Fabulous Friday - Friday, October 30, 2015

Hi Families,

Today we did a math test. It was hard. We worked on our bat packets. We read Stellaluna. We went on the chromebooks. We did Xtra Math and Front Row. I do Xtra Math at home everyday. We watched the kindergarten walk by with their Halloween costumes on. We wrote in our Friday journals. If parents have time, they can write back. We had Friday free time, we stayed inside. We will do pirate math on Monday so study this weekend! When you get five treasures (master five math facts) you get a prize from the treasure  box. We had a fantastic week.

Love,
Juliet

Pictures of our end of the day dance party over the intercom. Have a great and safe weekend! For all the families who celebrate Halloween I hope it is a great one! 

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Dear families,

Today was a great day! We went outside picking special leafs. We did a project and we put them on the bulletin board. We had to write adjectives about my leaves. If it is big or small or colorful. My leaf was red and orange. It is about four inches tall. I also did a good job with a lot of pluses. We also learned all about bats. It was so fun. Also we have a bat folder.

Love,
Keilyn

Funny Wednesday - October 28, 2015

Dear families,

We have a math test on Thursday. We went to music in the morning and we played instruments. It was fun. In music, there was a witch, goblin, and ghost. There was instruments that sounded like goblins marching, and an instruments that sounded like witches like "woooo" and the ghost sounded like "ooooooo". And the goblin was marching and Noah and Ezekiel did the drum. We went to the library and got books. I got the Absent Author which we are reading in class. For morning work we phonics sentences. We also had a bus evacuation drill this morning. We had to listen to the police officer. He told us safe things about the bus. Two eighth graders held our hands and swinged us down out the back door of the bus on a bat. We read a Scholastic news about bats. Bats are blind in sunlight. In math, we practiced word problems. They were ok.

You friend,
Kevin

Tape Diagrams!

Hi families,

Several parents have asked about the tape diagram strategy that has been on the homework the last few nights. This is a strategy we have been learning in class -- using the Read, Draw, Write strategy. First they should read the entire problem. Next they should go back and re-read and draw a picture to help them solve. Finally, they should write the answer as a statement. Please see the picture below for how to solve a tape diagram. Please also note how I re-write the answer at the end as a statement. It is essential that students understand what they are trying to solve for and to label their answers. Thank you so much to the families who reached out to me about this -- it is valuable feedback for me, and we will certainly continue practicing how to solve tape diagrams in class. Here is a link to a video about tape diagrams from the Eureka website: http://greatminds.net/maps/math/video-gallery/solving-word-problems-with-tape-diagrams Although it talks about third, fourth, and fifth grade tape diagrams, it is the same process we use. It will also give you a chance to see how they will be able to apply the strategy moving forward!

Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to help!

Example problem 1 - Finding the Whole: Bob has 27 legos. Javier has 30. How many do Bob and Javier have together? Draw a tape diagram to help you solve.

Example problem 2 - Comparing Two Quantities: Line M is 30 centimeters long. Line P is 42 centimeters long. Draw a tape diagram to show how much longer line P is than line M.

Smiles,
Ms. Petzold

Fun Tuesday - Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Dear families,

In math we made our own measuring sticks out of paper. We measured things around the class. We used string to practice measuring things that are not straight, because rulers are not bendy. I had to measure my partner's head, neck, and wrist. I was partners with Matthew and Ave. We filled in the blanks of a story using adjectives. The story was about going to the zoo. Our phonics words this week are long i words like slide. We are collecting interesting words. We are learning all about bats this week. We read a packet on bats and read bat folders. I hope we will read Stellaluna this week, it is about bats. I know Ms. Petzold has the book. Bats have fingers and thumbs.

Love,
Krysta

Monday, October 26, 2015

Dear families,

Today we went to gym and did our spooky stations. In math, we estimated the lengths of lines. We figured out the lengths of different paths. In reading, we learned about tuning into interesting word. We had to write an interesting word from our books on sticky notes. We made books adjectives to help with our writing. We practiced putting sequencing a story about Halloween night.

Love,
Lilly

Fabulous Friday - October 23, 2015

Hi families,

Today I was person of the day. I had to do the whole calendar. We have been in school for 36 days. 36 has 3 tens and 6 ones. We did computers. We wrote in class journals. We read to self. We read Chrysthumum. We have a heart and if something says something mean, we crumpled the heart, when they say a nice thing we try to un-crumble it. When you try to un-crumble it it rips in the middle. We can take back mean things we say, so we need to think before we say things. We wrote about why you have to speak before you think and what to say if you hurt someones feelings, and glued that and our crumpled hearts onto a piece of paper. We took a math quiz on measurement. It was a little bit hard. We had extra recess. You have to get your work and be good to go to extra recess.

