Mallen's Monday Memo October 8, 2012

Monday Memo

October 8, 2012

I hope everyone had a great weekend! We enjoyed our Iowa’s Healthiest State walk on Wednesday. It was a beautiful day! We had an assembly right after that to talk about assembly etiquette. Today we are having a pep assembly to celebrate Homecoming week. The 7-12^th graders came over to make it a school wide assembly. I have attached the dress-up things we have going this week at Jacobson for Homecoming week.

This week in reading we will be starting our new theme, Adventure Stories.  Our first story is Tomas and the Library Lady.  Your child is reading an Encyclopedia Brown book and they will need to be finished and tested on it by October 18^th. In our small reading groups we each will be reading American Short stories that I believe your child will enjoy.  This week we will be working on a grammar bucket, comprehension, dictionary skills and short stories. We are going to work on proper nouns, synonyms, antonyms and homophones in Language Arts. Last week we focused on the genre of mystery stories and we read an Encyclopedia Brown book as a class. We did a number of activities over the story, throughout our RTI time.

For math this week will be working on solving equations, number expressions, 3 ways of computation, and patterns. They will continue working on multiplication sheets and their bucket for review. We will also do some review of our 3 column addition and subtraction problems.  Please work with your child with the multiplication facts.  This will help them greatly if they have these memorized.

In Science we are continuing with animal adaptations and behaviors. We will be testing over this unit on Friday. Look for the study guide to come home with the students Thursday night.

Social Studies will be working on the Southwestern Region. I hope to send a study guide home with your child Tuesday night, with the test on Wednesday.

I sent a note home to the parents who agreed to help plan our parties this year. If you did not receive one, and had expressed an interest in planning one, let me know and I will send a note home with your child. Thank-you again for your time and effort!!

Have a great week!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

Mallen's Monday Memo October 1, 2012

Monday Memo

October 1, 2012

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! This week has a couple of interesting events in store for us. On Wednesday at 9:00 our school will be participating in the Iowa Healthiest State initiative. We will be meeting at the front of our building and walking the trail. You are more than welcome to join us. There will be other community members walking with us. That afternoon at 1:00, the students will be listening to a 4H presentation. They will be invited to join their organization. Information will be given to them at the meeting. We also dismiss early on Wednesday, so it is definitely going to be an interesting day!

This  week  we will be continuing on finishing up with our Journeys theme. We will be reading about a child that actually gets mailed to a relative in “Parcel Post Kid” and we will be reading about an adventure a cricket has with a bird, in the story “Chester Cricket”. Both stories provide the characters with a unique adventure or “journey”. We will be writing journey stories too this week. We will also be working on the following skills:  Comprehension, vocabulary, comparing and contrasting stories. Our grammar skills this week will all be reviewing what we learned this past few weeks: Sentence Kind, subjects and predicates, common nouns, and using nouns in a series. Our spelling words are review words and are attached to this memo.

In Science we are continuing on animal adaptations and behaviors. This is a much shorter unit in Science, so we will already be working on the review this week. For Social Studies, we will be working on the Southwestern Region of the United States. This week the focus will be on working with latitutde and longitude and talking about the need for water and the availability of oil in the region.

In Math we will be starting our second chapter. I have the results of the first test in math in their folders for parent/teacher conferences. Our first lesson will be on using mental math when adding numbers. We will then use mental math when subtracting numbers. We will be estimating sums and differences this week. On Friday we will talk about over and under estimates for problem solving.

This week we are going to try to start using our typing agent which is located on our web site. If a student wants to try it at home, it is set up with their name and they can work on it at home. I will be showing them their password this week. Hopefully it will work okay. Sometimes there are a few glitches with the program, but we will see how it goes. Hopefully you can access it from home once we get going on it. It is an individualized program, so it will take them from where they left off.

As always, call with any questions/concerns!

Have a great week!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@belmond-klemme.k12.ia.us

Monday Memo

September 24, 2012

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Just a couple reminders to send back the room parent volunteer sheets as soon as you can. I will be making a list to send home with the kids telling who will be coordinating which party… I thank-you so much in advance for giving of your time and effort towards putting on a party for the kids!! With that, just a reminder to send $2.00 with your children towards the parties.

