Hi, I am Sherry Poholchuk and I’ll be leading your children through a fun and exciting year of learning. I have been a teacher for twenty five years and have been at Dutchess Day for the last twenty.
Highlights of the year include Geography and Pirate Days, the 3rd grade play, rocket launches, spelling wizards, the Fantasy Story Tea, and our many exciting field trips. The year is busy and children are expected to show increased responsibility for their personal behavior, leadership within a group, homework, projects and class activities. Things are always happening… so check in often!
Monday’s two hour delay was a great way to ease into what is shaping up to be a very busy January! I’m sure your children have reported that we have selected a play, are starting to practice songs and have read through the preliminary script. Have you heard any of the children’s songs yet? If not, be prepared…you’ll certainly be exposed to them, over and over! We’ll be picking parts before the end of the week, but know that additional parts are going to be added and the script will likely change a bit as it unfolds. You’ll want to note that they will be performing a preview for parents on March 10th and perform the play again for the whole school on Friday March 12th. (The 10th is a good performance for grandparents and guests since you can have the front seats for this performance. On the 12th, you will be seated behind students.)
As for our other classes, in history we learned about the trapper’s lifestyle and the sights that they reported upon returning east…petrified forests, salt lakes, geysers, hot springs and mudpots. Third graders then learned about several tall tales that are part of our American folk culture: John Henry, Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyon and Pecos Bill. History lessons then jumped to writing as the children used these stories and new bits of information to compose their own tall tales. Their task for this last assignment was to create a “truth stretched “adventure with at least a part of it occuring in Wyoming’s Yellowstone region.
Before break in science, while learning about the circulatory system, I dissected a huge cow heart and the children followed up by dissecting their own sheep or pig heart. Nothing teaches you about parts like sticking your finger through a real aorta! We then did a microscope study, which included learning the tool’s various parts and how to focus on specimens. After viewing numerous prepared slides, students then learned to create their own and draw what they had observed through the lens.
Math classes have been filled with multiplication! Drills in different ways were done– counting out manipulatives, videos and songs from School House Rock, rapping, finger tricks, rhymes, web site games and paper and pencil problems. Keep your children reviewing facts since we revisit multiplication again in the spring and these basics remain very important in fourth and fifth grade.
In reading, my group performed a play of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The focus was on fluidity and expression in the reading voice and analyzing why some of the characters in the story were so “bratty.” Ms. Drier’s group read Charlotte’s Web and studied the rather complicated plot and character interaction found in this story. They also worked on summarizing skills. Time in K-reading buddies continues to remain as popular as ever.
In geography we have just finished a lesson that tied in the math skills of reading scales and figuring out distances on the map. We also learned to locate cities in atlases using grid directions. (Happy Town, Fluffyville, and places that had the children’s names in them brought out squeals of delight and hoots of laughter.) You’ll soon be hearing about our upcoming Pirate Day that involves the children making their own treasure maps and using all the skills they learned this year!
I wanted to thank all of our parents for being so generous with their class gifts of books from the school book fair. The children were so excited. I wish you could have seen them grabbing up those books and sprawling all over the floor to read them by themselves or huddled up with friends. We got over thirty new books for class and many were selected by the children themselves so they are especially appreciated. It literally made me tear up watching them all pouring over pages with such joyful, focused intensity. Those books will be appreciated for years to come. Thank you!
Thank you also for the holiday present of a $50 gift card. I’m sure everyone can appreciate how helpful those are at this time of year! I also received a beautiful vanilla bean lotion that smells…well, “delicious” when put on. I love it, so thanks for thinking of me!
As you’ve read, we’ve a lot to look forward to… play preparations, Pirate Day, class visits from parent experts (more on that later), interesting stories to write and read and so much more. Keep checking our posts. Happy New Year!
