Unknown Planet

Written by Guest Bloggers: Anabella & Tessa

We are so excited to share our latest book project we did with our partner class in England. We first had to get ready to make all of our books and that’s called brainstorming. The first step of brainstorming is teamwork, meaning that we have to work together and tell each other what parts we are doing like the opening, rising action, climax (which they call dilemma), falling action, and the ending. We did this with our friends in England so we had to really work together as a team.

Once we knew who was writing each part we had a shared Google slide deck to do our writing. Then we had many Google Meets to do our editing. While we were editing we really worked hard together to make our writing even stronger. We really learned a lot from each other. After we were done writing and editing it was time to Illustrate. That meant we had to decorate our books with drawings, colors, and textures with the tools in Book Creator. Our England friends were new to Book Creator so we had to do teamwork again so they knew how to use it.

When we all finished our projects we shared them all together over a Google Meet. We are so excited to show you our finished published books! Make sure to check them out.

Click here to check out our published books

Student-led Conferences

Another round of student-led conferences and another year of one impressed teacher! WOW! We always start by spending time reflecting. We asked ourselves what's been going well? What have the challenges been? What have we learned and where have our strengths been?  We made a chart and brainstormed together to get our juices flowing. After we were ready to begin our own digital portfolios. We filled them with glow and grow areas, showed work samples, and even set two specific measurable goals for the rest of the year. This was by far the most rewarding part for students and me as we had agreed upon language and clear goals moving forward. 

Finally, students were ready to lead their conference and share their learning. Even with a few slight nerves, students absolutely rocked their conferences. Students were so proud of their work and adults from home were nothing but impressed. As I sat through conferences I was beyond impressed with everything students have learned and shared (and I was there every day with them!) not to mention their ability to speak and present so clearly. Thank you to all students and adults from home for supporting your child as they SHINED during their student-led conference! 

Klipper Bowl VI

Are you ready for some fffooooootball? 4th graders were geared up and ready to go for the sixth annual Klipper Bowl. Teams were introduced while blasting their team chosen song, then we completed warm-up stretches, huddled up for last minute strategies, and then stood for the national anthem. Next up was our coin toss for kickoff return placement. Lucky teams who guessed the coin toss correctly had a 20-yard kickoff return while others started on the 10-yard line. Using perseverance and grit, teams quickly caught up.

Teams then ran "plays" from their playbook to gain yardage on the field. "Plays" included using different forms of texts (articles, media, poems, etc.) and completing activities. Players learned about who invented football and completed a comprehension activity worth 50 yards. Teams read a Wonderoplois article explaining what makes the Super Bowl so super and then completed a Google form for 30 yards. Teams could choose to run a play and apply all their figurative language knowledge to create football similes, metaphors, alliterations, personifications, and onomatopoeias.

The plays worth the most yards involved correctly placing team logos for all the Southeast region teams (yes, we have been learning all about the Southeast in Social Studies). Other plays included reading a passage about Tom Brady, learning about the history of the Super Bowl, placing fraction footballs on the correct place on the field, and reading a football poem to determine the mood and purpose all for different amounts of yards.

Once teams correctly completed a play, they brought it to Referee Klipfel for the final check and to advance on the field. After gaining enough yardage to make it down the field, teams scored a touchdown! Complete with touchdown dances! Teams then got to throw for point conversions. Team cooperation and good sportsmanship earned extra yards or kicks for points at ANY time throughout the game. "Good job", "keep working hard", and other forms of encouragement were heard around the field all day. No yellow flags needed to be thrown.

Referee Klipfel and teams had one SUPER day! Klipper Bowl VI is complete so now onto baseball season.

360 Patagoina

Written by guest blogger: Ava

Last week Miss Klipfel took us to Patagonia. No, it didn’t take us three flights to get there, she let everyone use the VR headset to see 360 pictures. We really felt like we were in Patagonia. We got to try 3 times to see 3 different pictures and three different locations. The first picture was of the National Geographic Explorer! The National Geographic Explorer is a big ship that holds many people. You would think it may be small but no it is giant! This ship is the spot that Miss Klipfel basically lived on for the 2 weeks she was gone. The ship also brought her to the spots she needed to be like Karakinka National Park, Tierra del Fuego, and the Chilean fjords. Miss Klipfel had told us that there were many rooms on the ship. There was even a library!

The second picture was of Karakinka National Park and we got to see a few Elephant Seals! The last picture was of a glacier! When you put on the headset it was almost like you were in Patagonia with Miss Klipfel. You could walk in a circle and see every angle of the picture. You can check out the pictures below. Which one would be your favorite? Mine is probably Karakinka National Park because the elephant seals were really cute. The elephant seals were brown and just lying there on the ground. Check out the pictures.