Language Arts

We have been discussing how to plan a pa-

per, and next week, students will plan and

write to a prompt.

In 5th grade, we will have many different as-

pects of our Word Study. We have worked

with Wordly Wise and Latin roots.

Reading

We are part of a Global Read Aloud and

have begun, The Wild Robot, by Peter Brown.

Our Mystery Skype last week was a complete

success. Look further for more details.

As we begin our Mystery Unit, we will start

reading From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E.

Frankweiler. We will focus on the story ele-

ments (exposition, rising action, climax, falling

action, and resolution). We will also discuss

characterization and elements of a mystery.

Social Studies

We have completed our unit on the Geogra-

phy of Henrico.

In this unit, the students have learned what

present-day counties and cities have been

formed from the original Henrico shire. We al-

so discussed the five bordering counties and

one city to Henrico, as well as the main water

features in our county. We began this discus-

sion by activating prior knowledge about our

bordering states, as well as the four main riv-

ers in Virginia.

We’ve started the history of Henrico! This was

easy to relate to the 4th grade unit, Jame-

stown.

REMINDERS:

10/27: Spooky Mystery

Read Aloud in Class

10/27: First Buzzy Bash!

10/31: Spooky Science in

Explore Lab

11/6: Last Day of 1st 9

Weeks

1/7: Election Day; NO

SCHOOL for students

11/10: Veteran’s Day As-

sembly @8:45am

QUICK UPDATES: WHAT HAVE WE BEEN UP TO?

MRS. BERNHEART: MCBERNHEART@HENRICO.K12.VA.US / 360-0812

Dear Parents/Guardians:

It (mostly) feels like fall is here! It is hard to believe that we have now been in school for sev-

en whole weeks, and that we’re approaching the end of the first nine weeks.

Interims would normally have gone home last Friday, but not anymore because you have

access to the Parent Portal at any time. As discussed with your child, it is about the middle

of the first nine weeks. Your child’s averages in reading, language arts, math, science, and

social studies are indicated on this Parent Portal; however, your child should have had a

feel for his/her grades based on the Progress Reports sent home and papers gone over in

class. As a reminder, there will be a minimum of ten grades entered in the grade book in

each subject. There will be a variety of assessments and types of assessing (classwork, quiz-

zes and tests) along with multiple choice, short answer, projects, essays, etc. The students

are used to this from last year and have adjusted well to the rigor and fast-paced atmos-

phere. If you or your child is not pleased with his/her progress, please know there is still time

to improve this nine weeks. As always, thank you for your continued support. It is greatly ap-

preciated, as we both want your child to be successful and ready for middle school by the

end of fifth grade.

Barnes and Noble presents their Third Annual Mini Maker Faire November 11th and 12th. The

Faire is for all ages. There are three parts—make, meet, and collaborate. B&N brings togeth-

er tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, engineers, science club members, students, entre-

preneurs, hobbyists, and makers of all kinds to learn from each other, get craft ideas, and

science fair project ideas, hear the experts, and work on projects. You can meet the makers

and make and collaborate! You will get to experience the latest in virtual reality, augment-

ed reality, 3D printing, pen-invent technology, robotics, coding, programming, and more.

Mrs. Bernheart’s Buzzworthy ‘Cont.

Similar to last year, we will work on various study strategies to help us remember information.

The first one we’ve talked about this year is mnemonic devices. Although there is room for

memorization and this is a good skill to have for certain situations, when studying, students

should be focusing on understanding the material, rather than simply memorizing and then

possibly forgetting. A mnemonic is an instructional strategy designed to help students im-

prove their memory of important information. This technique connects new learning to prior

knowledge through the use of visual and/or acrostic cues. The basic types of mnemonic

strategies rely on the use of key words, rhyming words, or acronyms! I model to the students,

and then I have them come up with their own. Studies show that creating your own will help

you remember better. These can be modified to fit a variety of content. They enhance

memory of complex words and ideas. We have begun with the letter strategy. For example,

the acronym HOMES can be used to help students recall the names of the Great Lakes (H–

Huron, O– Ontario, M– Michigan, E– Erie, and S– Superior). Ask your child to share his/her

mnemonic to remember our five surrounding counties.

