Language Arts

We have worked on Wordly Wise, Latin roots,

and Word Trek.

The students have learned how to brainstorm,

plan, edit/revise, and write five-paragraph

essays.

Students have been scored on prewriting and

one writing prompt. We will continue to work

on this as the year progresses.

Reading

We have finished From the Mixed-Up Files of

Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. It was very important

to discuss this novel together to have continu-

ity in the plot diagram/elements of a story.

We continue our two read alouds, Fish in a

Tree and Amal Unbound.

We will continue working through Literacy

Menus with Must-Dos and May-Dos during our

reading time.

Social Studies

We continue our Henrico History unit.

The students have activated prior knowledge

during social studies and have compared

and contrasted Henricus and Jamestown.

Science

Students created the model of the earth us-

ing the supplies you sent in. We also explored

the boundaries, too. Thank you! We have

completed our Rocks unit.

We’ve started our Oceans unit by discussing

what makes up the ocean floor.

REMINDERS:

12/4: Hour of Code

12/18: Author Visit (1:45-

2:20pm)

12/19: Jingle Bell Jam

(9:00-10:00am)

12/19: Winter Party —

Thank you for returning the

food permission and for

signing up to volunteer via

MSA. :)

12/20-1/2: Happy Break!

QUICK UPDATES: WHAT HAVE WE BEEN UP TO?

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

Dear Parents:

I hope that you enjoyed your Thanksgiving and time with family. I’m so fortunate to stay in

touch with you via email, Class Dojo, newsletters, the blog, and more. I was happy to meet

with so many families during conferences, and if we didn’t meet that day, a folder was sent

home with your child this week.

Papers from the first nine weeks were sent home with your child last week. Furthermore, pa-

pers throughout the nine weeks have been sent home, so you were already aware of your

child’s whereabouts. ;) Folders were given out at conferences or sent home with your child.

Since they are only fifteen minutes long, I would like to take this opportunity to tell you what

is in the folder and the purpose of it being in there. Of course, your child’s grades were in

the folder. As you and I both know, this is only part of the process. Now that we have been

together for nine whole weeks, I better understand how your child learns, just as they have

gotten accustomed to my teaching style. “Strong Student Characteristics” were included;

your child also has this in his/her binder. This is something that is incorporated into our class-

room, and it was talked about explicitly. There are posters hanging in the classroom for your

child to see the terms posted daily. The characteristics include inquirers, knowledgeable,

thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced, and reflec-

tive. Each student has strengths and challenges/opportunities in the overall areas. These are

characteristics that we will be focusing on throughout the year. These are also important to

the International Baccalaureate Program at Moody Middle School. Being reflective is an ar-

ea that I think is so valuable to these students.

Mrs. Bernheart’s Buzzworthy ‘Cont.

The students took a self-reflective assessment on these ten characteristics. This will give you

an idea of where your child is excelling, as well as areas in which your child can show

growth this year and beyond. I will give this same assessment to the students later on in the

year so that we can compare. “Strategies for Success” is a short document that I put to-

gether as quick tips for studying at home. Organization is key to being successful. It is impos-

sible for your child to study something that they cannot find or that they left at school. I ap-

preciate your help in keeping them organized, as well as holding them accountable. This

also discusses studying in shorter, more frequent sessions, rather than all in one night. I an-

nounce quizzes and tests well in advance for your child to include studying in their schedule.

The students are also expected to participate in class and try study strategies that we’ve

discussed in class. At this point in your child’s educational career, they may already have a

great strategy, but some may still be working on finding the perfect one.

As you are well aware, your child worked with his/her Multiple Intelligence strengths and

challenges last year, and I have purposefully made that a focal point for this year. The con-

tinuity should help your child be successful inside and outside of the classroom. A letter is in-

cluded if you would like to see your strengths and challenges! Two of the assessments we

took online earlier this year are on that sheet. “Studying Tips Based on Multiple Intelligences”

was put in the folder for your child’s use. I have also posted these on my blog for easy ac-

cess. Have your child try some in his/her highest area. I would love to hear if these are bene-

ficial. I put “Studying Tips for Different Learning Styles” in the folder as well. These are tailored

towards the visual, auditory, and/or kinesthetic learners. Next, we will discuss Bloom’s Taxon-

omy later in the year, but your child should remember these questioning techniques from

last year. These are divided into three domains: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. We

will focus on the cognitive domains which include remembering, understanding, applying,

analyzing, evaluating, and creating. These are different levels of questioning, and your child

will be exposed to all off the different types. Many think that the “bottom” of Bloom’s is the

“easiest”; however, it really depends on the child. In my opinion, applying and analyzing

are the most challenging for these students. Practice the different question stems at home

with your child in conversation or while studying.

