Mallen's Monday Memo December 5, 2011

Monday Memo

December 5, 2011

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! This will be an interesting week, getting ready for Friday’s Christmas program! The kids enjoyed singing Christmas songs at the bank on Friday. Thank-you for your generous donations to our food pantry box.  The Cheer Fund money is also very welcomed and we will be using it to purchase an item off the giving tree. One more thing that our school is going to do is to replenish our hats and mittens supply through allowing the kids to bring some money for “Kaps for Kids”. On Dec. 7, and Dec. 14, the students can wear their hats that day for a donation. These things are just a few examples of how we are a giving and caring community at Jacobson Elementary!!

For reading this week, we are reading a story entitled Cendrillion. It is another version of Cinderella. We will be reading a variety of versions of Cinderella this week. We will also be working on vocabulary, comprehension, fantasy/realism, venn diagram over two characters in the story, main and helping verbs in grammar, and our spelling list is words with the schwa sound in them. The list is attached to this memo. Our small group stories are also all take-offs of Cinderella.

We will be continuing in our new Chapter 5 unit. It is also on multiplication/division. We skipped chapter 4 but will go back to it after we finish this unit. We wanted to stay on this topic to continue getting those multiplication facts learned. This week we will be multiplying 2DX1D and 3DX1D. We will also be doing some multiplication with arrays. Keep working on those facts at home!!

I sent home a social studies study guide with your child today. The test over Chapter 9 will be tomorrow. We will be finishing up on the body systems unit in Science, hopefully this week. Stay tuned to the Monday Memo…

I look forward to the students being all dressed up on Friday. It is always so fun to see them in their “Sunday Best”!!

As always, with any questions/ concerns don’t hesitate to give me a call or email!!

Have a great week!

Chris Mallen

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

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

Mallen's Monday Memo November 28, 2011

November 28, 2011

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great holiday break!! We enjoyed visiting the Belmond Care Center last Monday! The students did a great job of performing our Thanksgiving poems for their new friends! They followed that with a color sheet and conversation. They are so good to us over there and we all look forward to our next visit in December!!

I appreciate that the students finished the book The Jacket. Most of them passed the test. They are also finished the book Sarah, Plain and Tall. We took the RC test and a paper test over the story. We also did a daily quiz, that just helped make them accountable for their reading. Many failed the quizzes. It has helped me see that they need to continue being monitored with their independent reading. We will continue with that and it also makes them realize that they need to read for a purpose, not just look at the pages.

We are starting a new unit this week, in reading. It is entitled “Amazing Stories”. These stories are under the fantasy genre. Our first story is entitled The Stranger. We will be working on comprehension, vocabulary, noting details, compound words and structural analysis of words. During our grammar lessons, we will be working on action verbs this week. Our spelling words are compound words. The list is attached to this memo. We will be working on the following centers this week:  Vocabulary Center, Successmaker, Language Bucket, Fusion Writer, Poetry Center. Each of the students was given an RC book to work on and have finished by December 2. Let’s keep up the reading!!

During Math this week, we will be working on finishing our Chapter 3. We will be testing over this chapter on Wednesday. We are going to skip to Chapter 5 to continue with our multiplication/division. With that, they just need to have their facts memorized. Keep working on those, as we are taking daily multiplication tests.

We will be working on the nervous and digestive system this week. We have covered the skeletal and muscular system. We worked on the circulatory and respiratory system as well. We are getting there. We have an awesome video series that includes quizzes… and does a great job of showing how the systems work together.

We are on the Mountain Region of the United States. We will be talking about the crops in that region as well as the mining that goes on in the mountains, this week in Social Studies.

I want to briefly talk about Christmas this year. I would love to do a “Pay it Forward” type of theme for this Christmas. It would be great if the students could work on giving of their time to help another. I know their care center friends would love a visit from them, maybe after school… Another possibility is helping a neighbor shovel their sidewalk (should we get snow…). Maybe they could bake some cookies and deliver it to a neighbor. The list is endless. With that concept in mind, if they could possibly bring $2.00 to school, I would match what they bring and we would get an ornament from the Cheer Fund tree. I am also planning on ordering some extra books to give along with that ornament, to be given to kids that may need some books… I would also like to start a box of items for the food pantry. I would love to  have our box be filled with taxable items like toilet paper, soap, toothpaste… anything you would like to give. I will have a box available in the classroom tomorrow. Thank-you for your help with this. These are such special, caring kids and would do a great job “Paying it Forward”.

Have a great week!

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

Email:  cmallen@frontier.com

Mallen's Monday Memo November 14, 2011

Monday Memo

November  14, 2011

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! We enjoyed the wonderful assembly for Veteran’s Day last Friday. It was nice to see everyone with their red, white, and blue on!! The kids also entered an essay contest sponsored by the local VFW Auxillary. The essay was entitled:  “My Definition of A Veteran Is…” I sent the entries in on Monday and usually in January sometime we find out the winner. They were very good and I am anxious to see the results!

