of good grammar, spelling, subject-verb agreement, and what makes a good paragraph. Students will continue to work on relating leads and endings to the concept of topic and concluding sentences in classroom writing.

Writer’s Workshop:

Realistic Fiction can be based on events that have happened to the writer or can come entirely from the writer’s imagination. Third grade authors have written drafts and worked very hard on revising them. We have added strong leads, sensory details, dialogue, and settings to our stories. For the remainder of the unit, we will be editing our pieces. Things that we will look at in class are spelling, punctuation, subject-verb agreement, grammar, and paragraphing. Anything we miss can be corrected at home. Here are some hints for helping your writers:

• Point out misspelled words and ask them to attempt to correct them. If they cannot correct them on their own, please tell your child the correct spelling.
• Teach your child to use spell-check on the computer.
• Have your child read their draft out loud before printing their final draft. They often pick up errors better when they hear them.
• Remind your child that a new speaker is a new paragraph.
• Students will be held accountable for dialogue punctuation. End marks go inside quotation marks and all dialogue must begin with capital letters.
• USE THE RUBRIC!!! A rubric comes home with the final draft assignment sheet. Students must check each item off the rubric to make sure they have included all criteria. Students who use the rubric reliably get better scores on their writing. (If you don’t see it with the final draft assignment, email me and I will make sure you get it!)

We will be holding Publishing Parties for each class the last week of school before Mid-Winter Break!

Math:

Mrs. Kaplan and Mrs. Mott report…

In math we are winding down our unit on large numbers and decimals. Our next unit is Geometry. We will be learning about line segments, rays, lines, right angles, various types of triangles, quadrangles, naming polygons, degree measures, and symmetric shapes. Scores on “beat the clocks” keep improving. If your child has not passed the addition and subtraction ones, they need to be practicing every night.

Ms. Coats reports…

“How many more minutes are there in an hour than there are hours in a day?” This is the sort of trick question Mr. Brown poses on Mondays during our math enrichment time (to get the answer, take 60-24!). We have to stretch our minds to think of math concepts in new ways. Third graders are also thinking about directions and lines in new ways in this math unit. Our vocabulary this month includes the terms line, line segment, ray, angle, vertex, end point (which is actually at the beginning!), angle, parallel, intersecting, angle, rotation, right angle, clockwise, counterclockwise, full-, quarter- and half-turn, polygon, triangle, quadrangle, regular polygon, degrees, symmetry, polyhedron, pyramid, prism, two-dimensional, three-dimensional, adjacent, base, mirror, and so much more! We use our bodies and hands-on learning to master these concepts. Keep up the good work on the Beat-the-Clocks!

Science:

Mrs. Mott reports…

We are just concluding our study of Weather/Water and will begin our unit on Magnets. We will investigate the following topics:

• What is a hypothesis?
• What is a theory?
• Where are electromagnets used?
• What is the difference between like and opposite poles?
• What is the language of Science?

We look forward to our field trip to the Bakken Museum, on Wednesday, March 21st where the children will perform experiments based on Magnets and Electromagnets and discover the relationship between magnetism and electricity.

Social Studies:

Mrs. Kaplan reports…

We are starting our study of the Mississippi River and will begin looking at early explorers. Students will examine their reasons for exploring, as well as the information gained from their travels. We will then learn about the settlers and how the settlements were influenced by the discovery and use of various resources, and how/why cities developed along its shores. We will be tracing its path from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. Students will be using important strategies such as using various parts of a book (table of contents, glossary, index) to locate information and using text organizers (chapter titles, headings, captions, and graphic features) to locate information and predict content.

WE NEED YOUR HELP…

• Please make sure you are looking at your child’s planner every night. Some kids have become more “relaxed” about recording assignments than I would like them to be. The purpose behind using this planner is to instill good study and organizational skills for the remainder of their school career.
• We are looking for a group of parents to help with the Good Shepherd exchange program that will be on Tuesday, April 3rd at Beth El Synagogue (12:30-2:00). Students will have the opportunity to make and taste some of the traditional Passover foods. If you are interested please let me know.

Looking Ahead…

• February 16th- Curriculum Night/February Poetry Party
• February 20th- Newbery Book Report due
• February 25th-March 4th- NO SCHOOL/Mid-Winter Break

A special thank you to all the parents who planned and orchestrated the “campfire” Kabbalat Shabbat. The kids LOVED it!!!

Hebrew – Ms. Bernstein

It has been a wonderful month of learning!

• We are moving at a nice pace in our book Shalom Ivrit. Our most recent goal is to build more vocabulary and understand how to manipulate verbs in the present tense. Our next focus will be adjectives and learning how to make them agree with nouns and verbs.
• Students’ Hebrew reading continues to improve and we get in lots of practice.
• Our Core Value for March is, “The world stands on three things: Torah, service to God, and acts of loving kindness.” We are finding the many ways we can live this core value on a day to day basis. I am always impressed with the depth of thought my students possess about the Core Values.
• We have been playing lots of Hebrew games including: Shimon Omer (Hebrew Simon Says), Four Corners (we play with five corners), Aleph-Bet Trouble (in Hebrew print and script), Aleph-Bet Go Fish and a new Bingo game on the Seven Biblical Species (Wheat, Barley, Pomegranate, Date, Olive, Grape, and Fig).
• As you can see from the picture, we finished our unit on Winter. Students are showing off the dolls they made and the exceptional creative writing they did about what their dolls were wearing.

Hebrew – Ms. Benjamin and Ms. Etzion

We have started working in our Purim workbook. We will review what they have previously learned about the holiday. We will introduce new vocabulary. Our emphasis will be on learning new adjectives that describe emotions. Students will read about the emotions that each character in the Purim story felt. This will allow students to be more descriptive when writing about certain scenes in this story and in future assignments and discussions. We will learn Purim songs, write short paragraphs, read a Purim story, and more! Stay warm……

Judaic Studies – Hamorah Esther, Rabbi Ettedgui, and Ms. Cytron

We are still in the process of working on our current unit in our Torah studies dealing with the concept of brit, covenant. We have been focusing on the connection between our relationship with God, the land, the Torah and the brit, in both physical and symbolic terms.

We will continue delving into this subject as we learn stories relating to the brit between God and Avram, beginning with God’s promise that Avram’s descendants will be as many as the grains of sand on the seashore and the stars in the sky, continuing with the discussion between God and Avram regarding those future generations, and concluding with a ceremony sealing the covenant between God and the Jewish people.

We will continue to increase our Torah based vocabulary and work on increasing students’ text skills. The students will also be working on making kiddush cups, which will be our grade’s VOICE project.

Art – Ms. Thor

I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else. ~ Pablo Picasso

I hope you have all enjoyed viewing your child’s fall art portfolio!

Students have started their Picasso Face project

Students completed a rough draft in their sketchbooks and have moved on to their larger drawing paper for the final drawing. The criteria for this project are:

• Head and shoulders fill the page.
• Face has both a profile and front view.
• Use of thin and think lines to define the drawing.
• Use of at least two of the following materials: markers, oil pastels, colored pencils.
• If the face has a pattern or is very colorful, the background should be “quieter,” or if the face has few colors and no pattern, then the background can be colorful or have a pattern.

