Mallen's Monday Memo April 27, 2015

Monday Memo

April 27, 2015

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend! We will be map testing this week. We also are treated to a visit from Dirk Vanderlinden, from the Belmond Independent, who will talk to us about what makes a good ad and from that we will start next week on creating our ads!

This week in Reading we are finishing up on our Nature:  Friend or Foe unit. We will be reviewing the concept of adverbs and prepositional phrases this week during our grammar time. We have a spelling list that reviews words we have this unit and it is attached to this memo. We will also be reading two different stories working on the skills of comprehension, vocabulary, and will be reviewing suffixes and prefixes and what their meaning adds to a word. The students are to have read Sarah, Plain and Tall by Thursday. I am excited to say that most students have gone on to read Skylark, Caleb’s Story and the next one is More Perfect than the Moon. I had lent that book out to a student last year and didn’t get it back and it is not at our school library anymore. It is a good book, and it is at the Belmond Library should any student wish to read it. Their next book for May, due May 15^th, is a library book of their choice.

In Math, we are working on interpreting division word problems as a number of groups of a known and unknown size and interpreting and finding whole number quotients and remainders to solve one step division word problems. We will also be doing our map testing during part of our math time, for three days, so we may not get all done. We will also be working on our daily multiplication pages and our daily review.

We will be map testing for three of our science periods this week. When we resume science, we will be working on the questions to review our rocks and minerals unit. It has been fun taking a look at some of the student’s rock collections!

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

Have a great week!
Chris Mallen

Phone:  515-444-3093 (Home)   515-444-4300 ext. 326 (School)

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

Mallen's Monday Memo April 20, 2015

Monday Memo

April 20, 2015

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  We finished the Iowa Assessments last week! This year we only did two reading tests, two math tests, and a social studies and science test. We didn’t test over an hour each of the three days. The students were treated to a snack and milk each day. This week we will be doing the MAP tests, which are a computerized test. It may be next week before we get to it. We are also going to be starting our ads that we create for the Belmond Independent. It is always a fun activity for the kids and once they are published in the paper, we will receive a copy for each student to take home to youJ So, we will be keeping busy these final weeks!

This week we are starting a new story about frontier life and the effects a drought had on their life. I am sure many of you will remember reading the wonderful book Sara, Plain and Tall. This excerpt that we will be reading comes from the second book in the series entitled Skylark. We will be covering a variety of skills throughout this chapter. We will be talking about Comprehension, Vocabulary, Sequencing, Word Roots, and working on the parts of speech part of the dictionary. Our grammar this week is over prepositional phrases. Our spelling words are attached to this memo.

On April 15^th, I gave the students their next RC book. The book is mentioned above. It is Sara, Plain and Tall. I appreciate you having them read each night for 20 minutes!! I was so pleased with how well most of the students did reading their RC book for April 15^th. This was the first time this year, the majority passed the RC quiz! I am thrilled!! Let’s do it again on April 30^th and this time everyone pass their quiz!!

For math this week we will be working on representing numerically 4D dividend division with divisors of 2,3,4, and 5, decomposing a remainder of up to 3X. We will also be solving division problems with a zero in the dividend or in a quotient. Again, thanks for working on those multiplication facts with the students each night. It truly makes their math that much easier! We are still working on our daily fact sheets and our daily reviews!

We tested over our earthquake and volcano unit on Friday. I sent the results home with your child. This week we are starting a unit on rocks and minerals. We will be answering a few questions this week. Those questions are: What are Minerals? What are Rocks? What is the Rock Cycle? Hopefully by the end of this week, the students will have some answers to those questions.

I hope everyone has a great week!! As always, please call with any questions/concerns!! Thanks for all you do for your children!

Have a great week!
Chris Mallen

Phone:  (Home)  444-3093    (School)  444-4430 Ext. 336

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

Mallen's Monday Memo April 20, 2015

Monday Memo

April 20, 2015

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  We finished the Iowa Assessments last week! This year we only did two reading tests, two math tests, and a social studies and science test. We didn’t test over an hour each of the three days. The students were treated to a snack and milk each day. This week we will be doing the MAP tests, which are a computerized test. It may be next week before we get to it. We are also going to be starting our ads that we create for the Belmond Independent. It is always a fun activity for the kids and once they are published in the paper, we will receive a copy for each student to take home to youJ So, we will be keeping busy these final weeks!

This week we are starting a new story about frontier life and the effects a drought had on their life. I am sure many of you will remember reading the wonderful book Sara, Plain and Tall. This excerpt that we will be reading comes from the second book in the series entitled Skylark. We will be covering a variety of skills throughout this chapter. We will be talking about Comprehension, Vocabulary, Sequencing, Word Roots, and working on the parts of speech part of the dictionary. Our grammar this week is over prepositional phrases. Our spelling words are attached to this memo.

On April 15^th, I gave the students their next RC book. The book is mentioned above. It is Sara, Plain and Tall. I appreciate you having them read each night for 20 minutes!! I was so pleased with how well most of the students did reading their RC book for April 15^th. This was the first time this year, the majority passed the RC quiz! I am thrilled!! Let’s do it again on April 30^th and this time everyone pass their quiz!!

For math this week we will be working on representing numerically 4D dividend division with divisors of 2,3,4, and 5, decomposing a remainder of up to 3X. We will also be solving division problems with a zero in the dividend or in a quotient. Again, thanks for working on those multiplication facts with the students each night. It truly makes their math that much easier! We are still working on our daily fact sheets and our daily reviews!

We tested over our earthquake and volcano unit on Friday. I sent the results home with your child. This week we are starting a unit on rocks and minerals. We will be answering a few questions this week. Those questions are: What are Minerals? What are Rocks? What is the Rock Cycle? Hopefully by the end of this week, the students will have some answers to those questions.

I hope everyone has a great week!! As always, please call with any questions/concerns!! Thanks for all you do for your children!

Have a great week!
Chris Mallen

Phone:  (Home)  444-3093    (School)  444-4430 Ext. 336

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

Mallen's Monday Memo April 6, 2015

Monday Memo

April 6, 2015

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter break! It is so nice to be enjoying spring!! It seems like we waited a long time for it to come…

This week we are starting a new story about the wildfires at Yellowstone. Again, it goes perfectly with our theme:  Nature:  Friend or Foe. The story talks about the damage the wildfire caused and the good things that came from that. We will be working on the following skills:  Comprehension, Vocabulary, Main Idea, Supporting Details, and analogies.  The grammar lessons this week are over writing with adjectives. We will also discuss the use of the words good and well. The spelling words are attached to this memo.

Just a reminder that your child has a library book for their RC book, which is due to be tested by April 15^th. I appreciate you having them read each night for 20 minutes!!

For math this week we will be working on determining whether a whole number is a multiple of another number. We will also be exploring properties of prime and composite numbers to 100 by using multiples.

We are starting a new unit in Science this week. We will be talking about volcanoes and earthquakes. It goes nicely with our nature theme in reading.

I hope everyone has a great week!! As always, please call with any questions/concerns!! Thanks for all you do for your children!

Have a great week!
Chris Mallen

Phone:  (Home)  444-3093    (School)  444-4430 Ext. 336

Email:  chris.mallen@bkcsd.org

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