Mallen's Monday Memo February 14, 2011

Monday Memo

February 14, 2011

Dear Parents,

                I hope everyone had a great weekend! Last week was filled with a variety of activities. We were so fortunate to have Linda Flaherty from the Blanden Museum in Fort Dodge, come and visit with us this year. She tours North Iowa schools and centers on the fourth graders. She presents them with a presentation of a famous artist and the kids receive a book from the museum. This year she talked about a special glass blowing artist. She had the kids create a stain glass window art activity and they really enjoyed it. She showed them a video of glass blowing and it was so interesting to see how little pellets of glass become beautiful pieces of work. That was a lot of fun. We are displaying their stain glass windows right now, but will send them home in the near future. We also got to go to the Belmond Care Center. We always enjoy our trip there and got to play Valentine Bingo with our new friends. They are so nice to us over there and it is always a delight! With two days of no school the week before, we spent last week kind of playing “catch-up”. We finished our social studies test over the Western Region. We finished our Rocks and Minerals unit. We started our Chapter 6 in Math over 2DX2D.

                In Reading this week, we are finishing up on our “Problem Solvers” unit. This week the focus is on Poetry. We will be reading a variety of poems. We will be reading a book of poems. We will be writing some different kinds of poems such as lyrical, haiku and acrostic poems. We will also finish our biographies this week. We will learning about some famous poets during our guided reading time. Centers will have us working on vocabulary skills, our typing skills, and doing Successmaker. Next week we will be starting our “Heroes” unit and I will talk more about that next week. The spelling list for this week is attached to this memo. Using exact adjectives is our lesson this week in grammar.

                For Math, as I said above, we started our Chapter 6 last week. This chapter involves multiplication but now we are working with multiplying 2DX2D. We will be working with problem solving as well this week. Multiplying money will also be worked on with the bigger numbers this week. We will continue with our “buckets” which have the constant review of math concepts as well this week. Hopefully we will be able to find a little time for some math games this week.

                We are starting on the Southeastern Region of the United States in our Social Studies. We thought it was a nice fit with our “Heroes” unit we will start on next week in Reading as many of our heroes are African American and came from that region of the US. Many of the people we read our biographies about came from that region of the United States as well. For Science, we are moving on talking about weather.

                Keep having the students read each night for 20 minutes. The students tied with Mrs. Jenison’s class so the poster got to stay with both of our classes. This month we are using the points they gain when they take an RC book test. Those points will be added up for the month of February and used to decide a winner between our classes.

                Thanks to our room mothers for the Valentine’s party they put on for us today!! The room mothers were:  Soccoro Martinez, Anne Nelson, Dawn Sander, and Megan Kuhlers. We truly appreciate their time and effort in putting on a great party for us!!

                As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email or give me a call!!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

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

Mallen's Monday Memo January 31, 2011

Monday Memo

January 31, 2011

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! It is so hard to believe that February begins tomorrow already. Time does fly!

This week in Reading we are beginning to finish our “Problem Solvers” unit. We will be reading two stories this week during whole group time. We will be reading about Louis Braille and Juan Verdades and how their problem solving led to some great ideas for America. We will be working on reviewing adjectives this week, vocabulary, comprehension, and discussing poetry a little as well. The spelling review works are attached to this memo. We will also be working on reading another biography that we will use to write a biography of a famous American. We will read the books this week and work on the writing next week.

We will be finishing up on a lot of chapters this week. My plan is to try to test over Social Studies on Thursday (look for a study guide Wednesday night) and to test over Science on Friday (look for a study guide on Thursday night).  We will also be finishing up with our chapter 5 in math this week as well.  We will be testing over that on Thursday. Just knowing their multiplication facts will make that test easy for them. I am thrilled at how well they are all doing on their facts now!

I sent home a book order last week and it is due this Friday. If you need extra time, just let me know and I would be happy to wait to send the order in. By next week, if your child could make a Valentine’s box at home, that would be great! Our party is on Valentine’s Day and having the box there by Thursday of next week, would be great as we can get our valentines all passed out… I have a list of the students in the class on this memo.

