Friday, September 28, 2018

Next week we have PE on Wednesday.

Dear Parents,

Happy Friday!  We had a fantastic and busy week.

Your child should have come home with a ziploc bag full of multiplication and division flash/strategy cards on Thursday.  This is a great resource for nightly math fact practice.

The online sign up for parent-teacher conferences will available to you on Monday, October 1st. Conferences are scheduled for Tuesday, October 16th and Thursday, October 18h. Thank you in advance for signing up. I am looking forward to sharing your child's progress and setting some goals for this year. If for some reason these dates do not work for your schedule, please let me know so we can arrange another time to meet. It is important that I communicate with all my families during conference time.  Your child is welcome to come to the conference.

CURRICULUM UPDATES:

Literacy: Students are working on a book of short personal narratives!  We practiced the essential elements of a well written narrative paragraph. Each narrative should include: an introduction sentences that capture the reader’s attention and introduces the topic, at least three strong detail sentences, and a conclusion sentence.  Next week, students will publish a personal narrative paragraph. These will be on display in the hallway, and we will use this first writing as a baseline for growth throughout the year. Our next writing unit is informational writing.

Math: We will have our first unit assessment on Wednesday of next week. This will cover all multiplications and divisions of 0,1,2,3,4,5,9 and 10 facts. Students will need to be able to solve math fact problems and word problems using both multiplication and division. I will be able to support students on the test by reading the problems, but they need to be able to do the math on their own.

Students will begin having Math Dashes next month. These are short, ‘timed’ fact checks for students. Students will work on each one until they pass it and then move on to the next. The first dash will cover facts of 2s and 5s multiplications. The second is 2s and 5s divisions. When your child passes all of the dashes I will treat them to an ice cream sandwich for all of their hard work. This usually takes several months.

Social Studies/Science: We are wrapping up our first unit in Social Studies, local community government. Students have learned about many important people in our local government, how our local government works, and how we can have a voice in our community. We will have an assessment on this unit early next week.

Our next unit will be Science- Life Cycles!

Homework 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.
• Practice math X and / facts 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, and 10. 10 minutes daily

Mark Your Calendar:

Monday, October 8th-Coffee at Kohl 8:30-9:30 (Focus-CMAS Assessment Data)

Friday, October 12th-Teacher Professional Development Day-No School for Students

Tuesday, October 16th and Thursday, October 18th-Parent Teacher Conferences

Have a wonderful weekend!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Aisha Galt

Friday, September 21, 2018

Next week we have PE on Tuesday and Friday.

Dear Parents,

Thank you for supporting the Broomfield Days parade.  Our class had the highest participation in the school!  We were rewarded with a school spirit trophy, and PTA provided breakfast for our class this morning.  

On Monday, our third grade team spent most of the day organizing our new literacy curriculum materials.  We are excited to start using them with our students. There are many high quality texts that will support shared reading, interactive read-aloud, guided reading, and independent reading within our classroom.  

CURRICULUM UPDATES:

Literacy: Your child’s login information for ReadingPlus or  iReady is in the Friday folder today. We are using both programs in the classroom to help improve reading fluency, comprehension and vocabulary development.  I encourage you to have your child use their assigned program at least once a week at home to support their reading development.

We are continuing our work with personal narratives and look forward to sharing our published work with you during parent teacher conferences in October.  
We started a cooperative teaching unit with Mrs. Sbrocca, which focuses on health and safety.  Students are learning about the importance of healthy lifestyle choices.

Math:  We continued our work with multiplication and division. Please take some time to look over your child’s nightly math homework.  This will give you a snapshot of what we are working on in class. Students were introduced to the area model and the distributive property of multiplication. These concepts are difficult for some students to understand, please know that we will continue to revisit this formula and strategy for problem solving.  Students were also introduced to the 4s multiplication and division facts. They also practiced 2s, 3s, 5s, 9s, and 10s multiplication and division problem solving. It is imperative that your child practice their multiplication and division facts each day for 5-10 minutes. Thank you for your support with this!

Social Studies:  We have been working on a unit about our community. This week we talked about who works in a community and the difference between public and private services.. Next week, we will be exploring who works at City Hall and talking a little about how the government works in a local setting.

Homework for next week:

I am impressed with how well the students are doing with their homework.  Most of them are completing their work and returning it on time. We discussed as a class how important it is to learn the responsibility of homework, both doing and returning it.

