Friday, September 8th           

Dear Parents,

We had a great week in third grade.  We are excited to share that Kohl has a school counselor this year.  Her name is Tiffany Kerr, and she will be meeting with the entire third grade once a week on Tuesdays.  She will work with our students to provide education, prevention, and intervention in academics, career, and personal/social development.  Please visit her website if you are interested in knowing more about the work she will do at Kohl.  https://sites.google.com/bvsd.org/kohlcounselor/home

Please be sure to check your child’s Friday folder. Each child is bringing home a coupon book to sell. You are not required to do this fundraiser. If you choose to keep the book please send in the money for it. If you would like to sell some books to friends and family, take orders on the envelope, collect the money and return it to the school for the books. This is a fun and easy way for Kohl PTA to make money to support our school. Thanks for your help.

Literacy:

This week students continued to build understanding about complete sentences, fragments, and run-ons. We will use this knowledge to start writing small moment paragraphs and practice editing for complete sentences.

We started Dictado this week. 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 come home with a study sheet to help them practice. 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, 3s and 4s.

Social Studies:

We spent time 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.

Homework Ideas for next week:

• Practice x and / facts for 5, 2, 10
• Keep reading 20 minutes or more per day
• Next week a homework book/folder will be coming home with a Mystery State and the Dictado sentence to work on. This will be in your child’s backpack each Monday. We will go over Mystery States in class on Friday.

Mark Your Calendar:

Next week we have PE on Tuesday and Friday

Monday, September 18th: Teacher Professional Development/ No School for Students

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sincerely,

Aisha Galt

Friday, September 1st, 2017

QUICK REMINDERS:

1. NO SCHOOL ON MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 4th - LABOR DAY

2. Individual Picture Day-Thursday, September 7th  Don’t forget to turn in your order form, if you would like pictures.

Dear Parents,

We completed our second full week of third grade! Your children worked hard and did a great job keeping up with the new expectations. Here is a recap of our week and a look at what is coming up in our classroom.

Thank you to those of you who have had a chance to pay our $8 third grade fee.  This money is used for project supplies and supplemental reading materials.  If you have not had a chance to turn this money in, please send it to school with your child as soon as possible.  You can also drop it off at the front office.  Thank you!

We are excited to have a Chromebook cart for the third grade this year!  We should have a Chromebook for each third grader in the next month or so, thanks to our generous PTA! Chromebooks greatly improve our access to technology and ability to have all students use computers as learning tool on a regular basis.  Students are encouraged to bring a pair of earbuds or earphones to school.  They will keep them in their desk for the school year. We have earphones available for those who do not bring their own to school.

Literacy:

Next week, we will start Dictado. This sentence dictation activity is one element of our spelling and writing instruction.  The weekly Dictado sentence will contain some words from the BVSD 3rd grade Must Write word list. The list contains 100 words third graders must master by the end of the year. I put a link on my website with all 100 words so you can help your child practice these words at home. https://docs.google.com/a/bvsd.org/file/d/0B539GG5UwPlvSTU3ck45bEgzTlk/edit

Next week, we will continue to review sentence and basic paragraph structure.  We will use these tools to begin writing small moment personal narratives.  Please ask your child to tell you short stories about their day to strengthen their storytelling experiences.

Math:

We started our first math unit on Multiplication and Division. Please review multiplication/division of 5s (0-10) with your child and discuss talk with your child about when you use multiplication in your daily life. For example, at the store you might talk about calculating the cost buying multiples of one item: buying 4 boxes of cereal that each cost $5.

Your child has a study sheet from their math book in their homework folder. This sheet has both multiplication and division facts for 5s, 2s, 10s and 9s. Please help your child practice this for at least 5 minutes per day.

Social Studies:

This week we started our first unit in Social Studies, Our Diverse Community. We worked on understanding how communities are similar and different around the world and the things communities share- people, language, culture, food, holidays or special events. As the unit develops we will also be studying about our local government and how it works.

