Mallen's Monday Memo September 23, 2013

Monday Memo

 September 23, 2013

 

Dear Parents,

 

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I appreciate that the majority of the students were ready to test on their RC book on Monday. They had three chances to pass the book. The majority passed their test the first time they took the test. If they didn’t pass it, they got a 0 for their score and are starting on their new book. The new book is a Laura Ingalls book as I had explained in the last Monday Memo. They need to have that book read and tested by Oct. 1^st. Dividing the book into reading so many chapters a night, helps to avoid having to read it all at the end… Thanks again to making sure your child is reading every night!

 

In reading this week, we are testing today over By the Shores of Silver Lake. We took the spelling test today and we wrapped up our common noun unit in grammar. We will be working on ending our first theme in reading (already!!) .  Our first theme has been entitled Journeys. The students will be doing review lessons over their grammar lessons this theme (subjects/predicates, compound sentences, and common nouns) They will have two stories in their anthology this week. One is entitled Chester Cricket… and the other is called Parcel Post Kid. Both of these stories continues our theme on journeys taken by people or animals…  Our skills this week in reading include: Comprehension, Vocabulary, Comparing/Contrasting and Syllibication.  Our spelling words this week are review words from the last 4 lists we have had.

 

Today in Math, we did our Chapter 1 book test. We will be testing over Chapter 1 tomorrow. I have been giving the students periodic quizzes over the information we have had in this chapter all week. There has been a lot of information so I am hoping that by continually reviewing the information learned, that will help them continue to retain the information. We will be starting our new unit on Wednesday. This unit is on learning how to add and subtract using mental math. The idea is to get them thinking about the subtraction and addition concept. They will also spend a little time this week estimating sums and differences. I really like our daily review as it continually reviews the concepts we have learned in math and it really helps them prepare for our Iowa Assessments. I am thrilled to say that we have 10 members of the “Never Again Club”. The way to enter the club is to get 100% on the 5 minute 100 point timed multiplication test. Most of them are doing an amazing job! Keep working a few minutes a night with them on those! It will truly pay off for them for their future in math!!

 

For Science today, we began a new unit. We got a little behind so the test wasn’t until Friday. I will share the student’s scores with them, but I will keep the tests for the Parent/Teacher conference. I will start sending the results home with the students after the conferences. So long as the students study those study guides, they will do very well on their test. They did a great job on their first science test!! This week we are starting a unit on animal characteristics. This is another favorite of the students. We will be working on animal growth and adaptations this week.

 

I will be sending home the homeroom parents letter as soon as I hear back from everyone. We are a little short on helpers. I have received a few emails, planner notes, and the letter returned. I will put a due date on it of this Friday, September 27^th. If you are interested in helping with any/all of the room parties, please let me know via email/phone call/planner note/ returned letter from school, and next week I will send the note home to the parents that have agreed to help. Again, thanks for the time and trouble it takes to put the parties together. Just a reminder to send $2.00 with your child for party money to help offset those expenses! I have had 3 students bring their $2.00.

 

I hope everyone has a great week! As always, please feel free to call me with questions/concerns.

 

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

Monday Memo

 September 16, 2013

 

Dear Parents,

 

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Last week we were treated to decorating cookies with our new friends at the Belmond Care Center. We really enjoyed our time there. They are our adopted business and invited the 4^th grade to come over and help them celebrate National Care Center week. We thank them so much for all they do for us! They will be a part of your child’s 4^th grade experience this year!

 

In reading this week, we are testing over Finding the Titanic. We took the spelling test today and we wrapped up our compound sentence unit in grammar. We will be working on a story entitled On the Frontier. This is a story that comes from a chapter in one of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. With that, today the students will be receiving a Laura Ingalls Wilder book. This is their RC book that I would like to have read and tested on by October 1.  Most of them did a great job testing on at least one RC book. Those that haven’t, will be reading during recess time so that they can get that book finished so they can start on this Laura Ingalls Wilder book. These books are a little bit lengthier, so I recommend that you see how many chapters are in their book and divide that by the number of days until October 1 and have them read that many chapters each night. Again, reading at least two books a month is our focus! Our skills this week in reading include: Comprehension, Vocabulary, Noting details, Taking notes and using guide words. Our spelling words this week are homophones. We will be working on common nouns with our grammar lessons this week as well.  Our guided reading books are all books that have a frontier theme to them. They all work on the skill of noting details in their reading. We also have the individualized SRA kits that we share with the other fourth grade classes. It is our week this week. We aim to get at least two done throughout the week.

