Friday, November 17th

The week of November 27th, we have PE on Wednesday

Dear Parents,

We had a fantastic time at the Mary Poppins play!  The Backstory Theater productions are always impressive!  

Thank you for sending in food for the Kohl Food Drive. It is amazing to see how much can be accomplished when everyone does a little bit.  Kohl collected hundreds of pounds of food!

I wanted to congratulate our Kohl Spelling Bee finalists. Kierra Logemann and Caylin Schwab will represent our third grade class in the spelling bee. Stella Rebora is our alternate.  The spelling bee is scheduled for Thursday, December 14th in the afternoon.

We enjoyed our  Wetland Life Cycles lessons with Thorne Nature Experience on Tuesday, November 14h.  A teacher from Thorne will be working with students during one more visit on November 28th to extend our Plant and Animal Life Cycles unit.   Thank you to our PTA for funding our work with Thorne!

Math:
We have been working on measurement using both US Customary units and Metric units this week. After Thanksgiving we will work on telling time and calculating elapsed time. After that, we will use graphs to understand data.  Please continue to support your child with their nightly math fact practice. We are still doing daily math dashes to help keep up those skills.

Social Studies

We started a social studies unit about regions of the United States this week and will continue this unit when we return from break.

Literacy

This week we spent some time learning about Thanksgiving. We watched a video and read about the Thanksgiving holiday and then used that information to continue our practice of writing informative paragraphs.  

We will begin opinion writing after break.

Homework Ideas for Next Week

• ReadingPlus or iReady lessons at least once per week.

• Check in with your child about their Mystery State assignment.  
• Help your child practice their Dictado sentence.  This should be written in their homework notebook each week and students should practice writing the sentence nightly.
• Practice math X and / facts 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, and 10. 5 minutes daily

• Have your child use MobyMax to practice math, reading, writing, social studies, science and more!  We will continue to use it at least once a week at school.  It is a great resource as it adjusts content and pace for each student’s level and needs.
• Unit 2 Math Homework Practice packet Due December 11th

https://www.mobymax.com/signin

Important Dates to Remember

November 21st-24th- No School Thanksgiving Break

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving break with your families.  I am so thankful to be part of the Kohl community!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Aisha Galt

Thursday, November 9th

Next week we have PE on Tuesday and Friday

Dear Parents,

Friday, November 3rd was the last day of our first trimester. It’s hard to believe your children are ⅓ of the way through their 3rd grade year! Report cards for first trimester will be available through the Infinite Campus Parent Portal starting on Monday, November 13th.  This online access format for parents is new for all of us.  

We all enjoyed our  Wetland Life Cycles lessons with Thorne Nature Experience on Tuesday, November 7th.  A teacher from Thorne will be working with students during two more  visits to extend our Plant and Animal Life Cycles unit.  Please ask your child about what they learned and activities they did during these lessons on November 14th, and November 28th.  Thank you to our PTA for funding our work with Thorne!

On Friday, November 17, we will be going on a field trip to see "Mary Poppins" at the Broomfield Auditorium. We can take up to 3 parents with us on this trip and we will be walking. Please be sure to sign the permission slip in the Friday folder and return it as soon as possible. If I have more than 3 parents who want to go I will draw names.

As you know, your child received a copy of Spelling Bee study words in their Friday folder a few.  If your child is interested in participating in the Kohl Spelling Bee, they may want to study these words over the next few weeks.  We will be giving all third graders a spelling bee screening test next week to determine our three classroom spelling bee participants.  These tests will not be graded for a classroom grade.  They are just a screener for us to qualify students for the spelling bee.

Math:

Last week we finished up Unit 2 (Multiplication and Division 0-10) in math. All assessments will be in Friday folders today. Overall, the class did a great job on this assessment. It always amazes me how much they have learned over such a short period of time. Keep working on all of the multiplication and division facts at home.

We started Unit 3, which is Measurement, TIme and Graphing. This unit is a bit shorter and will be completed shortly after Thanksgiving break.

Science:

Our Plant and Animal Life Cycles unit is coming to a close.  It has been amazing to watch and learn about the life cycles of frogs, butterflies, and pea plants in our classroom. We will begin a social studies unit about regions of the United States the week of November 13th.

Literacy:

Students are reading and writing informative texts.

Homework Ideas for Next Week

• ReadingPlus or iReady lessons at least once per week.

• Check in with your child about their Mystery State assignment.  
• Help your child practice their Dictado sentence.  This should be written in their homework notebook each week and students should practice writing the sentence nightly.
• Practice math X and / facts 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, and 10. 5 minutes daily

• Have your child use MobyMax to practice math, reading, writing, social studies, science and more!  We will continue to use it at least once a week at school.  It is a great resource as it adjusts content and pace for each student’s level and needs.
• Unit 2 Math Homework Practice packet Due December 11th

https://www.mobymax.com/signin

Important Dates to Remember

Friday, November 10th- No School Veteran’s Day

Friday, November 17th- Field Trip- Mary Poppins (sack lunch needed)

November 21st-24th- No School Thanksgiving Break

Enjoy the long weekend.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Aisha Galt

Friday, November 3rd

Next week we have PE on Wednesday

Dear Parents,

Happy Friday!  It has been quite a week with Halloween falling on Tuesday.  