• 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.
• Practice math X and / facts 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, and 10. 5 to 10 minutes daily.
• Read 15 to 20 minutes each day after school.

Mark Your Calendar:

Monday, October 8th-Coffee at Kohl 8:30-9:30 (Focus-CMAS Assessment Data)

Friday, October 12th-Teacher Professional Development Day-No School for Students

Enjoy the weekend!  

Sincerely,

Mrs. Aisha Galt

Friday, September 14th, 2018

Next week we have PE on Thursday.

Dear Parents,

QUICK REMINDERS:

Saturday, September 15th Broomfield Days Parade: The Broomfield Days Community Parade begins at 9:30 a.m. Our school colors are blue and white!

Monday, September 17th is a teacher professional development day.  No School for Students

Literacy: This week during literacy we continued working on parts of a paragraph and used paragraph structure to write small moment personal narratives. Most students have written a few small moment personal narratives.  Next week, students will continue writing small moment narratives and will eventually revise, edit, and publish one or more of their narratives.

Math: This week we continued to work on multiplication and division. Your child has now been introduced to the multiplications/divisions for 2, 3, 5, 9, 10. Please continue to encourage your child to spend at least 5 minutes a day practicing these facts. Our expectation is that our third graders will be fluent with all the facts through 10s by the end of this year. The more practice, the easier it gets.

Social Studies/Science: We have been working on a unit about our community.  This week we spent time investigating how and why individuals work in their communities to change things for the better.  We also discussed how each of us plays an important part in our community and that every little bit that we do for others counts.  Next week, will explore who works in a community and the difference between public and private services.

Homework for next week:

• Check in with your child about their Mystery State assignment.  These are given on Mondays and due on Fridays. The kids did a great job this week learning about Nevada.
• Help your child practice their Dictado sentence.  This should be written in their homework notebook each day for practice.  Students have a Dictado quiz on Fridays.
• Practice math X and / facts 2, 3, 5, 9, and 10.
• Read for 15 to 20 min every day after school.

Mark Your Calendar:

Saturday, September 15th Broomfield Days Parade

Monday, September 17th is a Professional Development day.  No School for Students

Enjoy the long weekend!  

Sincerely,

Aisha Galt

Friday, September 7th       

Next week, we have PE on Tuesday and Friday.      

Dear Parents,

We had a productive week in 3rd grade. Students practiced some of our weekly homework assignments for a second week and should be familiar with the expectations for their Dictado and Mystery State work.  We will start assigning homework next week. Each Monday, students will come home with their homework notebook, which will include the mystery state and the Dictado sentence. The mystery state should be completed by Friday of each week, and the Dictado sentence should be written nightly.  Remind your child to put their homework notebook and math workbook in their backpack when they complete their daily homework. Students will also receive 3-5 math problems from their Homework and Remembering book to complete each night, Monday-Thursday. It is imperative that they return their math Homework and Remembering book each day because we use them during our math block.  Nightly reading and math fact practice should also be part of your child’s homework routine. Thank you!

Literacy:

This week students continued to build understanding about well written complete sentences. We are using this knowledge to write small moment paragraphs and practice editing for complete sentences.

This was our second week of practicing Dictado. This is one method we use to teach students about spelling, vocabulary, punctuation, and writing complete sentences. Each week your child will be given a sentence that they will work on in class and at home. At the end of the week we will have a quiz to see if students have learned the sentence. Your child’s grade will reflect the percent of the sentence correct, including all spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.

Math:

This week we continued working with multiplication and division of 5s and started 2s and 10s. Your child should have  a study sheet to help them practice in their Friday folder. Encourage your child to use their fingers to keep track of the count bys.  This visual helps with multiplication and division and builds a stronger understanding of the equation. For example: 5, 10, 15 would leave three fingers up. 3 x 5=15 and 15/3=5. Starting around the beginning of October we will begin doing timed tests on each of the facts that we have learned. Next week we will be learning facts for 9s and 3s.

Social Studies:

This week we continued  investigating what makes our community diverse. In small groups and as a class we explored how different cultures contribute to our cultural diversity through food, languages, holidays, types of shelter, clothing, and traditions. We also discussed why and how individuals get involved and make a difference in our communities.

Mark your calendar:

Monday, September 17th: Teacher Professional Development/ No School for Students

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sincerely,

Aisha Galt