This month in LEDP is sadly the last month, but the kiddos have been getting super excited for summer and telling us all about their future summer adventures! We have been wrapping up the year with some fun projects and also more outside/gym time. Sonnae led a few design projects centered around fashion! We had a few days where a lot of our 3rd graders decided to make clothes out of felt and fabric we had left over from our end of the year project. Our fashion designers were helping each other make aprons, capes, cloaks, headbands and even little stuffies! There was a small fashion show to show off their creativity whilst also singing along to songs from Wicked! 

Some of our third graders  have been updating us on their days with small comic books they draw collectively called “Bloopers of the Day.” They will make a six page comic book covering funny things that happened to them and their friends throughout the day. They have also been branching out and creating comics about characters they create and writing stories to go along with their characters. When our comic book artists are not creating their material, they love to go to the big gym and play this new game they created. It is a cross between soccer, volleyball and water polo (minus the water). One of them is the goalie, while the other ones hit the ball with their hands instead of feet. They can only shoot to score if they stand up, but all other times in the game they have to shuffle around on their knees. It seems like a pretty tough game, but our athletes are excited to play it each day! The 2024-2025 school year has been great! It was a pleasure getting to know each and every third grader this year and connecting with all of them throughout the year! Thank you so much and we hope you have a wonderful summer break! We’ll see you next year!

This month in LEDP third grade got very excited for our highly anticipated Walk-A-Thon! The kiddos got hyped up to decorate many different posters to hang along the track for the fundraiser! It was such an amazing day-especially third grade- they helped out the younger kiddos while also being wonderful role models for them. The upper grades did spectacular in their roles as helpers facilitating face painting and handing out snacks. Overall, it was an amazing day for everyone involved! Thank you to everyone who donated and supported us along the way!

In the week after the Walk A Thon, third grade settled in nicely back to normalcy. Homework time has been going very well as the year winds down, many students needing less help with homework as the reality of fourth grade sets in. During free choice time, a lot of our kiddos have asked to go to the gym and play pool noodle tag! It is so funny to see so many kids running around with pool noodles, racing after each other to see who will be it next. After tag, the boys will usually go back to playing soccer, transitioning to outside and building different soccer teams with other grades on the field. Third grade tried to build robots as well one day, which then turned into building different creatures and monsters out of the various materials we had- such as, cotton balls, styrofoam, paper tubes, pom poms, straws and toothpicks. 

This month third grade has been enjoying being back from April break! It was so fun to listen to everyone’s stories about their break- many were excited to share their stories on the eclectic list of places our world travelers visited such as, Paris, Las Vegas, The Grand Canyon, Cape Cod, Florida, Arizona, Chicago, Ohio and Vermont! Even friends that stayed local shared their own versions of exploration- excited to tell us about how  the MFA, Coolidge Corner and The Arnold Arboretum! In the following weeks since break the kiddos have really been enjoying making creations out of beads like lizards, snakes, ice cream cones and custom friendship bracelets! The girls have been decorating and designing bracelets for their friends, writing silly words or others names on them and sharing them! Some of them also made bracelets for Sonnae and I which we have put on our ID tags or wrists and worn them everyday! 

Also this month third grade has been excited everyday to get outside and enjoy the sunshine! The weather (excluding weekends) has been amazing! We played a big third grade kickball game and everyone enjoyed playing against one another, trying to catch the ball for outs and kicking it as far as they could. Now that the field is open, the boys love to play soccer on the open nets- often sharing the field with the second graders. They love to play World Cup or fully scrimmige games against other groups. The girls have been very interested in finding worms in the ground or making some mud sculptures with flowers pressed onto them, and little rocks for decoration; they are so creative! We also have created sculptures out of clay inside on rainy days, we have hot glued them to make bigger, more extravagant ones! Overall third grade has had a wonderful start to May and we are all excited for the Walk-A-Thon!