Mrs. Bernheart’s Buzzworthy ‘Cont.

Henrico County has put together a “Learner Profile” including skills and attributes that your

child will be focusing on throughout his/her time in the county. I included ways that we use

each of these “C’s” in room 307 on that particular sheet. The “C’s” include quality charac-

ter and global citizenship. We’re also working on being collaborators, communicators, crea-

tive thinkers, and critical thinkers. Short Pump is focusing on quality character this year. That

is so easy to do in elementary school, and we were already doing it! :) We focus on that in

our classroom by utilizing the weekly “Keep the Quote”, and the school focuses on this

through the ROCKstar program. Moreover, as you know, I like professional articles on gifted

students/gifted education. http://www.sengifted.org/ is an excellent website where I got

the Risk Taking vs. Risk Making article included in your folder. Risk-taking is often difficult for

gifted students, and I will be pushing your child this year to take responsible risks they may

not do on their own. I also try to model this behavior. For instance, I will openly discuss my

weaknesses and sometimes even demonstrate (examples: writing a mystery, singing). Your

child probably does a little bit of risk-making, and I will encourage him/her to continue to do

so. Lastly, at the end of each nine weeks, your child will self-assess and create goals. Please

look at their own assessment of their learning for the first nine weeks. Can you believe that

your child only has three more nine weeks in elementary school? Me either! I look forward to

making it a successful and memorable one. Thank you for your continued support.

It was great to see so many of you at the Veterans’ Day program. Although fifth grade did

not perform this year, they have been working hard in chorus each week. Remember, your

child will take chorus the entire year in fifth grade. They will also put on the Winter Show after

the January PTA Meeting. This is always a school favorite; we hope to see you there!

Ms. Walker administered the Moody Writing Prompt on Friday, November 30th in the cafete-

ria. The students seemed enthusiastic coming back into the room after they were finished. I

am sure you discussed this with your child. I appreciate you preparing them at home. The

students that were not involved in the prompt helped pass out graded papers and organize

(seriously—a big help). The students also explored and became an expert in at least ONE

computer program.

Mrs. Bernheart’s Buzzworthy ‘Cont.

READING

Wow! I was so excited to hear all of the spooky/suspenseful mystery read alouds. The stu-

dents enjoyed listening to one another’s work. After each student read, their classmates

gave them commendations—specific, positive feedback. The students also gave recom-

mendations on what the student can work on for the next time we do this sort of task. Some

students even had questions about the mysteries that were written, in that case, the author

responded. The students were scored on clarity, expression, fluency, one accurate fact, two

sound effects, and volume. I told the students, overall, they did a fabulous job writing their

mysteries and speaking loudly. As a whole, they need to work on being more expressive, as

well as reading fluently. We will continue to work on both of these in class.

We have finished From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. This was a novel that en-

couraged your child to want to keep reading and crack the mystery. We have, and will still

have, meaningful conversations pertaining to the novel. We took this novel slow because it

was our first one; however, in the future, your child will be expected to read more in a shorter

amount of time. I will also introduce a problem based learning project that not only relates to

this novel, but also to our history. The problem will be: How do we share what we know about

Henrico County with other students/parents? The students will research different types of mu-

seums. You will hear more as we get started soon.

We continue to read our class read aloud, Amal Unbound. As you know, this is through the

Global Read Aloud program. We have been focusing on making predictions, inferring, and

drawing conclusions. Also, we have had great discussions. This is a fiction novel that really

gets the students thinking. They collaborate together on questions I pose, and we discuss

them as a class. The cover of the novel has Amal’s hands on it. We have discussed the sym-

bolism, and your child has been working hard on writing about what his/her own hands

would look like. I look forward to reading all of these!

The students have been working in small groups during reading completing tasks in compre-

hension, computers, word study and vocabulary, writing, and a particular skill. We have also

completed our fall Fountas and Pinnell testing and students are grouped accordingly.