This week and next week we will be finishing up on our Journey’s unit. We will be reading two stories this week. One of the stories is entitled The Earthenware Pig.  The other is a series of short mysteries from other countries. This secton of our reading series focuses on the genre of mystery storiesThe students will be working on comparing and contrasting the two stories. They will also work on the vocabulary for each story. We will be reviewing some of those skills we went through, throughout the unit. Those skills will include guide words, abc order, syllabication and the author’s thoughts. We will be writing a story this week about a make-believe journey the students want to go on. We will also have our center time which will have us reviewing some grammatical skills, reading a vocabulary book and answering questions over it, and they will be working on Successmaker in the computer lab. In grammar, we will be reviewing their grammar skills from the unit. They will also be having their first review list of spelling words, from the unit. . We will be reading an Encyclopedia Brown book next week as well to finish our unit on Journeys. Our Laura Ingalls Wilder books are due to be tested on October 1^st. Thanks for making sure they are reading those.

In Math, the students will be finishing up on their first unit. They did an amazing job with counting back change!! Have them show you at home what they can do. Our first test will be this week. I am not sure which, day as it will depend on how much we get done. We will also be doing our daily reviews. Remember to keep having them practice those multiplication facts. Some are doing much better while others really need to work on them.  I thank-you for helping them at home with those!!

In Science, we are starting our new unit over animal growth and adaptations.  The students usually really enjoy this interesting unit. I have their wonderful tests in their file to share with you at conference time.

In Social Studies, we will be starting our regions of the United States. We will start with the Southwest Region. If you have any brochures or artifacts from this region, please send them with your child to share with us on Mondays.

We will be having some periodic drills this week. They include a fire, tornado and intruder drill. I wanted to let you know in case the children mentioned any of the above. We had a brief talk as to why it was important to practice drills for all emergencies.

It is amazing how quickly time is flying. This will be our last week in September. I have the kids move their desks the beginning of each month and that seems to be kind of exciting for them to have new kids to work with. I can honestly say that these kids are absolutely a joy to teach and I just want you to know thatJ

As always, call with any questions/concerns!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@belmond-klemme.k12.ia.us 

Mallen's Monday Memo September 17, 2012

                                                                             Monday Memo

                                                                           September 17, 2011

Dear Parents,

 I hope everyone had a great weekend! Just a reminder that the book orders are due today but I will place the order tomorrow if you are still wanting to order a book. We had a great time at the care center and I appreciate how very kind and caring the students were while we were there. They always treat us so well and they won prizes when they won bingo. Again, I was so proud of the students!!

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, we 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. Thank-you for working with your child at home on this important skill and when possible, have your child make purchases with money and work on giving the correct change…  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, especially in the coming months!

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 as a practice. The actual test will be tomorrow (Tuesday). A study guide will go home with the students tonight. The first test is the most difficult with a lot of vocabulary terms. We thought maybe having it on the board, would help prepare them for the actual test.

Just a reminder that the early out is on Wednesday.

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

Mallen's Monday Memo September 10, 2012

Monday Memo

September 10, 2012

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend!! Although last week was a short week, the kids really got a lot accomplished and I am so proud of them for that! Today your children went to our adopt a business, which is the Belmond Rehabilitation Center! We love having them as part of our “family”. It is great for the students to develop relationships with our older generation. Today we went over and paired up with our new friends and played bingo. I think they had a great time. I always tell them that their job is to make their friend smile. I explained that for some of the residents, this might be their only visitor that week. We will be going monthly to visit our new friends. I encourage them to go over on their own time, with your permission of course, and visit their new friends.

This week we are reading one of the kid’s favorite stories. It is entitled The Titanic. We will be working on the skills of comprehension, vocabulary, thesaurus, and syllabication during our whole group reading time. During our guided reading time, we will be working on main idea. For grammar, we will be focused on writing complete sentences and compound sentences. In spelling, we will be working on words with the u sound. The list is attached to this memo.

Math this week will have us doing a review over what we have learned so far in this chapter. We will also be working on using the $ sign to understand decimals. Money and making change will be a big part of this week. This is an important skill that needs to be practiced throughout their life. We will be practicing it throughout the year by playing some money games during our math menu time, however, working on it at home, would really help them as well. With that, keep working on those multiplication facts. As I told them, it isn’t going away. They need to learn those in order to be successful with math for the rest of their school career. Thanks for helping them with that. We have 5 people now that are in our “Never Again Club” for having mastered the 5 minute multiplication timed test. We also work daily on our daily review that is awesome for preparing for the basic skills test!