In reading this week we are finishing up on our “American Stories” theme. We will be reviewing nouns and using commas between nouns… during our grammar time. Our spelling words are some more homophones and are attached to this memo.  We will be reading a play from a book we read at the beginning of the year entitled “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing”. We will be just doing some activities over the genre of plays. We will be looking at words with er, ist, and or in them. We will also be working on the vocabulary words that go with a play. We will also be reading the story Sara, Plain and Tall and then hoping to get to also read Skylark. That is the next book. My hope is that the kids will want to continue the series and read Caleb’s Story and More Perfect Than The Moon. We will be doing some activities over the stories as well. I also have some neat comprehension activities for Thanksgiving that we will be doing this week and next. On Monday, we are going to the Care Center and perform some poems for our friends and then do a fun color sheet with them. We really like to go over and see them!! The students are reading The Jacket right now and need to have it read to test on Friday.

In Math, we are getting closer to finishing up on our multiplication and division unit. We are working on multiple step problems, writing and evaluating expressions, finding a rule, and solving multiplication and division problems. We will continue working on our review “buckets”. We are also taking daily multiplication tests for those that still haven’t gotten a 100% on their X test. Please make sure you are working with them for at least 5 minutes each night. It really makes a difference!

We are starting on the Mountain Region of the United States. Again, if you have anything to share from that region, that you may have visited, have relatives at… please feel free to send it with your child on Mondays for our share day. We are working on the human body systems in Science.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving brea

As always, feel free to give me a call or email with any questions or concerns!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

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

Mallen's Monday Memo October 24, 2011

Monday Memo

October 24, 2011

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We had a send off party for Mrs. Staley on Thursday. We wish her the best for her future teaching career! This week is Red Ribbon Week. I sent home a note with the students on Friday, which detailed what things they can wear each day this week. We are having an assembly on Thursday at 2:45 about Red Ribbon Week. We are also having our Halloween Party this Friday at 2:00. It begins with our annual costume parade and then continues in our classroom. I wanted to make mention to my room parents that Rachel Boots-Vestweber’s phone number is 641-275-0179. I look forward to the upcoming party and appreciate all the time and effort put into it by our room parents!! The kids always look so forward to it!

This week we are finishing up our MAP testing today!! We are also starting a new story entitled “Boss of the Plains”. It talks a little about how the Stetson hat began. It is part of our new unit “American Stories”. With that, the students have been reading the book Bound for Oregon. This is a great book that talks about a girl’s experience on the Oregon Trail. Each night they are assigned a chapter to read and to write three sentences over. Most of them get the chapter read during the day but wanted to let you know that some of them may be bringing that home as homework. We will be working on the skills of:  comprehension, vocabulary, writing a business letter, using the context, and the grammar skill will be continuing our work on plural common nouns. Our spelling words will have the ir and ar sounds and are attached to this memo. Our guided reading books this week are all American stories and our centers will have us doing Successmaker, a poetry center, our vocabulary center and a spelling center for this week.

For Math, we will be working on a couple of reviews to prepare for our Chapter Two test this week. We should also be getting started on our next chapter over multiplication if all goes well. In Science I will be sending home a study guide tomorrow, to help prepare for their Science test over plants which will be Thursday.  We will continue finishing up on the Northeastern part of the United States this week. I hope to have us testing next week.

I hope everyone has a great week!

As always, feel free to give me a call or email with any questions or concerns!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

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

Mallen's Monday Memo October 17, 2011

Monday Memo

October 17, 2011

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I am back to teaching again. It was great to have had our student teacher, Mrs. Staley, the last couple of weeks. She will be in our district this week, but will be observing different classrooms.

We enjoyed the firemen and can never hear their message enough! The fire truck rides are always an added bonus to their day! Quite the excitement on Wednesday! I had a meeting in Mason City and the power went out for over an hour. I guess it was pretty dark in the classroom, so it was very interesting continuing with their day. I think our student teacher learned a bit about flexibility that day!

The fourth grade will be starting with our trimester MAP testing. Mrs. Jenison’s class will be doing it from 8:30-10:00 M-W and we will be doing it from 8:30-10:00 Th., Fr., and Mon. That makes our lesson plans a little interesting. We are going to try to complete a new story, Tanya’s Reunion, through the next two weeks. We will be working this week on comprehension and vocabulary, using exact nouns, making inferences, and writing a few character sketches. Our grammar will have us working on singular and plural nouns. Our spelling words have the sounds of u in them this week and the list is attached to this memo. Our centers will have us working on the fusion writers, completing Successmaker, a vocabulary center, poetry center and a language skill review. Our guided reading stories are entitled “A Breath of Fresh Air”, “Gifts of the Dineh” and “Coming Home”.

