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 4th 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
