rd 3 Janet Miller, Asst. Principal P.S. 50’s Grade Newsletter November 2014 Joseph Santello, Principal Literacy Place Third grade students are closing up their first Unit of reading and writing. In the beginning of November, we will be entering into Unit 2: Module A, Connecting Character, Culture, and Community. Students will read and explore content to understand that people have rich cultural heritage and traditions. They will find that relationships within a community are affected by the culture of that community. Fiction texts include “The Year of Miss Agnes” and “The Frog Princess” A Tingit Legend from Alaska. Our Nonfiction reads include “The Athabascans: Old Ways and New Ways,” “A Visit to Vietnam”, and “A Day at School in Japan.” A reoccurring topic of study will be Alaska. Math Block Multiplication has taken off in 3rd grade! Between memorization, skip counting songs, and exploration students are developing their number sense and algebraic thinking. Chapter 4 and 5 will continue work from our previous chapter 3, and students will be solving two step word problems. Students will also learn and explore the distributive and associative properties of multiplication. As always, visit Ps 50’s website for Show Me videos that can assist you in supporting your child.    Important dates: NY Philharmonic Young peoples concert is on 11/15: visit for more information: http://nyphil.org/education/for-kidsand-teens/young-peoples-concerts 11/13- PTC NO SCHOOL 11/4, 11/11. 11/27. 11/28 Erika Desiano, Asst. Principal Writer’s Corner We are finishing up our first informational writing piece. Students are truly enjoying researching and informing readers on their topics of interest. This month, writers will revisit narrative writing and use previous writing techniques, such as dialogue, character traits, sequencing, and temporal words, to further develop narratives. Their narratives will be written with a clear situation, character response to that situation, and have a central The Arts message that is conveyed through the actions of a In November, students in art class with character. Ms Galante will create a drawing that demonstrates controls of various art materials, while implementing art elements and principles of design. We will begin learning how to blend/mix chalk pastels to create a drawing showing emphasis on our subjects. Colors can be dull or bright; this will help us make our subject stand out from our background. In the month of November, Mrs. Maniscalco’s chorus class will continue to develop our listening skills by making connections to tempo. We will work on rhythmic notation to help us sing new songs. Students will learn a Thanksgiving song and start focusing on relating to the shape of the sound.