We will be really working on our multiplication facts as well as working on finishing up our Chapter 2 in Math. With MAP testing this week, it will be a challenge to see if we can get through the chapter. Hopefully within in the next two weeks we will get through it, and tested.

We will be talking about the American Revolution and drawing inferences as our critical skill, during Social Studies. We will be finishing up with Science on the ways that plants reproduce. We hope to get to our vocabulary review this week as well in Science.

On Thursday, we are going to have a little going away party for Mrs. Staley at 2:00. At 2:35 Mr. Johnson is going to talk to the class about study skills. A quick reminder that Math Night is Thursday night from 6:30-7:30. You can stop in a variety of rooms and learn different math games.  I look forward to seeing you there!

Have a great week!!

Chris Mallen

Phone:  444-3093 (Home)  444-4300 (School)

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

Monday Memo September 26, 2011

Monday Memo

September 26, 2011

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Can you believe it is autumn already?  Where has the time gone? I am enjoying the time with your children. We have been reading some interesting books in our small groups that have really sparked an interest in your child. Each group reads a different story and we work with that story the entire week. We have discussed: orphan trains, discovering gold, the potato famine, birds migrating and amazing journeys that have taken place in our world. In last week readings we read two shorts stories: One was about a cricket taking a ride on a pigeon and the other was an actual true story about a child who was sent by Postal Express to her grandma’s in the 1913’s.The students have really enjoyed historical fiction books and non-fiction.

Our read aloud story is titled The Thing about Georgie. This is a story of a 4^th grade boy who is a dwarf and the trials and tribulations of his life. I think this book is very good for the elementary student as they see that everyone does not look the same and how to accept others.

This week we will be reading an Encyclopedia Brown book as a class. We will be working on comprehension and grammar skills.

In math this week we are going to work on mental math. This is an important skill that may come to some students quicker than others. We will work as a group and if needed break into small groups for understanding of the concept. Again we will keep up with the multiplication facts and our “bucket” which is a review of past math concepts we have learned.

We will be completing our unit in Science entitled “Animal Growth and Adaptations”. I believe the students have enjoyed this unit as much as Mrs. Mallen and I have! The next two units are “Identifying Cause and Effect” and “Robots, Roaches and Ants”. For Social Studies, we will be discussing and investigating “Seaways and Cities” and we will do some Promethean Board exercises on our NE Region, including harbors.

 Our share day is every Monday. The students are free to share something they want to share with the class, whether that is an item or just verbally share with us.

Again, I am proud to be working with such delightful and knowledgeable children.

As always, please feel free to let me know of any questions or concerns you may have!

Sincerely,

Kay Staley

Chris Mallen

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

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

Monday Memo September 19, 2011

Monday Memo

September 19, 2011

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! What a week we had last week with one day being really hot and a few days later, really cold. Only in Iowa… It was great seeing so many of you at our Literacy Night last Thursday!  I think it is a great way to get together as a community and to support reading for leisure! The Book Fair is always a nice thing to add as a possible way to get some more books into the kid’s hands! Mrs. Burt was awesome as always, with her interactive books for the kids!!

Mrs. Staley will be taking over reading this week, along with math. For reading this week, she will be working on our review week. It is a review week for grammar, reviewing kinds of sentences, common nouns and subjects and predicates. With spelling, we have a list of review words that are attached to this memo. During whole group reading, she will b working on compare/contrast, syllabication, and abc order. They students will be reading two shorter stories this week entitled: Parcel Post Kid and Chester Cricket’s Pigeon. Our centers this week will include: Successmaker, Poem center, Vocabulary Center, Typing Tutor, and our language “bucket”. Add that to our guided reading groups, and it will again be a busy week in reading!

Mrs. Staley will also be working on math this week. She will be working on using decimals in numbers and again, numbering numbers from least to greatest. Last week the students worked on counting money and counting back change. That is a tough skill, but so important. The students will constantly be working on that concept by playing “store” as one of our Math Menu games. This week she will also be having them do a review and if they are ready, she hopes to give them their chapter test on Friday. If they aren’t we will do it next week.

We will be starting our new unit in Science entitled “Animal Growth and Adaptations”. It is such a neat unit. We are also working on our daily oral science. Our focus this week is on our teeth. For Social Studies, we will be reviewing the vocabulary we went over throughout the handbook. We will also be working on our daily oral geography lessons. This week it is over using a map grid. We will be starting on the regions of the United States next week. The next Monday Memo will let you know what region we are starting with and the students may bring items to share from that region, if they have been there on vacation… Our share day is every Monday. The students are free to share something they want to share with the class, whether that is an item or just verbally share with us.