 

Today in Math, we spent the time today continuing to work on counting back change. This week we are focusing on decimals, problem solving with problems that have decimals, and doing a diagnostic review. We will continue working on our daily reviews (we call them buckets) and on a daily multiplication sheet with weekly timed multiplication tests.

 

For Science today, we are doing a Science review today. Tomorrow I will be sending home a study guide with the students for Wednesday’s first Science test. This test is over our plant and animal adapatation chapter. We will be starting on a region of the United States to finish our week.

 

I will be sending the book order in today. Once we receive the books, I will send out a new book order. If you are interested in being a homeroom parent to help with the parties, I would love that!! Please let me know via email or phone call. I will put you on the list. Request the party you would like to help with and I will put you on that party and once I receive everything back (let me know by Sept. 30) I will send home a list of phone numbers and names of the people on the committee and you can contact each other to plan. I thank you so much for time and trouble!!

 

 

I hope everyone has a great week! As always, please feel free to call me with questions/concerns.

 

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

Monday Memo

 September 9, 2013

 

Dear Parents,

 

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Last week went very quickly. We weren’t here on Monday and I attended a meeting in Mason City on Thursday.

 

In reading this week, we are testing over Grandfather’s Journey. We took the spelling test today and we wrapped up our subject and predicate unit in grammar. We will be working on a story entitled Lost and Found which is about the Titanic. The kids always enjoy this story. We will be working on the skills: Comprehension, Vocabulary, Outlining, and Syllabication. Our grammar lessons this week are over compound sentences. We will also be spending some time gathering information on the Titanic. If the students would like to bring any information they find about it to school, that would be great! That could be through books, magazines, internet information…

 

This week in math we are working on understanding decimals with money, counting money and the most important part, we will be counting back change. This will be an ongoing skill as I feel it is so important that the students learn to count back change. I appreciate that if there is an opportunity at home to practice this skill, that you will. We are going to be adding more rows to our daily review. They are doing a good job with those wonderful reviews! It is such a good thing for the kids to do to prepare for the Iowa Assessments. It keeps all of those skills fresh in their memories. The daily times sheets are starting to work as well. We currently have two members of the “Never Again Club”. They join the “club” when they achieve 100% on their 100 point 5 minute timed test. There are a lot of the students that are knocking on the door to the club, and hopefully they will join on one of our Friday assessments.

 

We finished up on our social studies preview unit. Today we started Science. We are working on classification for our first unit in Life Science. This is a fun unit and I think they will enjoy the information they learn!

 

Just a reminder that the students are reading a library RC book of their choice and they need to have tested on it by Monday the 16^th. That is the same day that book orders are due. I will be giving the students their new RC books on Monday. Thanks for having them read every  night!!

 

I hope everyone has a great week! As always, please feel free to call me with questions/concerns.

 

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

Mallen's Monday Memo September 3, 2013

Monday Memo

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

 

Dear Parents,

 

I hope everyone had a great, long, (hot) weekend!! We made it through the first full week of fourth grade! They are a great group. They are starting to settle down and aren’t quite as chatty as they were at first. They are starting to realize they need to listen in school and not daydream… It was a rough week without recess, however, last week. I have to hand it to the kids, they really handled not getting outside for recess. That was tough for all of us. They handled it without complaining. They knew there wasn’t anything they could do about it, so they just accepted it. I really appreciate that! Most of them are realizing that they need to use the time given to get their work done or it will be homework. They are also doing a great job, for the most part, of having any work they needed to do at home, turned in. They are very responsible!! I really appreciate how the planner has been signed every night letting me know that they read the night before!

 

This week we are going to start a story entitled Grandfather’s Journey. Our first unit is entitled Journeys and each story is about a journey made by someone. It is quite entertaining! This story is about a girl who was born in Japan but came to the United States later in life. While in the United States, she missed Japan and while in Japan she was homesick for the United States. Some of the skills we will be working on this week include:  Comprehension, Vocabulary, working with words ending in y and ly, improving our writing, and reading through some Haiku poems. Down the road, we will be writing some. Our grammar this week is over subject and predicates. Our spelling words will be over words with the long and short i and o sounds. The list is attached to this memo. Today we tested over our first story entitled Akiak. The students know their scores and be sure to ask them. I will be keeping the tests until our first parent/teacher conferences and I will share them all with you at that time.