We will finish these drawings (which represent asymmetrical compositions) and move on to a fun drawing project using familiar movie characters for a lesson on symmetrical compositions.

Next up: Sketchbook Assignment #7 – Symmetry design

MIA Art Adventure Program

• Last week we had our first presentation and saw John Singer Sargent’s “Birthday Party” and Paul Signac’s “Blessing of the Tuna Fleet.” We participated in a short art project that introduced us to the color theory and painting technique of pointillism. Students made drawings by imitating Signac’s technique of applying color in small rectangular shapes while using oil pastels.
• To see the entire Art Adventure theme, “Let’s Celebrate Life,” click on the link below. http://www.artsmia.org/viewer/index.php?v=12&op=568

Library – Ms. Oskow

Third Graders Read Newbery Winners

In February, third graders read books which have won the Newbery Award or Newbery Honor. The Newbery Award is given by the American Library Association (ALA) to the book voted the best book written for children that year. After a book wins, a gold facsimile of the Newbery Medal is usually placed on the cover of new copies. If the ALA feels other books were worthy, they can decide to award 1-5 Newbery Honors, as well. Newbery Honor books receive a silver medal. There are many wonderful books to choose from among Newbery winners. Their genres include realistic fiction, animal stories, fantasy, science fiction, adventure, humor… You can find a list of all past Newbery winners at the website: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberyhonors/newberymedal.cfm.

HMJDS Scholastic Book Fair Coming March 25-30!!

Biggest Library Fundraiser

The Scholastic Book Fair runs Sunday, March 25 – Friday, March 30. It is the single biggest fundraiser of the year for the library. Books will be available for all ages from preschool through adults, at Scholastic’s discounted, tax-free prices. Shoppers can make purchases for themselves as well as consider donations directly to the library or to HMJDS classrooms. 25% of all money collected will go to the library.

Look for more information following Mid-Winter Break.

Volunteers Needed For Book Fair

Volunteers are needed to help:

• set up the Book Fair on Friday morning, March 23
• tear down the Book Fair on Monday morning, April 2
• staff the Book Fair during the hours it is open

Please contact Book Fair Chairs Micki Litton, Beth Jasco or Ellen Berkelhamer – or sign up on the sheet that will be posted outside the library after Mid-Winter Break.

Music – Mr. Shaw

The students are continuing to work on singing simple melodies by using five solfege tones (do, re, mi, fa, sol) and identifying them by sight singing. This work includes reading basic music notation using pitch, solfege, and letter names. After we sing the melodies we play them on the Orff instrument. We also use the Music Express magazine to continue improving our ability to read pitch (high and low) using letter and solfege names. We will use the melody from Symphony No. 9, movement 2, by Antonin Dvořák. This famous melody is from the “Largo” (slow) section of his famous “Symphony from the New World.” Besides listening to this beautiful musical work, we will learn a lot about the composer’s life and that he was invited to the United States to compose music that reflected our country’s heritage. Dvořák’s main goal in America was to discover “American Music” and engage in it, much as he had utilized Czech folk idioms within his music. Towards the end of the month of March we will start working on songs for Purim, such as Hag Purim, Ani Purim, and Mishenikhnas Adar.

Featured Concepts and Understandings in Music Class Lessons:

• Sing and play short phrases, rhythms, and melodies while reading notation.
• Sing alone or with others a varied repertoire of songs.
• Develop the competency to perform music through modeling.
• Learn about famous musicians and the cultural aspects of music.
• Describe elements of music heard in a given selection using appropriate music vocabulary.

Physical Education – Mr. Lindquist

I’m happy to say that we made it through the floor hockey unit unscathed, and now have switched from competitive team activities to individual challenges such as gymnastics and rope jumping.

What’s Going On?

In gymnastics your third grader begins with rudimentary strength and balance challenges on the floor mats. They learn about body lines and the importance of rigidity in maintaining balance and control. To assure success at all levels we begin with very basic movements, then allow students to proceed cautiously at their own speed. I’m a firm believer in learning skills in stages and would never ask a student to try a skill without proper lead-ups or something they are not capable of doing.

Our floor challenges begin with basic log rolls to learn controlled rigid body movements and then add balance into that theme. Balance is the root of body control. We carry this theme into the apparatus skills that include the balance beam, vault, and the back handspring spotter. On the balance beam the third graders are required to create a 5-6 skill routine that includes a dismount that they try to “stick.” The balance beam starts out 32 inches high and is raised during this unit to 40 inches, which is very challenging for some students. Third graders are introduced to hand stands against the wall for one of their apparatus stations. This skill carries over to the vault.

What’s Next?

Volleyball!

Technology – Ms. Olson

Third Grade Cartographers and Programmers

Yes, we’re finishing up this month with the map project we have been working on with Ms. Kaplan. Each third grader has created his/her own map, and we’re now on the last stages of creating a vehicle to drive through town. Once a vehicle has been chosen… and these are some interesting vehicles, like bowls of cheese puffs, magic carpets, and monsters… students will write the program to make their vehicle move. This is a simple program, but gives students an idea of how computer programmers make things happen in the games they like to play and even in programs like Microsoft Word. I love Scratch because they now have enough knowledge to try some things on their own at home. You can download Scratch at www.scratch.mit.edu for your child to use at home.

I look forward to seeing you all and having your child share this project with you at the Third Grade Curriculum Night later this month!

General Studies

Happy New Year!!! I hope you had a fun and relaxing winter break and had some fun with the vacation homework. It was great hearing about the exciting things families did over break. Please remember to check with your child to make sure that he/she has at least six kippot here for the second half of the school year. Also, remember to MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!! Third grade curriculum night is Thursday, February 16th. More information will be coming soon.

Language Arts

We continue to put ourselves in the place of the characters in their books. Students are responding to their reading daily on post-its or in paragraph writing. We are branching out to discuss our books with other students in the class. Students have developed a remarkable level of empathy with many of their characters is astounding. They are also connecting their lives with the lives of their characters and making predictions and inferences based on these connections and what they know of the characters. As we wrap up this unit, is is very important for students to collect data in their Reading Logs. It is highly valuable for students to be able to see their growth in reading through evaluating their logs. Twenty minutes per night in a just-right book is the minimum needed for student growth. Students should be getting in the habit of jotting down a post-it or two after each page, in preparation for occasional response assignments that will be added to homework. We will soon be moving on to book groups and discussion groups to lift the level of thinking and discussion about what we read.

