Mallen's Monday Memo November 29, 2010

Monday Memo

November 29, 2010

Dear Parents,

                I hope everyone enjoyed the Thanksgiving vacation. We have so very much to be thankful for here at Jacobson. Obviously we have the best students, but we also have an amazing facility with prometheon boards to teach the kids. Last week we enjoyed having Specialist Lucas Beenken come and read the story “The Wall” to us. He did a great job answering the kid’s questions as well. Tomorrow is the last day to contribute to our boxes for the military care packages. We have filled two boxes in our classroom alone. Great work!! On Wednesday we will be having our monthly reading incentive assembly. We will be giving the local VFW assembly their boxes to send overseas. We will also find out the two star readers from each class. Thanks for having the kids read each night for at least 20 minutes! They will also receive a reading incentive on Wednesday for their hard work!

                This week we will be reading a selection entitled “Heat Wave”.  We will be working again on realism/fantasy, comprehension, vocabulary, compare/contrast, reading a disagram and a little on weather forecasts. For our spelling this week, we will be spelling words with the ed or ing on them. The spelling list is attached to this memo. For grammar we are working on the past, present and future tenses of words. We will also continue to work on past grammar skills this week, especially possessive plural and possessive singular nouns.  We will be writing a Dear Santa letter this week during our center time but they will be writing to Santa about a special Christmas memory they have. Add that to our guided reading group work and our vocabulary center, FusionWriters, and our language review, we are pretty busy during reading!!

                For Math, we are starting on our 4^th chapter. This chapter has us working on time, money, and calendar skills. This week we will be working on units of time, elapsed time, problem solving and calendar. With the daily math review, they are busy working on their review skills.

                We are starting on two new units both in Science and Social Studies. In Science, we will be working on Earthquakes and Volcanoes. This is a chapter the kids usually really like. It also begins our earth science units. For Social Studies we are moving to the Western Region of the United States. As always, if you have any artifacts, brochures… to share about this region, please feel free to send it with your child.

                Just a reminder that book orders are due this Wednesday, Dec. 1^st. 

Have a great week!

Chris Mallen

Phone:  444-3093 (Home)  444-4300 ext. 336 (School)

Email:  cmallen@belmond-klemme.k12.ia.us

Mallen's Monday Memo, November 15, 2010

Dear Parents,

                I hope everyone had a great weekend! Last week went by very quickly! Just a reminder that if you are looking for this on the website it is at: http://MallensMemo.blogspot.com

                During reading this week we are on our second story of our Amazing Stories unit. Our story this week is entitled “Cindrellion”. It is a fantasy that is a version of the classic Cinderella story. We will be working on comprehension and vocabulary this week as well as the suffix able, helping verbs, venn diagrams, combining sentences with a main verb, and fantasy versus realism. We will be working on our FusionWriters , Successmaker, language reviews and our vocabulary story, during our centers this week. Our guided reading stories are fantasy stories that are taken from old familiar tales and reworked.

                For Math this week, we are getting towards the end of our multiplication/division unit. Next week we will be testing over this unit. This week we will be doing some algebra, problem solving, solving equations and finding a rule in a table. Again, make sure they practice those multiplication facts as that helps them greatly to know them! We will be working on our daily review as well this week!

                Social Studies this week has us beginning the Western Region of the United States. They did a great job on their test of the SW region of the U.S. We will start by talking about the Rocky Mountains this week. During Science, we will continue introducing the students to the different systems of the body. The respiratory, circulatory, nervous, and digestive systems will be introduced this week.

                Thank-you for only signing their planner when they have read for 20 minutes that night. So far, everyone has had their planner signed each night. If it isn’t, I assume they haven’t read for 20 minutes so I have them do that during 20 minutes of their recess. As of today, no one has had to do that, so I truly appreciate your support in having your child read each night! I just always tell them that reading is like every other skill you learn. You just have to practice it to get better!

                The spelling words are attached to this memo. We are collecting personal hygiene products for the soldiers this week. We had a great response last week to donations of office supplies. Let’s keep that up for this week!!

                As always, any questions or concerns please feel free to give me a call or email me.

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

Phone:  Home:  444-3093   School:  444-4300 ext. 336

Email:  chris.mallen@belmond-klemme.k12.ia.us

Mallen's Memo

Monday Memo

November 8, 2010

Dear Parents,

                I hope everyone had a great weekend. For those of you looking for this on the web, my new blog is:  http://MallensMemo.blogspot.com  I hope to always put my Monday Memo on that. It will also be on the Jacobson Blog space as a link. I appreciate your attendance at conferences this year. The communication between parents and teachers is critical to the success of your child’s education. I appreciate all you do for your child!

                This week during reading we will be starting a new unit. The unit is entitled “That’s Amazing” and involves stories with suspenseful plots. We will start with a great Chris Van Allsburg story called “The Stranger”. We will be working on the following skills this week:  Comprehension, Vocabulary, Noting Details (which we will do a lot of in our guided reading groups), compound words, and a short introduction to poems. During our grammar lessons this week we will be moving from nouns to action verbs. Our spelling words this week are all compound words and the list is attached to this memo. We will have our centers this week consist of a vocabulary center with the vocabulary book, the Fusion Writers (practicing on our keyboarding skills), Successmaker, and a language review. Each of the students are reading a Beverly Cleary book for the month of November. Thanks for helping them see the importance of reading each night for 20 minutes!

                In Math this week, we are continuing on our multiplication and division chapter. We will be doing some problem solving this week. We will continue with our daily review through the use of the Drops in a Bucket review program. That is such a great program that helps review so many important math concepts. When the students are finished with all of their math work, they can play a math menu game. Thank-you for helping the students work on their multiplication facts at home. That is so important towards their math work now and especially in the future.

                We are starting a new unit in Science. We will be doing an overview of the systems of the body. We will finally finish this week with the Southwestern Region of the United States. Look for a study guide to come home for a test to be the next day. At this point, I am not sure but shooting for Wednesday for the test.

                I sent home a sheet detailing what the reading incentive committee would like each person to bring for the soldiers. (Remember our reading incentive this month is Star Servicemen and Servicewomen). For this week, they would like office supply type of things, which include books, magazines, word searches… Things to help occupy their mind when they are off duty. We had a great assembly on Wednesday kicking off this month and the students who won the reading incentive awards for the month were given their reward by a soldier who is a BKEA alum, Lucas Beenken. Our two winners this month were Katelyn Fekkers and Gustavo Suarez. Each person who passes a reading counts quiz during October received a reading tattoo as well. Refer to the reading incentive sheet I sent home last Friday that details what 4^th grade is doing for the month of November to qualify for our reading incentive drawing.

                Lastly, I would like to thank our wonderful room parents, Jerri and Todd Fekkers, Michelle Sorenson, Julie Berneman, and Patty Lane for the awesome party they threw for us for our fall party. They did an amazing job and the kids had a truly great time! They took lots of things home with them! We had fun parading our costumes at the nursing home and Belle Haven. Each place also provided the kids with a treat! What a fun day!!

                As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to call or email me!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

Phone:  444-3093 (Home)  444-4300 ext. 336 (School)

Email:   chris.mallen@belmond-klemme.k12.ia.us

Mallen's Memo

Hi!
I would like to welcome you to my blog. I hope to put my weekly Monday memos on this blog. Keep watching to see how it goes!!
Have a great day!
Chris Mallen