This month in LEDP, third grade has done quite a few different activities! We started off the month with a good old game of trivia! Mostly everyone participated and worked well together, forming teams of two or three to answer questions about US history or Greek mythology. Afterwards we started a magnetic science experiment, testing to see what liquids would be too thick or too thin to pull a paperclip through it with a magnet. We used dish soap, water, shampoo and shaving cream! It did not take long for the kids to ditch the experiment and start playing with the shaving cream. Another day went by and the kiddos decided of their own choosing to create popsicle stick structures! We had different kids make bird houses, others made boats and others just decided to color the sticks different colors and use them as bookmarks!

With April here it means we are spending more time outside! Even though lately it has been quite rainy, on the days it is nice and sunny outside, we venture out most of the day and third grade has found many different activities to do. The girls have found interest in making mud pies or mud structures on the pavement, decorating them with budding flowers or small rocks to make little worm homes! They also decided to go hunting for worms one day, finding some and looking at them closely with sticks, intrigued by the little wiggly creatures and putting them back in their homes. The field has now opened and the kiddos are ecstatic! The boys are excited to play soccer again with real soccer goals and the girls enjoy chasing the birds on the field or poking at puddles with sticks. Overall April has been going well for third grade and we hope to keep up the energy after we return from April break!

Through the second half of March third grade has been quite active! We have played large group games in the gym such as soccer or doctor dodgeball. We have been focusing on what sportsmanship looks and sounds like. We did a relay race with two separate teams racing around the track outside. It really ignited some kids' competitive spirit! During choice time, we have been doing some fun science experiments! We did a “can color disappear?” experiment; Allison filled four different cups with water and added red to one cup, blue to another, yellow to another and green to the last one. The kids guessed which colors they thought would disappear completely and which ones would just fade. The outcome was super cool! We also made some air dry clay sculptures led by Sonnae and the next day painted them to take home! The kiddos seem to love the activities, but also loved going outside in the warm spring weather!  

Since our reward system has been going so well- everyone has gotten their sticker charts filled! We decided to have a movie party with popcorn in the LEDP room to celebrate! We watched Despicable Me 4 with all the lights off, comfy seats and two huge bags of popcorn! It was a lovely Friday celebration and hopefully another one will be coming soon!

This month in LEDP third grade has been enjoying the new spring weather! We have all been so excited for the sunshine to come out and shine on our faces, as the boys play endless rounds of soccer in the field, and the girls have contests on the swings to see who can swing the highest. On the days it has been a little too cold outside, we have stayed inside and done some fun activities in the LEDP room! One of the days Allison brought in her guitar and let the kids play some songs. A lot of them showed interest in wanting to learn the different parts of the guitar, and how the sound works from it. Each kid took turns holding it and strumming it, all of them complaining that it was “too big.” Third grade has also done a few projects this month, one of them being a lego STEM activity! The goal was to build a Lego house with no roof. When it was time to make the roof, the kids had a plethora of different materials to try and create a waterproof roof that would withstand Allison dumping water on it.

We are currently working on a unit on respect and the kiddos have been coming up with "good deeds" and we created a board in the room with what respect: looks like, sounds like, feels like. As we continue to chat about respect we aim to praise all the "good deeds," and signs of respect as we see them! Way to go 3rd grade!

For your consideration, we've added a few more items to our Amazon wish list with a link posted on the front page of our website. Thank you in advance for your generosity! 

This month in third grade has been filled with fun, laughs and big smiles! We have implemented some new building tools out of little paper cups! A lot of our girls took to them almost immediately and built what they call “The Great Wall of LEDP.” It took them multiple tries and multiple different teams of kiddos, but they achieved their goal of making the biggest wall of paper cups they could! When that eventually fell they did not hesitate to build it again, stacking it on the ground so they could build it even taller! Naturally the girls decided to call it, “The Great Wall of LEDP 2” since it was the second building of the great wall!

