Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays from all of us in 4th grade! Thank you for all the adorable Holiday cards and generous gifts. Have a wonderful relaxing week with your children. Please enjoy our Holiday songs!

Winter Wonderland performed by Miss Klipfel's Homeroom: 

Frosty the Snowman Performed by Mr. Husson's Homeroom:

Klipfel and Kids will see you next year!

Grinch Day

4th graders had an idea, an awful idea, a wonderful awful idea...Grinch Day! In preparation for Grinch Day all the Whos down in Who-Manning, the tall and the small, have been counting down the days and performing kindness tasks for classmates and our school community. 

To begin our day, 4th grade gathered in Who-Manning and enjoyed the story How the Grinch Stole Christmas along with a holiday sing-along led by the talented Mr. O!

Each 4th-grade class then chose out of our holiday hat and selected a Middleton Community Group which included the Police Department, Fire Department, Flint Public Library, Senior Center and our very own Howe-Manning Custodians/Lunch aides. In ELA each class made their own Grinch cards of kindness with pictures and kind messages to help grow others' hearts.

Our classes made cards for the Middleton Police Department and the Middleton Fire Department. Thank you to Drew and Mrs. Arsenault for delivering our cards and spreading holiday cheer!

Grinch Day wasn't complete right there. 4th graders also drove the Grinch Mobile around Howe-Manning to deliver green treats to the staff along with a note of kindness. It was a gentle reminder to both students and staff to not be a Grinch this holiday season as you never know when a kind act will make someone else's day.  

With all these kind deeds complete, it's easy to say that our 4th grader's hearts grew a few sizes this month (it also helped grow their teachers' hearts too). 

Merry Grinchmas!

Student-Led Conferences

This year Klipfel & Kids piloted student-led conferences and WOW am I one impressed teacher!

In order to make our student-led conferences even possible students and teachers have been hard at work preparing. Our first days back after Thanksgiving break were spent 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 completed this not only for each subject matter but also in our competency areas. We made a chart and brainstormed together to get our juices flowing.

After we had a lot of different ideas on our charts, we were ready to begin working on our own digital portfolios. Using Google Classroom each student had an individual copy of their digital portfolio to complete. Slides included areas for students to fill in where they glow and need to grow, space to reflect on specialist classes along with our Howe-Manning core values and four focus competency areas. Students then selected their most rewarding work sample and their most challenging work sample along with other work samples they wanted to share during their conference. Students and teachers then conferenced and developed two specific measurable goals for the next term. This was by far the most rewarding part for myself and students as we had agreed upon language and clear goals moving forward.

Once our portfolios were complete it was time to practice. Mrs. Deeley's class so kindly agreed to be our "parents" so we could practice presenting. We of course also had to practice with the clicker and laser pointer (which was a major highlight for students).

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 parents should be nothing but impressed with their skills. As I sat through conferences I was beyond impressed with everything students have learned and shared during our first trimester (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 parents for supporting your child as they SHINED during their first student-led conference! Also, a huge thank you for all your feedback as we tried this out together for the first time. I am looking forward to our second round of student-led conferences in the spring.

Collaborative 4th Grade Writing

As part of our magical Disney Day, 4th graders across classrooms collaborated to publish five different fantasy tales. Mrs. Deeley's class got the story started by collaborating in groups to write the exposition. They were in charge of describing the setting and developing the characters (traits and appearance). Mrs. Church's class was up next to write the rising actions and climax. They crafted a dilemma for the characters Mrs. Deeley's class came up with.

Mr. Husson's writers crafted the falling actions and resolution, some of which ended happily ever after (and some not so much). The illustrators of Mrs. Week's class visited the maker space to create digital illustrations. Finally, to put it all together, our class had the VERY important editor job. Check out our five published tales below:

The Galaxy Twins: PDF
ePub

The Opposite Fluffy Side: PDF
ePub

Magical Place: PDF
ePub

Princess Twizzler: PDF
ePub

The Under World Problem: PDF
ePub 

Click on PDF to view on a computer and ePub to download to your digital library at home. Happy reading!

W 4.6 With some guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

Disney Day

Today Howe-Manning 4th graders got to experience one magical day! In honor of Mickey Mouse's 90th birthday, we all headed to Disney (Disney Middleton that is). Students traveled around Disney's magical lands, meeting different characters and reviewing skills across the subject areas.

While visiting Tomorrowland with Mickey Mouse (aka Mr. Husson) students designed a Disney ride of the future. Using their science knowledge especially everything they have been learning about energy students used lego kits to motorize and build their ride. 

With Belle (aka Mrs. Deeley) in Fantasyland students completed STEAM challenges. Using a variety of supplies, students created a book holder for Belle and her beloved books. They also worked together to create a rose holder to protect the enchanted rose. 

When Sleeping Beauty (aka Miss Klipfel) wasn't sleeping, she was working with students to complete a shared writing activity. The whole 4th grade used digital tools to collaborate and create five different fairy tale stories. The first class wrote the expositions, second class the rising actions with the climax, and the third wrote the falling actions along with the resolutions. Afterward, the final two classes completed the illustrations, editing, and recordings. Finished products coming soon! 

Cinderella (aka Mrs. Weeks) exposed students to the many frontiers she has encountered in her books from all around the world. Students compared and contrasted these stories from different cultures. 

With bravery on their minds and in their hearts, students visited Merida (aka Mrs. Church) to complete a variety of math adventures. Students worked on their multiplication and division fluency while revealing different Disney characters.

Until tomorrow 4th graders, we might not be at Disney but it is sure to be magical. Also, make sure to check back for the next post with our published writing.

All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.

