The third-grade class began a new block this past week that has us learning all about money. We began with a conversation about bartering for goods and services. This led us to talk about the invention of money, what it is, and how we use it. The children then wrote using the prompt “If I had unlimited money, I would…”. It was so much fun to hear the students’ ideas and thoughts from detailed plans and drawings of their mansions, family trips to the beach, and ways of helping others. As they would ask for the spelling of particular words such as “vacation'' and “donate”, the other students’ ideas would flourish and grow. From here we moved to talk about a brief history of manufactured money, its evolution, and then how it is now made. The students made coin rubbings of the coins they brought to school on Tuesday and observed the writing and details of the pictures stamped on them. We also learned and recorded the value of each coin and how many of each coin is in one dollar.
This week, we will begin to focus on the values of U.S. coins and Federal Reserve Notes (bills). Using money dice and the coins the students brought to school, they will begin to develop their understanding of the value of coins and how to combine them to create certain value amounts, as well as how to add and subtract money using the decimal and the appropriate dollar and cent sign. We are also enjoying our read-aloud, The Saturdays, by Elizabeth Enright. This story focuses on the Melendy children and their adventures when they pool their allowances so each of the siblings can have all the money ($1.60) to use one Saturday a month. Elizabeth Enright has four stories of the Melendy children (known as the Melendy Quartet) and is an accomplished children’s author.
Please remember to send your child in layers! The mornings are still cold, and this past week several students wore thin pants and were chilly before the dome and the day warmed up. It is easy to forget in the morning that the day won’t necessarily start as warm and sunny as it ends! The class continues to work at the farm each day, rain or shine, caring for the animals, gardening in earnest, and building various projects. Please guide your child to dress appropriately to meet each day’s third-grade adventure!
With gratitude,
Melissa
