Mallen's Monday Memo October 13, 2014

Monday Memo

October 13, 2014

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Last week we enjoyed our fire truck rides and the information we got from the firemen!! We truly appreciate the service they offer for our community! We also were entertained by some older students telling the students about 4H! I think many of the students were interested in joining one of the 4Hclubs!!

This week we are beginning a new story in reading today. It is a story entitled Tonya’s Reunion. This story is about a girl who gets to know her parents better by going back to their birthplace. We will be learning a variety of skills this week including:  Vocabulary, Comprehension, using a graphic organizer to organize your thoughts, comparing/contrasting and making inferences. Our grammar lessons this week are on singular and plural nouns. Our spelling words have the long and short oo sound. The list is attached to this memo. On Wednesday, the students’ RC books quiz is due (Oct. 15). They were all given an Encyclopedia Brown book to have read and passed by the 15^th. Many of them have read a few of them. For those that haven’t, Wednesday is the day to have that done. As I said in prior Monday Memo’s, this was a book above some of the student’s reading lexile. I said I was fine with you reading it to them, a sibling, you a page them a page… I just like how they have to use some critical thinking to solve these cases! Then next book is one of my favorites and is a historical fiction book. It is called Bound for Oregon. My plan for this wonderful book is to read a chapter a day to them and have them go home and read a chapter each night. For some of them, it may require you reading it to them, as above. They will be listening to me read all odd chapters. We will be doing some activities over this story as well. We will have this book done and ready to be quizzed before the last day in October and so hopefully they will have a chance to read and pass one more quiz. By passing two quizzes a month, they get a 3 because that is our standard. If they pass more than 3 quizzes in the month, they will receive a 4 for part of their comprehension grade.

We will be finishing up on our NE region of the United States. I am sending home a study guide on Thursday, for the test that will be Friday. I truly appreciate your time in going through it with them.

This week in Math, we are working on using place value understanding to decompose to smaller units up to three times using the standard algorithm and apply the algorithm to solve word problems using tape diagrams. We will also be using place value understanding to fluently decompose to smaller units multiple times in any place using the standard subtraction algorithm and apply it to solve word problems using tape diagrams.

We are fortunate this week to have Counselor Johnson come two times this week!

As always, please call with any questions/concerns!

Have a great week!
Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

Mallen's Monday Memo October 6

Monday Memo

October 6, 2014

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Last week was busy with Homecoming activities. The kids had a lot of interesting things going on last week as well. They had their first counselor class of the year with Counselor Johnson. They went to the outdoor classroom on Thursday. They participated in the annual fitness walk on Friday and attended the Homecoming parade on Friday. It was a busy week!

This week is a bit more normal. One thing they will be doing is listening to the 4-H presenters tell the kids about their program. The students are eligible to begin being in 4-H when they are in fourth grade. They will be listening to the presenters on Friday.

In Language Arts this week, we will be starting our second theme. This theme is entitled “American Stories”. The stories in the theme are all stories that talk about how our country formed.  Our first story is entitled Thomas and the Library Lady. This story is about a boy whose parents are migrant workers. They live in Texas for part of the year and Iowa another part of the year. It is a really good story that the children always enjoy! We will be talking about the following skills this week:  Comprehension, Vocabulary, Contractions, and drawing conclusions. Our grammar skills this week talk about proper nouns. Our spelling words have the ou and schwa sounds in them and the list is attached to this memo.

In Social Studies we are continuing our work on the northeastern region of the United States. This week we will be talking about the industrial revolution, comparing the NE to the city of Mumbai, learning how to use a distribution map, and talking about how the Northeast is today. We will also be reviewing the vocabulary words from this unit.

This week in math we are going to be talking about solving multi-step word problems using standard addition algorithms, and using place value to understand how to decompose to smaller units. We are also doing a daily review and a multiplication sheet each day. Thank-you for working on those facts with your child each night!

Just a reminder that your child has an Encyclopedia Brown book to have read by October 15^th. I appreciate your support with having your child read for at least 15 minutes a night.