-Walt Disney

Focus Standards:

Tomorrowland: Energy-Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another.
Fantasyland: Engineering Design-Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
Magic Kingdom: W 4.6 With some guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others.
Fronteirland: RL 4.9 Compare and contrast the treatment of similar themes and topics (e.g., opposition of good and evil) and patterns of events (e.g., the quest) in stories from different cultures.
Adventureland: NBT B. 6 Find whole-number quotients and remainders with up to four-digit dividends and one-digit divisors, using strategies based on place value, the properties of operations, and/or the relationship between multiplication and division.

Spy Lab

4th graders arrived at school today to discover some shocking news...Mango, Morty (Mrs. Deeley's mascot), and Monday (Mrs. Weeks mascot) were missing! We met at headquarters to get our briefing from Agent Sforz and get caught up to speed. Check it out here:

Quickly, 4th graders were transformed into spies and ready to use their fictional story element knowledge in order to gather clues and uncover the secret information. We started in the setting spy lab in order to determine WHERE our mascots went. Spies were given clues, which required the use of a magnifying glass, to find different settings. Once spies discovered the hidden black light numbers they were able to crack the code and open the confidential briefcase to discover that our suspect took Mango and friends to the playground. In the afternoon the suspect caught onto us and we found our friends in a secret back corridor.  

Next, we headed to the character trait spy lab. Agents needed to read passages and answer questions to crack the secret number code. Once they determined the correct numbers they headed to Agent Deeley to get their next clue. With a seemingly blank card in hand, secret agents were able to use their spy black lights to learn that the suspect is kind, a Celtics lover, clean, and neat. 

Finally, we put all our knowledge of the suspect's character traits and the setting together in our final plot spy lab room. With three QR codes in hand, agents scanned to reveal different Pixar shorts. Once they watched the shorts they determined the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Correctly filled in plot diagrams granted them access to a number. With three numbers in hand students unscrambled them to open the briefcase and discover the confidential information. They learned the suspect is very lonely while working at Howe-Manning school and decided to hide our friend to keep for themselves. 

It didn't take long for spies to put all the pieces together and learn that Mr. Vinnie had stolen our mascots and hid them so he would no longer have to work alone at night. To read the full plot click here. 

Secret agents safely rescued our beloved friends. Just another day in the life of a 4th-grade spy. 

Case closed!

Pen Pals

A very special part of being in our 4th grade literacy classroom is having a penpal! This school year, Mrs. Kelleher's 4th graders in Topsfield, MA, and my homeroom class will get to know each other through letters. Mrs. Highgas and Mrs. Maxwell's 4th graders will be pen pals with my afternoon literacy class (Mr. Husson's homeroom). Topsfield teachers and I are excited to bring penpal letters to our classrooms as a way to connect our Tri-Town schools. In a few years these groups of 4th graders will be at MASCO together. We were the first to send off letters introducing ourselves to our penpals.

Our letters were finally signed, sealed and ready to deliver today. We walked them down to the mailboxes and off they went.

We will be anxiously checking the mail and waiting to hear back. There is still something to be said about the good old fashioned snail mail.

Open House

Klipfel & Kids normally looks like this...

Klipfel & Kid in the morning                                                       Klipfel & Kids in the afternoon

Tonight, Klipfel & Kids looked like this...

Klipfel & Kids at night

It was a pleasure meeting all of you at Open House. The boys and girls will love seeing your picture and reading your notes. Oh and of course they will love that you helped earn them some Klipfel Kash. Thank you for your continual support from home during this school year. I look forward to seeing you again soon!

Pirate Day

Ahoy me 4th grade mateys! Avast, pirate day went off without a hook. Me mateys began our day in the briny deep pod as one giant crew. We read Pirate Pete Talk Like a Pirate to get in the spirit of the day and enjoyed some pirate humor. After we swabbed the deck, we headed for bus evacuation where we all had to "walk the plank". To continue with our geography study we made classroom treasure maps. x marks the spot!

Blimey! Incoming cannons! After lunch, we took on a STEAM challenge. We worked in crews to make our own Jolly Rogers (out of tin foil) and see how many cannonballs (marbles) they could withstand.

Me hearties battened down their ships for one giant game of 4th grade battleship. What better way to practice our longitude and latitude skills than trying to sink pirate ships with a human size grid? No hornswaggling here! Navigation teams, first mates and deckhands all worked hard to try and win the booty.

Yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for us! 

Reader's Workshop

Reader's Workshop is well underway in 4th grade. We have been practicing REAL reading (no fake reading here) with STAMINA. Let's just say, I am one impressed and proud teacher! Not to mention there are tons of comfy spots to stick our noses in our books.

We kicked off our first genre study on fiction with a delectable book tasting. Reservations were made and Klipfel Cafe was packed. 

Students were exposed to a wide range of fiction texts. They wet their appetites with historical fiction, realistic fiction, fantasy, science fiction, adventure, and even mystery books. I loved hearing students hunt for these books in our classroom library, school library, and even Flint Public Library. 

Wait, did I mention our noses in books? If you don't believe me, check it out for yourself:

We are well on our way with our love of reading!

1st Day

Today marks the first of many happy days in 4th grade. Time sure does fly when you're having fun. I guess the smiling faces, excitement and lasting summer tans of all the 4th graders only helped. I loved hearing about your summer adventures and look forward to many more shared stories this school year. Klipfel & Kids is your one-stop spot into virtual room 216. Take our hand and let us take you on a tour...

Check out the library area, browse the shelves, pick out a favorite story and snuggle up.

Make sure to enter your email on the right sidebar to receive email updates about our adventures. We also love to receive comments on our blog throughout the school year!