We will continue to discuss a variety of strategies to help students study. Many the students

will remember from last year, and others will be new. We had a great discussion of strategies

that work well with vocabulary. Students tend to like the flashcard method, and this is great

for kinesthetic learners. Others, create Google presentations where one slide is the word

and the next is the definition. Another that was shared was using Quizlet or creating a quiz

using paper/pencil. Furthermore, similar to the flashcards, some students prefer sticky notes

to flip up or to play memory with. Again, this is great for the visual and kinesthetic learners. I

look forward to having more discussions centered around strategies that work for us.

Sometimes, students will be assigned a study strategy, and they must complete it for HALF of

their vocabulary words. We talked about choosing the ones that are most unfamiliar to

them. If you prefer they create a strategy for every word, that of course works too!

Mrs. Bernheart’s Buzzworthy ‘Cont.

READING

Students have been working in small reading groups. The focus has been on comprehen-

sion, computers, reader’s response, silent sustained reading, and writing. Jacob’s Ladder is

a William & Mary reading comprehension program we will be using this year. The ladders

are differentiated, and some include, sequencing, details, literary elements, paraphrasing,

cause/effect, classifications, inferences, and summarizing. Students have worked with one

poem and discussed it with Mr. Fisher. Groups also worked on main idea in Schoology, re-

sponded to one of our two read alouds, and created a plan for writing.

The students are presenting their Multiple Intelligence presentations. Most of the students

created a Google Presentation. The students were given a rubric with specific criteria stat-

ed on it as soon as it was assigned. We discussed the rubric together, as we always will!

Overall, the presentations were well done. The presentations were professional and looked

that way, too. They were also informative and helped the students learn about one an-

other’s strengths and challenges. If students lost points it was for not including all of the crite-

ria (adhering to the rubric), GUMS (grammar, usage, mechanics, and spelling) issues, and

sometimes in the presentation area (volume, enthusiasm, eye contact, or speaking clearly).

The expectations were specific—hats off to the students for setting the bar high for them-

selves (and for the rest of the year)!

We have been super busy in reading and will be focusing on elements of a story, elements

of a specific genre—mystery, reading rotations, and our Global Read Aloud.

We have completed chapters one through three in From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E.

Frankweiler. This is a well-written, engaging novel that also involves a mystery. It has led to

unique discussions in our class. It is important that we are all reading the same novel initially,

but doing differentiated activities with it so that we can identify elements of a mystery and

plot. The purpose for reading this novel is to identify the elements of a plot, read a mystery,

and focus on setting. The novel is about a girl named Claudia who knew that she could pull

Mrs. Bernheart’s Buzzworthy ‘Cont.

READING

off that old-fashioned kind of running away. She decides to run not from somewhere but to

somewhere—somewhere large, warm, comfortable, and beautiful. Claudia and her broth-

er, Jamie, end up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (right in the middle of a mystery that

made headlines).

Throughout our unit we will discuss key elements to this particular genre. We will discuss what

a mystery is and characteristics about the genre and characters. We will also discuss the au-

thor’s purpose, a typical setting, and literary terms/elements within. The students will use

what they know to create their own mystery-type read aloud for October 27, 2017. The stu-

dents will use what they’ve learned about mysteries to create a suspenseful one of their

own. In the past, students have enjoyed listening to their classmates’ own writing. I look for-

ward to hearing them!

I was thrilled to announce the Spooky/Suspenseful Mystery writing assignment to your child.

Believe it or not, it really got them excited about writing. I modeled an example using the

Deep Run Schoolhouse with the students. It was probably a bit more humorous than

“scary”. It was difficult for me to write a mystery, as your student can attest to! We discussed

having individual talents. Each child will need to get their mystery approved by me on or

before next Tuesday, October 24th.

