Thursday, May 19, 2016

Hi Families,

Today, first thing, we were giving feedback to other people for our new animal species. We had to tell them how did they look and let them know if they forgot anything. Then we got to make our animal using materials like clay, cotton balls, bubble wrap and string. It took a long time to make them because you had to figure out how you were going to make them. It was fun, I am already done with mine. After that, we went to snack and then we came back and read The One and Only Ivan. Then after we did a Scholastic News about Mystery Legos. It was about how over 20 years ago a shop with thousands of Legos in a bin spilled in the ocean. They keep finding Legos on the beaches all over the world like dragons, flowers, octopuses, and slippers. After the Scholastic News we wnent to recess and then we went to lunch. Then we went to gym. We played this throwing game, I forget what it was called, but you had to try to get the trash to the other side. Whoever had less on their side won. Then we came back and did a math review. We reviewed money and graphing. We are getting ready for a test tomorrow. 

From, 

Ezekiel

Please check out pictures we posted today on Class Dojo under "Class Story."

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Hi Families,

It was a busy day! We learned ways to make the same amount using different combinations of coins. We made butterfly folders. Our caterpillars are arriving on Thursday. We read a Scholastic News on butterflies. I learned that Monarch butterflies migrate South. We are making our own animals. We had to figure out what it looked like, what it ate, where it lives, and what it uses to get food. It needs adaptations in order to survive in its habitat. We got to pick the habitat too. Mine is living in the rain forest.

From,
Jane

May 12, 2016

Hi Families,

Today we learned how to count with money. Most of us got to present our habitat project. One group has to wait because one of the group members was absent. We also watched a brain pop video on money. We finshed our phonics sentences on soft g and hard g. Soft g says /j/ and hard g says /g/. Today we get to bring home our biography projects and our plants.

From,
Juliet

Monday, May 9, 2016

Hi Families,

Today we made posters about our habitats. The habitat I am learning about is a pond. We took a paper and planned out where stuff was going to be as a group. Also, we learned about animal classifications. The four categories we learned about were bird, mammal, reptile, and fish. It helped with our math on data. Also we did pirate math. I am working on multiplication.

From,
Kevin

Monday, May 2nd, 2016

Dear Families,

Today we ate snack. Then we came up and talked about habitats. Then we read two chapters the One and Only Ivan. We saw that an artist painted Ivan as a mean ape, but he was not a mean ape he was a nice ape. Then we went to snack. After snack, we had reading groups. Then when reading was done we did a Scholastic News on caimen which are similar to crocodiles and alligators. Then when we were done we started recess. We had indoor recess today. When recess was done we went to lunch. Then after lunch we did gym where we did bowling mania. When we came back from specials we did math. We talked about even and odd numbers. After we finished our math work we did math centers. Then we packed up and are going home.

From,
Odanny

Friday, April 29th, 2016

Hi Families,

Today we planted a seed. We are reading the One and Only Ivan. Ivan lives in a mall like you go shopping in. We got to do Friday free time at the end of the day if we earned it. We played games. We did equal groups in math. We talked about odd and even numbers. Even is when you can split it into two equal groups. Next week is appreciate your teacher week. Wear blue on Monday because it is Ms. Petzold's favorite color.

Love, Rhianna

The week of April 28th, 2016

Hi Families,

We have done a lot this week. In writing, we did plant flap books. We had to write a paragraph on plants. I focused on the parts of a plant. We also did math. In math, we are learning about arrays. They have rows and columns. We can write repeated addition sentences. Which is the beginning of multiplication. We are starting to learn about habitats in science. We read an article about habitats. Then, we retold the article to see what we remembered. We are going to get to learn all about a habitat and do a presentation on it. We started reading a class read aloud called The One and Only Ivan. It is about a gorilla who lives in a mall. The gorilla is telling the story in first person.

From,
Suri

Spirit Week Reminders

Hi Families,

Wanted to send out a reminder that this week the lower school is doing a spirit week to help stockthe Tenney book pantry. If students want to join in,they could bring a non-perishible food item or adollar to help support the cause!

Tuesday - "1980s" Day - Rock those legwarmers,bright neon colors, hammer pants or acid washjeans and represent your favorite fashion from thecrazy 80s.

Wednesday - "Ohana" Day - Dress up HawaiianStyle

Thursday "Once Upon a Time Day" - Turn back theclock to your favor era whether it is the swinging1940s, the hopping 1950s, or 1990s grunge.

Friday -- "Tiger Up" Day - Rock your favoriteorange and black or Tenney Tiger gear. Show thatschool spirit!!

