Mallen's Monday Memo March 30, 2015

Monday Memo

March 30, 2015

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone a great weekend! Just a reminder that there will be no school on Friday for Good Friday.

Our RC book, Misty of Chincoteague, was finished on Friday. The students RC book for the next two weeks is a library book of their choice. They have the books and are to have them tested by April 15^th. At that time, I will be assigning another RC book to them. I truly appreciate them reading at least 20 minutes each night. That practice is the best way for them to improve their reading skills!!

In Reading this week, we are beginning a new theme. The title of this theme is Nature: Friend or Foe. The stories deal with how nature can really help us or sometimes hurt us. Our first story is entitled “Salmon Summer”. It is the story of a little boy’s experience catching salmon. It also talks about how salmon is prepared. We will be talking about the following skills for this story:  Comprehension, Vocabulary, Direction Following, Outlining, and Multiple Meaning Words. Our grammar this week continues working with adverbs. Our spelling words are attached to this memo.

This week in math we are continuing our work with division. We are dividing with remainders as well.

We are also working on prime and composite numbers and we are getting into divisibility with numbers.

I sent home the study guide for social studies today. Our test over the Southwestern Region of the United States will be tomorrow. We will be working on Science next. More information will be forthcoming on our Monday Memo.

Have a great week!!

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 March 9, 2015

Monday Memo

March 9, 2015

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone enjoyed their spring break!!  

This week we will be reading a version of the classic Cinderella tale. This story is entitled “Cedrillion”. It is an interesting take on the story. We will be reading a variety of other Cinderella versions this week also. We will be working with the following skills this week:  Comprehension, Vocabulary, using a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the characters, using the suffix –able, and the difference between fantasy and realism. We will be identifying verbs during our grammar this week. Our spelling words are attached to this memo. The students were to read The Jacket for their first November book. That was due by Friday. As I told the kids and explained in an email, I know that not all of the kids are able to read at this level, so having you read some to them, a sibling, they read a page of it… is absolutely fine with me! I just want them to be exposed to good literature. In the meantime, I have them reading some short readers during the day that they can quiz on. Our next book is a nice book that takes place during the holidays, so it is perfect for this time of year. It is called Lucky Charms and Birthday Wishes. If they finish this book by the last day of the month, they can pick out another library book of their choice and read that. I will be giving them another book at the end of the month. Thanks for having them read at least 15 minutes a night!!

During Math this week, we are going to be talking about expressing metric mass measurements in terms of a smaller unit, and expressing metric capacity measurements in terms of a smaller unit. We will keep working on our daily reviews and multiplication/division sheets as well. Thanks for helping them with their facts at home!! It is working!!

This week we will be starting a new unit in social studies. We will be starting on a new region. I will let your children tell you about the region. If you have ever visited that region and have anything to share, we would love to see it!!

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 February 16, 2015

Monday Memo

February 16, 2015

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Thank-you to Jordan and Brandon’s mom for the cookies and drinks for our Valentine’s party!! The kids truly appreciated them!!

The first book for February was due to be tested on today. I am still struggling to get everyone to pass these quizzes and actually read the books. The new book for February that I am giving them is a Sharon Creech poem book. We spent last week talking about poems so I thought I would use that genre for their next book. It is a short read so I am hoping they will have it done by the time we leave for spring break. I will be sending them home with a library RC book for them to read over break and to have read by March 15^th. Again, some of the students struggle reading, all the more reason for them to read each night. I encourage you to read to those struggling students as well so they can hear good literature. Thanks for your help with that!!

This week in reading we are beginning our “Heroes” theme. This theme is perfect for the month of February as we will be learning about African American Heroes throughout the next few weeks. We will be reading a story this week entitled “Happy Birthday Dr. King”. This story is great in how it talks about the effect some brave African Americans had on our country. We will be working on comprehension, vocabulary, cause and effect, and sequencing for this story. Our grammar lessons are on subject pronouns this week and our spelling list is attached to this memo.