Writer’s Workshop:

We are ready to start our new Writers’ Workshop unit! We are asking students to mine their personal experiences to write a realistic fiction piece. This should be very exciting! It is very important that your child complete each assignment on time so they don’t fall behind. Each assignment will need to be signed by parents and returned by the due date. Here is our timeline:

Week of January 4: Generating Story “Blurbs,” or story ideas
Week of January 9: Characters: Creating, Characteristics, Struggles/Conflicts, Problems/Solutions
Week of January 16: Using the Story Mountain to Plan the Story Arc
Week of January 23: Good Leads, Paragraph Leads, the Importance of Setting
Week of January 30: Believable Dialogue, Wrapping up the Story, Strong Endings
Week of February 6: Editing for Grammar and Mechanics; Subject-Verb Agreement, Consistent Tense
Week of February 13: Final Drafts Due
Week of February 20: Publishing Parties

Students will be reinforcing these skills in class during reading time as well as in Writer’s Workshop.

Math:

Mrs. Kaplan/Mrs. Mott’s Groups

In our upcoming unit the students will be reading, writing, and comparing 7-digit numerals. They will be using grids and manipulatives to understand the meaning of decimals, including the place values tenths, hundredths, and thousandths. These young mathematicians should be studying their basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division facts (depending where they are) at home.

Ms. Coats’ Group:

Each week we will be tackling the new concepts of decimals and place value of higher-digit numbers. Ten minutes spent daily practicing math facts will give students the best base upon which to build in math class. We continue to enjoy a weekly visit from Mr. Brown for enrichment. He is focusing on the use of higher level and critical thinking skills as well as working productively in groups. Last month students worked in small groups to estimate how many exercise balls would cover the floor in our irregularly shaped classroom. Students used measurement, multiplication, geometric know-how, and extrapolation to solve this tricky problem. Then Mr. Brown asked students to apply this knowledge and the methods used to estimate how many birthday balloons would cover the ceiling in the same classroom. We will continue to solve these types of problems, as well as extension and enrichment problems weekly with Mr. Brown.

Science – Mrs. Mott Reports:

Your children have wowed me with their ability to research a given weather topic and incorporate what they have learned into a technology project. Each child was able to make a flier using Microsoft Publisher, which you will be able to see later this year at the third grade curriculum night. The finished projects are just beautiful. Some of the students were also able to make a “Blabber” video (at blabberize.com) using their research, which I emailed to parents. We will be completing our weather/water unit by investigating jet streams, weather instruments, and storms.

Soon, we will begin our next science unit on magnets. We will investigate the following topics:

• What is a hypothesis?
• What is a theory?
• Where are electromagnets used?
• What is the difference between like and opposite poles?
• What is the language of science?

Additionally, we have an exciting field trip planned to the Bakken Museum where the children will perform experiments based on magnets and electromagnets. They will also discover the relationship between magnetism and electricity.

Social Studies – Mrs. Kaplan Reports:

We are just beginning our study of the Mississippi River. Students have been learning about the physical/geographical features of Minnesota. They have also been learning related vocabulary words, including Midwest, glaciers, drift plains, bluffs, prairies, wetlands, etc. The information gained will lay the groundwork for understanding the importance of the Mississippi River. They will also be applying the reading strategies that they are learning, such as cause and effect, identifying main ideas and details, and comparing and contrasting while studying the non-fiction resources that will be provided for this unit. Students will be using a variety of graphic organizers and questions to help them better understand the new concepts.

Please enjoy the pictures below from our field trip to Good Shepherd Catholic School:

Looking Ahead…

• Monday, January 16th—Martin Luther King Day—special programming
• Tuesday-Thursday, January 17th-19th—Biography/Autobiography Presentations

Hebrew – Bernstein

Our January Core Value is “Guard your tongue from evil.” This Core Value is especially appropriate as we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day mid-month. We work toward using our words carefully, only to help and never to hurt.

• We are nearly halfway through our unit on Winter, which includes learning vocabulary about winter clothes, the weather, and winter activities.
• We will do an art project: students will be dressing their own “dolls” for winter and writing creative sentences to describe what each is wearing.
• In the area of grammar, we are exploring verbs. We will be learning about the root words verbs are built upon. We will also learn how to use these verbs in the present tense, making sure we maintain proper gender and number agreement.
• Our celebration of Tu B’shvat is done in classrooms and will include tasting various food items.
• To strengthen Hebrew reading skills, students will be introduced to two new vowel patterns. We are also continuing our work learning when to say the shva—a vowel with a split personality!

Hebrew – Etzion and Benjamin

We will be learning about ‘What is in the pencil case?’ and then directly move into our clothing unit.

Students will be working on ‘What is in the pencil case?’ In this unit they will learn all the things that belong in a pencil case and how we use them. Students will create sentences like:

• “Sharona cuts with scissors.”
• “Moshe sharpens his pencil with a pencil sharpener.”

Of course, this is all done in Hebrew and in full sentences. After this unit students will talk about all of their pencil case needs in Hebrew (using the correct gender forms, of course).

We will build on their previous knowledge of clothing and use more complicated forms, including gender agreement. For example: “Sharona is wearing a short, blue dress.” In Hebrew even the words ‘short’ and ‘blue’ in that sentence need gender agreement. That is an example of how we are deepening the curriculum.

We will be learning new vocabulary and expanding on the grammar they have learned.

At the end of the unit we will be having a fashion show. Students will be describing what they are each wearing and walking down the red carpet!

Judaic Studies – Ms. Cytron

Hello! It was a joy to see so many of our families at the Hanukkah celebration in December. We hope you all had a wonderful, restful vacation and a Hanukkah filled with light, friends, and family.

Our upcoming unit focuses on the brit of Avraham. We will focus on the covenant between Avraham and God and also the story of the first brit milah.

We will be learning:

• How we continue to have a personal relationship with God.
• What does it mean to be part of the Jewish people?
• How to navigate on the map the land of Canaan by finding places that Avraham went to when he got to the land and the directional terms for north, south,east and west in biblical and modern Hebrew
• In grammar we will identify singular, plural, masculine, and feminine words in the text.

We look forward to studying more great Torah with your students!

Art – Ms. Thor

“Good art is not what it looks like, but what it does to us.” ~ Roy Adzak

Welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful vacation. Here’s a recap of recent work and a look ahead at the coming month:

• Students painted an abstract color exercise using primary and secondary colors and their accompanying tints and shades. Students added white paint to make tints and black paint to make shades. This exploration of how colors can be mixed leads students to the next unit: Picasso Face multi-media drawing.
• Third graders have completed their portfolio and sketchbook reviews in preparation for winter report cards.
• Students will begin their “Picasso Face” project by viewing a wonderful 20 minute video, Picasso Makes Faces. This short film explores the many styles and approaches Picasso employed throughout his career when he painted, drew, and sculpted faces. Students will create their own “Picasso Face” by drawing a rough draft in their sketch-book. They will then be given a large sheet of paper for their final drawing. Students use markers to create thin and thick black lines, and oil pastels they can blend like oil paint. It is difficult to imitate Picasso’s fascination with depicting two views of a face in one image.

To get an idea of the range of Picasso’s exploration, here are several self-portraits he painted throughout his lifetime.

