Mallen's Monday Memo October 17, 2011

Monday Memo

October 17, 2011

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I am back to teaching again. It was great to have had our student teacher, Mrs. Staley, the last couple of weeks. She will be in our district this week, but will be observing different classrooms.

We enjoyed the firemen and can never hear their message enough! The fire truck rides are always an added bonus to their day! Quite the excitement on Wednesday! I had a meeting in Mason City and the power went out for over an hour. I guess it was pretty dark in the classroom, so it was very interesting continuing with their day. I think our student teacher learned a bit about flexibility that day!

The fourth grade will be starting with our trimester MAP testing. Mrs. Jenison’s class will be doing it from 8:30-10:00 M-W and we will be doing it from 8:30-10:00 Th., Fr., and Mon. That makes our lesson plans a little interesting. We are going to try to complete a new story, Tanya’s Reunion, through the next two weeks. We will be working this week on comprehension and vocabulary, using exact nouns, making inferences, and writing a few character sketches. Our grammar will have us working on singular and plural nouns. Our spelling words have the sounds of u in them this week and the list is attached to this memo. Our centers will have us working on the fusion writers, completing Successmaker, a vocabulary center, poetry center and a language skill review. Our guided reading stories are entitled “A Breath of Fresh Air”, “Gifts of the Dineh” and “Coming Home”.

We will be really working on our multiplication facts as well as working on finishing up our Chapter 2 in Math. With MAP testing this week, it will be a challenge to see if we can get through the chapter. Hopefully within in the next two weeks we will get through it, and tested.

We will be talking about the American Revolution and drawing inferences as our critical skill, during Social Studies. We will be finishing up with Science on the ways that plants reproduce. We hope to get to our vocabulary review this week as well in Science.

On Thursday, we are going to have a little going away party for Mrs. Staley at 2:00. At 2:35 Mr. Johnson is going to talk to the class about study skills. A quick reminder that Math Night is Thursday night from 6:30-7:30. You can stop in a variety of rooms and learn different math games.  I look forward to seeing you there!

Have a great week!!

Chris Mallen

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

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

Monday Memo September 26, 2011

Monday Memo

September 26, 2011

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Can you believe it is autumn already?  Where has the time gone? I am enjoying the time with your children. We have been reading some interesting books in our small groups that have really sparked an interest in your child. Each group reads a different story and we work with that story the entire week. We have discussed: orphan trains, discovering gold, the potato famine, birds migrating and amazing journeys that have taken place in our world. In last week readings we read two shorts stories: One was about a cricket taking a ride on a pigeon and the other was an actual true story about a child who was sent by Postal Express to her grandma’s in the 1913’s.The students have really enjoyed historical fiction books and non-fiction.

Our read aloud story is titled The Thing about Georgie. This is a story of a 4^th grade boy who is a dwarf and the trials and tribulations of his life. I think this book is very good for the elementary student as they see that everyone does not look the same and how to accept others.

This week we will be reading an Encyclopedia Brown book as a class. We will be working on comprehension and grammar skills.

In math this week we are going to work on mental math. This is an important skill that may come to some students quicker than others. We will work as a group and if needed break into small groups for understanding of the concept. Again we will keep up with the multiplication facts and our “bucket” which is a review of past math concepts we have learned.

We will be completing our unit in Science entitled “Animal Growth and Adaptations”. I believe the students have enjoyed this unit as much as Mrs. Mallen and I have! The next two units are “Identifying Cause and Effect” and “Robots, Roaches and Ants”. For Social Studies, we will be discussing and investigating “Seaways and Cities” and we will do some Promethean Board exercises on our NE Region, including harbors.

 Our share day is every Monday. The students are free to share something they want to share with the class, whether that is an item or just verbally share with us.

Again, I am proud to be working with such delightful and knowledgeable children.

As always, please feel free to let me know of any questions or concerns you may have!

Sincerely,

Kay Staley

Chris Mallen

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

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

Monday Memo September 19, 2011

Monday Memo

September 19, 2011

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! What a week we had last week with one day being really hot and a few days later, really cold. Only in Iowa… It was great seeing so many of you at our Literacy Night last Thursday!  I think it is a great way to get together as a community and to support reading for leisure! The Book Fair is always a nice thing to add as a possible way to get some more books into the kid’s hands! Mrs. Burt was awesome as always, with her interactive books for the kids!!