Starting the next memo, Mrs. Staley will be taking over the writing of it. She will also be taking over the entire class for the next 3 weeks.

As always, please feel free to let me know of any questions or concerns you may have!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

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

Mqllen's Monday Memo September 12, 2011

Monday Memo

                                                                           September 12, 2011

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I look forward to seeing everyone at our Literacy Night on Sept. 15^th!!! It goes from 6:30-7:30. Refer to the purple sheet that went home with your child last Thursday, for specifics. The book fair will be open prior to school and right after school each day this week and it will also be open at 6:00 on Literacy Night!  The students are starting to get settled into our daily routine. We are getting there!

This week in reading we are reading a chapter from a Laura Ingalls Wilder book entitled “By the Shores of Silver Lake”. I will be having the students read a Laura Ingalls Wilder book once they have passed their quiz over the Judy Blume book. I am so impressed that so many of the students have read over 4 Judy Blume books! That is so impressive!! The Laura Ingalls Wilder books are a little bit  lengthy, but I like for them to have read and quizzed over at least one of them. Some of the skills we will be working on this week include:  Noting details, comprehension, vocabulary, taking notes, and guide words.  Our grammar lessons this week are over proper nouns. We have enjoyed watching excerpts from the old “Grammar Rocks” series. During spelling we will be working on words that are homophones. Their listening skills will be very important as it will depend on how the sentence uses the word as to how to spell the word. The list is attached to this memo. For centers this week, we will be doing a vocabulary center, writing a friendly letter, keyboarding, a language “bucket”, and computer lab for Successmaker. Our guided reading groups have us reading about the orphan train, talking about prairie dangers, and racing on the Mississippi River.

For Math this week, Mrs. Staley will be taking over. She will be working on counting money and the most important skill, counting back change. They will be working on a daily multiplication sheet as well as a daily math review. This week she will be taking over Math, with next week having her take over Math and Reading. Please keep working on the multiplication facts at home as so many are struggling on their facts. It really will help them out so greatly, having those memorized!

We are finishing up on our social studies handbook this week. It seems that the students are enjoying the DOGS we do before social studies. They go right along with the lesson for the week. The students will be testing this week in Science. We are going to try to do the test on the prometheon board. The test will be on Friday. A study guide will go home with the students Thursday night. They won’t be taking a paper test home with them on Friday, but they will know their results. This is just a trial to see how it goes. The first test is the most difficult with a lot of vocabulary terms. We thought maybe having it on the board, would make it a little more “fun” (if a test can be considered funJ).

The book order is due tomorrow. Literacy night is Thursday night. I think that takes care of our reminders.

As always, call with any concerns!

Have a great week!

Chris Mallen

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

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

Mallen's Monday Memo September 5, 2011 (Tuesday Sept. 6, 2011)

Monday Memo

(Tuesday) September 6, 2011

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great, relaxing, long weekend!! We were busy last week! I think the students have finally started settling into the 4^th grade routine and I know this is going to be an awesome week! We had our pictures taken last week as well. They looked so awesome with their nice clothes onJ Just a reminder that the book order is due this week (the 10^th).

For reading this week, we are going to be reading about the Titanic. The students have looked ahead and have seen that this was going to be their next story and are so excited!! It is a great story and a great piece of non fiction for the kids! We will be working on a lot of skills this week . Some of them are: Comprehension, vocabulary, syllabication, outlining, and writing complete sentences. For grammar, we are starting on compound sentences. Our spelling words this week have the sounds of u. The list is attached to this memo.  Our centers this week include a vocabulary center, computer keyboarding center, a language review sheet and making a poster about the Titanic. I have given all of the students a Judy Blume book that is at their lexile level. That is the book they are to read 15 minutes a night and then test on. They also have library books that they can read at their leisure as well. I would like the Judy Blume book finished by the middle of September. Thanks for your help with that!

Math this week has us working on rounding greater numbers, problem solving, reviewing what we have learned so far in our first chapter and understanding the dollar sign and decimal point. We are going to really get after those multiplication facts this week as well. Having them work at least 10 minutes a night on them, is such a great help! We are also doing our daily reviews that I call our “buckets”. This is something that is a great help to them in reviewing previously learned material. It is great for our ITBS tests as well!

Social Studies has had us doing some awesome things on the prometheon board. We have been working on the skills of using a map, understanding globes, looking at different kinds of maps and this week we are going to work on elevation maps, landform maps, and physical maps. We do some really need daily oral geography activities to reinforce what we learned the time before. The games are another way we reinforce what we have read about, in a fun way!

