Third grade is the year that students in TDSP read and study the classic children’s novel, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, by Florence and Richard Atwater, in Morah Devorah Gilkarov’s class. Mr. Popper’s Penguins is the charming story of a North Pole obsessed housepainter, who finds himself in receipt of a penguin. He keeps the penguin in his icebox but through various high jinks his one penguin turns to 12, and Mr. Popper needs to feed and care for them all. He sets up an ice-skating rink in his basement and creates a traveling penguin circus. At some point penguins end up in prison… and all in all it’s an immensely enjoyable novel. At the end of the unit, Morah Devorah charges her students with making a diorama of a scene from the novel. The results are always outstanding, and this year was no exception. Check out some of the pictures!