Also this month, winter has been giving us a lot of snow which means everyone had fun playing in it in LEDP! During outside time, a lot of third graders rushed to the field to continue building snow forts they started during school recess. They grabbed whatever they could find to haul snow over to the structures to build it up, creating doors to forts, tunnels underneath forts, and walls to build the forts. It has been a very creative month for third grade, whether that be with building materials inside, or creating building materials outside! 

We hope that everyone has a wonderful break and we can't wait to see you all in February's last week!

This month third grade has been getting into a lot of board games! Everyday they ask each other if anyone wants to play Out Foxed, a team game where you try to guess through clues on who  the thief is! A lot of the third graders love it and seem to play nicely with one another! Third grade has also been a fan of some of the new games we received, such as Magnetism, a game where you try to avoid connecting all the magnets together which is much harder than you’d think! They also enjoy playing this memorization game of finding numbers 1-12 in order by flipping them over, memorizing the order and taking turns. 

Aside from board games, third grade has spent a lot of time inside because outside has been so cold! On the days we have stayed inside, groups of kids have made many different creations out of magnatiles such as castles, houses, forts, and racetracks! For those who chose not to build, we end up going to the gym and running around in large games of dodgeball. They love to play kids against teacher such as, all of the kids throwing dodgeballs at Allison and Allison deflecting them back. It is such a joy to see everyone smiling and running around until their faces are beet red, kicking dodgeballs out of the way, and plopping down on the ground smiling tiredly. We are looking forward to what February will bring for third grade!

January has been a very exciting time of year for third grade! Everyone was so excited to come back to school in 2025, and tell us all about their two week vacation break. Many kids went away for break and told us stories about their trips to Korea, Dominican Republic, New York, and other places. Many kids were bubbling with excitement to tell us what they received for Hanukkah or Christmas, animatedly describing the video games they played, food they ate, and family they saw. 

Meanwhile, third grade has been consistently getting better at listening, doing homework on time, and cleaning up from activities. The new sticker reward system has been going really well, some kids even reaching the prize twice now. Many of the boys are enjoying playing football together, taking turns catching and running the ball and trying to score a touchdown. While other boys have fun playing basketball together, trying to guard one another when shooting and taking deep three point shots. The girls love to trade little squishy things, pencils, erasers, and stickers with each other in the cafeteria while they eat their snack and chat. Overall, third grade is having a fabulous start to the year! Can’t wait to see where more months will bring us!

This month in LEDP third grade has done a lot of sporty activity! During gym time you can often find the girls rooting for each other doing gymnastics, and the boys playing catch with footballs while others play basketball. Many of the girls teach each other different gymnastics moves and help one another in trying to get better. They have been timing themselves on how long they can hold a handstand and cheering for one another when they beat their personal best. Also in the gym, the boys have been competing in friendly games of soccer and basketball. They have been playing Knockout where they shoot the ball into the hoop and whoever gets the ball in first, the other one is out. They also play games of thunder with the soccer ball, where they shoot the ball into the goal while shouting the country they represent on the field. 

In return third grade has implemented a new reward system; the sticker chart! Instead of our old system where everyone had to work together to work towards a common goal, we now reward each student individually. This system has turned out to be a smashing success! Everyone tries to help eachother out and receive as many stickers as they can. Boys and girls are playing well together and keeping hands off and to themselves. We look forward to see who is the first one to get the most stickers!

Wrapping up the month of October, third grade made sparkly potions while listening to Halloween music to get into the spirit of trick or treating! Every child in the whole school was elated to get candy in their adorable costumes. As third grade waited to get picked up with friends to get buckets of candy, kids stirred their potions and pretended to be witches. Starting off November, third grade dove into harvest themed crafts and the changes of daylight savings. Our first craft was creating our favorite pieces of pie out of paper plates, then creating those into paper plate pie garlands! Our next project was run by our newest member Sonnae! She had the kiddos pick out different colored pieces of felt and then created name pennants! Various friends made many pennants for themselves, siblings, parents, and teachers. 

