Friday, January 22nd

Dear Parents,

I would like to thank all of the parents who joined us for our field trip to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science yesterday. It was a great success.  We couldn’t do it without you!

Our Valentine’s Day party is right around the corner. Our class party will be on Thursday, February 11^th from 1:30-2:30. As always, parents are invited to attend the party. Please stay tuned for information from our room mother about our Valentine’s Day party.

If your child chooses to bring Valentine cards to school, they need to have one for each child in our class.  Valentines should be brought to school on February 11^th.  Students will be making a container to collect their Valentines during our party, so they can just bring their cards in bag on the 11^th. Handmade cards are encouraged.  Here is a list of student names to help with this task.  Thank you for your continued support.

Katie, Shane, Brooklin, Graeme, Calvin, Taylor, Julia, Zoe, Aidan H., Blaes, Drew, Tyler, Corwyn, Oscar, Ayden M., Kaleb, Maya, Zach, Olivia, Madison, Logan, Mollie, Atreyu, Sofia, Nathan, Maggie

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Aisha Galt

January 15, 2016

Dear Parents,

We have been working very hard since we returned from winter break. Here is a recap of what we are working on in third grade.

Important Dates:

Monday, January 18- NO SCHOOL- MLK Day

Thursday, January 21- Field Trip to Denver Museum of Nature and Science 

Saturday, January 23-PTA Trivia Night

Literacy:

This week we took the second of three diagnostic assessments on iReady. I will analyze the results and this will help inform my instruction for the next trimester of school. I will share the results of this assessment with you in February at parent/teacher conferences.

We have been working on how to write informative pieces in writing using a text or multiple texts for evidence. This week we read two texts about Alaska and then wrote about why it is hard to live in Alaska in the winter. Your child is working on paragraphing skills as well during this writing. Next week we will read and write about Egypt before moving on to our culminating unit project- Animal Reports. The students will choose an animal to research and write about it using text evidence. Then they will create a Google slides presentation to showcase their learning.

Don't forget to keep encouraging your child to use Reading Plus on the computer at home for part or all of their Reading Log.

Math:

We took our Unit 3 Assessment (Time, Measurement and Graphing). Our next unit will be Multi Digit Addition and Subtraction. You will be seeing a new math/homework book coming home for this unit. We have completed Volume 1 and those will be coming home. There are many pages that we did not complete in class. These make great practice pages at home to keep up skills we have already learned. If your child would like to complete the rest of the pages, I will reward their hard work with RIDE bucks for the RIDE store. They have until the end of the year to complete those pages.  

Science:

We started our new unit in Science, Metric Measurement and Matter. This unit will be about 3 weeks long. This week we learned about the metric system of measurement and were able to use balance scales to measure mass in grams, syringes and graduated cylinders to measure capacity in milliliters, and meter sticks to measure distance.  Next week we will begin learning about the three states of matter and how matter can change. 

Reminders:

Next Thursday (Jan. 21) is our field trip to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. If you have not had a chance to send in the permission slip and $10 fee, please do that as soon as possible. We have several parent volunteers: Mandy Cummings, Jaclyn Sealy, Scott King, Korrie Skibinski, Scott Hansen, Sheila Wogen, Terry Oakley, and Heather Ottem. If you are planning on going and don't see your name, please let me know, or if you are not planning on going and are on the list, let me know as soon as possible. This is a trip that will have parents in charge of small groups for part of the time. Parent volunteers will need to bring $5 for the IMAX movie. Parent volunteers should be in our classrooms that morning at 8:45. Thank you!

Have a great weekend. See you on Tuesday!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Aisha Galt

Friday, January 8th

Friday, January 8^th

Dear Parents,

Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful winter break. Our first week back in the classroom together went well. I am always impressed by the academic, social, and emotional growth that takes place during the second half of our third grade year. Please continue to communicate with me about how I can best support your child.  

I wanted to inform you of some important upcoming dates.

Third graders will be taking the PARCC tests this year.  This is the state standardized test that is replacing the CSAP/TCAP from years past. The tests have been scheduled for the last week of March, right after spring break, and the first week of April. If you are planning a trip, please plan the trip outside of the PARCC testing dates. It would be so helpful to have all the students complete the tests during our scheduled testing weeks. Thank you!  If you have any questions or concerns about PARCC, please let me know.