 

Our first two units in math are the most difficult. They really give them a good foundation for the rest of the chapters. We are working this week on comparing and ordering numbers, rounding numbers, the size of numbers, and we will be doing some problems solving as well. We do a daily review each day which reviews previous concepts to keep those fresh in their thinking. They require some thinking, but they have been exposed to all of the concepts on them. To begin the year, they will do half a page a day. Once they get going, they will be completing the whole page each day. Please continue to work on the multiplication facts at home each night for at least 5 minutes. We do times sheets each day, with our timed tests being on Fridays. They are doing better, but some really need to keep working on them at home, possibly a little longer each night. It will truly benefit their future school years in math to have those memorized!

 

We are beginning the year with Social Studies. Our beginning chapters are over different types of maps, globes, landforms, and this week we will work on reviewing our constitution and government in the United States, our economy, and using a prometheon board game to identify the different states in the United States. Once we complete this unit, we will do a unit in Science and then alternate with Social Studies. Our first unit in Science is over classification and we will be working on the regions of the United States when we return to Social Studies.

 

We have all passed the Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing book. YEAH! They will be reading a library RC book of their choice that needs to be tested on by Sept. 15. At that time, I will be assigning their next RC book. Thanks for having them read each night!! SO IMPORTANT!!

When you add their daily computer program, specials and listening to a story each day, you can see that your child has a busy day!! Thanks for all you do to support their learning.

 

 

 

I hope everyone has a great week! As always, please feel free to call me with questions/concerns.

 

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

Mallen's Monday Memo August 26, 2013

Welcome to Mrs. Mallen’s 4^th Grade!!

4^th Grade Students are GRAND!!!

 

Dear Parents and Students:

 

          I look forward to a wonderful school year with plenty of opportunities for new learning. I wanted to let you know a few things that should help us get set for a great year!!

 

  Responsibility/ Homework

 

          Our school is going to a new school-wide system called PBIS.  It is a program that rewards good behavior. I expect that in our school of myself and I expect it of your child. My number one rule in our class is to treat each other the way you wish to be treated. If we respect this rule, we should have no problems. As a teacher, if I see an area that your child needs to work on, we will work together to form a plan of improvement for your child. Responsibility is a major area that we work on in 4^th grade. The students will be expected to complete the assigned work. I will give your child plenty of time to work on the assignment and I will be here to help them with any questions they may have. However, it is their responsibility to use the time given. If they are not finished with the assignment in the allotted time, they will work on it during recess in the hope that they will finish it and then go out to recess and not have to take it home. However, if they don’t finish it in that amount of time, they will take it home for homework. Hopefully this will not happen very often. It is an expectation that they will return the work the following day. Should they not return it, they will complete it at recess time. I do feel, that the most important homework the student can do each night, is to read. My expectation is that they should read at least 15 minutes a night. I ask that this become their nightly homework. They will be bringing home some RC (Reading Counts) books to read each night. When the book is finished, they will be given 3 opportunities to pass a 10 point quiz over the book. This is a great way to work on comprehension skills and to learn the lifetime leisure skill of reading. I will be sending home a Monday Memo each Monday. (More about the memo is below.) That will inform you of what we are doing each week. It will also tell you of when their RC book is to be finished. We are starting the year with Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. I will read a chapter of the book each day and their assignment is to read a chapter each night at home.

 

Schedule/Class List

 

          I have not attached a copy of our schedule. At this point, with so many changes coming up, I haven’t a firm schedule made. I will send home a schedule once I have firmed it up. I have attached a class list should you need one.

 

Monday Memo/Lesson Planners

 

          I send home a Monday Memo virtually each Monday. It shows you what we will be working on that week. It will show if there are any tests to be studying for and when those will be, etc… Hopefully that will be a good communication tool for us. I always include my phone number and my email address to which you should feel free to use at any time. The students will also be filling out their lesson planners. This is their first time with them so we do most of it together each day. At the end of the day, they will circle anything they didn’t complete and need to work on for homework. I ask that the parents sign the planner each day. By signing the planner you are telling me that your child read for 15 minutes the previous night and completed any homework they brought home. Your child will receive a star for each day signed. If the planner isn’t signed, that tells me they didn’t get a chance to read for their 15 minutes, so I will have them read for 15 minutes during recess time. This is done to start the students out with correctly using a lesson planner and the importance of showing their parents each day and confirms my feelings on the importance of reading each night.

 

Book Orders

 

          I typically send home 3 book orders once a month. I will tell your child when they are due. Please don’t feel obligated to buy anything but it is just an opportunity for you should you wish. I find that having three orders to choose from gives you more choices and the ability to look for the best price!

 

Birthday Treats

 

          Many parents ask about birthday treats. We love them!! Never feel you have to send any, but we would love to recognize your child’s birthday!  The official rule of what you can and cannot bring is in the school handbook.