To keep in the spirit of writing mysteries, next week I will read from Haunted Richmond: The

Shadows of Shockoe, by Scott Bergman and Sandi Bergman. Although this book has haunt-

ed stories from the city of Richmond, I think it’s a great way to introduce their assignment

since their location must be in Henrico County. The chapter we will first read is titled, “The

Ghost of the Governor’s Mansion”. I’m sure it will spark the students’ interest, so I will likely

read more stories from the book. I tried contacting the authors last year to see if they’d

come in to talk to the class, but never heard back. If you ever know someone, or you are

willing to come in and speak to the class about a topic we are discussing, please let me

know. It’s always tough to get people in in the area of writing!

Mrs. Bernheart’s Buzzworthy ‘Cont.

We would love to have visitors and experts about the various fields we will be studying this

year! As the note sent home said, your child will be graded on clarity, expression, fluency,

one accurate fact, sound effects, and volume. Your child is able to read from their own writ-

ing—they do not need to memorize it unless they wish. Students must choose a location in

Henrico and create a historical fiction poem or short story to go with it, using elements of a

mystery. They must also have one fact about the location in their story, and it must be realis-

tic. Moreover, students should have a minimum of two sound effects, and it should take no

longer than two minutes to read. We’re looking forward to hearing these on October 27th.

Next week, we will start diving into “Stories with Holes”. Nathan Levy is a gifted educator

who started stories with holes. He has developed unique teaching strategies that encour-

age the love of learning through students. He often speaks about thinking critically and cre-

atively. The methodology includes the students asking “yes or no” questions. If the question

is irrelevant, I will answer “does not compute” or “irrelevant”. The students will most likely en-

joy this and get better at asking questions as time goes on. Ask your student to share at least

one story with holes with you next week. This will encourage higher level thinking and also,

not “overthinking”. We will continue this same pattern using History Mysteries next week!

Lastly, during a few mornings, students will begin working on perplexers to go along with our

mystery unit. The biggest obstacle for the students to overcome when completing logic puz-

zles is keeping track of the information given by the clues. The students have all of the possi-

bilities listed for them, but they must cross off the eliminated possibilities as they get them

from the clues. The information then organizes itself! These allow students to integrate logic

into their thinking, and it will transfer into other subject areas, as well. A simple strategy that is

used is process of elimination!

Mrs. Bernheart’s Buzzworthy ‘Cont.

MATH

Students had the opportunity to work on various tasks through the gifted differentiation strat-

egy, Thinking Dots. The students worked on a mathematician, Fermat’s, theories. Ask your

child what tasks he/she completed and what types of critical thinking and problem solving

he/she had to do in order to solve the problem.

I appreciate you signing your child’s Computation Pretest and working with your child at

home if he or she needs extra practice. Throughout last week some students worked on en-

richment activities while others practiced the process of addition, subtraction, multiplication

and dividing multi-digit numbers. I have to say, overall, I am pleased with the students pro-

gress throughout the week. The quizzes showed me that the students do understand the

processes of the four operations. Most errors were careless mistakes. We discussed checking

our work, focusing on each individual step to complete the problem as a whole, and mem-

orizing our facts.

This week, we moved into problem solving using the four operations. We talked about ques-

tions and ideas to consider when working on word problems. They include: What are the

facts? What is the question? What can you eliminate? Choose a strategy and solve. Does

the answer make sense? Moreover, the students have been working on various strategies.

They include, choose an operation, guess and check, draw a picture, make a list, table, or

chart, identify too much or too little, find a pattern, use logical reasoning, and work back-

ward. We went through a flipchart together, and the students worked on problems in class

both independently and in small groups. While going over homework, we played “First, Cor-

rect, No Help”. The class was broken into two teams. One person from each team would

work out a problem on the board while the other students completed it on whiteboards.

The person that was first, answered it correctly, and received no help, earned three points. If

the other person was correct and received no help, they would earn two. This was a great

way to reinforce taught material. As we move

Mrs. Bernheart’s Buzzworthy ‘Cont.

forward, we will continue to use these problem solving strategies. Next, we will work on deci-

mal computation and then order of operations which is both a fifth and sixth grade stand-

ard.

SCIENCE

We have wrapped up the Scientific Method; however, this is something that will be inter-

twined in our curriculum throughout the school year. Most of this should have been a review

from fourth grade. The students have completed one rock cycle crayon lab.