As always, please call with any questions/concerns!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

Phone:  (Home)  444-3093   (School)   444-3500 ext. 336

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

Mallen's Monday Memo September 29, 2014

Monday Memo

September 29, 2014

Dear Parents,

It was wonderful to be able to visit with you last week!! You have such kind children and it is my pleasure to teach them every day! I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend! We work so hard in school that it is great for us all to be able to relax for a couple of days!

This week in reading, we are working on the genre of mysteries!! It is always such a fun unit! I am reading the first Encyclopedia Brown book entitled Encyclopedia Brown:  Boy Detective. We will be doing daily skills lessons from the story. There are a variety of skills that include:  Syllabication, Alphabetizing, Guide Words, Using words in context, and the list goes on. I really like the way the Encyclopedia Brown books have the students really use their critical thinking skills to solve problems! I like all of the kids to experience the stories. With that, tomorrow is the end of the month which means that they will be tested on their second book for September. Most of them have had to read a Laura Ingalls Wilder book, while others have had other books to read. Once they pass the quiz over their RC book, I will be giving them a library book that is an Encyclopedia Brown book. Everyone will be receiving one. Now I realize that not all of my students are capable of reading one of these books. However, I am giving them one anyway in the hopes that you or a sibling can read it with them, to them, whatever the case may be. They need to have passed one of the Encyclopedia Brown books by October 15^th. If they finish early and pass the test, they can read another one of the Encyclopedia Brown books or they can get a library book. Thank-you for your help with that.  I will be giving them another book on October 15^th. We are working on writing a mystery story this week also. We will be very busy in reading this week! Last week we had the SRA lab and the students were able to complete 4 stories! I was very happy with that!

For Math this week, we are working on using place value understanding to round multi-digit numbers to any place value, using real world applications. We will be completing our first mid modular assessment. It reviews how well they are doing with what we have learned so far. I am anxious to see how well they do on it. We are still doing our daily reviews. I have lowered some of their daily reviews to a level that I feel they can independently have success. That has worked so much better. Many of the students just weren’t ready for 4^th grade level independent work. Hopefully this will help ease them into it. We also complete a multiplication sheet each day. Thank-you for working on the multiplication facts each day with your child!

We are talking about the Northeastern Region of the United States in Social Studies. This chapter explores the history and economy of the region. We will be talking about: The Iroquois Confederacy, The American Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution this week! We have been doing a few activities on the prometheon board over this region as well.

We have a few exciting things happening with us this week. We had our first counselor time today! The students always enjoy a lesson from Counselor Johnson! On Thursday, the students are going to the outdoor classroom during their pe time! On Friday, the students will be doing the annual Iowa Fitness Walk at 10:00.

This is Homecoming Week!! The special events/days are as follows:

Monday:  Pajama Day  and Pep Assembly at 9:00 at Jacobson Gym

Tuesday:  Black-Out Day

Wednesday:  Wacky Wednesday

Thursday:  Favorite Sports Team

Friday:  School Spirit Day

As always, please call with any questions/concerns!

Have a great week!

Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

Mallen's Monday Memo September 8, 2014

Monday Memo

September 8, 2014

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Last week flew by, but having only 4 days tends to do that!

Today we finished our story over “Grandfather’s Journey”. We will start tomorrow on a story about the Titanic. The students typically love this story (although it is so tragic). We will be working on a variety of skills throughout this story including:  Vocabulary, Comprehension, Outlining, Syllibication, and using a thesaurus. Our grammar this week will be over writing compound and complete sentences. The spelling list will be sent home with the students tomorrow. Thank-you for having your child read their RC book each night for at least 15 minutes. They need their book read by Sept. 15^th. Some of the kids have shorter books, so as many quizzes as they can take in that time period would be of great benefit to them!

We had our first science test last Thursday. I sent the tests home with them that day. Just a reminder to make sure they study their study guide for the test. I will always let you know when that study guide is coming home and when the test is through this memo. We are going to start on social studies this week. We will begin by going through some skills in the book’s handbook. Once we spend some time doing that, we will be covering regions of the United States.

This week’s math will be over comparing multi-digit whole numbers. The students will now use place value to compare whole numbers. We also do a daily math review each day. This review really helps them prepare for the Iowa Assessments as it reviews previously learned concepts. I appreciate you taking at least 5 minutes a night to help your child learn their multiplication facts! We take a weekly 5 minute test over 100 problems. Once the students have completed all 100 problems in 5 minutes they become members of the “Never Again Club” which simply means they don’t have to take the tests every week, just occasionally. They also receive a prize!