 

Math Facts

 

          It is so very important that the students memorize their multiplication facts. We will be doing timed tests, practice sheets, etc… on their facts virtually every day the first semester. The goal is to be able to complete a 100 point 5 minute timed test with at least 90% accuracy by semester’s end. We will be working on multiplying and dividing 2 and 3 digit numbers by that point, so it is to their benefit and makes math so much easier for them, if they know those facts. I appreciate your help in working with them for possibly 5 minutes each night!!

 

  

 

 

 I am really excited about this year and look forward to an awesome year!!

 

Sincerely,

 

Chris Mallen

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

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

Mallen's Monday Memo May 20, 2013

Monday Memo

May 20, 2013

 

Dear Parents,

 

We are rapidly approaching the end of the year. This will be my last Monday Memo, so I will try to put as many calendar items as I can think of, for the rest of the year, on here.

 

Last week was quite the busy week!

 We ate at the care center on Tuesday. They graciously made us chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese and we had ice cream treats as well. They were so good to us this year and it was a fantastic experience for all of us!!

We went fishing on Wednesday.

We were treated to Mrs. Bates coming and talking about the Summer reading program. It sounds like a fantastic program with fun field trips and guests… I encourage everyone to sign up for the fun!! Did the students tell you she ate worms?? You will have to ask them about that.

We had Antarctica Man (Kelly Wilhelm) come in person and talk to us about his experiences there and answer a multitude of questions.

 

The next few weeks are filled with some fun as well:

May 21:  Music Man Square Field Trip (Sack lunches provided.)

May 23 (May 24 rain date):  Track Meet (9-11:00 for us)

May 27 (No school: Memorial Day)

June 4:  I will be using the leftover money from the parties and my own, to buy the kids pizza for lunch. They are to bring their own beverage.

 

We finished on Friday with our reading series. The next two weeks we are going to be working on a variety of skills and next week we are going to make some book commercials. I will be videotaping them. If your child asks for a prop of some sort, that is what it is for.

 

For Math, we will be testing today over chapter 8. We will start on chapter 9 tomorrow. Chapter 9 is over fractions. We are also finished with Science for the year. We will be working on the Midwest Region of the United States for Social Studies. We will test over it and we will also be making a travel brochure over one of the Midwest States. 

 

Thank-you so much for sharing your children with me. It has been an honor. They are truly great kids, who will do very well in their future!! They are very kind and compassionate! I wish them the very best in their journey to 5^th grade!!

 

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

 

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

Mallen's Monday Memo April 28, 2013

Monday Memo

April 29, 2013

 

Dear Parents,

 

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Finally, some nice weather to talk about!! We had a very busy week last week! We spent last week celebrating Earth Week. On Monday we made sock puppets with Mrs. Wagner’s class. We cleaned out our lockers and desks, we picked up garbage at City Park on Thursday, we made a class poster that will be out in the community in a week or so, and we listened to a story about garbage recycling. It was a great way to acknowledge Earth Week and our role in keeping our planet clean! Our most exciting and time consuming project we did last week were our ads for the Belmond Independent. We divided up into teams and the kids designed ads for the business they were given. They did such a great job and spent a lot of time and effort designing these. Mr. Vanderlinden will be bringing copies of the Belmond Independent for each of the 4^th graders, so they can show them to you. I think you will be impressed with what they have come up with!

 

This week we are reading a story for our Nature:  Friend or Foe unit entitled “Wildfires”. This is a good non-fiction story about how wildfires spread and what happens because of them. The students will be working on a variety of skills this week including:  Comprehension, vocabulary, main idea, supporting details, and the use of good and well and they will work on analogies. During grammar they will be working on elaborating with adverbs. The spelling words will all be words that are “usual” spellings. The list is attached to this memo.

 

We will be getting back to Science this week. Last week I talked about starting on weather. Well, due to ads, and Earth activities, it didn’t happen. So, this week we will be working on Earth’s atmosphere, air masses and ways of predicting weather.

 

We are working on congruent figures and motions, symmetry, and other geometric terms this week during our geometry unit. We will be doing some “playing” with manipulatives and talking about different figures and how they are different and the same from each other.

 

Friday is our “Go the Distance Day”. It is a fun way for our entire school to be physically active. We are very excited to have Kelly Wilhelm skype us today from Antarctica. We are so lucky as he shows us a lot of different things he sees down there and answers our abundant questions. It is a great opportunity for the kids to “see” a continent they will most likely never have the chance to go to. He is coming to actually talk to us in person on May 17^th and we look forward to that day as well!!

 

As usual, any questions or concerns, please give me a call/email!

 

Sincerely,

Chris Mallen

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

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org