In November we have had a few early release days, within those days we have done fun trivia games and we got to pet alligators! We had the Rainforest Reptile show come and present various reptilians to our kiddos. We learned about the difference between alligators and crocodiles, tortoises and turtles, and how big snakes can grow! After the show we all went outside and some of the third graders created their own landscaping business! November has been full of falling leaves and fun crafts, onto the next!

Kicking off the middle of the month was the beloved Japanese Fair! All of the third graders were so excited to get their highly sought after ice pops and rice balls! Everyone had their tickets in hand ready to play the fish scooping game and buy fun Pokemon crafts and origami. Soon enough all of the ice pops were gone, and candy necklaces worn and eaten, ready to move onto the bakery table to eat all of the brownies. After all of the kids were full of sweets and fun, they were happy to come back inside to play games and read until their parents picked them up.

The rest of the month was filled with Halloween themed art projects and getting to know our new third grade teacher Sonnae! We made 3D haunted landscapes out of paper plates, along with ping pong ball Jack- o'-lanterns! For a few days a lot of the kids took it upon themselves to make their very own little houses again; they made lampshades out of paper plates and beds out of cotton balls, drawing little windows and rugs on their walls and floors. Sonnae ran her first art project with them and it went amazingly! The kids loved making their own faux jack o lanterns trying to copy Sonnae’s wonderful example. She also ran a pumpkin/Frankenstein drawing project and the kids loved it! The girls loved to make their spooky pumpkins just in time for Halloween! 

Third grade is excitedly entering the spooky month of October! We have a ton of fun projects planned around the Halloween theme; watercolor Halloween characters, tea light planets, ooblek slime and Halloween costume designing! We have also been doing other projects on the not so spooky side; third grade experimented with different fruits and their acidity levels by putting baking soda on them. They loved to smoosh the baking soda into the fruit to see which ones fizzed! They all were excited to see what would happen with the pumpkin I provided. Kids squashed lemons and limes into the pumpkin to activate the baking soda- at the end it looked like a fun and messy Halloween centerpiece!

Another one of the projects we did was run by Jaylise. She created little paper stuffies of cows, pigs, sheep, and chickens! It was so cute to see everyone running around with their own little paper pet. They also loved her attempt at making ooblek, although it turned into super colorful slime with shaving cream and flour! Jaylise created a lot of great projects with them throughout the first month of school and they all enjoyed her work as did we. It was amazingly fun to have her at LEDP, the kids loved to ask her about her tasks in the army and what she has done for the country. We thank her for her service and her time at LEDP, we all wish her well!

We've had so much fun celebrating the new Fall season and look forward to the next spooky weeks to follow! Also please be on the lookout for more information via email on one of four of our Open Houses this year!

Third grade is having a great start to the new year! Over the past two weeks, the children have been settling into and learning our daily routines, practicing our group expectations, and getting to know our new staff member Jaylise! We are all working nicely in the new space, the cafeteria! Jaylise created a wonderful little seating chart for homework and reading time, which has translated really well into quiet reading and friendships. The kids have shown us as each day passes that they can surpass our expectations and foster a respectful, cooperative, and lively community in third grade.

It has been an interesting few starting weeks in the LEDP third grade. Jaylise got called away by her own army duties in the military! While we wait for her to return safely we have our very own Gus back with us for two weeks! The kids were so happy and excited to see their old LEDP teacher sitting waiting for them as a total surprise on a normal Monday afternoon. In the meantime we have created some pretty cool projects! We created our very own fossils from model magic and tiny dinosaur figurines. Everyone was so excited to use model magic and paint it, they even used markers on some to create different colored clays. Also in classic Gus fashion, he constructed a “build your own room” diorama. The kids spent quite a few days drawing, cutting, and building their very own rooms. All of them are so full of creativity and color that can only be described as a Gus LEDP project.

We love that 3rd grade has jumped right in and we anticipate another amazing year in LEDP!