• Sketchbook Assignment #6 – Picasso Animal
• MIA Art Adventure Program begins at the end of January. Our theme this year is “Let’s Celebrate Life!” http://www.artsmia.org/viewer/index.php?v=12&op=568

Music – Mr. Shaw

As we approach the half way point in the school year students will be performing vocal assessments, during which they will sing in small groups or solo. The children will also select examples of their work from class to place in their music portfolio. They will continue to work on the ability to sing simple melodies by using five solfege tones (do, re, mi, fa, sol) and identifying them by sight singing. This work includes reading basic music notation using pitch, solfege, and letter names. They are doing a great job of expanding their repertoire of musical skills.

Describing music using the vocabulary of the art form is one of our primary goals in third grade. Students are expected by the end of the year to describe musical excerpts in regard to steady beat, tempo (rate of speed), dynamics (volume), and mood (feelings expressed in the music). To assist in accomplishing this goal we will be listening to The Planets by Gustav Holst. Holst composed orchestral music, wind ensemble music, operas, chamber music, and vocal music of many different styles, and had a great interest in various kinds of literature, poetry and astrology.

Featured Concepts and Understandings in Music Class Lessons:

• Sing short phrases, rhythms and melodies while reading notation.
• Sing alone or with others a varied repertoire of songs.
• Develop the competency to perform music through modeling.
• Learn about famous musicians and the cultural aspects of music.
• Describe elements of music heard in a given selection using appropriate music vocabulary.

Physical Education – Mr. Jacobson and Mr. Lindquist

I hope you enjoyed the holidays with family and friends. It is great to hear from your child about the time you spent away from school and the places you visited.

What’s Going On?

We are in the second period (hockey term joke) of Floor Hockey which is the first of our striking units. The third graders start out using Pillow Polo Paddle sticks and then switch over to using plastic sticks and pucks. We began participating in a variety of drills and modified games during which they hone their forehand and backhand striking. The latter part of the unit is when they play games and learn the value of teamwork while improving their hand-eye coordination.

What’s Next?

Gymnastics and Rope Jumping are the next units on the horizon. This is refreshing for students who need a break from competitive games. This is where your student works individually on understanding and improving body core strength, balance, and flexibility. In third grade we begin on the floor mats with simple body challenges that require strength and balance, in addition to partnering skills. We then move into the apparatus skills. The rope jumping unit works on timing and coordination in addition to greatly improving aerobic fitness. Students begin taking on challenges of performing different jumping patterns associated with feet placement and tandem partner jumping using varying rope lengths. Students always enjoy these units!

Technology – Ms. Olson

Third Graders Find Their Way

Third graders will be designing their own interactive maps in technology this month using a tool called Scratch. Scratch is a downloadable tool designed by people at MIT. It is a tool to teach people about basic programming and lends itself to many different integration options. In this case, students will be showing what they know about maps by creating their own. These maps will include all of the important elements that they have learned about in class. Students will also create an actual moving vehicle that they will control by designing a script of commands for the vehicle to follow. Once the map and script are complete students will write directions for their vehicle to get from one place to another.

The third graders are looking forward to sharing these with you at the Third Grade Curriculum Night.

General Studies – Jennifer Coats

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a very Happy Hannukah. Since this is the last newsletter before winter break, I want to tell you that I hope 2012 brings your families lots of happiness and good health! Have a fun and safe vacation. I will be sending home a vacation homework sheet for you and your children to work on. I think you will have fun with it!

Language Arts:

Our class continues to track their reading in their Reading Logs. We are racking up our minutes and enjoying reading more and more every day! Our focus on character development has made the students more aware of dialogue interaction between characters. We continue our work on predicting, envisioning, reading with fluency, inferring, and sensory details.

Charlotte’s Web is our current read-aloud, and is an enjoyable part of our day. The students love studying the different characters in this novel. We have talked about how and why authors use foreshadowing in writing, and we continue to discuss the other elements of plot.

Writer’s Workshop

What amazing stories we heard at our first publishing party of the year! The students all worked very hard on their narratives, and it really showed. They are beginning to understand the entire writing process and what it takes to be an accomplished writer. They loved hearing one others’ stories, and they gave great feedback to one another.

Ms. Coats’ Math Group:

We will soon be starting our unit on multiplication and division. We will be using terminology such as factors, products, dividend, divisor, and quotient. Students are expected to learn the basic multiplication and division facts through ten.

Mrs. Kaplan and Mrs. Mott’s Math Groups:

We will soon begin working on multiplication and division. Students will learn the basic multiplication and division facts through tens. We will be talking about factors, products, and arrays, as well as giving them some tricks to help learn the facts. It will be very important that they practice multiplication and division facts at home for at least five minutes every day. Scores on “beat the clock” keep improving!

Social Studies:

Mrs. Kaplan reports:

We are just beginning our study of Minnesota. Students will learn about the physical/geographical features of Minnesota, including related vocabulary (midwest, glaciers, drift plains, bluffs, prairies, wetlands, etc.). The things they learn will lay the groundwork for understanding the growth of communities along the Mississippi River. They will also be applying reading strategies that they are learning while studying the non-fiction resources that will be provided for this unit, such as:

• cause and effect
• identifying main ideas and details
• comparing and contrasting

Students will be using a variety of graphic organizers and questions to help them better understand the new concepts.

Science:

Mrs. Mott reports:

Your children have enjoyed the experiments we have done with water including observing water on different surfaces and analyzing surface tension. They are looking forward to building a thermometer and discovering density with hot and cold water. We are in the process of researching weather. Students will be participating in various activities that pertain to weather phenomena like wind chill, clouds, tornadoes, and other storms. We continue to work on an exciting project that integrates science and technology.

Looking ahead….

• Dec. 6th Good Shepherd Exchange Program
• December 13 Poetry Party
• December 19 Hanukkah Program practice/Adath Jeshurun 8:15 a.m.
• December 20 Hanukkah Program/Adath Jeshurun 6:30 p.m.
• December 20 Book Report due
• December 22 – January 3 WINTER BREAK/NO SCHOOL

Hebrew – Nathelie Benjamin and Michelle Etzion

We will be starting our Hanukkah unit this month.

• Students will continue to work in their workbook called The holidays of Tishrei and Hanukkah and will also receive new Hanukkah readers.
• New vocabulary will be taught, and we will review what was learned in previous years.
• Many songs, customs and traditions will be taught in Hebrew.

The students will start practicing their Hanukkah song that they will be performing at Adath Jeshurun Congregation on December 20 at 7:00 p.m. We are looking forward to seeing all of you.

Hebrew – Sara Bernstein

Our December Core Value is “If not now, when?” In our class we are exploring this famous saying from Pirkei Avot (Sayings of the Fathers). It tells us that we must not wait to do something, because we may never again have the chance. At Hanukkah, we remember the miracle of the oil for the menorah in the Temple lasting eight days. We also are reminded that the Maccabbees took a stand for religious freedom. Just as they took action then, we need to take action now.

