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. 15th!!! 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
