What is Culture?

This year in third grade we will be using "throughlines" to guide our studies. Throughlines are guiding questions that help us to examine topics throughout the course of the year. Our third grade throughlines are:

1. What is culture?

2. What is geography?

3. How are cultures similar to and different from each other?

4. What does it mean to be a caring world citizen?

This week, we have been thinking a lot about culture and asking ourselves the question "What is culture?"

Our shared reading selection this week was The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco. In this story, Polacco traces her family's roots to Russia, the family's arrival in New York City, and follows several generations as they try to keep their Russian history and traditions alive through a "keeping quilt." This story prompted much discussion about family traditions and the components of culture. I also challenged the kids to design a quilt-making activity!

The Keeping Quilt also served as a vehicle for thinking about the elements of a story. We created puzzle maps. Just like a puzzle, every story has pieces. Once you put the pieces together, the meaning of a story becomes clear. This idea of a story puzzle map also helped us organize our "small moment" stories in writing this week.

Students have also been busy working in guided reading groups. As a class we are focusing on the author Judy Blume. One group is reading Freckle Juice and one group is reading The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo.

We completed our first unit in Math this week. You will notice that your child is bringing home their first unit assessment. As I explained to the kids, an assessment is simply a way for us to know what we know and what we still need to work on. At this point, curriculum assessments are not graded. They simply help to inform my instruction.

Dates to Remember:

Monday, October 11: Columbus Day (No School)

Friday, October 15: Field Trip to the Lloyd Center (We can have two chaperones-Let me know if you would like to join us.)

Friday, October 22: Parent-Teacher Conferences (No School)

HAVE A WONDERFUL, LONG WEEKEND!