• We are moving very quickly through the book Shalom Ivrit. Students enjoy the activities and are doing well with the vocabulary. We have begun to create more complex sentences.
• New unit: Winter — which includes an art project!
• In the area of grammar we have been working on masculine and feminine agreement between nouns and adjectives. We have also been exploring how verbs work in the present tense.
• We are preparing for our Lower School Hanukkah program by learning the song Eileinu Ba Oreah, A Visitor is Coming to Us (the visitor is Hanukkah)!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Winter Break!

Judaic Studies

It was wonderful seeing you at our third grade Judaics curriculum night. We had a great time learning with your families.

We have just completed our unit on sin and punishment and will soon begin Unit Three. We will discuss the stories of Noah and the Flood and the Tower of Babel. We will be asking some big questions in our classes, such as:

• How does the story of humanity progress after the flood and the building of the Tower of Babel?
• What is the meaning of a brit (covenant)?
• How do we build just societies?

We will also be working on recognizing repeating words in the text, as we continue to build our Humash reading skills.

See you at the Hanukkah program on December 20!

Art – Vic Thor

We have a new perspective on the world!

We’ve completed our unit on one point perspective by learning how Renaissance artists devised a system for visually organizing space to create the illusion of depth. Leonardo Da Vinci took it a step further by depicting atmospheric perspective too. Atmospheric perspective describes how things located way off in the distance are not only smaller, but also are a lighter color than things closer to us.

Students used rulers to measure and draw straight lines. They made 3-D houses and roads that go off into a sunset, just like an architect does.

Students worked hard on their sketchbook assignment for this unit, which was horizon line drawing.

Next up: Color mixing – tints & shades

• Student will learn how to mix tints (add white) and shades (add black) to primary and secondary colors. Moving away from a traditional color wheel, students will demonstrate how to mix colors by creating an abstract design.
• Sketchbook assignment #5- favorite color design.

Wishing you a warm and bright Hanukkah!

~ Ms. Thor

In December, third graders have a free choice of genres for their class book projects. In the library they become acquainted with some series, such as: Amber Brown, The Zach Files, The Time Warp Trio, and some sports fiction. They also have the opportunity to check out books new to our library.

In November, third graders read Jewish books for National Jewish Book Month. Some students made posters for the library celebrating a Jewish book they read (right).

Some suggestions of books with stories and activities to enjoy as a family for Hanukkah:

• A Hanukkah Treasury by Eric A. Kimmel
• The Hanukkah Family Treasury by S. Zorn and Rabbi L. Hessel
• My Lucky Dreidle by Cherie Karo Schwartz
• The Kids’ Catalog of Hanukkah by David Adler
• Fantastic Foto Hunt Chanukah (Can You Find the Differences?)
• Hanukkah Fun (Great Things to Make and Do) by J. Bastyra & C. Ward
• Crafts for Hanukkah by Kathy Ross
• The Power of Light (8 Stories for Hanukkah) by Isaac Bashevis Singer
• The Spotted Pony (Collection of Hanukkah Stories) by Eric Kimmel
• The Stone Lamp (8 Stories of Hanukkah Thru History) by Karen Hesse & Brian Pinkney

Thank you to all of the grandparents and special people who bought books to donate to our library on Simhat Dor L’Dor!

Music – David Shaw

Students will spend some time preparing for the Hanukkah program by singing many of the traditional songs. The students will also be completing vocal assessments in December, which allows me to report your child’s singing progress. These formal assessments will be conducted with songs they have been performing in class. I also make informal classroom observations during the year, but a formal assessment allows more one-on-one attention to be given to each student.

During the upcoming month third graders will read a memoir written by Susan Wolfe that recalls the contributions made by her grandfather, Samuel Goldfarb, to Jewish music. Samuel Goldfarb is the composer of “I Have a Little Dreidel,” as well as many liturgical melodies, including a haunting tune for “Shalom Aleichem.” He and his brother, Israel, also wrote tunes for the Friday night Kiddush (the blessing over the wine), “Adon Olam,” and the “Birkat Hamazon” that we use here at the Day School. I hope the students will find the story of a man who wrote many melodies that they know so well to be intriguing.

Featured Concepts and Understandings in Music Class Lessons:

• Sing short phrases, rhythms and melodies while reading notation.
• Keep a steady beat while singing.
• Sing songs that fall in age level appropriate vocal range using accurate pitch and rhythm.
• Sing in a group.
• Identify where and why music is used throughout the community.
• Develop the competency to perform music through modeling.

Physical Education – Kelly Lindquist

Greetings Third Grade Parents,

I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving. It really is a wonderful holiday that bonds family around the dinner table and reminds us how fortunate we truly are.

What’s Next?

We’re just finishing up our basketball unit, during which your third grader improved their ball handling and shooting skills. Our next unit will be Floor Hockey, which is the first of our striking units. In third grade we begin with demonstrating how to grip the stick with separated hands instead of a golf club grip. We teach that in hockey, it is more common for a right-handed person to shoot with their left hand than their right. What’s most important is to hold the hockey stick in a manner that feels most comfortable for them. Before we play the regulation games, students learn how to control and shoot the puck by participating in a variety of passing and puck handling drills. Students learn position names such as left and right wings, center, and defense along with playing strategies. The goalie stance is also introduced. When we begin playing games students will improve their agility and aerobic fitness by reacting and moving quickly in all different directions in relationship to the puck. Floor Hockey is a great cooperative group game that teaches teamwork and improves hand-eye coordination. Who knows, this may be the first step in you becoming a hockey parent down the road, like me!

Technology – Juli Olson

It’s a Disaster!

Disasters are the topic de jour in the lab this month for third graders. Students will learn how to turn an ordinary template in Microsoft Publisher into their own beautiful flier to showcase their chosen natural disaster facts, safety tips, and photographs. First, students researched their topic using a website called Weather Wiz Kids. Then, they get their first experience typing. It is my hope that they are using proper hand placement and finger positions. Once the information is typed, students will find images and copy and paste them into their flier. Finally, each student will finalize their flier by changing the background and font colors and styles. This project will strongly focus on the composition of a page which students will be able to carry with them to future projects.

When your child types at home: Are the hands on the homerow and is the keyboard covered? Are the feet hanging straight to the floor? These are important rules to follow for proper keyboarding!

General Studies – Coats

I enjoyed meeting with you and your children for goal setting conferences. I found the conferences to be very informative and hope that you did too. I look forward to working together to make third grade a successful learning experience for your child.

Language Arts

Our class has been tracking their reading in their Reading Logs for the first two months of school. We read nearly 12,000 minutes and almost 14,000 pages!!! Aren’t we amazing??? We are moving into a new unit of study in reading where we are going to be focusing on characters in our books. Students will be thinking deeply about their characters and learning from their characters. Skills we will be working on are predicting, envisioning, and reading with fluency. Readers will be expected to notice their characters’ personalities and characteristics. They will be working on inferring to develop ideas about their characters’ motivation, troubles, actions, and character traits. We will be adding genre studies to our reading logs and noticing our reading diets as we look more deeply into our reading lives.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is our read-aloud, and continues to be an enjoyable part of our day. This novel provides many opportunities to reinforce higher level comprehension skills and to study the techniques of an author, such as the use of descriptive language and the elements of plot. We are reading this in conjunction with our upcoming exchange program with Good Shepherd Catholic School in December.