In Science, we are finishing up on our first unit of animal classification. Ask your child to name the 5 kingdoms all living creatures are divided into. We have done some cool prometheon board activities over the concept of classification. We did a fun shoe activity as well over ways to classify shoes. Each science day we begin our lesson with a daily oral science lesson. Last week we worked on decomposers and bacteria. This week it is answering the question “How do bacteria create cavities?”. These are fun daily tasks to reinforce some important science concepts that are found on the ITBS.

Tuesday is library day at 3:00, if you want to make sure your child brings back their library books on that day.

As always, any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me!

Have a great week!

Chris Mallen

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

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

Mallen's Monday Memo, August 29, 2011

Monday Memo

August 29, 2011

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend!! We made it through our first week of school!  Everyone is starting to do better with remembering to listen when I talk, focusing, using your time… I appreciate that you are making sure the kids finish their homework, if they have any. Reading every night for 15 minutes is also something I am so appreciative of you making sure your child does. Thanks for referring to my first memo for any questions you may have about the classroom…

This week in reading we are reading about a man who lived part of his life in Japan and part in the United States and how he felt that home was in both places. The story is called Grandfather’s Journey. We will be working on a variety of skills with this story, this week. Comprehension, vocabulary, word webbing, and writing a haiku poem are a few of the skills we will work on this week. We will also be working on subjects and predicates as well as reviewing the kinds of sentences, which we worked on last week, during our grammar skills time. Our spelling words this week have the long 0 and i vowel sound and the short o and I vowel sound. The words are attached to this list. For centers, we will be doing a vocabulary story, with words from our story, keyboarding with our Fusion Computers, doing a review activity that we call our language bucket, working on comprehending with poems, and doing Successmaker in the computer lab. We are busy during reading!!

For Math, we are working on place value and the value of numbers. This week we are working on problem solving with those concepts. We also do a daily review sheet, we do what we call a math bucket, and we do our math lesson and spiral review. It seems like a lot but they have a lot of time allotted to working on their math, and if they use the time wisely, there is plenty of time to play some math menu games. We have learned Ten Toss so far this year.

We had fun doing a classification game on the promethean board and we also did a game where we identified the location of the 7 continents. We are also doing daily oral geography and daily oral science. We are starting our science and social studies class with these problem solving activities. It is a fun way to get started. Right now we are talking about bacteria and decomposers with our daily oral science. It is kind of gross, but interesting. For Social Studies, we are working on our handbook in our textbook that review the use of globes, maps, … We also have some fun promethean board activities that relate to our topic of the day. We do a variety of activities each day with Science and Social Studies. We read, write, do hands-on and we try to finish with some type of game on the pb.

Keep having the students read a chapter of Tales of A Fourth Grade Nothing each night. We will have be testing over that story at the end of the week. I will then give the students their own book from the realistic fiction genre to read independently and test over. Thanks for signing the planner each night that the students have read for at least 15 minutes!

As always, any questions or concerns, please feel free to 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 Informational Monday Memo Aug. 22, 2011

Welcome Back To School

Informational Monday Memo #1

August 22, 2011

Dear Parents,

            I hope everyone had a great summer! It went so fast and that just amazes me!  Every Monday you will receive a Monday Memo which will tell you about the goals and objectives of that week. It will also tell you of any assessments your children will need to study for and things of that nature. I also attach the week’s spelling list to the Monday Memo. This first memo is to let you know a bit about myself and about how I “run” my classroom. I feel that communication is vital between the parents and teacher and I would like to begin by encouraging you to let me know any concerns/questions you have by emailing me or calling me at any time. I like to be proactive on situations, so don’t let it fester, just give me a call/email and we will figure out something. I have my numbers and email address listed in the memo. I have also attached a roster of the students for you. I am also going to use your email address to give you any information, concerns, questions… that I have for you. I also have a blog on our school website. That address is also at the bottom of this memo.

ABOUT ME

           

            This is my 29^th year of teaching. I have taught in three districts, Shelby-Tennant, Kanawha, and Belmond-Klemme. I have taught K-12 Special Education, 5^th grade, 3^rd grade, and 4^th grade. I graduated in 1983 from the University of Northern Iowa. My husband, Dan, works at 3M Corporation in St. Paul, MN. He comes home weekends. I have three children.  Mackenzie is 25 and works for Verizon Corporation in Jacksonville, Florida. Kelsey is 22 and lives in Iowa City and is an ICU nurse at the University of Iowa Hospitals. Keaton is a senior at Belmond-Klemme High School. We have two dogs, Kinnick and Nile. Our favorite pastimes are attending Keaton’s events and attending the Iowa Hawkeye football games.