As always, if you have any questions/concerns, please feel free to give me a call or an email!

                                                                                                                                                                     

Easton Barrus                                       Kelsey Peterson

Chanse Berneman                               Omar Ramirez

Taylor Branstad                                    Ryann Sander

Destiny Dwyer                                      Jacob Schmidt

Katelyn Fekkers                                   Isacc Sorenson

Hailey Garrard                                      Dezeray Starbuck

Koty Kuhlers                                         Gustavo Suarez

Jayden Lane                                         Samantha Wester

Janeth Martinez                                 Keaton Wilson

Zac Nelson

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 January 10, 2011

Monday Memo

January 10, 2011

Dear Parents,

                I hope everyone had a great weekend!  I want to start and thank the room mothers, Mrs.  Branstad, Mrs. Sander, Mrs. Kuhlers,  and Mrs. Hovden for the wonderful Christmas party they put on for the kids!! Just a reminder that the book order is due tomorrow. Also a reminder that the students need to keep reading each night for at least 20 minutes. We are continuing our reading incentive months. This month is Star Teacher month. I have challenged them all to read each night for 20 minutes as I do. We are using the reading counts book points for the books they pass, as our reading incentive challenge. The students will find out at the February reading incentive assembly who are two winners for the month are. Keep up the reading!!

                We have begun a new unit in reading entitled “Problem Solvers”. With that, the students will be reading biographies for their genre this month. Each student has a biography to read and test over and then can read what they wish for the month, once they have read the biography. The theme concerns how people have solved different problems in their life and their experiences along the way. So many of our biographies they are reading, show exactly that, how people have overcome their problems and become great people because of that. We will be working on a variety of skills this week. During grammar we will be focusing on irregular verbs. Our spelling words this week involve words with the final e dropped. We will work on vocabulary, comprehension, note taking and some health related words this week. For our centers we will focus on vocabulary and working on our typing skills as well as a Successmaker skill lesson this week.

                During Math, we are working on multiplying by multiples of 10, 100, 1000 on our new unit packet. We will also be working on estimating products, mental math, and using arrays to multiply, this week.  Along with our reviews and our occasional timed multiplication tests, we are busy during math!!

                Using primary and secondary sources of information will be a skill we will work on during social studies this week. We will also be talking about the immigrants in the west and recognizing frame of reference, during the week. We are starting to get to the end of our Western Region of the United States.

                In Science, we are working on Rocks and Minerals. We are doing a lot of vocabulary with our unit. We do a lot of it on the prometheon board and have occasional quizzes over the material we have learned. The students really tend to enjoy this unit as so many of them love to collect rocks!

                Again, just a reminder that the book orders are due tomorrow and to have the students read each night for at least 20 minutes!!

Have a great week!!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

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

Mallen's Monday Memo December 6, 2010

Monday Memo

December 6, 2010

Dear Parents,

                I hope everyone enjoyed our snowy weekend! This week we will be spending quite a bit of time preparing the students for their Christmas concert this Friday. I am having a hard time believing how quickly time is passing us by! I love seeing the students all dressed up for the concert on their concert day! Last week we wrote some letters to Santa that will be published in the Belmond Independent. Instead of asking for presents from him, we wrote about a special Christmas memory that they had. We also enjoyed the Reading Incentive assembly held last Wednesday. Unfortunately, our class didn’t win this month. We are shooting hard for winning next month. Again I appreciate the help you give us in making sure your child is reading each night! Hopefully we can get that trophy and sign back to our class this month! Each of the children who passed an RC quiz last month, received a Star Reader pencil. The winner of a dog tag from our class was Samantha Wester. We filled two whole boxes with items for the soldiers. I thank-you so much for your generosity in helping to fill those for the soldiers! This month our them is Caring Readers. As you saw, a note came home last Wednesday sharing that the students could wear caps on Dec. 3^rd for a small donation. They can also work on filling that coin sheet that was sent home, with coins for each 20 minute session they read, whatever the coin may be. The money will go towards donating books for the local hospital and clinic donated by Jacobson Elementary. We have such caring kids here!!