On November 14th, the Rotary Club of Millbrook sent one of its representatives, David Greenwood, to Dutchess Day to hand out copies of Webster’s Dictionary for Students. One of the Rotary’s goals is to see that every third grader has his or her own dictionary. Since he is the town historian and art history teacher at Millbrook, David made an engaging speaker. The children were intrigued with some of the projects he talked about that the Rotary was involved with. They were thrilled to get their dictionaries. Later, the children happily played a game of looking up words. Several children took them home, but many kept them here at school to use.
The food drive is over and it was incredible. Students packed up about twenty bags for each of the five families we were collecting for. On that last day, they counted up over three hundred dollars in bills, checks and coins that were used to purchase fresh foods for the holidays. Margaret O’Brien came in for the whole day to help shop and assist with organization. We were busy all day, but made it with two minutes to spare before the 2:00 deadline. It was very impressive to see it all come together. The project is valuable in so many ways. In preparation, they wrote letters and speeches, spoke before audiences to remind them of the need for food, designed posters, sorted the donated food each morning and counted up the money. The teachers from Head Start spoke to the children about the importance of what they had done and told them to think about how they saved these families from making some very tough choices about where to spend the little money they had. What a great way to help the community! Bravo, third graders and your families.
Lastly, it was great to meet the parents at conferences. Whenever I have these meetings, I find I’m very happy at the end of the day. I’m tired yes, but happy. Even if all the news I’ve had to share wasn’t fabulous, the intense focus on a single child forces a teacher to see their unique abilities and the joy they bring to their world each day. The children here really are fun, adventurous, curious and excited about what they are doing . Imagine spending your day immersed in all that positive energy…being surrounded by ingenuousness and open minds. Teaching is an incredible job. I feel very blessed to be here with yourchildren and can’t imagine doing anything else that would be nearly as gratifying. So… on this Thanksgiving, thank you for your support and for the opportunity to work with your wonderful children.
Each year the third graders host a Thanksgiving food drive. The food we collect from our class and the Dutchess Day community goes to select families at the Astor Head Start in Wingdale, NY. The food is deperately needed by these families. Though this project is very rewarding for our children, it is also a lot of work! Your children have written letters to every family, faculty and staff member here at school to personally ask for donations. Each child will help write and then deliver a speech to either the upper or lower school lunch audience. They will design posters to hang around school, describing what is needed for a successful drive.
As the food comes in, we will sort it by category each morning and count up the collected cash. On the last day of the drive, I will leave during the children’s first special of the day (with a parent volunteer) to purchase turkeys, fresh fruit and vegetables, breads, etc. with the collected money. We will work the entire rest of the morning, dividing up the food for designated families, bagging and boxing it, and then hauling it out to several waiting cars.
The director of Head Start will talk to the children about the lives of the children they are helping. We will be invitied to visit their school in the spring to read and play with the children in their preschool classrooms.
The children are so excited. This project is very “third grade.” It’s fun because they are dealing with lots of “stuff” that they are counting, sorting, delivering… but the project also touches them in a different way since this is the age when they become more capable of thinking about the world beyond themselves. I hope you too can get excited about this for them and be supportive of their efforts. We will start collecting food and money right away (next Monday) and collect through until the following Monday (right before Thanksgiving).
The children were so proud of their games as they spread them out before classmates and set down to “work.” As the day went on, homeroom periods whizzed past as they eagerly set about playing the varied creations they and their friends had produced, some with the help of parents, some without. Games on boards and a putting green, target, card and flag games, a scavenger hunt, Twister and even a spinning pizza ruled the day. The children were so engrossed in the variety before them they didn’t even realize how much they were soaking in and reviewing about geography! Thanks for any help from home that you gave to help make this day so successful. It is one of those days from third grade that they’ll remember for some time. Perhaps some of these children can find jobs at Milton Bradley or Hasbro one of these days!
Third graders were certainly busy this week. On Monday we started out in high gear. Scheduled to run assembly for the school on Monday morning, the children eagerly agreed to help me by performing a lesson on the digestive system. They were great sports. Each child presented an organ or food particle, and spoke about the functions each fulfilled for the body. They had such fun and spoke well from the stage. Using props like a wet/dry vac, pie rollers, test tubes of water, and crazy straws, they both entertained and informed the audience. These experiences are important public speaking lessons and lay needed groundwork for the play they will perform in the spring. The children received numerous compliments on the performance from both teachers and students alike.
