Mallen's Monday Memo December 3, 2012

Monday Memo

December 3, 2012

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! We finished our American Stories unit last week and are starting on our new unit “That’s Amazing”. We ended our unit by performing a play for each other. The students were divided into two “teams” and each had to decide who was the director, narrator and the actors. It was fun watching them perform! I also wanted to thank-you for responding to my email about how you wanted your child to get home after the Christmas program. The 4^th grade will be in the vocal music room, so plan to sign your child out at that location.

Going  back to reading, as I said above, we will be starting a new unit. Our first story is entitled “The Stranger”. It is an interesting story that is written by the author of The Polar Express. His name is Chris Van Allsburg. We will be working on such skills this week as noting details, compound words, synonyms, and writing an explanation.  Our spelling words are attached and are compound words. Our grammar this week  is introducing us to action verbs.

In Math this week, we will be finishing up our Chapter 3 over multiplication and division. We will be working on the book test and the chapter test and should be starting Chapter 4 next week. I will talk about that chapter in the next Monday Memo.

We are working on the Southeastern Region of the United States. We have talked about the Mississippi River and its importance to the development of the Southeastern Region. The warm weather and the cash crops grown in this region were also discussed. We will be discussing the resources found in this region this week also.

In Science we are finishing our discussion of the systems of the body. We talked about the skeletal, muscular, circulatory and respiratory systems last week. We will finish this week by talking about the nervous, digestive, and excretory  systems. It is so interesting to talk about this marvelous machine  that is our body.

For Christmas this year, I would like to have the students do a

“Pay it Forward” concept. With that, if the students could think of a way to help

a neighbor, friend, relative… They could scoop a sidewalk for someone, send

a Christmas card to anyone including their nursing home friends, they could

bake some cookies (with your permission of course) and give those to

anyone, write letters or stories to give as gifts, spend an hour or so visiting

with an elderly person that maybe doesn’t get visitors very often… The list

goes on. On Mondays, we have Share Day. For the month of December, our

Share Day will consist of them talking about the ways they have tried to “Pay

It Forward”. Hopefully they can see that doing things like this aren’t monetary

but  require them to give of themselves.

We are also going to have a food pantry drive as a school. We are going to start collecting food items, consumable items… There is a contest between the classes for the class that collects the most items. It is just a small incentive to continue our holiday tradition of giving at Christmas time at Jacobson Elementary. You can send these food pantry items anytime before December 14^th. Thank-you in advance for that.

Lastly, instead of buying Christmas gifts for each other, if you would like to send $2.00 with your child to school, we will donate the money to the Belmond Cheer Fund. That is a truly wonderful organization. I will match the contribution made by the students.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

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

Mallen's Monday Memo November 26, 2012

Monday Memo

November 26, 2012

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a nice, relaxing, long break!! It is so hard to believe we are looking at Christmas already! The students did a great job performing Thanksgiving poems and doing some activities with their new friends at the Belmond Rehabilitation Center! They are so good to us and once again I encourage the students to go sometime after school and visit their new friends. We finished our Science and Social Studies tests before the break and the results were sent home with your child. We are really moving along in our curriculum! We had a little fun reading some Thanksgiving stories and then creating sequence posters over the stories. I also sent those home with the students.

This week, we are finishing our “American Stories” theme in reading. We will be working on the genre of a play that comes from the story Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. Having already read the book and an excerpt from the book has really helped them know the characters. I have given the students a book to have read by Friday. Some of them are reading  a Judy Blume book entitled Fudge a Mania and some had already read some of her books and are reading a Sharon Creech book. I will be giving them another RC book next week to have read before the Christmas break. This week we will be doing some more reviewing in grammar over using details with nouns. Our spelling words are homonyms, again, which are hard for the students to understand the different meanings of the words. For the play, we will be working on vocabulary over “play” words, and some work on set direction, setting, etc. (elements of a play). Our guided reading books covered these elements as well.

For Math, we are already finishing up on our multiplication/division chapter. Next week we will be testing over it. This week we are working on problem solving with multiplication and division and we are doing some more algebra. That is so fun for the kids to be able to say they are doing! I still have a couple of students that really need to work on their multiplication facts. Most are doing a great job!! It just will help them so greatly for our future math lessons.

We are starting on the Northeast Region of the United States this week. If you have vacationed there or have any experience with that region of the states, please feel free to send any pictures, brochures, travel guides… The students love hands on things!! With Science, we are also starting a new chapter over the systems of the body. We will be talking about the skeletal, muscular, respiratory and circulatory systems of the body. We don’t go into depth about them, but we do introduce them to these vital systems that help our body work together.

As always, please feel free to call/email with any questions or concerns. I want to add again how thankful I am to have such an amazing class!!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

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

Mallen's Monday Memo November 12, 2012

Monday Memo

November 12, 2012

Dear Parents,

          I hope everyone had a great weekend! I am excited that we are headed to the Belmond Rehabilitation Center on Friday. We are going to perform some Thanksgiving poems for them and we are going to do some fun activities with them as well. We are so fortunate to have them as our adopt a business!!