                This week we are reviewing our “Amazing Stories” unit. We will be reading two selections entitled The Borrowers and Lord of the Fleas. The stories will have us review all of the skills we have been going through throughout this unit. The review spelling list is attached to this memo. Each of the students were given a holiday book. If they had a chapter book over the holidays, that is the book they test on. Some of the students got some shorter, fun holiday books. They had to read 3 to get a punch on their incentive charts.  Most, but not all, of the books are RC quizzes. Once they have completed the above, they are going to read an Andrew Clements book entitled The Jacket. I have been reading aloud to them some of his stories and they love them! I do too! All of the above needs to be finished by the time of Christmas break. The story isn’t very lengthy and with reading 20 minutes or more a night, they should have no problem being ready to pass the RC test.

                In Math, we will be working with graphs this week. Last week we worked with elapsed time. That was pretty tricky for some of them. I found that there were a couple who weren’t clear on how to actually tell time. I have had some small group sessions to work on making sure they don’t leave 4^th grade without knowing how to tell time.

                We are continuing on our Earthquakes and Volcanoes unit in Science. We are also working on the Western region of the United States in Social Studies.

                Just a reminder that the concert is at 2:00 on Friday, for the 3-6^th grade.

                As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to give me a call or email!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

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

               

Mallen's Monday Memo November 29, 2010

Monday Memo

November 29, 2010

Dear Parents,

                I hope everyone enjoyed the Thanksgiving vacation. We have so very much to be thankful for here at Jacobson. Obviously we have the best students, but we also have an amazing facility with prometheon boards to teach the kids. Last week we enjoyed having Specialist Lucas Beenken come and read the story “The Wall” to us. He did a great job answering the kid’s questions as well. Tomorrow is the last day to contribute to our boxes for the military care packages. We have filled two boxes in our classroom alone. Great work!! On Wednesday we will be having our monthly reading incentive assembly. We will be giving the local VFW assembly their boxes to send overseas. We will also find out the two star readers from each class. Thanks for having the kids read each night for at least 20 minutes! They will also receive a reading incentive on Wednesday for their hard work!

                This week we will be reading a selection entitled “Heat Wave”.  We will be working again on realism/fantasy, comprehension, vocabulary, compare/contrast, reading a disagram and a little on weather forecasts. For our spelling this week, we will be spelling words with the ed or ing on them. The spelling list is attached to this memo. For grammar we are working on the past, present and future tenses of words. We will also continue to work on past grammar skills this week, especially possessive plural and possessive singular nouns.  We will be writing a Dear Santa letter this week during our center time but they will be writing to Santa about a special Christmas memory they have. Add that to our guided reading group work and our vocabulary center, FusionWriters, and our language review, we are pretty busy during reading!!

                For Math, we are starting on our 4^th chapter. This chapter has us working on time, money, and calendar skills. This week we will be working on units of time, elapsed time, problem solving and calendar. With the daily math review, they are busy working on their review skills.

                We are starting on two new units both in Science and Social Studies. In Science, we will be working on Earthquakes and Volcanoes. This is a chapter the kids usually really like. It also begins our earth science units. For Social Studies we are moving to the Western Region of the United States. As always, if you have any artifacts, brochures… to share about this region, please feel free to send it with your child.

                Just a reminder that book orders are due this Wednesday, Dec. 1^st. 

Have a great week!

Chris Mallen

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

Email:  cmallen@belmond-klemme.k12.ia.us

Mallen's Monday Memo, November 15, 2010

Dear Parents,

                I hope everyone had a great weekend! Last week went by very quickly! Just a reminder that if you are looking for this on the website it is at: http://MallensMemo.blogspot.com

                During reading this week we are on our second story of our Amazing Stories unit. Our story this week is entitled “Cindrellion”. It is a fantasy that is a version of the classic Cinderella story. We will be working on comprehension and vocabulary this week as well as the suffix able, helping verbs, venn diagrams, combining sentences with a main verb, and fantasy versus realism. We will be working on our FusionWriters , Successmaker, language reviews and our vocabulary story, during our centers this week. Our guided reading stories are fantasy stories that are taken from old familiar tales and reworked.