Math

Groups have been created so that we can best meet your child’s individual needs in math.

Mrs. Kaplan and Mrs. Mott’s Math Groups:

Some of the concepts we are currently studying are:

• Fact extensions (using our knowledge of math facts to help us solve similar problems with larger numbers)
• Function machines and “What’s my Rule?” tables
• Different ways to organize information to solve word problems
• Addition and subtraction methods with three-digit numbers
• Rounding to find “Ballpark Estimates.”

Students should be practicing their math facts regularly. Knowing these automatically will help your child with higher level competition.

Ms. Coats’ Math Group:

Each Monday, Mr. Brown works with us to stretch our brains. We are working on problem solving, extension and enrichment with him.

In class the other days, we will be studying:

• Measurement
• Perimeter
• Area
• Circumference and diameter
• Data collection
• Place value through thousands and ten thousands

Students should be practicing their math facts regularly. Knowing these automatically will help your child with higher level competition.

FYI—ALL Students should have brought home a Homelinks book. There is a parent letter at the beginning of each chapter in the book explaining terminology and concepts. There is also an answer key provided for all the assignments. These books should be left at home and only the assigned pages torn out and brought back to school.

Science – Mott

We had the opportunity to have a guest speaker come talk to the third grade. His name is Jim Vaughan and he is an environmental coordinator for St. Louis Park. The kids enjoyed hearing about his job working with trees and seeing all the different tools he uses.

We have begun our next science unit, “Weather and Water.” Currently we are exploring the water cycle. Later in the unit the students will be performing experiments to observe and study water on different surfaces, surface tension, building a thermometer, and sinking and floating. We will also investigate weather and its causes.

Social Studies – Kaplan

Students should be working on an assignment to create a map of their bedrooms using terminology learned in class. Their map is due either Monday, November 7th or Tuesday, November 8th, depending on when they have social studies. Next we will be starting our study of Minnesota and the Mississippi River. Below are pictures from our orienteering adventure led by Sharon Kadet and Janie Covin, parents of fourth graders who created this project last year.

Writer’s Workshop – Coats

The writing process has several steps:

• Rehearsal (IN the Writer’s Notebook: Brainstorming, gathering “shell stories,” getting juices flowing)
• Drafting (OUT OF the Writer’s Notebook: Choosing a favorite story and making sure it is a “seed story” and not a “watermelon story,” writing a first draft on lined paper)
• Revision and Further Revision (OUT OF the Writer’s Notebook: Adding strong leads, big finish, sensory details, flashbacks, etc.)
• Editing (OUT OF the Writer’s Notebook: Checking over the piece for capitalization, punctuation, spelling, verb agreement, etc.)
• Publishing (Final Draft, typed on the computer, celebrated in a Publishing Party)

We are moving through this process at a steady pace and anticipate a Grade-Wide (students only) Publishing Party before Thanksgiving! Students have been giving this their best effort and we look forward to seeing their finished products.

Looking Ahead

Tuesday November 8	Poetry Party
Thursday, November 17	Judaic Studies Curriculum Night – 7 pm
Friday, November 18	Book Report Project
Tuesday, November 22	Simhat Dor L’dor Bet – 1:30
November 23 – 25	Thanksgiving Break
Wednesday, November 30	Lifetouch Picture re-take Day

Hebrew – Bernstein

Shalom! We are having great success in Hebrew. Reading skills continue to improve. We are working through chapter three in our book Shalom Ivrit. Everyone enjoys the short stories and Hebrew activities that help students increase their vocabulary and understanding. We are also playing our Reading Tic-Tac-Toe Championship!

We began working on masculine and feminine nouns last month. We will continue this work, as we are now ready to add singular and plural forms. We are also exploring how to create more complicated sentences. The growth of the students’ vocabulary allows for more creativity.

Some of our greatest class sessions are those when we talk about our monthly Core Value. November’s Core Value is: “Find yourself a teacher and acquire a friend.” I love to hear how they interpret these values and the ways they try to incorporate them into their daily lives. We all learn from each other and our classroom is truly a community.

Simhat Dor L’Dor Bet is a highlight of the month. Looking ahead to December, we will begin learning the song we will perform at our Hanukkah celebration. As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me at sbernstein@hmjds.org

Hebrew – Etzion/Benjamin

We have finally completed learning about all the holidays of Tishrei. Written and oral assessments were given to all students. We now put our holiday books aside and the students have a new book Tov B’Kita V’ Babayit, It’s Good in Class and at Home. This book emphasizes everyday modern spoken Hebrew. We start by learning the proper way to greet someone. The students read a story introducing all the Tal Am kids.

We then ventured into the past tense. Students learned how to properly use the word was and conjugate it in Hebrew. Here is a sample of students’ ability to write and speak (translated into English):

• I was not at school yesterday, I was at home.
• She was not at recess yesterday because it was too cold to play outside. She was in the classroom doing homework.

The complexity of their sentences will depend on each individual’s strengths, but their sentences will all incorporate the new vocabulary word; was.

What’s up next?

We will learn about things associated with the classroom:

• Things we do in the classroom.
• Things we learn in school.
• Things we do with our friends.
• New vocabulary words associated with these topics.

It was nice to see all of you at conferences. Please feel free to contact us with any concerns or questions. We are best reached by email.

Michelle Etzion and Nathelie Benjamin

Judaics – Zadaka, Levitt, Cytron

With the holidays of Tishrei behind us we can now focus more on our text study. We have just finished our first unit, which was on God’s goodness to humanity. Your kids did a beautiful job comparing God’s goodness to acts of hesed (kindness) from their own lives.

We are now beginning the second unit, which is centered on the concepts of sin and punishment. We are looking at the stories of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, as well as Cain and Abel.

• God gave them (and us) rules to live by.
• People make mistakes and should try to fix them.
• God often gives us a chance to fix our own mistakes, and appreciates when we do.

We will also be working on locating names and places from biblical text. We will continue to work on decoding, vocabulary, and oral reading skills.

Art

We continue to develop our skills of observation and realistic drawing.

Third graders are doing very well at turning in their sketchbook assignments.

If you have not read and signed the parent letter attached to the inside cover of your child’s sketchbook, please do. Students are asked to use specific art materials for sketchbook assignments and are evaluated on how well they follow directions.

Students may explore their creativity by opening their sketchbooks backwards (Hebrew style!) and creating “free draws.” Students must reserve the front half of the book for class work and homework.

We’ve been busy! We have . . .

• Finished our pastel still life drawings
• Completed a fruit and veggie still life drawing in our sketchbooks
• Some classes have created black and white paintings of abstracted nature patterns.

Next up:

• Video: “Behind the Scenes” program with David Hockney – http://www.amazon.com/Behind-Scenes-David-Hockney-VHS/dp/6305347972
• One point perspective drawing – How did Leonardo do that?
• Sketchbook assignment #4- horizon line drawing.