Mrs. Bernheart’s Buzzworthy ‘Cont.

LANGUAGE ARTS

The students have completed several weeks of word study using Wordly Wise. The students

know what is expected of them, and I am proud of their ability to use a certain word in

(often) an unusual part of speech and use the correct meaning. Then, students worked

through three weeks of Latin roots, including “ped”, “man/manu”, and “spec”. The connec-

tion between the words each week has to do with the root. Next, students have completed

two weeks of Word Trek which involves Latin and Greek roots and word etymology. Students

will complete another week before moving back to Wordly Wise after Winter Break. Overall,

the class likes to rotate as each program is unique.

In writing, students are expected to brainstorm, plan their writing, and restate key words

from the prompt into their introductory and conclusion paragraphs. Before Thanksgiving, the

students were given a writing prompt to complete in 90 minutes (simulating the Moody one;

however, they were allowed to take more than this if needed). The students were expected

to (again) brainstorm, plan, write a rough draft, edit/revise, write a final copy, and go back

and check their work. They were able to use a dictionary as a resource. They were given

two choices and had to pick one. The 4th/5th grade HCPS Writing Rubric was used to score

the papers. The students also focused on organization, sentence structure, grammar and

spelling, and clarity of thoughts and ideas. Students also completed another writing prompt

this week focusing on my feedback and personal goals from the first prompt.

SOCIAL STUDIES

We have completed our studies of Henrico’s geography and lots of the history. The students

have worked hard to connect the curriculum to fourth grade Virginia studies.

I have enjoyed hearing about the various places the students have been around the coun-

ty. Please make sure that all Henrico Passports are turned in when students return from Win-

ter Break. This extra credit grade will be put in the second nine weeks social studies grade.

Mrs. Bernheart’s Buzzworthy ‘Cont.

SCIENCE

Our rocks unit has wrapped up. The students are now able to identify rock types and explain

the rock cycle. Moreover, the students learned about our Earth’s history, as well as fossil evi-

dence. Ask your child about the basic structure of our Earth’s interior. What about plate tec-

tonics and the different boundaries? Lastly, your child learned about weathering, erosion,

deposition, and how human’s impact our earth’s surface, both good and bad.

A design challenge was given to students to complete using four materials (a marshmallow,

fireball, cocoa powder, and gum). Each student had to justify why he/she chose the materi-

al for each layer of the earth.

The students also used graham crackers and frosting to simulate Earth’s boundaries—

convergent, divergent, and transform.

This week, we started learning about Earth’s oceans. We discussed the ocean floor and

learned about its different geological features. The students completed a Nearpod to en-

hance his/her knowledge of the ocean floor. Students will also create a model using Tinker-

cad, and some may be chosen to be printed using the 3D printer. Next week, we’ll focus on

the different motions, or physical characteristics of the oceans—including waves, tides, and

currents. Lastly, we will talk about the ecological features of our oceans.

Oceans can easily be connected to our rocks unit, so it is nice that they are back to back!

TECHNOLOGY

Mrs. Mangiaracina (our Innovative Learning Coach) will be visiting us the next two weeks to

work on new skills. Students will use Google drawing to create a diagram of the ocean floor.

He/she will also do this using the program Tinkercad. The students have loved using the

Chromebooks, and we’re all excited to get those NEXT WEEK!

Buzzworthy ‘Cont.

MATH

Since working with whole number and decimal computation and problem solving, students

have learned about order of operations. The students worked with all types of order of opera-

tions problems using higher level thinking. They learned PEMDAS and heard several different

songs reiterating the importance of the order. We worked with exponents, as well, which is a

sixth grade standard. Many of the students were challenged and intrigued by the order of op-

erations and liked the process.

Before Thanksgiving, each student created his/her own tessellating pattern. Students will cre-

ate a tessellation using basic criteria that has been shared with them via Google drive.

They’re doing a FABULOUS job! These are always a hit and end up so beautiful!

This week, we worked on probability. The students are able to say, I can…

Explain what a sample space is and how it is used.

Construct a sample space using a tree diagram to identify all possible outcomes.

Construct a sample space using a list or chart to identify all possible outcomes.

Predict and determine the probability of an outcome using the sample space.

Determine the number of possible outcomes by using the Fundamental Counting Principle.

Have a great weekend,

Mrs. M.C.

Bernheart