April 8, 2016 
Dear Parents,
A glance at the calendar tells us that there are just about eight weeks of school left, and they are filled with exciting opportunities that we need to let you know about.
Our spring social studies in third grade are framed by the questions:
•Why do people move?
•How does a community grow and change to meet the needs
and wants of its people?
•How does a community’s geography – its climate, physical
features and natural resources – affect the way its people
live and work?
We are beginning our study of CITIES with family migration stories and discussions about immigration, past and present. Next, we will begin to talk about the physical structure of a city and how a city grows and changes according to the needs and wants of its citizens. Then, our focus will be on Minneapolis and its history of development.
You will want to take note of several dates and a project that go along with our CITIES studies. A homework project for this unit will be to design a city. This CREATE A CITY project will pull together all of the information that we have studied about cities in the classroom. A foam board base will be given to each student in order to create a city for the past, present, or future. Any media may be used, but the city must fit on the base provided. Directions and the base for this project will be given to students on Monday, May 2nd, and completed cities will be due back at school on Monday, May 16th. Each student will design a brochure telling about his or her city and should be ready to give a brief oral presentation to the class.
We would like to invite you to join us on Friday morning, May 20th, when students will be sharing their CREATE A CITY projects (along with music and other activities from the CITIES unit) with parents at our Third Grade Sharing Program. This will take place in the Bovey Chapel in the Middle School from 8:30-9:30. Coffee, tea, juice, and pastries will be served.
There are also some field trips connected to this CITIES unit. The first one will be a visit to the Mill City Museum next week on Wednesday, April 20th. In May there will be an all-day tour of Minneapolis and a visit at City Hall with a Minneapolis councilmember. We are still working to determine the date of this trip. If you would like to help with any of these trips, please contact your parent room representative.
Other upcoming events:
May 26th – Third Grade Olympic Day, 1:15-2:45, Hopkins Campus
May 27th– Reading Graph Auction in third grade
May 31st– Lower School Closing Ceremony, 9:00 a.m.
Happy spring!!
Third Grade Teachers