Please consider being an art room volunteer.

Ms. Thor

Library

November is National Jewish Book Month!

Third graders learn about Jewish books when their classes visit the library this month. They see many books with Jewish topics, setting, characters, or authors. This is a suggested book project one in Jen Coats’ class.

Students may make a poster celebrating a Jewish book and bring it into the HMJDS library by mid-November to decorate for Book Month. The same poster can be shared in General Studies and the library.

Include on the front of the poster:

• Student’s first and last name
• Student’s grade and first letter of homeroom teacher’s name (e.g. 3-C for 3rd grade-Coats)
• Title and author of the book
• Colorful picture–student’s own best effort illustrating something from the story
• Any medium, such as crayons, oil pastels, markers, paint, collage
• If the General Studies teacher requires more information on the poster–all the better!

Look for the posters on library walls by mid-November!

Simhat Dor L’Dor Book Sale – Donations to the Library

On Simhat Dor L’Dor Bet, Tuesday, November 22—the day before Thanksgiving Break—from 1:30-3:30, books are available for purchase to donate to our library collection. Students whose grandparent, parent or other special person donates one are given first opportunity to check the book out of the library. Thank you to the families who bought books for donation on Simhat Dor L’Dor Alef!

Happy Reading and Creating!—Cathi Oskow, HMJDS Librarian

Music

Students will be learning to sight-sing melodies during the month of November using solfege (do, re, mi) in the key of C major. Sight-singing is a skill for which the student must visually recognize the pitch and perform it simultaneously. This will be a year-long skill and it will help us increase our music literacy. In addition to singing patterns, we transferred these short melodic exercises to instruments, so we both play and sing while reading notation. We will also focus on proper technique in playing Orff instruments. These pitched percussion instruments (barred xylophones, metallophones and glockenspiels) require students to enter on a musical cue and build ensemble skills. We will review proper mallet grip, the sweet spot on the bar to get the best tone, playing posture, and stroke patterns (together/alternating hands). Grade three students have also been writing rhythm studies and body percussion pieces using quarter, eighth, and half notes as well as rests, which we will not transfer to the Orff instruments.

Featured Concepts and Understandings in Music Class Lessons:

• Sing in a group using accurate pitch and rhythm, songs that fall in age level appropriate vocal range that consists of simple rhythm patterns.
• Read, sing, and play visual symbols that indicate rhythm and pitch.
• Use solfege and letter names to sing/play melodies.
• Develop an understanding of the science of sound.
• Develop the competency to perform music through modeling.
• Keep a steady beat while playing.
• Play short phrases, rhythms and melodies by reading notation.

Physical Education

It’s good to be back to our routine! I enjoyed meeting with you at fall conferences and discussing your child’s Fitness Testing performance. If you weren’t able to attend, Mr. Jacobson and I will be sharing your child’s Physical Fitness testing results with you and telling you how your child compared with National Standards in report cards. Some students were close to performing at the Presidential Physical Fitness level. If your child meets the Presidential Physical Fitness standards he or she will be awarded a certificate and patch signifying their achievement.

What’s Next?

We just finished participating in a variety of dodgeball games and now we’re ready to get started in our ever-so-popular basketball unit. In third grade we continue to practice and improve ball handling skills by participating in age appropriate cooperative activities that include dribbling, bounce and chest passes, and lay-ups. Students also participate in individual competitions that include Lightning, 21, Around the World, and Horse, which hone shooting accuracy. At this level more time is spent working on developing and fine tuning rudimentary skills in modified games and partner activities, rather than playing actual regulation games. The assorted activities and modified games we engage in ensure student success and build confidence for those who are in the process of mastering ball control. The HMJDS Physical Education Department looks forward to teaching this unit every year.

Kelly Lindquist

Technology – Olson

Let’s Learn To Type!!!!

By now, most of you have seen the keyboarding letter that has gone home talking about Keyboarding for Kids. We are so excited to continue working with this program. It has proven to be a great way to teach HMJDS students keyboarding skills for over 6 years. Keyboarding For Kids allows each student to work at his or her own pace through timed lessons that teach letters and keystrokes in an orderly and appropriate fashion.

Some important details to consider when watching your child keyboard at home:

• I have set each student at a 20 WPM (Words Per Minute) speed. If your child is experiencing frustration, please have your child contact me to make an adjustment.
• Keyboards should be covered at all times!
• Keyboarding time is based on the timings, not the amount of time sitting at the computer. Your child must be typing to receive credit towards the hour of homework each month.
• Observe your child typing. We are not hunting and pecking. There is a correct finger for each key. If you are not sure what these are, please ask. I will be happy to show you.

It was wonderful seeing so many of you at conferences, if you were unable to visit with me or have further questions, please feel free to email me, jolson@hmjds.org, at any time.

General Studies – Jennifer Coats

It was great seeing so many of you at Back to School Night. We are off to a great start to the school year! We continue spending time talking about policies, procedures, expectations, attitudes, derekh eretz, and how we can help to “make someone’s day”. We are working together to become a community of learners in which we practice active listening, while helping and encouraging our fellow classmates. We are also working on organizational skills. I look forward to meeting with you and your child at fall conferences to set goals and partner to ensure success this year at school. Children are expected to attend all conferences this year.

We are reading The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling as a read aloud to all third graders. The students enjoyed the first poetry party and did a great job memorizing the first poem I handed out. As part of our “Back to School” theme we are studying the classic book Molly’s Pilgrim. The students are discovering many different ways to respond to their reading in their literature journals. They will be making a pilgrim (ancestor) doll out of clothespins as a culminating activity.

Writer’s Workshop

Ms. Coats reports…

Writer’s Workshop has been an exciting component of the language arts curriculum. The students have begun using the writing process, including prewriting, rough draft, revising, editing, and publishing to complete their personal narratives. They are learning that writing is not linear, and that a great writer moves back and forth throughout the process. They will be sharing the personal narratives with each other, their teachers, and parents.

Math

We will be starting math groups shortly. We have made it very clear to the students that groups were made according to what they already know and what they still need to learn. We encourage parents to reinforce this at home. If the teachers feel that a child is in the wrong group a change will be made. Our goal is for each student to be successful in math. In our next unit we will be studying “differences” in math, finding patterns, and using our common “cents” to understand money. Please help your child remember to put names on their homelinks assignments.

Social Studies

Mrs. Kaplan reports…

We are working on our unit on basic map skills. From a map a child can gather and share information about the real or imagined world in which he or she lives. Students are working on the parts of a map; key or legend, scale, title, compass rose, and cardinal directions. After they have a basic understanding of these concepts, our parent volunteers will do an orienteering activity with all third graders. They will be able to put their new skills to use!

Science

Mrs. Mott reports…

The third grade is off to an exciting start with science this year. We are learning about different words that describe trees and ways to identify them. We have been brainstorming a list of why trees are important. It is amazing what your children already know!