                For Math this week, we are getting towards the end of our multiplication/division unit. Next week we will be testing over this unit. This week we will be doing some algebra, problem solving, solving equations and finding a rule in a table. Again, make sure they practice those multiplication facts as that helps them greatly to know them! We will be working on our daily review as well this week!

                Social Studies this week has us beginning the Western Region of the United States. They did a great job on their test of the SW region of the U.S. We will start by talking about the Rocky Mountains this week. During Science, we will continue introducing the students to the different systems of the body. The respiratory, circulatory, nervous, and digestive systems will be introduced this week.

                Thank-you for only signing their planner when they have read for 20 minutes that night. So far, everyone has had their planner signed each night. If it isn’t, I assume they haven’t read for 20 minutes so I have them do that during 20 minutes of their recess. As of today, no one has had to do that, so I truly appreciate your support in having your child read each night! I just always tell them that reading is like every other skill you learn. You just have to practice it to get better!

                The spelling words are attached to this memo. We are collecting personal hygiene products for the soldiers this week. We had a great response last week to donations of office supplies. Let’s keep that up for this week!!

                As always, any questions or concerns please feel free to give me a 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 Memo

Monday Memo

November 8, 2010

Dear Parents,

                I hope everyone had a great weekend. For those of you looking for this on the web, my new blog is:  http://MallensMemo.blogspot.com  I hope to always put my Monday Memo on that. It will also be on the Jacobson Blog space as a link. I appreciate your attendance at conferences this year. The communication between parents and teachers is critical to the success of your child’s education. I appreciate all you do for your child!

                This week during reading we will be starting a new unit. The unit is entitled “That’s Amazing” and involves stories with suspenseful plots. We will start with a great Chris Van Allsburg story called “The Stranger”. We will be working on the following skills this week:  Comprehension, Vocabulary, Noting Details (which we will do a lot of in our guided reading groups), compound words, and a short introduction to poems. During our grammar lessons this week we will be moving from nouns to action verbs. Our spelling words this week are all compound words and the list is attached to this memo. We will have our centers this week consist of a vocabulary center with the vocabulary book, the Fusion Writers (practicing on our keyboarding skills), Successmaker, and a language review. Each of the students are reading a Beverly Cleary book for the month of November. Thanks for helping them see the importance of reading each night for 20 minutes!

                In Math this week, we are continuing on our multiplication and division chapter. We will be doing some problem solving this week. We will continue with our daily review through the use of the Drops in a Bucket review program. That is such a great program that helps review so many important math concepts. When the students are finished with all of their math work, they can play a math menu game. Thank-you for helping the students work on their multiplication facts at home. That is so important towards their math work now and especially in the future.

                We are starting a new unit in Science. We will be doing an overview of the systems of the body. We will finally finish this week with the Southwestern Region of the United States. Look for a study guide to come home for a test to be the next day. At this point, I am not sure but shooting for Wednesday for the test.

                I sent home a sheet detailing what the reading incentive committee would like each person to bring for the soldiers. (Remember our reading incentive this month is Star Servicemen and Servicewomen). For this week, they would like office supply type of things, which include books, magazines, word searches… Things to help occupy their mind when they are off duty. We had a great assembly on Wednesday kicking off this month and the students who won the reading incentive awards for the month were given their reward by a soldier who is a BKEA alum, Lucas Beenken. Our two winners this month were Katelyn Fekkers and Gustavo Suarez. Each person who passes a reading counts quiz during October received a reading tattoo as well. Refer to the reading incentive sheet I sent home last Friday that details what 4^th grade is doing for the month of November to qualify for our reading incentive drawing.

                Lastly, I would like to thank our wonderful room parents, Jerri and Todd Fekkers, Michelle Sorenson, Julie Berneman, and Patty Lane for the awesome party they threw for us for our fall party. They did an amazing job and the kids had a truly great time! They took lots of things home with them! We had fun parading our costumes at the nursing home and Belle Haven. Each place also provided the kids with a treat! What a fun day!!

                As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to call or email me!

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

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