We are into our third module for math. This module is on multiplication and division. This week we will be working on solving two-step word problems, including multiplicative comparison, and using multiplication, addition, or subtraction to solve multi-step word problems.  We will also work on our daily reviews and daily fact sheets. With that, it is imperative the students learn those multiplication facts! Some are doing very well, but for those that haven’t been practicing them, it makes math take so much more time… Thanks for helping them study those!!

We tested over our Human Systems unit in Science on Thursday, I sent the results home with them. We are starting today with the Southwestern Region of the United States.  If you have ever been to that region, please feel free to send pictures, brochures… from there!!

Have a great week!!

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 February 9, 2015

Monday Memo

February 9, 2015

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! As I promised last week, I have attached a list of the students in my class, if you wish to send Valentines for your child. On Tuesday, we are going to the care center to play Valentine Bingo with them. We always look forward to that!! On Thursday it is Spring Picture Day. I just wanted to write the word springJ On Friday, we will celebrate Valentine’s Day with a movie and drinks are coming from Braydon’s mom and food is coming from Jordan’s mom. Thank-you so much for sending those for us!!

This week in reading we are working on our poetry unit. This is the end of our Problem Solvers theme, so we will be working on review skills in grammar and the spelling list is attached to this memo. We will be reading a variety of poems, listening to some poems, and writing a haiku poem, limerick and an acrostic poem. This week long unit is a lot of fun for the students! We will also be working on listening to some stories about some incredible African Americans and their contribution to our country. We will be working on some comprehension activities over these famous individuals as well. It fits in nicely with our Problem Solvers and unit and our upcoming unit on heroes. I will talk more about that when we finish this unit.

We are into our third module for math. This module is on multiplication and division. This week I hope to get through lessons 10 and 11. These lessons continue our multiplication by 4 digits and multiplication problem solving. We will continue our daily reviews and division sheets as well.

We have been doing some nice comprehension activities over the systems of the body. We should finish up on them on Tuesday. I will be sending home a study guide with the students on Tuesday, with the test on Wednesday.

Just a reminder that the students are to bring a Valentine box of any kind to collect their Valentines in. They can bring those any day this week. They can also bring their Valentines at any point this week.

Class List:  Jose Andrade, Merari Areans Carlos, Allison Barrus, William Bruggeman, Loel Cabellero, Raymundo Castillo, Kaylee Garcia, Trevor Goltz, Marcelino Gonzales, Crissy Hanson, Kaden Hanson, Ryan Hauert, Jordan Keul, Luis Moralles-Calles, Claudia Simonson, Braydon Warren, Ethan Wessels

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, February 2, 2015

Monday Memo

February 2, 2015

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! We are in a new month!! My how time flies!!

This week in reading we are reading a story entitled “Sing to the Stars”. As all of the characters in our stories have problems that need to be solved, this story involves a little boy with a bad case of stage fright. The story shows how he goes about solving this problem, with the help of a man who is unable to see who has his own problems. Together, they are very successful at solving their problems!! We will be working on the following skills throughout this story:  Comprehension, Vocabulary, story structure, and structural analysis.  Our grammar this week will be over comparing with adjectives.  Our spelling list has words that follow the VCCV pattern and it is attached to this memo. The students will also be working on their daily oral language sentences each day. The students needed to have their book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory read by January 30^th. I gave them the entire month to have that done. Once they passed the test (They have 3 times to take it), I gave them their new book. I had a group of books in which they could choose the one they wanted.  This book is due in two weeks on February 13^th. I will give them another book at that time to have done by February 28^th. It is still two weeks but a shorter month.  I am really asking for your help with this. I have so many of the students that aren’t passing the quizzes and some that have admitted they aren’t even reading the book. As the only homework I give them, it is my hope that they will take this seriously and read each night. I know that a lot of the students can’t read the book I have given them, but as I have said before, please read it with/to them for 15 minutes a night. They need to be exposed to good literature. I have them reading books at their lexile throughout the day, for those with lower lexile levels. Thank-you for your help with this!!

We are into our third module for math. This module is on multiplication and division. This week I hope to get through lessons 6 and 7. These lessons continue our multiplication by 4 digits and multiplication problem solving. We will continue our daily reviews and division sheets as well.

