Monday Memo

Tuesday, September 8, 2015)

 

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone enjoyed our long weekend!! We were very busy last week! The students took their first science test that I sent home with them on Friday. We had our first reading and spelling tests as well. The results of those were sent home on Monday. The students are really starting to understand the routine of 4^th grade and I am pleased with how well it is going. Again, I want to thank you for making sure they read each night and for signing their planners to verify that. I have them stay in 15 minutes of their recess if they forgot to read the night before. I also appreciate you taking the time to work on their multiplication facts each night for at leefore ast 5 minutes. The payoff for the time spent doing that will be huge! They do daily fact sheets. I have been letting them use a multiplication table these first three weeks, but the table is going away after this week.

 

In Reading this week, we will be testing over our Grandfather’s Journey story. We will be starting our new story this week as well. This next story is also a favorite of the kids entitled Titanic:  Lost and Found. We will be working on a variety of reading skills throughout the week including:  Vocabulary, Comprehension, Outlining, Syllibication, and using a thesaurus. Our grammar lessons are over compound sentences. The spelling words will be attached to their pretest for now on, so you can be looking for that. We also will be working on non fiction through the use of our Scholastic News magazine. We also enjoy our Storyworks magazine that your contributions at the book fair help our class have a subscription of.

 

In Math we are continuing our place value lessons. We are also learning to read and write multi-digit numbers using base ten numerals, number names, and expanded form. We do a daily review each day. The first one I went through with the kids, but they will be starting to do these independently beginning this week. As I stated above, a fact sheet is also part of their daily routine. Using a multiplication table has been of great help to them, but after this week, they will no longer have them to use. So, again I thank-you for taking the time to go through those with them at least 5 minutes each night!!

 

As I said above, we took our first science test. This week we are starting on a new chapter over animal behaviors and characteristics. The students typically love this chapter because they love talking about animals!!

 

I have really enjoyed getting to know your children!! They are very talkative, but they are also very creative and pick up on new learnings very easily! Thank-you for sharing them with me this year!! As always, if you have any questions/concerns please feel free to email/call me!! As I said at before school conferences, I don’t always see what’s going on or they don’t tell me… So, if something happens that you think I should know about, please feel free to. I like to “nip things in the bud”  when possible and as soon as possible.

 

Have a great week!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

 

Phone:   (Home)  641-444-3093   School:   641-444-4300 ext. 336

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org