On Friday, the fourth graders will be traveling to the Belmond Care Center and Belle Haven! They are the fourth grader’s adopted business and we really enjoy going over there and meeting new friends! I will let you know in our next memo what we did while we were there!! They always have something wonderful prepared and ready for us!!

As always, please call with any questions/concerns! I like to be proactive on any situations!

Have a great week!
Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

Monday Memo September 22, 2014

Monday Memo

September 22, 2014

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Last week went by very quickly. The students have been keeping very busy! Again I want to thank-you for having your child read every night for 15 minutes and then signing the planner to verify that!! I also appreciate that you are working on their multiplication facts every night with them. Just knowing those facts, will help your child in the very near future in math!

This week we are finishing  an excerpt from a story by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The excerpt is entitled “On the Frontier”. It is taken from the book By the Shores of Silver Lake. I have given many of the students a Laura Ingalls Wilder book to read for their second September book. As we all are at different reading levels, I have given each student a book at their level to read. Laura Ingalls Wilder is a bit too high for some of our readers, thus they have a different book to read. We are going to start writing personal narratives this week, as our first writing project. We will also be doing some review of the skills we have learned thus far. We will work on nouns, subjects and predicates, compound sentences using a conjunction (and , but), and the different types of sentences.  Our spelling words are a review of ones we have had so far this theme.

In Math, we will be working on using place value to understand rounding multi digit numbers to any place value and using this skill in real world applications. The students also do a daily review and I am very pleased with the progress many are making on those reviews. They are becoming more independent with these! Again, we have daily multiplication sheets, but working on them at home each night for at least 5 minutes, makes a huge difference in memorizing these facts!! Thanks again for doing that with your child!!

For Social Studies, I will be handing the students a study guide for their first test over the Northeastern Region of the United States, today.  We dismiss early tomorrow, so that gives them an extra day to study for the test. The test will be on Wednesday.

I look forward to meeting you at conferences!

A few reminders:

Early Dismissal on Tuesday  at 1:00 with conferences from 2-6

Thursday:  Conferences 4-8:00

Friday:  No School

As always, if you have any questions/concerns please give me a call!

Have a great week!

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

Mallen's Monday Memo (Tuesday Sept. 2, 2014)

Monday Memo

(Tuesday) September 2, 2014

 

Dear Parents,

 

I hope everyone had a great long weekend!  We made it through our first entire week! I appreciate the students hanging in there and doing their best this first long week!

 

Our spelling words this week are words with the short and long i and o sound. I have attached the list to this memo. We are working on subjects and predicates in grammar. Last week we talked about the different kinds of sentences:  Command, Statement, Question, and Exclamatory. Our reading story this week is entitled “Grandfather’s Journey”. We will be working on the skills of:  Comprehension, Vocabulary, the suffixes ly and y, and creating a word web. Last week we had the SRA kits which were great independent stories that involve a lot of comprehension and skills activities. We are able to use the kits every three weeks. As this story takes place both in Japan and the United States, I am going to try to fit in some time to write some haiku poems.

 

In Science this week, we will be finishing our classification unit. Today we worked on the questions in the book. We will be reviewing the chapter and I will be sending home a study guide on Wednesday night. Their first test over the Classification unit will be on Thursday. I appreciate you taking the time to go over the study guide with the students Wednesday night.

 

Our math this week will involve reading and writing multi-digit numbers using base ten numerals, number names, and expanded form. We are also working on daily multiplication sheets. Thank-you for working with them every night on them for at least 5 minutes. That will really help them master this important math skill!! We also do a daily review every day reviewing previously learned concepts. This will help them enormously on their Iowa Assessments.

 

I sent a book order home with the students last week. It will be due the 15^th of September. Thank-you for taking the time to complete those information sheets! If you haven’t had a chance, please do that. It is important for me to know what to do with your child in the event of an early out… If you have an email, I have emailed you at some point to test if it works. If you didn’t receive my email, please email me at the email address below and then I will have it. I use the email as one form of communication.

