Friday, November 1st

Next week we have PE on Monday and Thursday.

QUICK REMINDERS:

Monday, November 11th: No School Veteran’s Day

Dear Parents,

Happy Friday!  It has been quite a week with winter weather late starts and Halloween.  Thank you to all of the parents who contributed to our Halloween Harvest Party! The kids enjoyed delicious snacks, relaxed social time, and playing games.  Today is 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 on Thursday, November 14th.

Curriculum Update:

We continued to build fluency with 1s-10s multiplication and division.   We used order of operations (ask your child about PMDAS) to solve multi-step word problems.  I am impressed with their hard work. We will have our Unit 2 math test on Thursday of next week. Then, we will begin our Measurement, Time, and Graphs unit.

Our Plant and Animal Life Cycles unit has come to a close.  It has been fun to learn about the life cycles of mealworms and pea plants in our classroom. Our trip to the zoo and our lessons with Thorne Nature experience have been a great compliment to our unit.   We will begin a social studies unit about local government next week.

Students read an opinion piece called Recycle It! They then wrote their own opinion piece about the importance of recycling using reasons from the text to support their opinion.   Next week, students will be reading and writing about what pet they think is best for apartment living. 

We completed our Patricia Polacco author study and are starting a nonfiction text set next week.

I hope you have a fantastic weekend.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Aisha Galt

Friday, October 25th

Next week we have PE on Wednesday.

QUICK REMINDERS:

Thursday, October 31st: Halloween Parade and Party 8:00-9:00

Monday, November 11th: No School Veteran’s Day

Dear Parents,

Our field trip to the zoo was a great success. Thank you to all of the chaperones!  Next week, we will continue to make connections between our life cycles unit and the information that was shared during our life cycles class at the zoo. 

Thank you for coming to your child’s parent teacher conference.  After meeting with all of you, I understand why we have such a special class.  You are a group of very supportive parents. Please continue to talk to your child about their goals at school and let me know if you have any questions or concerns as the year progresses.

Curriculum Update:

We are moving through our second math unit-Multiplication and Division 1-10s. 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.

Our life cycles unit has been enhanced through our lessons with Thorne and our trip to the zoo. Each student planted pea seeds and is observing the stages of its life cycle.  We have lots of sprouting seeds! We are comparing the life cycles of our pea plants to the life cycles of animals like: a butterfly, frog, and mealworm.  

Our literacy materials are providing us with some rich interactive read aloud experiences. We are reading a selection of texts by Patricia Polacco and are discussing the characteristics of her writing. Students are learning to confidently identify the genre of texts and to discuss their thinking about texts using evidence from the text to support their ideas.

Enjoy the warm weather today and tomorrow, it looks like we are in for a big weather change on Sunday.  

Sincerely,

Mrs. Aisha Galt

Friday, October 18th

Next week we have PE on Tuesday and Friday.

QUICK REMINDERS:
Wednesday, October 23rd and Thursday, October 24th Parent Teacher Conferences

Thursday, October 24th-Denver Zoo Field Trip

Dear Parents,

We had a fantastic Jog-a-Thon!  The positive, excited energy was high!  Thank you for supporting your child with collecting pledges for this important school fundraiser.   Any size donation is appreciated and counts toward our 90% participation goal. Please have your child return their donations by Wednesday, October 23rd.

Please sign up for a Parent Teacher Conference! Thank you to those of you who have already done so.  I look forward to meeting with you next week.

If you have not had a chance to sign-up yet or need to check your conference time, please do so using the following link: https://bvsd.helpatschools.com/schools/15/conferences. 

Thank you for signing the permission slip and paying the fee for our upcoming field trip to the Denver Zoo on Thursday, October 24th.  

Please use the following link to sign the permission slip, express interest in chaperoning, and pay the field trip fee:

https://kohlelemen.revtrak.net/r1#/f/2019-3rd-grade-field-trip-denver-zoo

Students will need a sack lunch, proper clothing for the weather and a drink with a lid. 

We are working on our plant and animal life cycles unit.  Through the generous support of our PTA, we will be able to supplement this unit with the in-school Thorne Nature and Science program.  They will be working with our students on the next three Tuesdays.

Have a wonderful weekend!
Sincerely,

Mrs. Aisha Galt

Friday, October 11th

Next week we have PE on Thursday.

QUICK REMINDERS:

Monday, October 14th-Teacher Professional Development Day-No School for Students

Tuesday, October 15th- Jog-a-Thon (12:45 to 1:30)

Wednesday, October 23rd and Thursday, October 24th Parent Teacher Conferences

Thursday, October 24th-Denver Zoo Field Trip

Dear Parents,

Thank you to those of you who have signed up for a Parent Teacher Conference!

Conferences are scheduled for Wednesday, October 23rd and Thursday, October 24th. If you have not had a chance to sign-up yet, please do so using the following link: https://bvsd.helpatschools.com/schools/15/conferences. 

If for some reason these dates do not work for your schedule, please let me know so we can arrange another time to meet. Your child is welcome to come to the conference.

Our first field trip to the zoo has been scheduled for Thursday, October 24th.  

Please use the following link to sign the permission slip, express interest in chaperoning, and pay the field trip fee:

https://kohlelemen.revtrak.net/r1#/f/2019-3rd-grade-field-trip-denver-zoo

If you would like to join us for this field trip and have completed your background check, please check your schedule and let us know via the Revtrack link that you would like to join us.  Thank you! The fee for this trip is $15. This will cover a class we will take with zoo staff and the bus fee. As always, if you have financial difficulty, please contact Julie Cutshall or Stacey Blicker in the office. Also if you need a paper copy of the permission slip, please let me know, and I will send one home with your child. 

Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Aisha Galt

Friday, October 4th

Next week we have PE on Tuesday and Friday.

QUICK REMINDERS:

Friday, October 11th- Jog-a-Thon (12:45-1:30)

Monday, October 14th-Teacher Professional Development Day-No School for Students

Wednesday, October 23rd and Thursday, October 24th Parent Teacher Conferences

Dear Parents,

Please check your child’s Friday folder about the upcoming Jog-A-Thon. 

The online sign up for parent-teacher conferences should be available to you on Monday, October 7th. Conferences are scheduled for Wednesday, October 23rd and Thursday, October 24th. 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.

Our first field trip to the zoo has been scheduled for Thursday, October 24th.  This trip will be a great extension for our current life cycles science unit. We hope to send out a Revtrack link that can be used to sign the permission slip, express interest in chaperoning, and pay the field trip fee.  If you would like to join us for this field trip and have completed your background check, please check your schedule and let us know via the Revtrack link that you would like to join us. Thank you! The fee for this trip will be $15. This will cover a class we will take with zoo staff and the bus fee. As always, if you have financial difficulty, please contact Julie Cutshall or Stacey Blicker in the office. 

We will continue to investigate growth mindset throughout the year.  I have added a sheet of growth mindset questions to the back cover of your child’s Friday folder.  These questions can help shift us toward a growth mindset and can be a helpful guide when you are supporting your child with their homework and connecting with them about their day. Here are just a few examples from the sheet:

1. What made you think/work hard today?
2. What would you do differently next time to make things work better?
3. What strategy can you try?
4. Did you work as hard as you could have?
5. Did you ask for help if you needed it?

Math: 

We started our second chapter in math; Multiplication and Division with 6s, 7s, 8s and Multiplying with Multiples of 10. Please continue to support your child with nightly multiplication and division math fact practice. This practice is imperative for fact memorization.

Literacy:

We finished reading a text unit about Sharing Our World With Animals during our interactive read aloud time. Students also started to use their Reader’s Notebooks to keep track of the books they are reading and to write their thoughts about their reading.  

This week we worked on writing five sentence paragraphs and dug into the details of writing a powerful topic sentence.  Next week, we will practice writing three relevant details with transition words and a strong conclusion sentence.
During our word study lessons this week, we spent time exploring how reference tools, such as dictionaries, thesauruses, and glossaries, use ABC order to organize words. Students practiced putting words in ABC order and using dictionaries to define words. 

Science:

We started our life cycles unit.  This week we explored the characteristics of living, nonliving, and dead things.  We also dissected pea seeds and identified the seed coat, embryo, and cotyledon. Next week, students will plant pea seeds and begin observing the life cycle stages.  

Have a wonderful weekend!
Sincerely,

Mrs. Aisha Galt

Friday, September 20th

Next week we have PE on Wednesday.

QUICK REMINDERS:

Saturday, September 21st Broomfield Days Parade: The Broomfield Days Community Parade begins at 9:30 a.m. There is an informational letter about the parade in your child’s Friday Folder. Our school colors are blue and white!

Dear Parents,

Thank you to everyone for making sure your child attended our assessment day last Friday.  I was able to get some great information about students’ writing skills and will use this information to guide my instruction over the next few weeks as we practice writing sentences and paragraphs.

Math: This week we continued to work on multiplication and division. Your child has now been introduced to the multiplications/divisions for 0,1, 2, 3, 4, 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.

We will have our first unit assessment on Thursday 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.

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 have been 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.  

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 continue to explore our community and what it means to be citizen. 

Have a wonderful weekend!
Sincerely,

Mrs. Aisha Galt

Friday, September 6th

Next week we have PE on Wednesday.

QUICK REMINDERS:

1. Friday, September 13th- Assessment Day- Please use Help At School to sign-up for an assessment time. Thank you to everyone who has already signed-up!
2. Monday, September 16th-No School for Students-Teacher Professional Development Day

Dear Parents,

We had a productive short week in 3rd grade.  Students are becoming more familiar with our homework routine and most students are turning their assignments in on time.  Remind your child to put their homework folder, which should contain their mystery state notebook and math workbook, in their backpack when they complete their daily homework. It is imperative that they return their math Homework and Remembering book each day because we often use them during our math block.  Nightly reading and math fact practice should also be part of your child’s homework routine. Thank you!

We had an assembly on Wednesday and students learned all about how a Growth Mindset can help us become successful learners in and outside of school. Many students have purchased a yo-yo from the assembly and are busy learning how to use them while out at recess. Yoyos will be sold through next week, before and after school as well as all day on Friday, our assessment day. 

Literacy:

This week students wrote short compare and contrast piece about two books from our Importance of Kindness text set.  They also have been working on word work lessons involving consonant clusters and using beginnings (onset) and endings (rime) of words to help us spell and read more fluently. 

Math:

This week we continued working with multiplication and division of 5s, 2s, 10s and 9s. 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 15/5=3. 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 3s and 4s.

Social Studies:

This week we investigated what makes our community diverse. Next week, we will work in small groups and as a class to explore how different cultures contribute to our cultural diversity through food, languages, holidays, types of shelter, clothing, and traditions. 

Enjoy the weekend!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Aisha Galt