Mallen's Monday Memo, (Tuesday, October 29, 2013)

Monday Memo

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

 

Dear Parents,

 

I hope everyone had a great long weekend. This week is another busy one for us! We are going to the Belmond Rehabilitation Center and Belle Haven at 1:40 on Thursday, to parade our costumes for them. We will come back to school and participate in the parade at school and then we will have our Fall Party. I would also like to remind you that your child needs to have read Bound for Oregon by Friday, November 1^st. I will be giving them their new story at that time. That book will be due November 15^th. If they finish early, I will send them to the library to read a book of their choice.

 

In reading this week, we will be finishing our story entitled Boss of the Plains. We will be working on the skills of comprehension, vocabulary, and using context clues. Our grammar skills for this story include rewriting plural nouns and looking for the correct noun endings. Our spelling test this week will be on Friday. We spent a lot of time last week working on the individualized SRA stories. They are a wonderful way to individualize their learning, and they hold them accountable for their reading through a variety of activities they do over the story. We get the kits about a week and a half each month. They are a great way to prepare for our Iowa Assessments in the spring. 

 

In Math this week we will be working on Chapter 4 in math. We will begin by working on units of time, elapsed time (which I have a really neat trick to help with that), writing to compare, and doing some skills using a calendar.

 

We will continue to be working on the NE region of the United States. This week we will be talking about the Industrial Revolution. We will compare the cities in the NE region to the city of Mumbai. We will work on distributions maps this week. By the end of the week, we will be talking about how the NE region of the United States looks today. Your child brought home their first DOG last week. DOG stands for Daily Oral Geography. I give them to the students on Monday, unless they don’t have school that day, then it is the next day they have school. They are due on Fridays. They are a series of geographical questions to help the students understand where they are in the world. They may use any resource they have, their social studies book, internet, maps, you… If they turn them in by Friday, have their name on them, and get them perfect, they will be in a drawing for a prize. Look for those to come home at the beginning of each week. If it is a significantly short week of three days or under, we won’t do one. Thank-you for your help with these!!

 

We have almost everyone in our “Never Again Club”!  Again, I thank-you for helping your child learn those multiplication facts. It absolutely will help them throughout the rest of their math career in school! I also appreciate that you sign the planners verifying that they read at least 15 minutes a night! That is one of the best things we can do for the kids!

 

I hope everyone has a great week! As always, please feel free to call me with questions/concerns.

 

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

Mallen's Monday Memo, October 21, 2013

Monday Memo

October 21, 2013

 

Dear Parents,

 

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Since my last memo, we enjoyed having the fireman talk to us about fire safety and they also gave us a ride on the fire truck. Their message is one you can’t hear enough and we appreciate all the time and effort the firefighters give to our community! We had guidance class this week, which is something we have once a month. She is talking about goal setting with the kids. This is National Red Ribbon Week. Today the students were to wear hats to “Put a Lid on Drugs”. Tuesday it is “Tie Down Drugs” and they are to wear ties for the day. Wednesday it is “Boot Out Drugs” and they can wear boots that day. On Thursday it is “Sock it to Drugs Day” and they can wear wild socks and tuck them outside of their pants. On Friday it is wear red day. Next week we will be starting on Map Testing. We also have Monday off for teacher inservice. On Thursday, the students have their fall party parade and are going to parade over at the care center to show their costumes. They will be doing that about 1:40 and returning to school in time for the 2:00 parade. We thank our room mothers for the fall party, Michele Miltenberger, Rachel Bonin, Sandra Willms and Norma Gonzalez.

 

In reading this week, we will be finishing our story entitled Tanya’s Reunion. We will be working on the skills of comprehension, vocabulary, and drawing conclusions this week. Our grammar skills for this story include finding singular and plural nouns. Our spelling test this week will be on Wednesday. We will start a new story on Thursday. This story is entitled Boss of the Plains. We will work on comprehension, vocabulary this week as well as continuing our lessons on plural and singular nouns. Our new spelling list will be coming home with the students on Thursday. This list has ir, or, and ar sounding words in it. All of the students are reading the RC book of Bound for Oregon which is due on November 1^st. For some of the students, feel free to read a page and they read a page… This is a very good book in the historical fiction genre. 

 

In Math this week we will be working on finishing our second chapter in math. We should be ready to take the chapter test on Thursday. Most of this week will be devoted to reviewing the chapter and preparing for the test. A lot of algebraic concepts have been part of our discussion for the end of the chapter. We have talked a lot about variables and using them and applying rules to them. We will be skipping to Chapter 4 in math on Friday. We will go back to chapter 3 after we finish chapter 4. Chapter 4 is over time, graphing skills, elapsed time and using charts and graphs.

 

We will continue to be working on the NE region of the United States. The students will be finishing chapter 5, with the study guide going home with the students tonight. Tomorrow will be the chapter 5 test. We will then be working with chapter 6, still on the northeastern region. This chapter has us visiting the culture and economics of the region, as well as studying a Native American tribe that is associated with this region.