We are talking about the differences between deciduous and coniferous trees, opposite and alternate branches, and simple and compound leaves. Third graders will be using these terms and different leaf samples to identify from which trees specific leaves come. This activity will incorporate technology, as it will be done on the internet. We are having the forester from the City of St. Louis Park come to speak to the students about his job.

Looking Ahead…

• Poetry Party-Tues., Oct. 11
• Sport Book Reports- Mon., Tues., Wed., Oct. 17, 18, 19
• Early Dismissal—Fri., Oct. 7th
• Simha Dor L’dor—Wed., Oct. 12
• Sukkot—Thurs./Fri. Oct. 13/14
• Sh’mini Atzeret—Thurs./Fri. Oct. 20/21
• Conferences-Wed., Thurs., Oct. 26, 27 (Early Dismissal) Third graders are expected to attend conferences.

Hebrew – Nathelie Benjamin

It has been delightful to meet all the excited new faces this year. It was also great to see so many parents at Back to School Night, and to have the opportunity to give you a small taste of what goes on in our class.

The class has been busy with reviewing the Hebrew alphabet, learning the months of the year and reading and learning about Rosh HaShanah.

We will soon be learning about the holidays in the Hebrew month of Tishrei; Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simhat Torah. We’ll be building on vocabulary they have learned previously (e.g. shofar, pomegranate …). We do this by writing, working in our workbooks, and reading a story and answering comprehension questions. We will also be incorporating games and singing songs.

After the holidays, we will be starting our new book, Tov BaKita, in which modern Hebrew will be emphasized.

Homework….

As always, homework is an important tool to reinforce material learned. It is vital that homework be completed and turned in. If your child is struggling to complete homework please feel free to contact me, so that I can help them.

Personal issues…

If something does arise please do not hesitate to contact me so that we can set up a time to talk at school or alternatively, I can be aware of any problems you feel might impact their Hebrew progress. The best way to contact me is preferably by e-mail but you can call as well.

Nathelie Benjamin

Hebrew – Sara Bernstein

Shalom! It’s been a great start to our school year! We have been reviewing and rejuvenating our Hebrew, playing Hebrew games, learning routines, and exploring our monthly Core Value. I’m thrilled to see how much Hebrew your children remember!

Focus of our Year: Hebrew Decoding/Reading

In order to read Hebrew we move our eyes differently than we do in English. We start in one place and then move in one of three ways to register the vowel: down, next to, or up, and on to the next syllable. Our brains need time to get used to functioning this way so mastery takes time and practice. Much of the decoding is syllable by syllable until it becomes smoother and more automatic (more whole word).

Hebrew Script

Hebrew does not have upper and lower case, but each letter does have two forms.

• Block: most Hebrew books, newspapers, subtitles, etc.
• Script: it’s faster to write the letters this way

In third grade students are expected to write in script, even if they have not yet mastered all letters. With continued practice it becomes easier and soon, script letters are mastered.

Upcoming Units: Numbers 1-29, Vowel Paper Quilt Project, Reading!

Hebrew – Michelle Etzion

Most of the month will be spent learning about Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simhat Torah. During this month . . .

• New vocabulary words are introduced
• Students are engaged in reading books
• Class conversations are in Hebrew
• Written assignments

With each holiday the students are asked, “How do we prepare for the holiday of ……?” The students are then required to learn how to explain all the preparations needed for this particular holiday, including . . .

• What foods are prepared
• What appropriate clothing is worn
• What we do or do not do on a particular holiday
• Customs of the particular holiday

Believe it or not, this is all done in Hebrew!

Some students are very comfortable writing full-length paragraphs in Hebrew, while others are improving their sentence writing. Students will strengthen their own skills at their own level.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to teach your children. I look forward to a positive experience this year. Homework is essential to reinforcing skills learned during the school day. Please make sure your child is keeping up with his/her homework and please feel comfortable contacting me with any questions or concerns you may have.

Wishing you a healthy and happy New Year!!

Judaic Studies – Yefet Zadaka, Davida Cytron, Elena Levitt (HaMorah Esther)

It has been a wonderful start to our year in Judaics! We have begun our year talking about good in the stories of creation as well as in our own lives. We have also been learning a lot about the High Holydays.

In our second unit we will be learning about sin and punishment, as well as how we repair relationships and t’shuvah (return, repentance). We will discuss these concepts through biblical stories such as Adam and Eve in the Garden and Cain and Abel. We will examine these issues through experiences that the students have on a daily basis. What are the consequences of making a mistake and how can we repair the damage that we make? How do we act in our own lives when we choose the wrong path?

We look forward to a meaningful year with all of our students!

Art – Vic Thor

Welcome parents!

Here’s what we’ve been doing and what’s ahead in Grade 3 Art.

• Introduction to artist sketchbooks: Students received their very own art sketchbooks and have completed their first two assignments. Parents, please read and sign the ‘parent letter’ attached to the inside of your child’s sketchbook cover.
• Art Question of the week: Some artists believe that drawing is seeing. What do you think they mean by this? Why do you think the Mona Lisa is smiling? Students begin each class with an art question that introduces the lesson/project we will be working on in class. Students write their answers in their sketchbooks.
• Rubber Duckies! Drawing from Observation: Have you ever looked carefully at a rubber duckie? Have you ever drawn one? Students were asked to draw what they see and to think again about the Art Question of the Week.

• Leonardo da Vinci – our “visiting artist”: Students watched a video about Leonardo da Vinci and his fascination with flying. Students wrote down 10 things they learned about Leonardo. What do you know about Leonardo?
Here is a link to the video: http://www.devine-ent.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=62&Itemid=98

Students were given handouts with the following interactive web sites about Leonardo and his work.

Change Mona Lisa’s expression:http://www.cite-sciences.fr/francais/ala_cite/expo/explora/image/mona/en.php

Learn about Leonardo’s inventions: http://www.universalleonardo.org/index.php – click on Play

• Nature study drawings Since drawing from nature was an important part of Leonardo’s life work and approach to art and science, students will be observing nature closely and carefully rendering what they see.
• Patterns in Nature
• Pastel still lifes

Shanah Tovah! Ms. Thor

Physical Education

Greetings Third Grade Parents,

It’s great to be back in school working with your child in the HMJDS Physical Education program. Mr. Jacobson and I are busy putting your student through the rigors of Physical Fitness testing and are looking forward to sharing the results with you during Fall Conferences. I must admit that my favorite part of working as a physical educator at the Day School is comparing these fall test results with the spring test results, so we can gauge how well they benefit physically from our program. I am very proud of the high percentage of students who improve their level of personal fitness during the course of the school year.

Fall Fitness Testing

Our fitness tests assess your child’s physical performance in four areas:

• Endurance – Half Mile Run
• Hamstring Flexibility – Sit & Reach Box
• Core Strength – Sit-ups completed in one minute
• Agility (which is the ability to change direction quickly) – Shuttle Run

We will be awarding certificates in the spring to students whose performance results meet the Presidential Physical Fitness or the National Standards.

What’s Next?

After fitness testing is completed the third graders will be participating in a football skills unit where they will work on throwing accuracy, punting, kicking, performing hand-offs and running passing routes.