We are going to be finishing up on our handbook activities with social studies and with our first chapter in Science. I will let you know in next week’s Monday Memo when a study guide will be coming home for their first test in Science. We will be starting on a region of the United States next week as well and I will share more in next week’s memo.

Reminder that book orders are due: Sept. 17^th

As always, call with any questions or concerns!!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

Mallen's Monday Memo September 5, 2012

Monday Memo

(Tuesday) September 4, 2012

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great, relaxing, long weekend!! We were busy last week! I think the students have finally started settling into the 4^th grade routine and I know this is going to be an awesome year! Your children are incredibly kind to each other and they have adapted to our new building procedures very well!! We had our pictures taken last week as well. They looked so awesome with their nice clothes onJ Just a reminder that the book order is due the 15th.

For reading this week, we are going to be reading a story entitled Grandfather’s Journey. It is a great story and a great piece of realistic fiction for the kids! We will be working on a lot of skills this week . Some of them are: Comprehension, vocabulary, using ly and y correctly in words, using a word web, and journaling. For grammar, we are starting on subjects and predicates this week. They did an outstanding job of understanding the 4 kinds of sentences that we worked on last week. Our spelling words this week have the sounds of short and long I and short and long o. The list is attached to this memo. I have given all of the students a Judy Blume book that is at their lexile level. Some of the books are from the school library and some are from my library. That is the book they are to read 15 minutes a night and then test on. They also have library books that they can read at their leisure as well. I would like the Judy Blume book finished by September 15th. That gives them a goal of two books to read a month. One that I give them that each month is of a different genre (This month we have a fiction book) and then they can test on their library book for the 2^nd book (or more if they get more books read!) Thanks for your help with that! They have an incentive chart they fill out for each quiz passed over their book. Once they fill their incentive chart, they will receive a trip to the treasure box. They will then start a new chart.

Staying with reading, our K-6 is adopting a half hour period of time each day which we call RTI (Response to Intervention) time. It is from 10:30-11:00 for all grade levels. That is our guided reading time. Every other day we also have another teacher (For our class it is Mrs. Trampel) that takes a group for guided reading time. Our guided reading time focuses as it always has on:  Comprehension, Vocabulary and the Reading Strategy of the week. Along with the guided reading lesson, we are focusing on main idea. Every other day the students will be working on a main idea lesson along with the guided reading lesson. Every day they will be having guided reading. This is just another thing we are working on to increase our reading scores. I can’t say this enough, PLEASE continue having them read every night for at least 15 minutes! It is the BEST way to practice the skills we are learning!

Math this week has us working on rounding greater numbers, problem solving, reviewing what we have learned so far in our first chapter and understanding the dollar sign and decimal point. We are going to really get after those multiplication facts this week as well. Having them work at least 10 minutes a night on them, is such a great help! We are also doing our daily reviews that I call our “buckets”. This is something that is a great help to them in reviewing previously learned material. It is great for our ITBS tests as well!

Social Studies has had us doing some awesome things on the prometheon board. We have been working on the skills of using a map, understanding globes, looking at different kinds of maps and this week we are going to work on elevation maps, landform maps, and physical maps. We do some really neat daily oral geography activities to reinforce what we learned the time before. The games are another way we reinforce what we have read about, in a fun way!

In Science, we are finishing up on our first unit of animal classification. Ask your child to name the 5 kingdoms all living creatures are divided into. We have done some cool prometheon board activities over the concept of classification. We did a fun shoe activity as well other ways to classify shoes. Each science day we begin our lesson with a daily oral science lesson. We are currently working on one that explains why flowers have scents and different colors.  These are fun daily tasks to reinforce some important science concepts that are found on the ITBS. We alternate Science/Social Studies every other day.

Our library day is on Green 4 days, which this week is on Friday, if you can remind your child to return their library books that are due. I would also like to add that this year we have 20 minutes a day in the computer lab which has been another great way to reinforce previously learned concepts! If that day we are working on Successmaker, if they achieve 80% or greater on the lesson, they will mark a box on their incentive chart!! Once their line is filled, they will be able to pick a prize out of the treasure box.

As always, any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me! As I stated at conferences, I would prefer to be proactive as opposed to reactiveJ

Have a great week!

Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.k12.ia.us

Mallen's Monday Memo August 27, 2012

Monday Memo

August 21, 2012

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a wonderful summer! It definitely went by very quickly! This is the first of this year’s Monday Memos. Each Monday your child will take home a Monday Memo. It will include what we will be studying that week, any tests we may be having, and other things you may want to know. This memo is to inform you as to our year in a nutshell.