I am excited to announce that we are beginning our Wetland Life Cycles lessons with Thorne Nature Experience on Tuesday, November 7th.  A teacher from Thorne will be working with students during three progressive visits to extend our Plant and Animal Life Cycles unit.  Please ask your child about what they learned and activities they did during these lessons on November 7th, November 14th, and November 28th. Thank you to our PTA for funding our work with Thorne!

Your child received a copy of Spelling Bee study words in their Friday folder last week.  If your child is interested in participating in the Kohl Spelling Bee, they may want to study these words over the next few weeks.  We will be giving all third graders a spelling bee screening test the week before Thanksgiving break to determine our three classroom spelling bee participants.  These tests will not be graded for a classroom grade.  They are just a screener for us to qualify students for the spelling bee.

Math:

Unit 2 has been a lot of practice with all of the multiplication and division facts and how to use them in one and now two step word problems. The class is doing a good job of using a step by step method to find the important information, think about what the problem is asking them to do and then writing and solving the equation. We even started using order of operations (ask your child about PMDAS Please Make Dad A Sandwich). I am impressed with their hard work. We took our Unit 2 math test today. It will come home in Friday folders next week. Our next unit will be Measurement, Time, and Graphs.

Science

Our Plant and Animal Life Cycles unit is coming to a close.  It has been amazing to watch and learn about the life cycles of frogs, butterflies, and pea plants in our classroom. We will begin a social studies unit about regions of the United States the week of November 13th.

Literacy

Students are reading and writing informative texts.

Homework Ideas for Next Week

• ReadingPlus or iReady lessons at least once per week.

• Check in with your child about their Mystery State assignment.  
• Help your child practice their Dictado sentence.  This should be written in their homework notebook each week and students should practice writing the sentence nightly.
• Practice math X and / facts 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, and 10. 5 minutes daily

• Have your child use MobyMax to practice math, reading, writing, social studies, science and more!  We have used this site once in class and will continue to use it at least once a week at school.  It is a great resource as it adjusts content and pace for each student’s level and needs.https://www.mobymax.com/signin
• Unit 2 Math Homework Practice packet Due December 11th

Important Dates to Remember

Friday, November 10th- No School Veteran’s Day

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Aisha Galt

 

Homework Update

November 2, 2017

Dear Parents,

In an effort to build a love of learning and create a less stressful environment at home, we have tried to come up with a homework plan to help families support their children academically while still finding time for activities and family. There has been a lot of talk about what “homework” should look like this year at Kohl, and maybe some misunderstandings about the idea of having “no homework” at all.  Kids need to do some sort of academic practice at home in order to reinforce the concepts they are learning in class. After talking with you during parent/teacher conferences, it became clear that we need to clarify expectations, make a few changes, and outline a way to make it all work.

Below, is a list of some of the ideas we have about how to make this all work and the expectations we have for your child’s home practice. Slight changes are in bold red.

What we have offered for home practice:

• iReady lessons (certain students)
• ReadingPlus lessons (certain students)

Students should use their assigned reading program at least once a week for 15-20 min.  I will be be checking the iReady and ReadyPlus programs on Friday to see if they are completing this assignment at home.  If your child does not have access to a computer at home, please let me know.

• MobyMax for math and fact practice. MobyMax also has several other content components that are optional
• Multiplication/division fact practice (this can be done on the computer, with flash cards, Learning WrapUps (learningwrapups.com or amazon), practicing math dashes, pages from math book in the homework folder, etc)
• Reading at home (20-30 minutes)
• Dictado Students write their weekly Dictado sentence in their homework notebook. Students need write this sentence in their homework at least once each night.  I will be checking for their weekly written Dictado practice on Fridays
• Mystery State
• Math packet for completed math unit.  After we finish a math unit, I will be sending home a math homework packet.  Our first math packet will come home in homework folders on Monday, November 6th. Students should work on completing this packet consistently throughout the week.  Packets, will have a set due date and directions attached.

How do you fit it all it without going crazy?!

Children should be doing about 30 minutes of “homework” practice each night. This can look different each night and also will depend on whether or not you have other things going on- i.e. sports practice, music lessons, special family events, etc.

Example week:

Monday night: Complete Mystery State, write Dictado sentence once, choice read for 15 min 

Tuesday night: iReady or Reading Plus lessons - (20 minutes), write Dictado sentence, practice math facts AND/OR do a math page from the math packet 

Wednesday night: Choice read or iReady/Reading Plus lessons, Dictado, practice math facts AND/OR math packet work 

Thursday- Choice read, practice Dictado, practice math facts AND/OR math packet work 

Friday, Saturday, Sunday- choice read 20-30 minutes before bed, practice math facts AND/OR math packet work 

Occasionally your child will have “extra” work to do at home that they did not finish in class or possibly an extra project (like the book reports). In this case, your child would complete the extra work and if they have time, go back to the original schedule, again, taking only 30-40 minutes of time in the evening.

You know your child and know what works best. Your child may need breaks between activities, a little less time or maybe a little more time. Overall, you should NOT be spending hours on homework. No more than 40 minutes total in one evening is sufficient for any 3rd grader. If you get to that point, stop and call it a night.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns regarding “homework” or anything else. I am always happy to talk with you.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Aisha Galt