The students are continuing their Super Scientist presentation independently or with a class-

mate. As always, students were given the rubric when it was assigned, and they will begin

sharing soon.

We have begun our Rocks unit. We started by discussing the three main types of rocks and

the rock cycle. The students’ previews and processes, as well as their notes, can be found in

their science interactive notebook. The rock cycle is such an abstract concept, so the stu-

dents worked through the Rock Cycle Crayon Lab in groups of 3-4. Students demonstrated

how sedimentary rocks can change into metamorphic rocks, and those can change into

igneous rocks. We discussed this being one way the rock cycle can work. Essentially, the stu-

dents created sediments by shaving a crayon down, they then compacted and cemented

the sediments together, and created layers with each other’s shavings. Next, students

demonstrated a sedimentary rock changing into a metamorphic rock by exposing it to

heat and pressure (I ironed it, and students recorded observations). Lastly, we created class

rocks by exposing the metamorphic rocks to melting, cooling, and hardening (putting a hair

dryer to it). Ask your child about his/her observations. This was a clear way for students to

see how the rock cycle can work, although they realize this can take hundreds, thousands,

and even millions of years to happen!

Mrs. Bernheart’s Buzzworthy ‘Cont.

LANGUAGE ARTS

We will continue to discuss parts of speech and it will be incorporated in reading, too. As

you know, we started our first portion of word study using the program, Wordly Wise. This pro-

gram is a fantastic way for your child to build his/her vocabulary and use words effectively.

It is challenging, but engaging, yet provides systematic vocabulary instruction and is a criti-

cal link between vocabulary and reading comprehension. Words, parts of speech, defini-

tions, and context sentences are included in each lesson. The students will start recognizing

the words because they are commonly encountered in literature that your child will read.

We’ve already heard a few during our read aloud! Although many of the words are recog-

nizable to begin with, it is using the word in a different part of speech that challenges the

students. We will continue to work on Wordly Wise throughout the year.

The students had a new word study recently, Greek and Latin stems. We started with the

Latin root, “ped”. The class did an excellent job with choosing fitting tasks to complete for

homework. I loved reading the stories, poems, and quirky greeting card messages. We

talked about putting forth effort even when something is not graded. There were many as-

signments that showed effort and were examples of quality work; however, some looked as

if they were trying to finish in less than five minutes. I believe I give a reasonable amount of

homework that shouldn’t be overwhelming, so the students know that I expect the effort to

be evident.

Wow! I am so proud of the students for completing their first R.A.F.T., and they did a job well

done. The students chose a role, audience, format, and topic pertaining to the Latin root,

spec. There were lots of “pencils” in here! The students shared their R.A.F.T. in a small group

of students that completed a similar format. As a class, we agreed that RAFTs really lend

themselves to written expression. We will now practice putting this expression in other types

of writing, as well.

Mrs. Bernheart’s Buzzworthy ‘Cont.

SOCIAL STUDIES

We have completed our Henrico Geography unit. We discussed where the original Henrico

territory was located and what present-day counties and cities have been formed from the

original Henrico shire. The students’ fourth grade Virginia History helped them recall what

the geographic counties/city that border Henrico, the students got into groups and created

a mnemonic device and song to remember them. The students shared them with their

classmates. Unique water features of Henrico County also became a topic of discussion.

Students were put into groups and shared a way to remember the James River, Chicka-

hominy River, Tuckahoe Creek, and Turkey Island Creek. There were some clever ideas! One

of these water features was learned last year and that was helpful.

We will talk about the history of Henrico County. The students’ prior knowledge was activat-

ed when they looked at the similarities and differences between Jamestown and Henricus.

This will also help students write their Spooky Mystery of his/her choice.

TECHNOLOGY

Skyping was the technology piece that we used most recently. Please ask your child what

questions the class asked to figure out where our first collaborators were located (Irvine,

California). I was so proud of how prepared they were for our session.

Mrs. Mangiaracina came in on Thursday to show the students TWO new comic and story

board platforms that we’ll use during small group reading rotations. They learned a lot, and

shared new things they found with classmates.

Have a fantastic weekend,

Mrs. M.C. Bernheart