HOMEWORK

            I try to allow enough time during the day for the students to get their work done. If they don’t finish it, they are to finish it as homework. If it isn’t finished, they will finish it during their recess. My major goal for the students to have for their homework is to read 15 minutes or more each night. Each student will have a planner. We will fill it out each day. They will circle any homework they have that night. I ask that you put your initials at the bottom of each day. Please only initial it if they have read for 15 minutes that day. If it isn’t signed, I will assume they didn’t read and I will have them read for 15 minutes during recess. I appreciate your help with that! The first book they have is in a plastic baggie. For the first book, we are all reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. Once the book is done, (We will be doing a few of the chapters together), they will take an RC book quiz. If they get 70% or better, they will receive a punch on a punch card I have on a bulletin board for them. They will receive a prize when the punch card is filled. They also have a card in their plastic bag, where they will check off each book they pass. Just a reminder that they have three chances to pass the quiz. Once they pass the first quiz, they will be picking out their own books, however, I am doing different genres each month that I will be having them read at least one book of their choice, in each genre.  I also want them to have their multiplication facts memorized as soon as possible. We will be doing daily multiplication sheets but mostly I will need to have them work on their facts, through multiplication cards, computer games…, at least 10 minutes a night, if they need to. Having them memorized will make 4^th grade math so much easier for them. Again, thanks for your help with that as well!!

BOOK ORDERS

            I send book orders home with the students each month. I send a variety of orders home with them so that they have a variety of books to choose from. Please send a separate check for each book order you may decide to order from. Please don’t feel obligated! I will try to make the due dates about 10 days from the day they get them. I am attaching the first book orders of the year. Let’s have them due on September 9^th.

BEGINNING OF THE DAY

            The students have a variety of ways that they can start their day before school starts. They have the choice of eating breakfast in the lunchroom, going to the library and reading a book, using the computer lab to do CCC and going to the gym for the walking program. I have a chart in my classroom for the students to put a sticker for each time they get 70% or better on CCC, either math or reading. If they come early, they could go to the lab and do a lesson in math or reading and still have time in the walking program. We start school at 8:10 now, so there won’t be as much time as in the past. With that, at 8:10 there will also be the morning announcements. We will begin our day as soon as the announcements are over. I have attached a copy of my schedule to this memo as well.

STUDENT TEACHER:

Kay Stayle

            We are so fortunate to have a student teacher with us for the next 8 weeks. She will start by observing my class and observing my methods and as the weeks progress, she will be more and more responsible for the teaching. She will be writing the Monday Memos when she is in charge of the classroom and that will be your sign that she is taking over. I look forward to having her here! She has provided us with some information about herself:

I have two children Stacy who is 23, resides in Clear Lake and Tyler who is 19 lives at home. They both work at Bennigan’s in Clear Lake.

I live in Meservey. I love to garden, camp, fish, sports of all kinds, love the outdoors and to hang with my kids, grandma and my dad.

I am a senior at Buena Vista University. I am student teaching in Belmond, Sheffield and Mason City and will graduate in Feb. 2012.

I teach Head Start in Mason City at Hoover Elementary.

I am a 1981 graduate from Mason City High School and moved to the Meservey Thornton area in 1982.

BIRTHDAYS

            Birthdays are a pretty special day in the kid’s life. If you wish to send treats, please feel free, however, don’t feel obligated. Just refer to the Jacobson Elementary handbook for any questions about treats.

CLASS LIST

Jesse Brown

Leslie Carlos

Shelbi E. Clayton

Austin Dean

Jaydon Gansen

Wyatt Heideman

Zachery Heiden

Kaytlynn Lee

Jose L. Martinez

Kassidy Miller

Gisselle Murillo

Kaden Nickell

Chance Nielsen

Jacob Noah

Emma Schroeder

Kelsey Smith

Cameron Steenhard

Dawson Summers

Mary Thompson

Trevor Usher

Elizabeth Vestweber-Boots

SCHEDULE

MONDAY-FRIDAY

8:10-10:15:  Reading (8:10-9:00: Journal, Spelling, DOL, Grammar Lesson)

                                      (9:00-9:30: Whole Group Lesson)

                                      (9:30-10:15: Guided reading groups and Centers)

10:15-10:35:  Recess

10:35-11:35:  Math

11:35-12:00: Study Time

12:00-12:25: Lunch

12:25-12:50: Recess

12:50-1:00: Break

1:00-1:30:  Blue Days:  Art

                     Green Days: Spanish

1:30-2:00: Blue Days: Music

                    Green Days:  PE

2:00-3:00:  Blue Days:  Science

                     Green Days:  Social Studies

3:00-3:20:  Tues.-Library

                     MWTHF:  Read Aloud/Dear Time

3:20:  Dismissal

WAYS OF COMMUNICATION

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

Phone:  Home:  641-444-3093     School:  641-444-4300 ext 336

Blog:  http://MallensMemo-blogspot.com

I am so excited for this new school year!! There are so many learning opportunities for us in fourth grade. We will be learning about the ITITAROD race in Alaska in our first reading story. We will also be learning place value and the value of numbers in math. Social Studies will have us begin by learning about geographical terms and then the regions of the United States. In Science, we will be learning about how animals are classified. Hey-that is just the first week of school!!! Lots more learning ahead!! I look forward to a great year!!

