It has been a very busy week!!!

Hi families,

We did word problems using lots of different strategies – using addition and subtraction. We wrote lab reports about science. We put a car down a ramp and find out how far it can go. We are comparing the tile floor and the carpet. The materials we are using are 4 dictionaries and a white board for a ramp. Also a hot wheel car and a meter stick. We are learning about the difference between facts and opinions in reading. It has been a busy week, sorry we have not added more until now!

From,

Noah and Lillyana

For homework, students only need to pick 3 of the word problems to complete. If they choose a problem with multiple parts, that still counts as one problem. Please let me know if you have any questions! 

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Hi Families,

We finished our phonics sentences this morning with our ch words. We did math. We were practicing subtracting the arrow way. We also read. We are practicing author's purpose this week. There are three type of author's purpose one is to entertain, to inform, and to persuade. In writing, some of us worked on finishing our All About Animal books and some of us did acrostic poems about winter and winter illustrations. We had gym for special and we did Geomotion and danced.

Have a great day!

From,
Suri and Rhianna

Anchor chart on fiction and nonfiction features

Why do authors write books?

Table of contents for our nonfiction books

Math work from today!

Creations from indoor recess this morning 

A group effort during indoor recess!

Tuesday, January 5, 2015

Hi Families,

Today we did calendar. I was the person of the day. Our phonics words all the "ch" sound in them. One of the words is chocolate. I think chocolate is yummy. We did art today. We made snowflakes for our moms and dads and our nanas. We write goals on snow globes and colored them. We did math today. We added by groups of 10s and subtracted by groups of 10. We got new desks. Also, when we came back from art we were confused where our desks were. I like my new desk. We read books. We talked author purpose. There are three reasons they write a book: to entertain, to inform (teach us), and to persuade.

Love,
Andrew

Andrew's new seat!

Happy New Year! Curriculum Updates from Ms. Petzold

Hi families,

I hope everyone enjoyed winter break! We jumped right back into learning today and I wanted to take a few minutes to update you on some of the new curriculum units we are embarking on.

First, in math, we finished our third unit right before break. Graded Module 3 tests should have come home in your child's home-school folder today attached to a blue rubric. Please let me know if you have any questions or if the test did not make it home. We began Module 4 today in class, and their homework is from lesson 1, module 4. I also sent home a daily homework helper sheet (on yellow paper), and the module overview (on pink paper). I will be updating the parent and family resources page at the top of this blog shortly with links to all module 4 resources. This unit focuses on solving addition and subtraction equations to 200, and also focuses on solving word problems to 100. The Eureka program is great at teaching students why we do certain things in math, instead of just teaching students an algorithm and having them apply it. Here is a link to the Module 4 overview page: http://greatminds.net/maps/documents/tips-for-parents/Eureka_Math_Grade_2_Module_4_Parent_Tip_Sheet.pdf

In reading, we are embarking on a new unit all about non-fiction books. Today we did a comparison between fiction and non-fiction stories. We will learn about non-fiction text features, the structure of a text and why it is organized that way, identify the main idea and supporting details of texts, and so much more. I hope some of your child's nightly reading can be centered around non-fiction texts throughout January, it is great to expose children to different kinds of texts!

With writing, we are currently finishing up our animal informational books. Students have worked so hard on these and they are coming out wonderfully. We took some time today to set some goals for the year, and will continue setting goals tomorrow.

With phonics, we have now studied all short and long vowel sounds. We are working on "h-brother" digraphs. A digraph is a single sound, formed by two letters. This week we are studying the "ch" digraph as in cheese or peach. Next week we will be studying the sh digraph as in sheet. Then we will study the th digraph, as in thumb. We will finish January by studying the wh digraph as in whale.

I hope this helps you have a little more insight into where we are currently in our curriculum. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me by e-mailing me at cypetzold@methuen.k12.ma.us

I hope you all have a happy, healthy 2016! Looking forward to talking to you soon!

Smiles,
Ms. Petzold

Wednesday, December 9th, 2015

Hi families,

It was a spectacular day! For the greeting, we did high five. Also, Joshua was the person of the day. For specialists we had music and library. Also, at the end of the day we did a math exit ticket. We also did a math sprint. We had to do minus. Also our elf is on the flag. We finished Horrible Harry in our literature circle. Joshua got to play on the iPad. He played Sushi Monster.

From,
Kevin and Joshua

Monday, December 21, 2015

Hi Families,

Today was a busy day. We liked building Santa getting stuck in the chimney. I think I did my best writing. I said, "plop" when Santa came out of the chimney. My Santa was different from the normal Santa, I put brown pants, green and red for the little cuffs, and blue for the boots. Even though I did red for the chimney, it is the same. We listened to some music carols by fifth grade band students. One was Old Saint Nicholas and the other one was Jingle Bells. We read a Scholastic news about evergreen trees. They are called evergreen because they never loose their green leaves.

Have a good day!

From,
A friend in Ms. Petzold's class

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Hi Families,

We had a lot of fun in room 217 like playing a math game with memory cards. I only got 4 matches. Noah won the game. In gym we played star wars. You sit down on the scooter and you ride everywhere. If you get hit with the ball you're out. I also got to play on the class iPad. I read two Amelia Bedilia books I brought from my house. We learned about infrences. To make an inference, you know and what the book says to figure out what is happening in the story. Ms. Petzold says it is like reading between the lines. We had indoor recess and during it we watched the Magic School bus and draw. I made two paper footballs. Tonight is our last night of math homework before break. We had a mystery reader which was Ms. Norman from the other room. She read us The Biggest Snowman Ever by Steven Kroll. We read all our non-fiction books and we were checking them (revising and editing) and I stayed at my seat for a long time editing my book. Then we had to go to snack. We are going to have a fun, fun day tomorrow. We are going to the auditorium two times. Have a good day!

From,
Ezekiel