 

I thank-you for attending conferences! I appreciate how we can work together towards giving your child the best education we can!  

 

I hope everyone has a great week! As always, please feel free to call me with questions/concerns.

 

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

Mallen's Monday Memo October 7, 2013

Monday Memo

October 7, 2013

 

Dear Parents,

 

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Last week we enjoyed a presentation by some students in 4H encouraging the 4^th graders to join their program. They sent a bag full of information home with them. This week is fire prevention week and conferences. Just a reminder that there is no school on Friday as a compensation day for evening conferences. I look forward to visiting with you this week. The quarter isn’t over, so grades won’t be there, but we will talk about your child’s progress up to this point. Thank-you for having your child read their Encyclopedia Brown book each night. Many have already passed their quiz over it and are reading a second Encyclopedia Brown book. They can read a book of their choice if they get a second Encyclopedia Brown quizzed over. They have to have one Encyclopedia Brown book quizzed on by October 15^th. This grade I use on their comprehension score.

 

In reading this week, we be starting a new unit entitled “American Stories”.  The stories they are reading all take place in America. The first one we will read is called Tomas and the Library Lady. This story is about how a little boy was from a family of migrant workers and spent time in a few different places and the importance of a library in his life. He eventually grew up to be a writer. They will be working on the following skills this week:  Vocabulary, Comprehension, Contractions, and Drawing Conclusions. During grammar this week the focus will be on proper nouns and proofreading for capital letters. The spelling list contains words contain the ou and schwa sounds.

 

In Math this week we will be working this week on subtracting whole numbers and money, looking for patterns in numbers, matching words and expressions, and evaluating expressions.

 

We will start social studies this week, we are going to start working on the regions of the United States. The first one that we will be working on is the Northeastern Region. We will be looking at the states along the Atlantic Coast this week. We will also talk about the colorful environment, the cities, and their connection to the seaways, and we will work on some cause/effect in social studies. If you have any artifacts, brochures, or souvenirs etc.  from the Northeastern Region of the United States, to share with the students, please feel free to send them and the students can share them.

 

As I will be seeing you at conferences this week, I won’t be sending a Monday Memo out on the week of October 14^th. I will resume on Mondays beginning October 21^st.  

 

I hope everyone has a great week! As always, please feel free to call me with questions/concerns.

 

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

Mallen's Monday Memo (Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013)

Monday Memo

 September 30, 2013 (Tuesday, October 1, 2013)

 

Dear Parents,

 

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Well, the students are to be done by today reading their Laura Ingalls Wilder book. They will be testing on their book today. They have three chances to pass it, but they have to wait 24 hours before retaking the test. I am giving them an Encyclopedia Brown book to read for their first book of the October. It will be due to be test on, October 15^th.  I encourage them to read another Encyclopedia Brown book and other books of their choice, if they finish the one I give them and pass the test before October 15^th. Thank-you for seeing that they read every night!!   Just a reminder to sign the planner each night verifying that they are reading each night. I have discussed with a few that they have to also fill out the planner each day. It was fun to participate in the Homecoming festivities last week. The students enjoyed the Homecoming parade and the assembly we had on Monday! This week the students will be listening to some students talk about their 4H experience, on Tuesday (today). They will be given some information about an invitation to join 4H. Look for that going home with the students today.

 

In reading this week, we are finishing our review over the journeys theme and talking about the genre:  mysteries. We will be doing some activities involving mystery stories and reading some Encyclopedia Brown minute mysteries each day. Having the students read an Encyclopedia Brown book is a way to have them read from the mystery genre. We will be reviewing a variety of skills each day including:  comprehension, vocabulary, remembering details, and some grammar review practice on subjects/predicates, common nouns, and guide words. There will be no spelling list for this genre unit. We plan to have this journey unit finished by Friday. Next week we will be starting our new reading theme. It is entitled: American Stories with the genre unit being on plays.

 

In Math this week we will be working on over and under estimates, adding whole numbers and money, column addition, and subtracting whole numbers and money.  We have 3 more members of the “Never Again Club”. That makes 14 members total. I truly appreciate you working with your students on memorizing those multiplication facts!!

 

For Science today, we are finishing up on our animal characteristics and behavior unit. I will be sending home a study guide on Thursday with your child. The test over this science unit will be Friday. We will spend a lot of time this week reviewing the vocabulary over this unit. There is a lot! I thought they did a great job on their first science test! Just make sure they study the study guide and they will do well on this test! I am keeping all of the tests until conferences at which time I will go through them with you and send them home from then on.

 

I sent home the homeroom letter with those that were willing to help out. I sent those out on Friday. If you didn’t receive one, just email me and I will get one to you. Again, I only sent them home with those that had said they could help. I thank-you in advance for your time and effort!!

 

I hope everyone has a great week! As always, please feel free to call me with questions/concerns.

 

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org