Dear Third-Grade Families,

Last week we finished the seven days of the Hebrew Creation story. We can find creation stories not only in the Hebrew tradition but in many different cultures. It is interesting to compare how differently we tell the story of our origins in various parts of the world. So we ended the week with The Turtle and the Island: A Folktale from Papua New Guinea by Barbara Ker Wilson. A turtle swims around in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, looking for a piece of land to rest in the sun. By slowly gathering sand and rocks on the ocean floor, the turtle creates an island and brings in people who become the inhabitants of Papua New Guinea. This week, we will talk about the expulsion from Paradise. In grammar, we will start identifying different parts of speech in sentences, starting with nouns.

This year, the third grade will Celebrate the Day of Courage together with the second grade. The students will symbolically conquer a dragon by going through an outdoor obstacle course with different challenges. The second and third-grade classes will host the obstacle course at the end of this week with the support of our class parents. We are memorizing a poem about George and the Dragon to recite at the end of the week. I have sent you copies of the poem via email this weekend. Please help your child at home to memorize their part of the poem by Wednesday. We will have an exciting week before we head into fall break on Friday!

Reminders:

This Friday, September 24, will be a half-day. Dismissal on Friday will be at 12:30 p.m.
Next week, 9/27-10/1, is Fall Break. There is no school that week.
Make sure your child comes to school well-rested.

Make sure your child has a pair of hard-soled, rubber-bottomed shoes for inside the building. These should be labeled and kept at school.

Make sure your child has packed enough food for snacks and lunch. Do not forget two filled water bottles.

Make sure to bring creek or rainy weather-clothing every day.

Best,

Gaby Farrokhi