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Hi Families,

This week we got a new Smartboard for the classroom. For phonics, we -ight words and -igh words.  An example is light in "Shut the light switch off, please." Then we got to go on the Chromebooks. We did Xtramath and Lexia Core 5. Then we did morning meeting. Eric was our person of the day. Then we went to music. We sang an Earth Day song. Then we went to snack in the cafeteria. I had cookies n' cream pop tarts and a blue koolaid. Then we were reading. After lunch, we did math. We did work problems about arrays. We got to our lesson on the new Smartboard. It was an outstanding, awesome day.

From,
Charlie

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Hi Families,

First, did our phonics sentences this morning with -igh and -ight words. Then, we went to morning meeting. We did animal toss greeting. After that we did plant work. We had to glue the parts where they belong on our flap books. After that, we were reading to self. My group finished our book club. We were reading the second Magic Tree House book. We also kept working on our plant experiment. We are seeing if seeds will germinate without soil in plastic bags with damp paper towels. We planted them on Friday. They have roots now. We wrote down our observations in our lab report. After that we had indoor recess. We could draw or watch the Magic School Bus. Then after lunch and specials, we did math. We did arrays with columns and rows still. The definition of an array is items arranged into rows and columns. We did a lesson with teddy bears talking about rows and columns. At the end of the day we reviewed parts of a plant and read a non-fiction book on roots.

Have a good day!

Ezekiel

Monday, April 11, 2016

Today, we continued to learn about plants. We discussed the parts of a plant (leaves, root, stems, and flowers) and their purposes. We had to draw arrays with certain amount of rows and columns. Then we had to draw either a horizontal or vertical line to show the rows or columns. We also learned about homophones. A homophone sounds alike but have different meanings and spelling. Too, to, and two are examples of homophones. We finished our biographies. We did a scholastic news about blue honey. It happened in France. The bees were drinking the M&M syrup instead of nectar from plants. We also went to a firefighter Phil assembly. He did magic tricks and taught us all about fire safety.

From,
Charlie and Rhianna

April 7, 2016

Hi Families,

Today we stayed inside because it was raining. We did arrays and talked about rows and columns. We worked on finishing up our biography projects. Our biographies are due by tomorrow. We read an article about the leaves. The oxygen that we breath is made by plants, and they take in the carbon dioxide we breath. The green part (chlorophyll) sucks in the sunlight to make their own food. We also worked on updated our KWL chart on plants now that we have started to learn all about them.

From,
Jeremiah and Odanny

Tuesday, April 4, 2016

Hi Families,

We did more stuff about plants. We learned they need sunlight, water, soil. We also did a paper on the differences between what they need and what they have. We did the one minute greeting. In math, we repeated addition which will help with multiplication next year. We did a book on subject and predicate. Subject is who or what is doing the action. Predicate is the action being done by the subject. Check out our books subject-predicate we are bringing home!

From,
Joshua

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Hi Families,

We did minus in math. Then we checked them with plus again. All the numbers are a family. On Friday we will have a math test. Next week will start working on arrays which will teach us able multiplication and divison. We started learning about plants. We did a plants graphic graphic organizer and what they have, need, can, and are. We made plant folders to hold our stuff in. We kept working on our phonics sentences which are on plural irregular nouns, for example you have one foot but two feet. We had double special: music and library. In music, we sang and watched a movie. In library, we got books and read from black bins. 

From,

Krysta

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Hi Families,

Today, in math we learned how to check subtraction problems by adding. The numbers are all part of a family. With a number family you can make four equations -- two addition and two subtraction. We started researching biographies about famous people. I am learning about Pablo Picaso. He was a famous artist. In grammar, we learned about subject (who does the action) and predicate (the action being done). We learned about irregular plural nouns that do not follow patterns. We had art for specials. We learned about cool colors and warm colors.

From,

Lilly

March 28, 2016

Hi Families,

In math, we had to do take-away. Then to check our answer, we had to do plus. We had to take the answer and the other part to make the whole. We also started talking about plants. We made a KWL chart on plants. The K stands for know, the W stands for what I want to know, and at the end we will fill in the L for learned. We talked about sentences today too. We started with simple, basic sentences. We got a card to add details. We had to add who, what, where, when, why and how. We had to add more and more details to the sentence. We had indoor recess and watched Magic School Bus. We went to gym and played a bowling game.

From,
Matthew and Josh

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Hi families,

Today we learned more about plural nouns. If there is a consonant before the y you take away the y and add -ies. For lunch we ate meatballs with bread and salad. We did a math test. It was medium difficulty. We did some narrative fictional writing about getting stuck in the school because of a big snow storm. It was fiction because we made it up. We went to library for specials and got books. We also had music this morning. We had outdoor recess. That's all I remember about today. Have a good night!