Last week we talked about the skeletal, muscular, nervous, digestive, circulatory and respiratory systems. This week we will be reviewing those systems with next week at some point having our test over them.

Reminders:  KC Spelling Bee is Friday, February 6 at 4:00 at Jacobson.

                         Early Dismissal:  Wednesday 1:00

If you are thinking ahead, we will be exchanging Valentines on Friday, February 13^th.  Any time the week of the 9^th you can feel free to send a Valentine Box of your choice to school of your choice. You may send the valentines at that time also. I will be sending home a list of students in the next Monday Memo.

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 January 26

Monday Memo

January 26, 2015

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! We enjoyed our PBIS assembly last week! Our class has done a great job with their behavior throughout the year!!

This week in reading we are reading a story entitled “The Last Dragon”. As all of the characters in our stories have problems that need to be solved, Peter does as well. Peter is staying with his grandmother in Chinatown. In a store, he sees an old dragon. It is really in bad shape, but he really wants it. He solves the problem of paying for it and getting it put back together. We will be working on the following skills throughout this story:  Comprehension, Vocabulary, using the prefixes pre, con and com, using the suffixes ful, less and ly and using a venn diagram to compare and contrast. Our grammar this week will be over adjectives.  Our spelling list is attached to this memo. The students will also be working on their daily oral language sentences each day. I have given all of the students the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to have read by January 30^th. I am really asking for your help with this. I have so many of the students that aren’t passing the quizzes and some that have admitted they aren’t even reading the book. As the only homework I give them, it is my hope that they will take this seriously and read each night. I know that a lot of the students can’t read the book I have given them, but as I have said before, please read it with/to them for 15 minutes a night. They need to be exposed to good literature. I have them reading books at their lexile throughout the day, for those with lower lexile levels. Thank-you for your help with this!!

We are into our third module for math. This module is on multiplication and division. This week we will hope to get through lessons 5 and 6. We will be talking about multiplying multiples of 10, 100, and 1,000 by single digits and we will be multiplying two digit multiples of 10 by 2 digit multiples of 10 using an area model. As I continue to say, please keep having your students work on their multiplication facts!! It really is important that they know these, not only for our math right now, but for their future math as well. We will also continue on our daily reviews and our daily division practice pages.

We will be starting on our next unit in Science. We will be talking about the systems of the body. We don’t get real in depth with them, we just learn the different organs involved in each system and talk about that. We will be hitting a variety of systems this week.

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 January 19, 2015

Monday Memo

January 19, 2015

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! It is nice to have such pleasant temperatures for a change!!

This week in reading we are reading a story entitled “Marvin of the Great North Woods”. As all of the characters in our stories have problems that need to be solved, Marvin does as well. Due to an influenza epidemic back in the early 1900’s, Marvin has to relocate to Minnesota. The story talks about how he overcomes language barriors, and learns some new skills. We will be working on the following skills throughout this story:  Comprehension, Vocabulary, Questioning Techniques, and note taking. Our grammar skills are over irregular verbs. Our spelling list is attached to this memo. The students will also be working on their daily oral language sentences each day. I have given all of the students the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to have read by January 30^th. I am really asking for your help with this. I have so many of the students that aren’t passing the quizzes and some that have admitted they aren’t even reading the book. As the only homework I give them, it is my hope that they will take this seriously and read each night. I know that a lot of the students can’t read the book I have given them, but as I have said before, please read it with/to them for 15 minutes a night. They need to be exposed to good literature. I have them reading books at their lexile throughout the day, for those with lower lexile levels. Thank-you for your help with this!!

We are into our third module for math. This module is on multiplication and division. This week we will be finishing our third lesson and working on our fourth lesson. It is about interpreting and representing patterns when multiplying by 10, 100, and 1000 in arrays and numerically. We continue to work on our daily reviews and a daily division page. Keep working on their facts each night. I have 5 students who have passed the 5 minute 100 point multiplication test. I need everyone to pass that. It is just a fact that you need to know your multiplication facts to make math a much easier process.

We will be finishing our lessons on the southeastern region of the United States. I will be sending a study guide home on Tuesday. We will be taking the Social Studies test over chapter 4 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