Homework Ideas:

• Online math fact practice: https://www.factmonster.com/math/flashcards
• Talk about special events in your day/week/life. Use many details that can help your child when they have to write about small moments in their lives.

Enjoy the long weekend!  

Sincerely,

Aisha Galt

Friday, August 25, 2017

Dear Parents,

Thank you so much for coming out on Tuesday night for our Back to School night presentation. It was great to meet so many of you. If you were not able to attend, your child should have brought you my back to school letter and survey.  Please look it over and let me know if you have any questions. Also, please pay your classroom fee of $8 if you have not done so.  This money helps us support many projects that extend our learning in the classroom.  Thank you!

Volunteers: Thank you to those of you who were able to sign up to volunteer for our classroom.

• Room Parent: Chamisa Logemann
• Friday Folders: Mary Beth Burke and Nancy Saha (when needed)
• Reading in the classroom-  M-Th from 11:55-12:25. (Start the week of September 5th if you have completed your background check)

           Monday: Stephanie Schwab

           Tuesday: Megan West

           Wednesday: Sadee Schilling

• Clerical help: Nancy Saha

Homework: If your child has not had a chance to bring in photos/pictures for our Writer’s Notebook project, please help them gather these over the weekend.   Please only send in pictures that are okay to cut and paste onto a notebook- these will decorate the front of his/her Writer's Notebook for the year and provide a starting place for ideas and drafts that will grow into great writing pieces. It also will make their Writer's Notebook very personal and very special to them. We are going to decorate our notebooks on Monday. Thank you!

Birthday Treats: If your child is celebrating a birthday during the school year (or a ½ birthday for summer kids) you are welcome to send in treats for the class. We have 24 kids in our class.

Math: This week we were able to get all the math screeners completed.  This information gives me a snapshot of where your child is in math.  We are now ready to jump into our first math unit, Multiplication and Division 0-5, 9 and 10, on Monday.

Literacy: This week we worked on writing “seeds/small moment ideas” for personal narratives. We are getting those writing muscles warmed up and in shape for a lot of writing this year! Next week we are going to start working on understanding and writing complete sentences.

Next week, we will also be completing a reading assessment using i-Ready with students. We started using this reading assessment a few years ago Kohl, so your child should be familiar with the format. After the testing is complete I will have an assessment report, which shows me how your child is reading, their strengths, and areas to work on. I will share this information with you at Parent Teacher Conferences in October.

Social Studies: As we get ready to begin our first unit on Communities, we have been working to build our classroom community. This week we continued to get to know each other better and to understand the expectations in third grade.

Mark your calendar:

Monday, September 4- NO SCHOOL, Labor Day

I hope you have a safe and relaxing weekend.

Sincerely,

Aisha Galt

Friday, August 18th

Dear Parents,

We had a great first three days together in third grade! We spent a lot of time getting to know one another and familiarizing ourselves with classroom procedures and expectations. It was fun to learn about each other through the sharing of the All About Me bags.  Building community is an important part of these first few weeks of school.  This sharing assignment allows us to realize some of our similarities and differences. I am excited about the months to come in third grade.  It will be a year of new experiences and new adventures in learning.

I strive to create an environment in which students feel safe and secure so that they can take the kinds of risks necessary for deep and sustained learning.  Relationships are the foundation of learning, and it is my intention to establish respectful and collaborative partnerships with parents as well as with students. From day one, I would like to establish open, two-way communication with parents. I invite you to share feedback and any information that would help me provide better support for your child. Thank you for your support!

I will be writing newsletters to update you on what’s happening in our classroom, give reminders about upcoming events, and to share any news we might have.  I plan to email the newsletters as well as post them on my website so you will be able to access them at any time during the year if needed.  www.mrsgalt.blogspot.com

I look forward to meeting all of you at our third grade back to school night. This is an informational meeting for parents only.  We will meet in our classroom  on Tuesday, August 22nd at 5:30.

