Mallen's Monday Memo February 16, 2015

Monday Memo

February 16, 2015

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Thank-you to Jordan and Brandon’s mom for the cookies and drinks for our Valentine’s party!! The kids truly appreciated them!!

The first book for February was due to be tested on today. I am still struggling to get everyone to pass these quizzes and actually read the books. The new book for February that I am giving them is a Sharon Creech poem book. We spent last week talking about poems so I thought I would use that genre for their next book. It is a short read so I am hoping they will have it done by the time we leave for spring break. I will be sending them home with a library RC book for them to read over break and to have read by March 15^th. Again, some of the students struggle reading, all the more reason for them to read each night. I encourage you to read to those struggling students as well so they can hear good literature. Thanks for your help with that!!

This week in reading we are beginning our “Heroes” theme. This theme is perfect for the month of February as we will be learning about African American Heroes throughout the next few weeks. We will be reading a story this week entitled “Happy Birthday Dr. King”. This story is great in how it talks about the effect some brave African Americans had on our country. We will be working on comprehension, vocabulary, cause and effect, and sequencing for this story. Our grammar lessons are on subject pronouns this week and our spelling list is attached to this memo.

We are into our third module for math. This module is on multiplication and division. This week we will be working on solving two-step word problems, including multiplicative comparison, and using multiplication, addition, or subtraction to solve multi-step word problems.  We will also work on our daily reviews and daily fact sheets. With that, it is imperative the students learn those multiplication facts! Some are doing very well, but for those that haven’t been practicing them, it makes math take so much more time… Thanks for helping them study those!!

We tested over our Human Systems unit in Science on Thursday, I sent the results home with them. We are starting today with the Southwestern Region of the United States.  If you have ever been to that region, please feel free to send pictures, brochures… from there!!

Have a great week!!

Thanks for all you do to help me with your child’s education! As always, please call with any questions or concerns!!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

Mallen's Monday Memo February 9, 2015

Monday Memo

February 9, 2015

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! As I promised last week, I have attached a list of the students in my class, if you wish to send Valentines for your child. On Tuesday, we are going to the care center to play Valentine Bingo with them. We always look forward to that!! On Thursday it is Spring Picture Day. I just wanted to write the word springJ On Friday, we will celebrate Valentine’s Day with a movie and drinks are coming from Braydon’s mom and food is coming from Jordan’s mom. Thank-you so much for sending those for us!!

This week in reading we are working on our poetry unit. This is the end of our Problem Solvers theme, so we will be working on review skills in grammar and the spelling list is attached to this memo. We will be reading a variety of poems, listening to some poems, and writing a haiku poem, limerick and an acrostic poem. This week long unit is a lot of fun for the students! We will also be working on listening to some stories about some incredible African Americans and their contribution to our country. We will be working on some comprehension activities over these famous individuals as well. It fits in nicely with our Problem Solvers and unit and our upcoming unit on heroes. I will talk more about that when we finish this unit.

We are into our third module for math. This module is on multiplication and division. This week I hope to get through lessons 10 and 11. These lessons continue our multiplication by 4 digits and multiplication problem solving. We will continue our daily reviews and division sheets as well.

We have been doing some nice comprehension activities over the systems of the body. We should finish up on them on Tuesday. I will be sending home a study guide with the students on Tuesday, with the test on Wednesday.

Just a reminder that the students are to bring a Valentine box of any kind to collect their Valentines in. They can bring those any day this week. They can also bring their Valentines at any point this week.

Class List:  Jose Andrade, Merari Areans Carlos, Allison Barrus, William Bruggeman, Loel Cabellero, Raymundo Castillo, Kaylee Garcia, Trevor Goltz, Marcelino Gonzales, Crissy Hanson, Kaden Hanson, Ryan Hauert, Jordan Keul, Luis Moralles-Calles, Claudia Simonson, Braydon Warren, Ethan Wessels

Thanks for all you do to help me with your child’s education! As always, please call with any questions or concerns!!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

Mallen's Monday Memo, February 2, 2015

Monday Memo

February 2, 2015

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! We are in a new month!! My how time flies!!

This week in reading we are reading a story entitled “Sing to the Stars”. As all of the characters in our stories have problems that need to be solved, this story involves a little boy with a bad case of stage fright. The story shows how he goes about solving this problem, with the help of a man who is unable to see who has his own problems. Together, they are very successful at solving their problems!! We will be working on the following skills throughout this story:  Comprehension, Vocabulary, story structure, and structural analysis.  Our grammar this week will be over comparing with adjectives.  Our spelling list has words that follow the VCCV pattern and it is attached to this memo. The students will also be working on their daily oral language sentences each day. The students needed to have their book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory read by January 30^th. I gave them the entire month to have that done. Once they passed the test (They have 3 times to take it), I gave them their new book. I had a group of books in which they could choose the one they wanted.  This book is due in two weeks on February 13^th. I will give them another book at that time to have done by February 28^th. It is still two weeks but a shorter month.  I am really asking for your help with this. I have so many of the students that aren’t passing the quizzes and some that have admitted they aren’t even reading the book. As the only homework I give them, it is my hope that they will take this seriously and read each night. I know that a lot of the students can’t read the book I have given them, but as I have said before, please read it with/to them for 15 minutes a night. They need to be exposed to good literature. I have them reading books at their lexile throughout the day, for those with lower lexile levels. Thank-you for your help with this!!

We are into our third module for math. This module is on multiplication and division. This week I hope to get through lessons 6 and 7. These lessons continue our multiplication by 4 digits and multiplication problem solving. We will continue our daily reviews and division sheets as well.

Last week we talked about the skeletal, muscular, nervous, digestive, circulatory and respiratory systems. This week we will be reviewing those systems with next week at some point having our test over them.

Reminders:  KC Spelling Bee is Friday, February 6 at 4:00 at Jacobson.

                         Early Dismissal:  Wednesday 1:00

If you are thinking ahead, we will be exchanging Valentines on Friday, February 13^th.  Any time the week of the 9^th you can feel free to send a Valentine Box of your choice to school of your choice. You may send the valentines at that time also. I will be sending home a list of students in the next Monday Memo.

Thanks for all you do to help me with your child’s education! As always, please call with any questions or concerns!!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org