Mallen's Monday Memo December 8, 2014

Monday Memo

December 8, 2014

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We had a great last week! On Friday we had our dress rehearsal for the Christmas Concert. Just a reminder that the concert is tonight at 7:00. The students also have counselor time this week! We are also going to be in charge of the daily announcements this week. That is always kind of fun for the kids!!

This is a review week  in reading. We will be reviewing the grammar, spelling, and reading skills that we learned throughout the “That’s Amazing” unit. We will also be working on our SRA kits this week. I am planning to spend next week working on some Christmas story activities. With that, I would like to have kids think about the giving aspect of Christmas. If it is possible for you, I am asking each kid to send $2.00 to school that I will match and send to the Cheer Fund with our classes’ name. I appreciate that. If you would like your child to earn that $2.00 by either doing chores for you, helping a neighbor in some capacity, the list goes on, that would be great and would help them get that good feeling that goes into being a giver. If you could get that money to me by Dec. 18^th, I will send it the 19^th.

We will be finishing our second module in math this week. This short module was over the metric system and just taught them how to convert cm to m to km, L to ml, g to kg… It also showed them how to add/subtract using metric measurement. They also used a number line to decide if a number is greater or less than another number. Our next module that I hope to get started this week is starting on the concept of multiplication and division. Having them work on those facts each night is going to help them so much with this module. We will be multiplying and dividing multiple digits, so I can’t stress enough how helpful it will be for them to know those facts!!

This week we will be testing over our first southeastern United States chapter. I am sending the study guide home with them tomorrow night, with the test on Wednesday.

Thanks for all you do to help me with your child’s education! As always, please call with any questions or concerns!!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

Mallen's Monday Memo, November 10, 2014

November 10, 2014

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We ended our week last week with a Jacobson First Quarter PBIS reward party. This party involved the entire Jacobson family. The students were able to come to school with pajamas and for 20 minutes that day, they could play board games and were able to bring a non caffeinated  drink to drink during this party. For second quarter, only the students that show good behavior during that quarter will be invited to attend the party. Hopefully the party is enough of an incentive for the kids to follow our BK rules of:  Be Safe, Care for Others, Do What’s Right and Do Your Best.

This week we are starting a new unit entitled “Amazing Stories”. All of the stories are fantasy stories. We will begin the theme this week with a Chris Van Allsburg story entitled “The Stranger”. This fantasy story talks about how a stranger visits a family and how because of him, the weather changes. We will be working on the skills of:  Vocabulary, Comprehension, Noting Details and Strutural Analysis. We will also be reading a few autumn poems. The story talks about the season of fall. Our spelling words are compound words this week and the list is attached to this memo. Our grammar moves us away from nouns and we will begin talking about action verbs. We will weekly continue to reinforce the different types of nouns through our weekly “grammar sentences”. I am sure you have seen them come home with your child from time to time. It is where I put on the board different types of nouns (proper nouns, common nouns, plural nouns, singular nouns, possessive plural nouns, possessive singular nouns) and then need to use one of each in a sentence. It is always a challenge but the more they do it, the better they will get at identifying these nouns and at writing complete sentences. Most of the students have passed the book “The Jacket” and are reading a book of their choice to be finished by November 15^th. I will be giving them a different book to read at that time. Thanks, again, for having your child read every night for at least 15 minutes!!

We will be finishing our first module in math today. Tomorrow we will start our second math module. Our first lesson will be entitled “Unit Conversions and Problem Solving with Metric Measurement”. We will also be working on “Expressing metric mass measurements in terms of a smaller unit”. The program assumes the students had background information over this in third grade and they haven’t. So, we will be really backing up a bit and trying to give them the background preparation they will need to complete this new unit. We are still completing our daily reviews and daily multiplication sheets. The more we practice with these, the better they get at it. I find they need the repetition of these math concepts so that they are “sealed” in their brain for next year. That is why you may see the same things come home over and over again. We want to learn this forever, not just for a day.

