House 43 Digest Online

“Thirty years ago a man called at Peter Wender’s office, introducing himself as Harris Burdick. Mr. Burdick explained that he had written fourteen stories and had drawn many pictures for each one. He’d brought with him just one drawing from each story, to see if Wenders liked his work.

Peter Wenders was fascinated by the drawings. He told Burdick he would like to read the stories that went with them as soon as possible. The artist agreed to bring the stories the next morning. He left the fourteen drawings with Wenders. But he did not return the next day. Or the day after that. Harris Burdick was never heard from again.” – “Introduction,” The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg

When the children heard this introduction, they were spellbound and could not wait to look through the evocative drawings in this book, fifteen in all. Over the next few weeks, each House 43 child will pick one illustration and caption, which will provide the inspiration for an original writing piece. They have begun this process and are in the first stages of drafting. (Read on …)

The following details the information given to the children regarding the Biome Research Project. The children will start and complete this project in the classroom. The information below is a reference for you and your child in case he/she is interested in extending this project at home.

We will share the completed projects after Spring Break.

Biome Project Goals and Tasks: (Read on …)

Each week, House 43 makes entries as a class in their Archaeological Dig Diary. This year, we have it online in our blog for you to read and enjoy. We also have pictures or your viewing pleasure posted on this blog and on the 3rd Grade website. The link on the website is called “Day 1 and 2 of H43’s Archaeological Dig.” The children wrote the following paragraphs as a class on our snowy Friday, which would have been the children’s third day of digging.

(Read on …)

This week House 43 will begin our second week exploring the attributes of 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional shapes. The guiding question for this series of investigations is: “How do we define 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional shapes?” Children are experimenting with shapes using geoboards and playing games, which require pairs of children to describe shapes to each other without using the label of the shape. As a class, we are developing a classroom chart to display the attributes of polygons (2-dimensional) and, later in the week, polyhedra (3-dimensional shapes).

Here is an example of House 43’s list of attributes for a rectangle:

- 4-sides

- 2 sets of parallel (sides that have the same distance between them) sides

- 4 corners

- Each set of parallel sides is of different lengths

- the parallel sides are of equal length

- 4 right angles

As a class, House 43 is reading a new book, Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke. Even though we have completed only the first of many chapters, the class is excited and curious about the book. Tracy or Julia will perform most of the reading. However, each child is expected to follow along using an individual copy of the book. During this Read Aloud time, we will instruct and re-teach important reading skills in context. We will also use this book as the spine for our vocabulary explorations, which will recommence in the first week in March. Later in the story, we will give children the opportunity to participate in reader’s theater, an activity where the children use their voices to read passages with expression and emotion. We will also act out scenes in the book, further assisting the children in the skill of comprehending and visualizing scenes in the text. We will keep you posted as House 43 accompanies the wondrous characters of Dragon Rider along their many journeys.

Thank you for all of the help you have given your children in gathering memories and photos for their personal timelines. We have heard many accounts about how this project has provided the time and space to reminisce about the first few years of life. We cannot wait to share the final projects within the classroom community, as well as with House 43 families.

During the second half of the year in social studies, students will experience activities to help develop their understandings of what it means to look back in time, as well as (Read on …)

The classroom wall map is almost complete and House 43 students are excited about a new project!

This new research project is a continuation of our geography work begun in September and is a supplement to our study of Exploration (or Expansion) and Archaeology. In the next few months, the children will virtually travel along the Silk Road in countries and environments new to them. The terrain, environments and cultures will appear quite different from the biomes and ecosystems found in our area of the United States, the northeast coast of North America. Therefore, it is important that the children learn about where the biomes and ecosystems of the world are located and about what these places can look like. (Read on …)

LR of H43 worked with RB from Edinger House to develop a web posting about House 43’s New Orleans Buddies. Click here to read the complete paragraph.

BB of H43 worked with AC from Edinger House to develop a web posting about House 43’s New Orleans Buddies. Click here to read the complete paragraph.