 

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

Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

Mallen's Monday Memo August 25, 2014

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

August 25, 2014

Monday Memo

 

Dear Parents,

 

We are off to another exciting, adventure filled school year!! It is hard to believe how fast summer went! With these hot temperatures, it still feels like we are in the middle of summer!

 

I have really enjoyed getting to know your child! The students have been very respectful and I appreciate how hard they have all worked so far. Fourth grade is a transitional year where a major focus is teaching them to be accountable for their work. We have an expectation that when they do not complete an assignment in class, they will complete it at home and bring it back the next day. That is a skill that they will need throughout their school years. Unfortunately our planners have not come in yet. They are to be delivered mid  September. I appreciate that you have signed our “substitute” planners in the meantime. Hopefully, this will help prepare the kids towards filling out their planners.

 

Reading has us working on a unit entitled “Journeys”. Each story is about a journey an animal or human has made and the effects of that journey. Our first “journey” takes place in Alaska and is about the Iditarod race that is run annually there. We began this story last week and will test over it this Friday. We have worked on the different kinds of sentences for our grammar lessons this week. Our spelling list is filled with words that have the long vowel sounds spelled with two vowels in the words. I will typically attach a list to their pretest for you to have to help them prepare. At times that will be attached to this Monday Memo, but they received the words last week and now have them. For reading, we are going over the skills of comprehension, vocabulary, and cause and effect, to name a few.

 

We are discussing classification in Science. We did a classification activity with shoes (ask them about it) and have discussed the 5 kingdoms that all living things are grouped into. We took those 5 kingdoms and broke down each of them. We focused on the animal kingdom and how it is divided into two groups:  vertebrates and invertebrates. Then this week we will be taking those two groups and dividing them up into different groups. Next week, the students will be taking a study guide home, for the test they will be having on the following day. The study guide is to help the students learn how to prepare for a test. I will give you exact days on Monday’s Monday Memo.

 

Math. We have started on our New York Engaged Math. There are no math books that go with this program. To some up our math, I think of it as how when we group up we learned many processes and how to do a problem. The thinking in this curriculum is teaching them why we do the processes we do. The program contains the math common core required by the federal government. Our materials for the program haven’t arrived yet, and my promethean board is having issues with the pen, so I haven’t been able to utilize the flip charts we created for the program. I am sure the materials will come in quickly and the board will get fixed. In the meantime we have just made do and gotten by. I love how the students are working hard and seem to be interested. It will be fun once they start getting the hang of it. There won’t be a lot of homework with math. Much of math will be done in class, especially until they start getting use to this new program. (And I do tooJ)

 

I am sending home a book order today with the students. Book orders will always be due on the 15^th of each month, or if that is on a weekend, it will be that following Monday. Thank-you for reading the “book” about classroom procedures etc. that I sent home with the kids that first day! Not having preschool conferences was a bit of a challenge getting information to you. Thank-you for sending back the information forms as that enabled me to be able to get the email addresses for those of you who sent one back. It also helps me know what to do with your child in the event of an early dismissal… If you haven’t returned that form yet, I appreciate it if you could as soon as possible.

 

We had a behavioral academy last Thursday that took each student to a different station: Bus, Playground, Lunchroom, Hallway, Bathroom and our PBIS leaders talked to the students about the expectations of each of these environments. The students are able to earn tokens for good behavior and put that in our token jar. I also have the DoJos up in the classroom. We are starting today on earning DOJO points. In the near future, I will be sending a note home with the process of how to connect to our class DOJOs to see how they are doing. We are just trying to stress our Bronco Pride Expectations of :  Be Safe, Care for Others, Do What’s Right, Do Your Best. We established our classroom expectations and this is what we came up with:

Be Safe:

We will walk in the halls.

We will keep our hands to ourself.

We will keep single file in the hallway.

 

Care for Others:

 We will treat each other the way we want to be treated.

We will use inside voices inside the building.

 

Do What’s Right:

We will respect others personal space.

 

Do Your Best:

We will have our homework done each day we have any.

We will read 15 minutes each night.

We will work on our multiplication facts at least 5 minutes each night.

 

If you have any questions or concerns, please, please feel free to call me. I would rather solve any issues before they become huge issues.

 

Have a great week!
Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

Email:  chris.mallen