Mrs. Staley will be taking over reading this week, along with math. For reading this week, she will be working on our review week. It is a review week for grammar, reviewing kinds of sentences, common nouns and subjects and predicates. With spelling, we have a list of review words that are attached to this memo. During whole group reading, she will b working on compare/contrast, syllabication, and abc order. They students will be reading two shorter stories this week entitled: Parcel Post Kid and Chester Cricket’s Pigeon. Our centers this week will include: Successmaker, Poem center, Vocabulary Center, Typing Tutor, and our language “bucket”. Add that to our guided reading groups, and it will again be a busy week in reading!

Mrs. Staley will also be working on math this week. She will be working on using decimals in numbers and again, numbering numbers from least to greatest. Last week the students worked on counting money and counting back change. That is a tough skill, but so important. The students will constantly be working on that concept by playing “store” as one of our Math Menu games. This week she will also be having them do a review and if they are ready, she hopes to give them their chapter test on Friday. If they aren’t we will do it next week.

We will be starting our new unit in Science entitled “Animal Growth and Adaptations”. It is such a neat unit. We are also working on our daily oral science. Our focus this week is on our teeth. For Social Studies, we will be reviewing the vocabulary we went over throughout the handbook. We will also be working on our daily oral geography lessons. This week it is over using a map grid. We will be starting on the regions of the United States next week. The next Monday Memo will let you know what region we are starting with and the students may bring items to share from that region, if they have been there on vacation… Our share day is every Monday. The students are free to share something they want to share with the class, whether that is an item or just verbally share with us.

Starting the next memo, Mrs. Staley will be taking over the writing of it. She will also be taking over the entire class for the next 3 weeks.

As always, please feel free to let me know of any questions or concerns you may have!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

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

Mqllen's Monday Memo September 12, 2011

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. 15^th!!! 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

Mallen's Monday Memo September 5, 2011 (Tuesday Sept. 6, 2011)

Monday Memo

(Tuesday) September 6, 2011

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 week! 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 this week (the 10^th).

For reading this week, we are going to be reading about the Titanic. The students have looked ahead and have seen that this was going to be their next story and are so excited!! It is a great story and a great piece of non fiction for the kids! We will be working on a lot of skills this week . Some of them are: Comprehension, vocabulary, syllabication, outlining, and writing complete sentences. For grammar, we are starting on compound sentences. Our spelling words this week have the sounds of u. The list is attached to this memo.  Our centers this week include a vocabulary center, computer keyboarding center, a language review sheet and making a poster about the Titanic. I have given all of the students a Judy Blume book that is at their lexile level. 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 the middle of September. Thanks for your help with that!

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 need 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 over ways to classify shoes. Each science day we begin our lesson with a daily oral science lesson. Last week we worked on decomposers and bacteria. This week it is answering the question “How do bacteria create cavities?”. These are fun daily tasks to reinforce some important science concepts that are found on the ITBS.

Tuesday is library day at 3:00, if you want to make sure your child brings back their library books on that day.

As always, any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me!

Have a great week!

Chris Mallen

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

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

Mallen's Monday Memo, August 29, 2011

Monday Memo

August 29, 2011

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend!! We made it through our first week of school!  Everyone is starting to do better with remembering to listen when I talk, focusing, using your time… I appreciate that you are making sure the kids finish their homework, if they have any. Reading every night for 15 minutes is also something I am so appreciative of you making sure your child does. Thanks for referring to my first memo for any questions you may have about the classroom…

This week in reading we are reading about a man who lived part of his life in Japan and part in the United States and how he felt that home was in both places. The story is called Grandfather’s Journey. We will be working on a variety of skills with this story, this week. Comprehension, vocabulary, word webbing, and writing a haiku poem are a few of the skills we will work on this week. We will also be working on subjects and predicates as well as reviewing the kinds of sentences, which we worked on last week, during our grammar skills time. Our spelling words this week have the long 0 and i vowel sound and the short o and I vowel sound. The words are attached to this list. For centers, we will be doing a vocabulary story, with words from our story, keyboarding with our Fusion Computers, doing a review activity that we call our language bucket, working on comprehending with poems, and doing Successmaker in the computer lab. We are busy during reading!!