On Tuesday, Ron Friedman, a lawyer based in Fishkill, came in to speak about his passion: Lewis and Clark. This is his fourth visit, and he brings more to share each year. This time he arrived with paintings, brochures from out west, books, magazines and personal photos to share with the children. The children crowded around him at the back table as he shared stories about the vacation he and a friend took that retraced the same path as the Lewis and Clark expedition.
On Wednesday we headed toward Stockbridge, Massachusetts and the Norman Rockwell Museum. The children were introduced to his art and were asked to write short pieces about various paintings. They were taught to take note of even the smallest details to help them understand and better share with others what the artist was attempting to portray. These same skills will come in handy in the coming weeks as we begin to craft short stories in writing workshop that will accompany their choice of a piece of Rockwell’s artwork.
Next week should prove to be just as busy! We will begin to write letters to the DDS community about our upcoming food drive, design posters to hang around the school and start writing and making speeches for the upper and lower school lunches. Each child is required to make a “Food Drive Appeal” speech to one of those audiences. In addition, The Third Grade Geography Day is scheduled for Wednesday. Remember, their original games for that event are due on Tuesday. This way I can plan out the day based on the players required for each game and determine whether the games are to be played indoors or out. It seems the excitement and pace doesn’t let up in third grade!
A big thank you needs to go out to all the parents and children who participated in our first Math Games Night at Dutchess Day! Everyone came with a great attitude and willingness to play and try out some new activities. We snacked on delicious cookies, strategized over games of chance, figured out a “nines finger trick” for multiplication BINGO, and played against our partners in Name That Number, Number Top-It and Beat the Calculator! It was very fun, and everyone appeared to be having a good time. Since I was directing much of the evening, I didn’t get pictures, but we played all the games the next morning with the children who were unable to make it. That class was just as fun.
This week, I also was able to arrange a trip to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. This is a joint trip that we take with the fourth grade. Though we go to see Rockwell’s art ( his paintings are especially wonderful for children), we are actually there to focus on the stories of the people who were the inspiration for the pieces. When we return from this trip, each child will be given a photo of one of his paintings and they will be asked to write about the story they imagine to be happening there. The result will be a set of beautiful tales about everyday life as seen through a child’s eye interpreting an adult’s vision.
Thank you to all the parents who have provided such wonderful snacks these past weeks. I’m sure you know how much your children look forward to snack time. It’s right up there with recess, lunch and gym!
What an exciting week we’ve had! Three highlights include a lesson given by Cooper’s dad, dissecting owl pellets and finishing stories about being stranded on a desert island.
Dr. Hal Buch, gastroenterologist, visited on Thursday morning to share with the children photos and tools used by doctors who specialize in figuring out the causes of problems originating in the digestive tract. (We are studying that body system in science.) The children were fascinated as he demonstrated tools used for biopsies and for lopping off polyps. Most amazing was the disposable camera he brought in that is swallowed in a capsule form. It takes pictures as it moves through the digestive tract that we watched on the computer. The children looked for evidence of redness, swelling, inflammation, deformities and bleeding in various patients. It their words, “It was awesome!”
The owl pellet dissections have been fun and exciting to do as well. After visiting the Audubon, reading a story about barn owls, and watching a documentary about their habits, children paired up and received a pellet to dissect. After carefully splitting them apart, on a dissecting tray, they used probes and tweezers to remove the fur from tiny skeletal pieces. The children are currently working on sorting the bones and reconstructing the tiny skeletons of various field mammals they’ve found inside.
In writing this week, Ms. Fedele, my co-writing teacher, had the children write a story about being stranded on an island with only five items to help them survive. The children dove right into this assignment and those who have finished are eagerly vying for opportunities to read what they’ve written to their classmates. The stories shared thus far have been sprinkled with humor, wild imaginings, and even helpful robots!