From,
Odanny

March 22, 2016

Dear families,

Today we did math. We did the vertical way with addition. We did pirate math, too. We are learning about plural nouns. The rule is if a word ends in a consanant + y, you drop the y and -ies. The other rule we learned is if a noun ends in f or fe, you drop f/fe and add -ves. We practiced hard with it. We went to art because yesterday we had no school so we skipped gym because of no school on Monday. In writing, we read a biography and found important information about our famous person. 

Have a good day!

From,

Rhianna and a friend

Friday, March 18, 2016

Hi Families,

Today we did calendar. I got to lead it. We decided if today was a lion or a lamb day. The saying about March is it "comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb." We have had more lamb days. We ate breakfast for lunch today. We did Friday journals. We did a math quiz, too. It was a short day.

From,
Andrew

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Hi Families

Today we finished our phonic sentences for plural nouns. We read. I read The Haunted Library. I almost finished it. We wrote leprechaun stories and learned how to draw a leprechaun. We went to gym. We played bowling mania. In math, we did subtraction with tape diagrams. You had to make the number you are taking away into a nice group of hundreds. We also got to color some St. Patrick day drawings. Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Love, Suri

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Hi Families,

Today we started phonic sentences about plural nouns. We also are learning about biographies. Today we learned about Rosa Parks. I learned that she started the Montogomery bus boycott. We did OREO opinion writing. The O stands for opinion, the R stands for a reason, the E stands for example or explanation, the O stands for re-stating your opinion. Math was hard today. We subtracted the arrow way. We had art for special. We painted a canvas.

From,
Angelina

Wednesday, March 2, 2015

Hi Families,

This week we have been reviewing addition and subtraction the vertical way with regrouping. It starting to get funner and easier. Kevin says, "I love math." We read fables. They are fictional and teach you a lesson. They have talking animals and are short. In writing, we have been doing opinion writing. Yesterday, we had to write about why the Tenney ROCKS. Josh said because of Nacho Grande in the cafeteria. All week we have been learning about Dr. Seuss. Today was mismatch day in honor of his book Wacky Wednesday. We wore clothes inside out and different shoes. Today we watched the Lorax with Mrs. Hudon and learned about Green Eggs and Ham and Hop on Pop. We designed socks creatively yesterday for Fox in Sox day and wore crazy socks.

From,
Joshua and Kevin

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Hi Families,

Today we did math on white boards. We did subtraction. For example, we solved 200-87=? It was tricky, first you had to decopose a hundred into a hundred into ten tens. Then, you had to decompose one ten into ten ones. Then you could subtract. We talked about genres -- which are different types of books. Some examples are mystery, fairy tales, biographies. In writing, we wrote about whether we prefer recess or lunch. I prefer recess.

Love,
Krysta

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Hi families,

We did math today. We had to do take-away. If we had 1-9 in the ones, you had to go next door to the tens and break it up into 10 ones. We read The Frog Prince and we had to figure out the main characters, the setting, and the problem and solution. In writing we worked on our letters about our favorite characters. I am writing about Greg from Diary of the Wimpy Kid. We are also learning about contraction words like we'll is we will. We had art today and we read Chinese words and we learned how to say them.

From,
Matthew

Monday, February 22, 2015

Hi Families,

Today we learned to do three numbers and four numbers addition. For example, 52+68+95+25. We had to make tens to solve. We also have a mystery vocabulary word for the week. Today the clue was it is a six letter verb. I think it is seeing. In writing, we wrote opinions about our favorite characters. Mine was Darwin from the Amazing World of Gumball. For reading, we are still doing fairy tales. We worked with a partner and read a script about Cinderella.

From,
Noah

Thursday, February 4th, 2016

Hi Families,

Today was a busy Thursday. We went on the chromebooks. We did xtramath and lexia. We wrote opinion pieces. We read I Wanna Iguana. It was about a boy who wanted an iguana. He was trying to convince his mom to get an iguana. We read Cinderella and talked about the characteristics of fairy tales. It had a lot of characteristics. We also talked about how Cinderella felt at different parts of the story. We finished our phonics sentences with r-controlled vowels, -er, -ir, -ur and they all say "-er". We did a math test. It was really hard. Have a good day!

From,
Angelina

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Hi Families,

Today we did phonics sentences about r-controlled vowels. -er, -ir, and -ur all say "errr". After that we went on the computers and did xtra math and Lexia. Then we went to music class. After music and snack, reading teachers came and Ms. Petzold read with groups. After that, we read Scholastic News about a groundhog named Ms. G. She is the state groundhog of Massachusetts. We had indoor recess and lunch. Then we went to library. After library, we did an afternoon meeting. Then we did math. In math, did a review in math of addition and subtraction strategies. Tomorrow we have a math test.