Love,
Matthew

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Dear families,

We got to see jumpy spiders. They will be in the treasure for when we get 5 gold treasures. We get a gold treasure when we finish a math fact quiz all correct. I have three treasures, so I need two more treasures to go to the treasure chest. We made adjective books. We had to write first. We had to write about a noun and describe it. Then we had to cut it out and then staple it together. We read more of The Absent Author and made predictions. I predict Wallace Wallis has been kidnapped by the book store owner, Mr. Paskey.

Love,
Noah

What a wonderful Wednesday it was! Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Good afternoon,

Today we went to music class and we sang Halloween songs. I was the person of the day. I was picked for having a butterfly in music class. We talked about adjectives and nouns. We made a chart about adjectives and looked at the different types: sounds, touch, shape, and taste. I picked animal toss greeting this morning. We measured lines and we combined the numbers together to find the total lengths. We also compared the lines longer or shorter the lines were. We decorated our math folders with word problems in it. It was fun.

Love you Dad and Mom.

From,
Odanny

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Dear families,

I worked so hard with my math. In math, we did measuring. We talked about mental benchmarks like how your pinky is 1 centimeter wide, an unsharpened pencil is 20 centimeters long, a meter is about from the floor to the door handle. We did writing. We did scary stories. Mine is about a zombie and the haunted house. We got to put monsters with our writing. (See below for some pictures Rhianna took). An adjective describes a noun. An example of an adjective to describe a girl is kind.

From,
Rhianna

Monday, October 19, 2015

Hi Families,

Today we did centimeter rules and meter sticks in math. We measured stuff in the classroom. You should measure the whiteboard with a meter stick. You should measure a small, personal white board with centimeters. We did reading and writing classroom journals. I wrote about my favorite Halloween story. I am reading Ivy and Bean The Bone Finding Record. We worked on our spooky stories during writing time. Mine is about a vampire, a skull, and a skeleton. I was the person of the day. I got to do calendar, days in school, and place value. I got the spinney chair to use today. I like that I get to draw during Friday free time. I also like art. Ms. Petzold liked my owl chapstick because it was an owl and owls are Ms. Petzold's favorite animals.

Love,
Suri

Here are pictures Suri took of one of our class journals:

Friday, October 16, 2016

Hi Families,

Today we did phonics sentences with long E words. We did our spooky stories. Some people finished, a lot finished their rough drafts. After snack, we learned about the skippy kanganroo strategy. If you don't know a word, skip it, read the rest of the sentence, then go back and try to figure it out. We did a fall word search. We had computer lab for special. We learned about hot air balloons and we typed some sentences. We wrote in our Friday journals. We learned about word problems.

Love,
Suri and Noah

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Hi Families,

Today, I liked math. We used a cube to measure things. The cube is one centimeter. I like when we read, I got to pick new books today. For morning work, we wrote sentences with our phonics word. We have words that say /e/ this week, like sheep. We had double specials. We had music in the morning. At music, we played with instruments, and when we were playing with the instruments everyone got a turn with each thing because we were passing it around in a circle. In library this afternoon, we played tic-tack-toe with stars and pencils.

Love,
Jannaliss and Juliet

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Dear Families,

We did animal toss greeting today. You have to throw a teddy bear (gently!) to a person and say their name and say good morning. For math we started to learn about measuring. We used centimeter cubes. We had art today. We used pencils and will use sketch things that you don't know what color they will be to draw circles. We were finishing up our spooky or fall stories. We are learning about long e words this week (that have the -ee pattern). We watched a magic school bus at indoor recess or colored. We read a Scholastic News about explorers who went into space or under water. We had partners for this. We did calendar at morning meeting. We went to lunch. We learned more strategies to read tricky words. We read books.

From,
Lilly and Andrew




Reminder: Picture Day is this Thursday, October 15th. Please send back order forms with the top filled out (name, phone number, check or cash included) by Thursday. Yankee Candle order forms are due back Friday, October 16th.

Have a great Tuesday!

Setting Goals with Growth Tablets

Hi Families,

Last Friday, your students hopefully brought home a sea creature and told you how they grew from a capsule into the creature in glass of warm water. We did this fun, engaging activity as a way to begin thinking about goal setting for the year. Setting goals is an essential part of learning. I asked students to try to think of a specific, attainable goal for math, reading, and writing. We talked about how reading fifty books in one day was not an attainable goal, but reading 50 picture books in a month would be possible. Some students wanted to be able to decode tricky words better, others wanted to be able to read and comprehend chapter books by the end of the year. I hope they will share what their goals were with you. They are up on our bulletin board right now, but I will send them home soon, so you can see them, too! In the meantime, here are some pictures of the fun we had!