This week we will be testing over our plant adaptation unit. We will be working on the new vocabulary for this unit, doing a science review and then on Thursday I will send a study guide home with your child over this unit. The test will be on Friday.

Thanks for all you do to help me with your child’s education! As always, please call with any questions or concerns!!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

Mallen's Monday Memo November 3, 2014

Monday Memo

November 3, 2014

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We ended our week with a costume parade at the Belmond Care Center/Belle Haven. They are always so good to us and we thank them for always thinking of us!! We think they are great too!! We came back over and had our annual Jacobson Costume Parade. I would like to thank Mrs. Gonzalez and Mrs. Andrade for the food/drinks!! We really enjoyed them!!  It is hard to believe that it is November already. It is starting to get pretty chilly outside!

This week we are finishing up on our American Stories theme. We will be reading a selection about Amelia Earhart. We will also be finishing up on our “Freedom:  What it means to Me” essay that we are writing for the annual VFW contest. I will send these essays in and each of the students will receive a dollar for participating as well as possible awards for the top three placers. This week is a review week of proper nouns, possessive nouns, singular nouns, common nouns and plural nouns. Our spelling words will be sent home tomorrow. I hope to get this review unit finished by the end of the week. I have given all of the students the book The Jacket by Andrew Clements to read by November 15^th. It is a short book, so hopefully they will have it done before the 15^th and then can read a library RC book before the 15^th. The requirement is to have one quiz passed by the 15^th to receive a 3. To get a 4, they need to read and pass at least one more by then. I will give them a new book on the 15^th. Thanks for having them read at least 15 minutes each night!!

We will be finishing up on our first module for our new math series. Next week, we should be starting our second module which will have us working with the metric system. We also do daily reviews in math and our daily multiplication sheets. I appreciate you working with your child on these each night!! It is paying off!!

We tested last week over our Animal Adaptations chapter in Science. This week we will be working on the plant growth and adaptations chapter. We will be talking about life support for plants, the functions of plant parts, and plant life cycles.

Thanks for all you do to help me with your child’s education! As always, please call with any questions or concerns!!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

Mallen's Monday Memo October 27, 2014

Monday Memo

October 27, 2014

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. We were busy last week working on our map testing. We do three tests that run about an hour each. The tests are in math, reading, and language arts. That put us behind with a few things so we will be catching up this week as well as starting a new story in reading. On Friday, we will be parading our costumes over at the care center and Belle Haven around 1:30, which should get us back to the school in time for the annual school costume parade. The Fall party will start after the parade. I thank Mrs. Andrade and Mrs. Gonzalez for the food and beverage for our party!!

In Reading this week, we will be starting a story entitled The Very Important Day. This story is about a family who studies hard to become American citizens. It is a very enlightening story as to the process of becoming a citizen of America. We will be working on the following skills this week:  Vocabulary, Comprehension, Multiple meaning words, reading a news article, and inferencing. We will continue working with singular and plural nouns and the spellings that go with making singular nouns plural nouns. Today we will be testing over last week’s spelling words, with the spelling test for last week’s words being tomorrow. I will send home the new words on Wednesday.

In Math, we will be working on solving additive comparing word problems modeled with tape diagrams. I hope to also begin working on solving multi-step word problems modeled with tape diagrams and assessing the reasonableness of answers using rounding. We will also continue on our daily reviews and our daily multiplication facts. They are getting better with those, and I truly appreciate your time and effort in helping them work on them for at least 5 minutes each night. It will help them in math enormously for the rest of their school career!

We will be testing this week in Science. If things go as planned, I will be sending home a study guide with the students over the animal adaptations chapter on Wednesday, with the test being on Thursday. This has been a very fun chapter talking about the difference between instincts and learned behaviors and about the different adaptations animals have to survive.

As always, please call/email with any questions/concerns!

Have a great week!!

Chris Mallen

Email:  cmallen@frontier.com

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

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