We have scheduled our second field trip to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science for January 21st.  There is a permission slip in your child’s Friday folder.  I will definitely need parent volunteers, so please check your calendar and let me know if you can help out. You must have the background check clearance through the district for this school year to attend the trip. Please return the permission slip and fee as soon as possible. Thank you.

Other important dates and reminders:

Monday, January 18- No School MLK Jr. Day

Thursday, January 21- Field Trip to the Museum of Nature and Science. Please return permission slips and money as soon as possible.

Saturday, January 23- PTA Trivia Night. Please mark your calendars and plan to attend this fun fundraiser. Adults only please. Check Friday folders, PTA Facebook page, or the school website for more information.

Tuesday, January 26-Spelling Bee. Zach and Graeme will be representing our class at 8:30 in the gym. Please wish them luck when you see them.

Enjoy the weekend.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Aisha Galt

Friday, December 11^th

Dear Parents,

We had a great week!  Students wrote informational writing pieces about paleontologists and studied their personal spelling words during our literacy block.  We are continuing to read in small groups focusing on comprehension and answering questions using evidence from the text. I have all the kids go back and use direct texts to answer questions. Please try this at home while reading with your child. Hopefully you and your child are enjoying Reading Plus. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about that.

We are working on telling time to the minute and solving elapsed time problems in math.  Please continue to support your child with telling time.  Elapsed time is a tricky concept and practice is extremely helpful.  Students will continue to complete multiplication and division Math Dash quizzes throughout the school year.  Regular math fact practice should continue to be part of your child’s nightly homework routine. 

In social studies, students are working in small groups to become experts about one region of the United States.  They will complete an informational poster about their region and will share their work with the class next week.  We will have our final assessment for this unit of study next Thursday.

We also completed an Hour of Code activity this week!  Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science.  It is designed to give students around the world a positive coding experience to show that anyone can learn the basics.  We used activities on the site https://code.org/learn  Students were engaged and excited about their work. We hope to complete other coding activities later in the school year.

I hope to see you at our winter party on Friday, December 18^th from 1:30 to 2:30.  Please take a moment to sign up to help if you can.  Thank you!

www.SignUpGenius.com/go/60B0B4BAFAB2DA31-mrs1

Have a fantastic weekend. 

Sincerely,

Aisha Galt

Friday, December 4^th

Dear Families,

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving break with your family. It's hard to believe that in just two short weeks we will be on winter break! This week has flown by and we have accomplished so much. 

Congratulations to our class for winning the Silver Can Award for the school food drive school contest. We did not win the pizza party, but our class brought in the second highest number of food times. Thank you for helping us achieve this goal!!

Language Arts

Reading: Reading groups continue to work on short, non-fiction pieces. We are working on comprehension skills and using the text to confirm our understanding. The kids are getting really good at going back into the text to support their ideas as they read. 

Writing: We started a new writing unit this week, which will carry us most of the way through January. We are working on Informative/Explanatory writing. During this unit we will work on research skills and using text to support our writing. Students will develop a topic by grouping related information and expanding the topic with facts, definitions and details. 

Spelling/Word Work: We have been working on contractions and homophones during our word work. We will continue to explore and practice these two topics through the rest of the month. The last week before winter break your child will have another spelling test and bring home a new word list to work on. 

Math

This week we started Unit 3- Measurement, Time and Graphs. In this unit your child will explore measurement with US Customary units and Metric units, use data to create and read graphs and use number lines to represent time intervals. We hope to complete this unit before we leave for winter break. This week's focus was on measurement; next week we will work on telling time and understanding elapsed time; we will finish up with graphing before the assessment. Please support your child by talking about measurement when cooking and at the store, as well as telling time throughout the day.  Thank you!

Social Studies

Our new Social Studies unit is about the Regions of the United States. Students are learning what a region is and exploring the 5 regions of the US (West, Southwest, Midwest, Southeast and Northeast). They are very excited about this unit and have enjoyed sharing about their travels and family members who live in various regions of the US. 

Mark Your Calendars

Friday, December 18- Holiday concert and all school sing along. Stay tuned for the time. 

Friday, December 18- Winter classroom party 1:30-2:30 - be on the lookout for an email from our room mom about how you can help with the party. 

Have a wonderful weekend. 

Sincerely,

Aisha Galt