Chris Mallen

Mallen's Monday Memo, April 11, 2011

Monday Memo

April 11, 2011

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone enjoyed the lovely weekend! We are finished with our ITBS tests for this week. The results will be sent home with your child’s final report card. Last week went by very quickly! We are enjoying our correspondence via Skype and Google Live Chat, with Kelley Wilhelm. He is working on his PHD from the University of Wisconsin and is currently doing the first of part of a 3 part tour of Antarctica. Part of his project involves connecting with a classroom. We get to be the classroom. He called us from Antarctica on Thursday. We were able to ask him questions and he showed us what it looks like outside his station. His goal is to get students interested in science. He will be there for two more weeks. Next year he will be there for two months and then he has another stint for two months. He will keep in touch with our class throughout those visits and we hope he will be available to talk to the entire Jacobson Elementary. There will be an article in the Blueprint section of the Belmond Independent , in the near future. Kelley did such a great job with the kids!! Speaking of the Belmond Independent, Dirk Vanderlinden will be coming to talk to us on Thursday. Every year the fourth graders get to draw an ad for local businesses. It is a great activity for them in so many ways. He will be talking to them about ads and we will write the ads the following week. The hope is to get them in the paper by the end of April.

This week we are beginning a new unit in reading. It is entitled “Friend or Foe”. We will be reading some non- fiction books as our genre this unit. Our first story is entitled “Salmon Summer”. With this story we will be working on comprehension, vocabulary, adverbs, direction following and multiple meaning words. We will be doing a few things with sequencing as well. We began a book last week, entitled Freedom Train.  This is the book from which the play we saw in Des Moines, was based on. We have been working on retellings throughout this book. We will continue to do that this week as well.  The students all have RC books to read and should be reading those at home for their 20 minutes a night. It was exciting to learn that we won the reading poster again for the month of March. I appreciate all the help you give me towards getting those kids to read each night!!

In Math, we are starting our unit on Geometry. Today we tested over the division unit. This was a tough unit but they did very well. Again, knowing those facts is incredibly important and they do know them!! We are going to be testing over the SE region of the United States on Wednesday. Look for a study guide to come home Tuesday night. We will be starting on the NE region of the US next week. We are starting a unit on planets in science this week as well. That is always a favorite of the kids! This week we will talk about the objects in the solar system and we will discuss a little about each planet.

The spelling list this week is on 3 syllable words and it is attached to this memo. I sent home book orders last Thursday. Let’s have those orders due on the 20^th of April.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email or call me! Have a great week!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

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

Mallen's Monday Memo March 14, 2011

Monday Memo

March 14, 2011

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Last week we finished our social studies chapter over the southeast region of the United States. We enjoyed our monthly visit to the care center on Friday. We read stories to them and made a leprechaun with them. They are always so good to us with their treats and hospitality.

 This week during reading we are reading two different excerpts from two different books. We are reading from Stormy, Misty’s Foal and Sacajawea. We will be working on a variety of skills this week including comprehension and vocabulary and we will be working on main idea and homophones. We will be reviewing our pronouns during our grammar time. They are to “memorize” the subject pronouns:  I, you, he, she, it, we, and they and the object pronouns:  me, you, him, her, it, us, them. We have discussed the possessive pronouns as well and will spend this week reviewing all of the above. Our spelling words this week are also review words from this unit “Heroes”. We will also be doing some reading from the story Misty of Chincoteague. They will be working on a variety of skills along with this really interesting story! Vocabulary and comprehension will be a huge part of this!

In math this week, we are continuing with our division unit. We are dividing with remainders and with zero in the quotient, this week. We will also working on dividing with money. Knowing their facts has made this process that much easier!

Water is our new unit in Science this week. We will talk about how water affects all aspects of life… We will be continuing on our Southeastern Region of the United States unit this week. We will be looking at how people make a living in that region and a lot about the history of that region. Again, that fits in so perfectly with our “Heroes” unit in reading!

The students will be having another review of 30 words from the past few stories, this week for their spelling list. The list is attached to this memo. The students really do an awesome job on their spelling tests. We just need to work on transferring that spelling to their daily work. It just all takes lots of practice and that is why we write so much!

Thank-you for returning the conference slips! I look forward to meeting with you next week. I won’t have a Monday Memo next week, since I will be visiting with you!!

