Mallen's Monday Memo November 14, 2011

Monday Memo

November  14, 2011

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! We enjoyed the wonderful assembly for Veteran’s Day last Friday. It was nice to see everyone with their red, white, and blue on!! The kids also entered an essay contest sponsored by the local VFW Auxillary. The essay was entitled:  “My Definition of A Veteran Is…” I sent the entries in on Monday and usually in January sometime we find out the winner. They were very good and I am anxious to see the results!

In reading this week we are finishing up on our “American Stories” theme. We will be reviewing nouns and using commas between nouns… during our grammar time. Our spelling words are some more homophones and are attached to this memo.  We will be reading a play from a book we read at the beginning of the year entitled “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing”. We will be just doing some activities over the genre of plays. We will be looking at words with er, ist, and or in them. We will also be working on the vocabulary words that go with a play. We will also be reading the story Sara, Plain and Tall and then hoping to get to also read Skylark. That is the next book. My hope is that the kids will want to continue the series and read Caleb’s Story and More Perfect Than The Moon. We will be doing some activities over the stories as well. I also have some neat comprehension activities for Thanksgiving that we will be doing this week and next. On Monday, we are going to the Care Center and perform some poems for our friends and then do a fun color sheet with them. We really like to go over and see them!! The students are reading The Jacket right now and need to have it read to test on Friday.

In Math, we are getting closer to finishing up on our multiplication and division unit. We are working on multiple step problems, writing and evaluating expressions, finding a rule, and solving multiplication and division problems. We will continue working on our review “buckets”. We are also taking daily multiplication tests for those that still haven’t gotten a 100% on their X test. Please make sure you are working with them for at least 5 minutes each night. It really makes a difference!

We are starting on the Mountain Region of the United States. Again, if you have anything to share from that region, that you may have visited, have relatives at… please feel free to send it with your child on Mondays for our share day. We are working on the human body systems in Science.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving brea

As always, feel free to give me a call or email with any questions or concerns!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

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

Mallen's Monday Memo October 24, 2011

Monday Memo

October 24, 2011

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We had a send off party for Mrs. Staley on Thursday. We wish her the best for her future teaching career! This week is Red Ribbon Week. I sent home a note with the students on Friday, which detailed what things they can wear each day this week. We are having an assembly on Thursday at 2:45 about Red Ribbon Week. We are also having our Halloween Party this Friday at 2:00. It begins with our annual costume parade and then continues in our classroom. I wanted to make mention to my room parents that Rachel Boots-Vestweber’s phone number is 641-275-0179. I look forward to the upcoming party and appreciate all the time and effort put into it by our room parents!! The kids always look so forward to it!

This week we are finishing up our MAP testing today!! We are also starting a new story entitled “Boss of the Plains”. It talks a little about how the Stetson hat began. It is part of our new unit “American Stories”. With that, the students have been reading the book Bound for Oregon. This is a great book that talks about a girl’s experience on the Oregon Trail. Each night they are assigned a chapter to read and to write three sentences over. Most of them get the chapter read during the day but wanted to let you know that some of them may be bringing that home as homework. We will be working on the skills of:  comprehension, vocabulary, writing a business letter, using the context, and the grammar skill will be continuing our work on plural common nouns. Our spelling words will have the ir and ar sounds and are attached to this memo. Our guided reading books this week are all American stories and our centers will have us doing Successmaker, a poetry center, our vocabulary center and a spelling center for this week.

For Math, we will be working on a couple of reviews to prepare for our Chapter Two test this week. We should also be getting started on our next chapter over multiplication if all goes well. In Science I will be sending home a study guide tomorrow, to help prepare for their Science test over plants which will be Thursday.  We will continue finishing up on the Northeastern part of the United States this week. I hope to have us testing next week.

I hope everyone has a great week!

As always, feel free to give me a call or email with any questions or concerns!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

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

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