This year the students will be very busy. We are so fortunate to have a  wonderful reading series that incorporates spelling and grammar right into each unit. The students will have weekly spelling lists that will be attached to the Monday Memo. Their spelling tests will be on Fridays.  They will have daily grammar lessons as well. Each day the students will be in a guided reading group where they will meet for 20 minutes. During that time, the students will be reading in small groups, from a story that goes with the weekly theme. They will also be working on a skill each week, whether it is on prediction, inference…  Each unit has a writing activity as a component of the program. We will be working on that as well, so each student will have a piece of writing for you to see during our parent/teacher conferences.  The stories they will be reading in their anthology book are wonderful pieces of literature. Each student will also always have an RC book in a bag with them. They are to take these books home each night and bring them back in the morning. I ask that they read for at least 15 minutes each night. Practice is the best way to become a good reader and I would like to see them learn to read as a leisure activity for the rest of their life as well. If they get into the habit of reading daily at a young age, the chance is there that they will continue that habit. They will quiz over their RC books when finished reading. They have three opportunities to get 70% or better. Once they do that, they will receive a punch on their reading card that is hanging on the bulletin board.  I will also have this as one of their comprehension grades.  Our first theme is entitled “Journeys” and the focus is on the mystery genre. Each student is to read two RC books a month. To begin the year, all of the students are reading independently the same story Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. I think that book is a great way to start the new school year! Our reading period is around two hours a day.

Moving on to Math… In 4^th grade we expect the kids to have their multiplication facts memorized. We don’t have a lot of time to spend memorizing the facts as our curriculum moves us right along. Knowing those facts, however, is crucial to so many of the things we will be learning in math. Please help your child practice those facts each night. We will be taking occasional timed multiplication tests to keep track of their progress. It is just so very important for their future math years to have those memorized. Thanks for your help with that!! We have found the first two chapters in math to be probably the ones that are the trickiest. We spend our math time with a review activity, a fact sheet, a lesson, a math practice assignment and then if they get that done, we have a math menu board where they can choose from a variety of math review games to work on. Our math period is typically 60 minutes long.

Fitting in Science and Social Studies in our hectic schedule is always a challenge. We will be doing one or the other each day for about 45 minutes. For Science, we will be working on life science first. We will be learning about the importance of classifying living things. We will then get into such things as animal adaptations… Once we have completed our units in life science we will move to earth science and then we will finish the year with physical science. We try to do some experimenting each week but our primary focus is on learning new vocabulary words. Our science tests really want them to have a good understanding of the terms and concepts in science.  Our social studies begins with a map skills unit. We will be using a lot of hands on maps and our promethean boards to understand our place in the world.  Once we finish our preliminary unit on map skills, we will be learning about the different regions of the United States. If you have traveled to a region which we are studying and have any artifacts, brochures, pictures… you would like to share please feel free to send it with your child.

Speaking of sharing, every Monday is “Share Day”.  During the beginning of the day, we set aside a few minutes for the students to share whatever they would like to share with the class. That is a good time to share their artifacts from the above paragraph. They may bring whatever you are comfortable having them bring to share also. It is also a good opportunity for students to speak in front of the class and to become comfortable doing that as well as it being a good chance to really get to know each other.

My expectations of the students are simply that they respect the other students and that they respect me. I won’t tolerate any disrespect of either. If there is a situation I feel you need to be aware of, I will either email you or phone you. I also expect the students to do their homework and bring it back the next day. I don’t assign homework but if the students don’t get the work finished in the time allotted, that will be their homework. They will bring it home in a folder called their homework folder. If they don’t have their homework finished, they will be in at recess to finish it. There will be times when they will be in recess to relearn something I felt they didn’t grasp earlier in the day. Learning it in a small group setting sometimes makes it easier and hearing it a second time is sometimes all it takes to learn something new. So, if they are in at recess it typically isn’t for bad behavior, it is typically to get a second chance at learning something new. This is something our district will be doing on a daily basis as a way of making sure the students are understanding new concepts.

We enjoy celebrating each other’s birthdays. If you wish to send a treat, you are more than welcome. Please don’t feel you have to, it is just okay if you would like to.

I thank-you for the chance to work with your child this school year! I am huge on communication, so please feel free to give me a call or shoot me an email whenever you have any questions or concerns. I will always have my number and email address on the Monday Memo to refer to.

Here’s to a great school year!!

Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkscd.org