Ms. Petzold

Friday, October 9, 2015 -- Some Important Reminders

Hi Families,

We had our first school-wide assembly today. It was our kick off for PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) to try to encourage all students to display Tenney R.O.C.K.S. Behavior. ROCKS is an acroynm that stands for Respect, Ownership, Cooperation, Kindness, and Safety. Students can earn blue slips for displaying Tenney ROCKS behavior and can earn Show What You Know tickets for showing academic hard work and perseverance. Every student in our room has earned at least one blue slip this year -- many have earned a lot! Please ask your child about it! It was a lot of fun and the Tenney Tiger made an appearance :)

Some very important reminders for the week ahead:

1. No School on Monday for Columbus Day 
2. Please check your child's home-school folder for their Friday journal. We did not have a ton of time to write today, but they all should have written you a quick letter about their week. They LOVE when you write them a note back!! 
3. Picture Day is Thursday, October 15th, 2015. Picture order forms should have made it home in your child's backpack today. Please let me know if you did not receive it and I will make sure one gets home on Tuesday.
4. There is a PTO meeting on Thursday, October 15th in the evening. I hope you can attend!
5. Yankee Candle Fundraising forms are due back by Friday, October 16th. Please consider supporting the PTO with this fundraiser, and maybe get a little winter holiday shopping done early. I am so thankful for the support the PTO gives us teachers each year!
6. Progress Reports come home next Friday, October 16th. Please be on the lookout for those.
7. The Annual Tenney Monster Bash (put on by the above mentioned fabulous PTO!) will be on Friday, October 23rd. Mark your calendars! I am planning to attend and I hope you can, too!

As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or thoughts please send me an e-mail. I hope you have a wonderful long weekend!

Smiles,

Ms. Petzold

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Hi Families,

We went to gym. We did a skipping test. We did math stations. We learned a new fluency center. You need to figure out the addition equation then poke the hole to see if you are right. We wrote about Halloween spooky stories or fall stories. We have class journals where we right about topics to share with out class like favorite subject at school, about who lives at home, and Halloween.
We used our brain always thinking books when we finished our work early. We did a math fact quiz for pirate math (keep practicing math facts, please!!!). We reviewed all the ways to add and subtract. We did calendar and morning meeting. We had to add two straws because we missed yesterday. We played outside and ate lunch and ate snack. We read at the end of the day.

Have a good day!

From,
Matthew, Rhianna, and Ezekiel

Wednesday 10/7/15 Math Curriculum Night is TONIGHT!

Hi families,

I hope you will be able to attend the Math Curriculum Night with Dr. Kwong, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment tonight at 6:30 in the Tenney Auditorium. She will be talking about our new Eureka math program and hopefully will answer any problems you may have about it! I hope you can attend!

Best,
Ms. Petzold

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Hi Families,

Today, we put a sticky note on a chart to set goals. We went to art where we painted pictures of trees, background, the inside of trees. We learned about Stretchy the Snake as a reading - we have to stretch out the word then put it together quickly. In math, we decomposed numbers. We took out ten ones out of two-digit numbers. My favorite part of today was when we did math.

Have a great Tuesday!

Garrett and Kevin

Friday, October 2, 2015

Hi Families,

We did Friday journals. We wrote notes to our moms or dads or families or sisters or brothers or grandpas or grandma. We went outside for Friday free time if we earned it. We wrote thank you cards for to the person who helped get our hokki movement stools. We make little critters, sea creates, and watched them grow. We wrote about goals to make us good writer, a good reader, and good at math. Happy Friday!

From,
Joshua and Angelina

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Hi Families,

Math we did a sprint today. Math sprints we try to answer problems then we count how many we got right. Then we do another math sprint and try to do better than the first. Almost all of us did better on the second one. I liked math stations especially the fact fluency one because I did clothespin addition.

Jane and Rhianna


_____

Sorry for the short post - we ran out of time today! We also did more long A vowel work, practiced sorting nouns into categories, and talked about how good readers think while they are reading. We practiced these reading skills while reading Fredrick by Leo Leoni.

We will be sending home Friday journals tomorrow where your child will be writing you a note about their learning, they would love for you to write back!! Please keep an eye out for these, they should arrive tomorrow in their home-school folders. ! :)