For Math, we are working on place value and the value of numbers. This week we are working on problem solving with those concepts. We also do a daily review sheet, we do what we call a math bucket, and we do our math lesson and spiral review. It seems like a lot but they have a lot of time allotted to working on their math, and if they use the time wisely, there is plenty of time to play some math menu games. We have learned Ten Toss so far this year.

We had fun doing a classification game on the promethean board and we also did a game where we identified the location of the 7 continents. We are also doing daily oral geography and daily oral science. We are starting our science and social studies class with these problem solving activities. It is a fun way to get started. Right now we are talking about bacteria and decomposers with our daily oral science. It is kind of gross, but interesting. For Social Studies, we are working on our handbook in our textbook that review the use of globes, maps, … We also have some fun promethean board activities that relate to our topic of the day. We do a variety of activities each day with Science and Social Studies. We read, write, do hands-on and we try to finish with some type of game on the pb.

Keep having the students read a chapter of Tales of A Fourth Grade Nothing each night. We will have be testing over that story at the end of the week. I will then give the students their own book from the realistic fiction genre to read independently and test over. Thanks for signing the planner each night that the students have read for at least 15 minutes!

As always, any questions or concerns, please feel free to call or email me!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

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

Mallen's Informational Monday Memo Aug. 22, 2011

Welcome Back To School

Informational Monday Memo #1

August 22, 2011

Dear Parents,

            I hope everyone had a great summer! It went so fast and that just amazes me!  Every Monday you will receive a Monday Memo which will tell you about the goals and objectives of that week. It will also tell you of any assessments your children will need to study for and things of that nature. I also attach the week’s spelling list to the Monday Memo. This first memo is to let you know a bit about myself and about how I “run” my classroom. I feel that communication is vital between the parents and teacher and I would like to begin by encouraging you to let me know any concerns/questions you have by emailing me or calling me at any time. I like to be proactive on situations, so don’t let it fester, just give me a call/email and we will figure out something. I have my numbers and email address listed in the memo. I have also attached a roster of the students for you. I am also going to use your email address to give you any information, concerns, questions… that I have for you. I also have a blog on our school website. That address is also at the bottom of this memo.

ABOUT ME

           

            This is my 29^th year of teaching. I have taught in three districts, Shelby-Tennant, Kanawha, and Belmond-Klemme. I have taught K-12 Special Education, 5^th grade, 3^rd grade, and 4^th grade. I graduated in 1983 from the University of Northern Iowa. My husband, Dan, works at 3M Corporation in St. Paul, MN. He comes home weekends. I have three children.  Mackenzie is 25 and works for Verizon Corporation in Jacksonville, Florida. Kelsey is 22 and lives in Iowa City and is an ICU nurse at the University of Iowa Hospitals. Keaton is a senior at Belmond-Klemme High School. We have two dogs, Kinnick and Nile. Our favorite pastimes are attending Keaton’s events and attending the Iowa Hawkeye football games.

HOMEWORK

            I try to allow enough time during the day for the students to get their work done. If they don’t finish it, they are to finish it as homework. If it isn’t finished, they will finish it during their recess. My major goal for the students to have for their homework is to read 15 minutes or more each night. Each student will have a planner. We will fill it out each day. They will circle any homework they have that night. I ask that you put your initials at the bottom of each day. Please only initial it if they have read for 15 minutes that day. If it isn’t signed, I will assume they didn’t read and I will have them read for 15 minutes during recess. I appreciate your help with that! The first book they have is in a plastic baggie. For the first book, we are all reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. Once the book is done, (We will be doing a few of the chapters together), they will take an RC book quiz. If they get 70% or better, they will receive a punch on a punch card I have on a bulletin board for them. They will receive a prize when the punch card is filled. They also have a card in their plastic bag, where they will check off each book they pass. Just a reminder that they have three chances to pass the quiz. Once they pass the first quiz, they will be picking out their own books, however, I am doing different genres each month that I will be having them read at least one book of their choice, in each genre.  I also want them to have their multiplication facts memorized as soon as possible. We will be doing daily multiplication sheets but mostly I will need to have them work on their facts, through multiplication cards, computer games…, at least 10 minutes a night, if they need to. Having them memorized will make 4^th grade math so much easier for them. Again, thanks for your help with that as well!!

