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3rd Grade China Museum
The 3rd Grade China Museum is the culminating and celebratory event that occurs at the end of a five-month study of China. It coincides each year with Chinese New Year.
During the museum, the third graders host the other grades, friends, and family. The young scholars discuss their projects, teach the younger students who visit, and converse with the fourth and fifth graders as peers who have previously studied China.
The exciting museum has a street fair feel to it due to the shadow puppet theater performances, the music, the interactive activities that include papermaking, calligraphy, a chopstick challenge, and silk cocoon unraveling to collect the fine silk thread. Dumplings that were made by students were served on opening day, followed by rice cakes on day two. Paintings, calligraphy, trip sheets, scientific drawings, and research coat the walls. Student-made lanterns hang from the ceiling and add to the festive atmosphere.
Books, discussions, class activities and lessons, inspire the creations presented in the children’s museum. Also inspiring the projects were the many trips the children took during the year, including visits to the Chinese Scholar’s Garden, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Chinatown, and the American Museum of Natural History. Visiting artists and teachers also added much to our curriculum. The student’s projects were made with great care, skill, effort, craftsmanship, thought, fun, collaboration, and at times, support from parent volunteers.
The 3rd Grade China Museum brings out the best in the students. The journey toward it is filled with learning. Talk to any student about any topic and you will discover how much they know. This knowledge is shared visually, artistically, and orally. The 3rd Grade China Museum is a model of student engagement and work and it is clear evidence of how much an eight and nine year old can do and learn.