Week of September 17th, 2012

Hello students and families,

Welcome to Week 6 of the fifth grade and one of the most important weeks of the school year--ITBS Testing! I hope that everyone is continuing to get plenty of sleep at night and eating a healthy breakfast!

This Friday is noon dismissal so don't forget to remind your parents to pick you up on time! Next Friday is our school field trip to the L.A. County Fair. So far we have five volunteer chaperones. If you are interested in chaperoning the field trip, please send a handwritten note indicating that you are available September 28th, or e-mail me at fifthgrade@straphaella.org.

Computer Lab Work

This week we are continuing to work on multiplication. Now we are reviewing multiplication by 1 and 2 digit numbers. Review the activities below to help you improve on your multiplication:
Multiplication Activity
Multiplication Activity #2
Multiplication Activity #3

In Science, we will begin learning about body systems and we will start with the digestive system. Look at the following links below to familiarize yourself more with the Digestive System:
Fun Link to Learn About the Digestive System
The Digestive System Movie
Digestive System Information
Digestive System Animation

Don't forget to bring in a white t-shirt in your size by Thursday of this week!

If you get done viewing these activities and web pages, please use Mavis Beacon or Math Invaders.

Thank you!

Let's have a great week and do well on the ITBS Test!

Week of September 10, 2012

Hello students & families!

We have a busy week coming up! Here are some announcements:

• Wednesday 
• Vision Screening Mobile Unit returns
• Picture Day!
• Mass with 1st Grade
• Friday
• Whole School Mass

*Our new spelling and vocabulary words for Theme 1, Selection 3: Volcanoes, are posted on the left side of the blog and the spelling/vocabulary packet is due Friday.
*This Wednesday is our Math Topic 2 Test. Please review the math videos on previous blog postings to review. 
*Next week is ITBS testing. Please come to school well rested and with food in your stomach!

Let's have a great week!

Week of September 3rd, 2012

Welcome back to school after the Labor Day Weekend! I hope everybody had a fun, but restful, time!

Here are some announcements for this week and next:

• This Friday is whole school mass at 8AM and noon dismissal
• This Friday is also the Vision Screening for all grades
• September 12th is Picture Day
• ITBS Testing begins September 17th and concludes September 27th
• The fieldtrip to the L.A. County Fair is September 28th

We are currently looking for chaperones for the fifth grade to the L.A. Country Fair. If you are a member of the student's family is interested in attending as a chaperone, please email me at fifthgrade@straphaella.org or send a note to me through your child.

We are currently preparing for our Reading Comprehension Test on Warren Faidley's "Eye of the Storm". Warren Faidley is a real life storm chaser and professional wild weather photographer. To rewatch some of the videos we saw in class, view the following links:
Warren Faidley Photograph Slideshow
Warren Faidley Interview Part 1
Warren Faidley Interview Part 2
Warren Faidley Interview Part 3

In Math we are studying rounding and addition & subtraction of whole numbers and decimals. View the following videos to help you remember the lessons from class:
Rounding Whole Numbers Part 1
Rounding Whole Numbers Part 2
Rounding Whole Numbers Part 3
Rounding Decimals

Here are some excercises to practice rounding:
http://www.khanacademy.org/math/arithmetic/decimals/e/rounding_whole_numbers
http://www.khanacademy.org/math/arithmetic/decimals/e/rounding_numbers

Some students were struggling to remember how to regroup when subtracting whole numbers. This video will help to refresh your memory: Subtracting Whole Numbers & Regrouping

Don't forget to study for your photosynthesis quiz!