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to give me a call or an email!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

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

Mallen's Monday Memo March 7, 2011

Monday Memo

March 7, 2011

Dear Parents,

                I hope everyone had a great weekend! Last week went by very quickly. We were able to test on our science unit on Friday. We finished our chapter on multiplication in math. The reading incentive assembly on Wednesday went very well. Our class won with the most RC points during the month of February. Our two winners for the month were Keaton Wilson and Koty Kuhlers. They each won a hackeysack ball. I am so proud of the reading that most of them are consistently doing!! I appreciate you signing the planner verifying that they are reading 20 minutes a night. It is one of the best things we can do for the students. The more they practice reading, the more fluent they become and the more fun reading becomes as they are able to be taken to so many places through a book!! It is a terrific life-long skill!!

                In math, we are starting on our division unit. Yes, the dreaded long division is a part of this unit. Since they have their math facts memorized, I know this unit will go just fine. In their buckets, they have been introduced to the concept of long division, so I think it won’t be as difficult of a concept as it can be. As with reading, practicing on these kinds of problems, just makes it easier for them to do! We will be doing a lot of practicingJ We will also keep working on our daily math “buckets”. They are a great way to keep practicing those hodge podge of math skills that they will see on their ITBS test.

                This week during reading, we are going to be reading about Lou Gehrig and how he is a hero to many. Last week we read about Gloria Estefan and learned many reasons why she was a hero. We will be working on comprehension skills and vocabulary development, as well as fact and opinion, syllables, word histories, and possessive pronouns. Our spelling words have the VCV pattern in them and the list is attached to this memo. We will be reading about Mark McGwire, Marian Jones, and Roberto Clemente during our guided reading time. Our centers will also involve vocabulary, typing skills, Successmaker, a vocabulary game and working with syllables.

                Our new unit in Science won’t begin until Friday. We will start working on water for Science for our next unit. We will finish with our first part of the Southeast Region this week, hoping to test on Thursday over this region. A study guide will be sent home with the students on Wednesday, if all goes well. This region has been great to go along with our reading!

                I sent a permission slip home with the students last Thursday for a field trip on March 29^th. It is going to be an awesome trip to the Civic Center in Des Moines to see a production of the play Freedom Train. The major problem is that we HAVE to leave by 8:00 and so we NEED the students here by 7:50 that morning. We know the buses don’t always get here by that time, so we appreciate you making special arrangements to get them there that morning by 7:50!! It should be a great experience and we HAVE to leave at 8:00 because the production starts at 10:00. Thanks for your help!! The permission slips are due by March 15^th.

                We will be going to the care center for an hour on Friday. While there, we are going to read to our new friends and we will have a color activity for St. Patrick’s Day to share with them. I love the interaction the kids have with their friends. It is absolutely wonderful to see. Every single kid knows that their job is to try to make their friends smile. They know that for some of the residents, they are the only visitors they have had in awhile. These kids are awesome!!

                As always, if you have any questions/concerns, please feel free to give me a 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 Monday Memo February 28, 2011

Monday Memo

February 28, 2011

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Last week we did a story about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We worked on a variety of skills over the story. We finished our biographies, (I will share them at conferences). We finished our short comprehension biographies on famous African Americans. We took what is called a MAP test. It is a district assessment given to every student in our district. Each student begins the test at their grade level and then as they answer the questions, the test progresses or goes back to their level. They are given a RIT level at the end of each test. We took 3 tests. We took the language arts test, the math test, and the reading test. We will do another test as a post test, in the spring. We will be looking to see if the students have made growth. Beginning next year, the test will be given three times a year. This is another way of seeing the student’s academic growth.

Our new reading unit is entitled “Heroes”. This week we are reading about Gloria Estafan and her rise to fame. We will be working on comprehension, vocabulary, object pronouns, homophones, and the spelling words are attached to this memo. Each of the spelling words has the change the y to an I rule in them. We will also be working on vocabulary skills, typing skills, and Successmaker during our center time. Writing about a hero in their life, is something we will begin on and work on throughout this unit. I will compile their stories into a booklet for them to take home.

In Math, the students are finishing up on Chapter 6 already. This chapter had them multiply 3D X 2D numbers  and with money, and with  problem solving . We will be testing over  this chapter this Thursday. We will be playing some math games on Friday. We are still working on the wonderful Drops in a Bucket skill sheets that really work them on a variety of skills. They are such good prep for the basic skills test.

We are going to be finishing up with our weather unit in Science. We will be doing a prometheon board activity on Thursday, using their voters. Next week we will be testing over weather. In Social Studies, we are working on finishing our first chapter over the Southeastern region of the United States. As I said before, this region blends in nicely with the stories we are reading for our reading class.

I sent some book orders home with the students last Thursday. They are due on March 10^th. As always, please feel free to give me a call with any questions or concerns!

Have a great day!

Chris Mallen

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

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