From,
Ave

Monday, February 1, 2016

Hi Families,

We started learning about fairy tales today. They sometimes start with "once upon a time", animals talk, animals sometimes wear clothes, they often have the numbers 3 and 7 in them. We read Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We are starting opinion writing today. We learned about Groundhog Day -- it is tomorrow, February 2nd. We read a book called Groundhog's Dilemma about whether he picks spring or summer. We made predictions about if he will she his shadow. More classmates thought he will see his shadow, which means there will be six more weeks of winter. In math, we solved subtraction problems. Some of us drew place value chips, some did it all in heads. We also practiced on white boards first. Now we are going to go play a game until dismissal because we were good listeners today.

From,
Jeremiah and Lillyana

Friday, January 29, 2016

Hi Families,

This morning we finished our unfinished work and one team was doing there lab report. Then we did morning meeting. I was the person of the day I did the calendar and the greeting was the high five greeting. Then we worked with the computers for a little while, after we went to snack. On the computers we did Xtra Math and we did Lexia and some people did Front Row. After, we had to read a paper about tigers. We read it then we had to underline information about the tiger and answer questions. Then when we came back from lunch we went to the computer lap with Mrs. O'hearn. We did a sound project then did typing tour which teaches us how to type and stuff. We came back and did pirate math. Then we did a math lesson on subtracting hundreds. Then we did a quiz on minusing two-digit numbers. It had six questions. After that, we did Friday free time. I read a book, other people made ramps for cars like our lab report, and some people got to use iPads, and Jenga, and a whole bin of games for us to play. Have a good weekend!

From,
Ezekiel

Reminders: Please check your child's home-school folder for important fliers and to read about your child's week in their home school journal.

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Hi families,

Today we had a mystery reader. Can you guess who? It was a woman. She is a teacher. She used to teach second grade, now she teaches fourth grade. Last year she dressed up as Elsa from Frozen for our talent show. It was Mrs. Bisenga! We took a big math test. It was easy. We used computers and a group did a lab report. We read a Scholastic News on Snow Leopards and talked adaptations. An adaptation is when animals are good at surviving in their own habitats.

From,
Garrett

Wednesday, January 27th, 2016

Hi Families,

We did math today. We are working on subtraction with tens and ones. Sometimes we had to cross out a ten and break it apart into ten ones. I did awesome and earned a Show What You Know ticket! We also computers. We did Xtra Math you do math facts on. The other thing on computers was Lexia core five. It helps us learn stuff and we have to sound out words and do fun stuff on Lexia Core 5. We had double specials and it was music and media. At media we got to check out books and we got to draw a picture. We watched a video on Class Dojo on the TV called A Secret About the Brain. It taught us to never give up and you have to make your brain get stronger by trying again and practicing.

From,
Matthew

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Hi Families,

Do you want to know what we did today? I'm going to tell you. We did phonics sentences this morning. We are learning wh words like whale. Today we asked questions with wh words like what and which. Then we did morning meeting, and after that one group got to do there lab report with cars. My group did not get to do it yet, we will hopefully do ours soon! We then did snack. After snack, we talked about text features. Ms. P taught us how text features help the reader learn more. Then we read. Then we did a cutting and gluing activity with glossary and index. We had recess and lunch and art. We drew a landscape in art. In math, we did subtraction with decomposing tens. It was really hard.

I hope you have a good day.

From,
A friend in Ms. Petzold's Class

Hi Families,

This morning we wrote in our writing journals about our weekend. Then we had morning meeting. After that we wrote our own "I Have a Dream" speeches in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Then we watched a brain pop video about forces and motion. We learned about friction which is when two things rub together and it slows them down. We also learned a force is a push or a pull. Then we finished our first lab reports. We wrote the conclusions and results part. We wrote about if our hypothesis was correct and why. In reading, we learned about main idea and did a main idea activity. In math today, we started to learn how to do math vertically. We also wrote script for our animal videos. Have a great Tuesday!

From,
Juliet

Friday, January 15, 2016

Hi families,

It was a short day. We did a math quiz. We listened to the speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. called I Have a Dream. We wrote in our Friday journals (make sure to check them out in your child's home school folder). We had computer lab for special.

Love,
Krysta

Thursday, January 14, 2016

REMINDERS: Tomorrow is a half day. Dismissal is at 11:45 am. It is also HAT DAY. Students can wear a hat for $1.

Hi Families,

We had a wonderful day. We do morning meeting and Kevin was the person of the day. After that, we worked on our lab reports. We used a ramp and saw how far the car went on the floor on the tile floor. It went further on the tile floor than on the carpet. We practiced sorting facts and opinions. A fact is a true statement and an opinion is someone ideas or thoughts or beliefs. We learned about Martin Luthr King, Jr and read Martin's Big Words. We did a KWL chart to activate background knowledge -- looking at what we know, want to know, and learned.  In math, we practiced adding and used base ten blocks.

From,
Kevin

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