          This week in Math, we are well into our multiplication chapter. The students are doing a fantastic job with it!! They just have to make sure they know their multiplication facts and that will help them in math from this point on. Working on our daily math “buckets” is also a great reinforcer of all of the math skills they have been introduced to. It is such a great way to prepare for the spring Iowa Assessments!!

          I will be sending home a study guide for Science on Tuesday. The test will be on Wednesday. I will be sending a Social Studies study guide home with the students on Thursday, for that test to be on Friday. This is our last week of working on the Southwest Region of the United States. Our Science chapter has been talking about plants and their needs, adaptations and they ways they can reproduce.

          For reading this week, we will be ending the “American Stories” unit. We will be reading two stories this week. One is on Emilia Earhart and one is on Duke Ellingston. We will be working on comprehension, vocabulary and reviewing the skills we learned this unit. The students will be working on an end of the unit skill’s test this week. This will help us see how the students are retaining what they are learning during our skill’s test. The spelling list with the week’s list is attached.

          We finished our essays that we wrote for a contest held annually by the local VFW. The topic this year was “What is your favorite branch of the military”. The essays have been turned in and are being judged in the near future.

          As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions/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 November 6, 2012

Monday Memo

November 6, 2012

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I want to thank our room mothers, Mrs. Gabrielson, Mrs. Lane and Mrs. Dougherty for the absolutely wonderful Halloween party they put on for us on Halloween!! They did a great job and the kids had a marvelous time!! We also went to the Belmond Care Center prior to the parade, to show off our costumes for them. They were so kind to give each of the kids a Halloween treat as well!! We are a lucky group of fourth graders!!

I gave each of the kids a copy of the book Lucky Charms and Birthday Wishes. This book needs to be read by November 15. Many have it done already. It is just a fun book on friendship and also has a lot of holiday themes in it, which makes it kind of fun this time of year! We finally got to go to the library this week. It had been closed due to the book fair. Once the kids are done with the above book, they can read their library RC book. I will have another selection in a different genre for them the 15^th of November, but once the above book is read, they can read their own choice book. For reading this week we are reading a selection entitled “A Very Important Day”. We will be doing skills on comprehension, decoding words, reading a newspaper article, vocabulary skills, and words with multiple meanings this week. Our guided reading books will be focusing on sequencing this week. Our centers will have us doing a vocabulary activity, scrambling some spelling sentences and writing a journal entry. We will also incorporate our SRA into this week. Our hope is to get three done this week.

For Math, we are starting our new chapter on multiplication. Knowing their multiplication facts will make this chapter a breeze. We do a lot of multiplication processes within this chapter. Knowing the facts will make this very easy.  We are doing our daily review (Bucket)  each day that has them doing skills they have learned in the past. This is a great way to remember past skills.

In Science the students will be finishing up our unit on plant needs and adaptations. Next week we should be ready to test. Stay tuned to the Monday Memo as to when the study guide will be coming home. For Social Studies, we are finishing up with our Southwest Region of the United States. We should be ready to test over that next week as well. Again, stay tuned to the Monday Memo for when that study guide will be coming home with them.

The spelling list is attached to this memo. Just a reminder that we have an early out on Wednesday. If you have any questions/concerns, please feel free to call.

Have a great week!

Chris Mallen

Phone:   (Home)  444-3093   (School)  444-4300 ext. 337

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

Mallen's Monday Memo October 29, 2012

Monday Memo,

October 29, 2012

Dear Parents,

                I hope everyone had a nice, long weekend! It was a pleasure visiting with you at conferences. I want to let you know that our fall party is on Oct. 31^st with the parade at 2:00.

                We will begin a story entitled “Boss of the Plains” this week. This story is our third story in the “American Stories” unit. We will be doing vocabulary, and comprehension skills over this story and we will be working on writing a business letter. Our grammar lessons this week are working on more plural nouns. Our spelling words this week have some controlled r sounds and are attached to this memo. Our guided reading stories are stories about the Plains. Our centers this week will have us working on reading a vocabulary story and answering some comprehension questions over this story, correcting a misspelled paragraph and writing it correctly, and working on setting up a business letter appropriately. Just a reminder for the students to keep reading their “Bound for Oregon” chapter each night. The library was closed last week due to the Book Fair, so we will get there tomorrow to get another RC book to read once that chapter is finished.

                In Math,we will be working on problem solving applications, our diagnostic review of the chapter, our book chapter test and our “official” chapter test. On Friday, we will be playing a mental math game called “Randy Raccoon” and we will play some math games.

                As I spoke at conferences, we will be starting the DOGS (Daily Oral Geography) today. Just a reminder that they have to be handed in by Friday, have their names on it, and have all of the questions correct, to be in our weekly drawing. They may use any resources they have to answer the geography questions. Their social studies book is a huge reference. The back of the book has a lot of maps they will need.

                As always, please feel free to call or email me with any questions/concerns.

Have a great week!

Chris Mallen

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

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

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