Reminders:

Snacks:

Students can have snack each day in the morning, and they can have another snack in the afternoon if they would like. I do not provide snack so please be sure to send a healthy snack with your child. Water bottles are encouraged.  Please label bottles with your child’s name.  Thank you!

Important Dates for Your Calendar:

Tuesday, August 22rd-Back to School Night 5:30-6:30

Monday, September 4th - NO SCHOOL- Labor Day

Thursday, September 7th - Picture Day

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. You can contact me by email aisha.galt-theis@bvsd.org or by phone 720-561-8616.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Aisha Galt

Friday, May 19th, 2017

Dear Parents,

It is hard to believe that we only have 5 days of school remaining. We have been busy writing and publishing many poems and would like to invite you to our poetry reading on Thursday, May 25th at 12:00.  Each student will share two poems aloud.

On Friday, May 5th our 7th grade writing buddies visited our classroom to share a draft of their story.  All of the students were excited to see each other and share their work.  Our last meeting will be a walking field trip on Tuesday, May 23rd.  Thank you to everyone who has returned the permission slip.  We do not need any chaperones for this trip.  Thank you!

Ms. Pam, from the Fire Department visited our class this week to talk about bicycle safety. Be sure to ask your child what they learned about how to properly fit a bicycle helmet and the rules of the road while bicycling. We always love having her come to visit us.

Please be sure to look in your child’s Friday folder today for the order form for next year’s school supplies. PTA is trying a new system where you can pre order all your child’s supplies. Then, they will be waiting for your child in their classroom next year. I think it sounds like a great plan! All order forms need to be turned in next week, so you’ll need to act quickly to take advantage of this offer.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  I will be sending a letter home with the report cards next week suggesting different websites for summer learning.  As always, thank you for your continued support.

Important Dates to Remember

Tuesday, May 23rd- BHMS Writing Celebration at Miramonte Park

Friday, May 26th-  Last Day of School-Report cards come home.

I hope you have a great weekend.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Aisha Galt

Friday, April 28th

Dear Parents,

We enjoyed the talent show today.  It is always exciting to see our Kohl students share different strengths.

We are looking forward to our field trip to the Morrison Natural History Museum next Thursday, May 4th.  Thank you to those of you who have been able to return the permission slip and fees.  If you have not done so, please have your child return their permission slip and money as soon possible next week.  

Thank you to our volunteer chaperones.  Please plan to come to our classroom at 9:00 on Thursday.  You will need a sack lunch and $7 for admissions to the museum.  

Students will need a sack lunch on Thursday and will also need to dress for being outside and walking.

Our 7th grade writing buddies are coming for their second visit on Friday, May 5th.  We are looking forward to seeing their drafted stories.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Stay warm!

Sincerely,

Aisha Galt

April 7, 2017

Dear Parents,

Our first week of PARCC testing is complete. I am proud of the hard work your children have put into these tests. Please continue to encourage your child to do their best!

This week we completed the ELA (English/Language Arts) sections and one Math section. Next week we will complete the Math and be finished with PARCC testing for the year! Remember, we are only testing on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday next week. There is no school on Friday.

In math we started Unit 5: Write Equations to Solve Word Problems.  Please remind your child to continue studying their basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. All of these operations will be used in this unit.

Next week students will start sharing their informational slide shows, and we will start working on our Opinion/ Persuasive Writing unit. Students will read and write opinion pieces. We will discuss the power of persuading our audience through clear, evidence based reasons.

Our current science unit is about Earth Materials. Your children are learning about rocks, minerals, and the rock cycle.

Important Dates:

April 10th, 12th, and 13th-Math PARCC testing

Wednesday, April 12- Middle School writing buddies

Friday, April 14- NO SCHOOL

Monday, April 17- NO SCHOOL

Thursday, April 20- Inspiration Exhibition (formerly Learning Fair)  4-6:30pm

Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,              

Aisha Galt