BOOK ORDERS

            I send book orders home with the students each month. I send a variety of orders home with them so that they have a variety of books to choose from. Please send a separate check for each book order you may decide to order from. Please don’t feel obligated! I will try to make the due dates about 10 days from the day they get them. I am attaching the first book orders of the year. Let’s have them due on September 9^th.

BEGINNING OF THE DAY

            The students have a variety of ways that they can start their day before school starts. They have the choice of eating breakfast in the lunchroom, going to the library and reading a book, using the computer lab to do CCC and going to the gym for the walking program. I have a chart in my classroom for the students to put a sticker for each time they get 70% or better on CCC, either math or reading. If they come early, they could go to the lab and do a lesson in math or reading and still have time in the walking program. We start school at 8:10 now, so there won’t be as much time as in the past. With that, at 8:10 there will also be the morning announcements. We will begin our day as soon as the announcements are over. I have attached a copy of my schedule to this memo as well.

STUDENT TEACHER:

Kay Stayle

            We are so fortunate to have a student teacher with us for the next 8 weeks. She will start by observing my class and observing my methods and as the weeks progress, she will be more and more responsible for the teaching. She will be writing the Monday Memos when she is in charge of the classroom and that will be your sign that she is taking over. I look forward to having her here! She has provided us with some information about herself:

I have two children Stacy who is 23, resides in Clear Lake and Tyler who is 19 lives at home. They both work at Bennigan’s in Clear Lake.

I live in Meservey. I love to garden, camp, fish, sports of all kinds, love the outdoors and to hang with my kids, grandma and my dad.

I am a senior at Buena Vista University. I am student teaching in Belmond, Sheffield and Mason City and will graduate in Feb. 2012.

I teach Head Start in Mason City at Hoover Elementary.

I am a 1981 graduate from Mason City High School and moved to the Meservey Thornton area in 1982.

BIRTHDAYS

            Birthdays are a pretty special day in the kid’s life. If you wish to send treats, please feel free, however, don’t feel obligated. Just refer to the Jacobson Elementary handbook for any questions about treats.

CLASS LIST

Jesse Brown

Leslie Carlos

Shelbi E. Clayton

Austin Dean

Jaydon Gansen

Wyatt Heideman

Zachery Heiden

Kaytlynn Lee

Jose L. Martinez

Kassidy Miller

Gisselle Murillo

Kaden Nickell

Chance Nielsen

Jacob Noah

Emma Schroeder

Kelsey Smith

Cameron Steenhard

Dawson Summers

Mary Thompson

Trevor Usher

Elizabeth Vestweber-Boots

SCHEDULE

MONDAY-FRIDAY

8:10-10:15:  Reading (8:10-9:00: Journal, Spelling, DOL, Grammar Lesson)

                                      (9:00-9:30: Whole Group Lesson)

                                      (9:30-10:15: Guided reading groups and Centers)

10:15-10:35:  Recess

10:35-11:35:  Math

11:35-12:00: Study Time

12:00-12:25: Lunch

12:25-12:50: Recess

12:50-1:00: Break

1:00-1:30:  Blue Days:  Art

                     Green Days: Spanish

1:30-2:00: Blue Days: Music

                    Green Days:  PE

2:00-3:00:  Blue Days:  Science

                     Green Days:  Social Studies

3:00-3:20:  Tues.-Library

                     MWTHF:  Read Aloud/Dear Time

3:20:  Dismissal

WAYS OF COMMUNICATION

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

Phone:  Home:  641-444-3093     School:  641-444-4300 ext 336

Blog:  http://MallensMemo-blogspot.com

I am so excited for this new school year!! There are so many learning opportunities for us in fourth grade. We will be learning about the ITITAROD race in Alaska in our first reading story. We will also be learning place value and the value of numbers in math. Social Studies will have us begin by learning about geographical terms and then the regions of the United States. In Science, we will be learning about how animals are classified. Hey-that is just the first week of school!!! Lots more learning ahead!! I look forward to a great year!!

Chris Mallen