Student-Led Conferences

Klipfel & Kids' second year of student-led conferences is complete and WOW am I one impressed and proud teacher!

In order to make our student-led conferences even possible students and teachers have been hard at work preparing. We started with a reflection and 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. Students then selected work samples they were proud of and others that represented the challenge they have overcome. Students and teachers 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. Ms. Brown's class and our homeroom became each others "parents" so everyone 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 conferences and share their learning. Even with a few slight nerves, students absolutely rocked their conferences. Students were so proud of their work and parents were 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! I am looking forward to our second round of student-led conferences in the spring.

Disney Day

Today Howe-Manning 4th graders got to experience one magical day! In honor of Mickey Mouse's 91st 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 Kylo Ren (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 Ms. Shypula in Fantasyland students used the perspective of a Disney character to write a thankful letter to another character. They also got to plan and design a Thanksgiving feast for their chosen invited guests. My guess is Ariel is bringing fish sticks!

With Mickey Mouse (aka Miss Klipfel) students practiced their geography skills. For Mickey's birthday, Minnie Mouse planned him a spectacular trip around the Northeast Region of the United States. Students used iPads to scan QR codes which led them to letters from Minnie and clues for where she was taking Mickey on their trip.

In Adventureland with Ms. Brown students put their mathematical skills to the test. Mickey's grandmother was sick so she was unable to birthday shop for him. She gave students $250 to help her do the shopping. Students had to round prices and try to spend ALL of her money. Looks like Mickey is getting some wonderful birthday presents.

Minnie Mouse (aka Mrs. Weeks) exposed students to the many frontiers she has encountered in Cinderella's books from all around the world. Students listened to stories and then practiced with plot to figure out the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Students then worked in groups to compare their stories from around the world.

A special thanks to Miss Mountain our blog-tographer for our blog post pictures. Until tomorrow 4th graders, we might not be at Disney but it is sure to be magical. 

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: Know and apply map and globe skills.

Frontierland: 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.A.3Use place value understanding to round multi-digit whole numbers to any place.

Spy Lab

4th graders arrived at school today to discover some shocking news...Mango, Bogey (Ms. Shypula's mascot), and Monday (Mrs. Weeks mascot) were missing! We met at headquarters to get our briefing from Agent Bryson 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 to discover that our suspect took Mango and friends to the book room.

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 Shypula 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 cheerful, intelligent, helpful, and caring. 

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 has been lonely eating lunch at his new job 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. Drouin had stolen our mascots and hid them so he would no longer had to eat lunch alone. 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!

Reader's Workshop

Reader's Workshop is well underway in 4th grade. We have been practicing REAL reading (no fake reading here) with STAMINA. We've been enjoying read alouds together, are deep in book club work and even enjoyed some flashlight Fridays. 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 whet 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? We are well on our way with our love of reading!

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.  

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.

After we swabbed the deck, 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. x mared the spot!

Yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for us!

Friend Request Accepted

I am happy to report that all of us in fourth grade are having a fabulous time and have made many new friends. Here's a quick glimpse into our first few days...

4th graders are becoming experts with flexible seating, the ins and outs of our classroom, Google Drive (ask them I bet they could teach you a thing or two), and Google Classroom.

Two days down and many more learning adventures ahead. Thanks for following us at Klipfel & Kids.

Klipfel & Kids
August 2019

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. This year we have gone flexible with our seating and have so many new and comfy spots to sit. 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.

We can't thank those of you that purchased items from our wishlist enough! THANK YOU, THANK  YOU, THANK YOU! We are truly and greatly appreciative of your willingness to help turn room 216 into a home. Our classroom couldn't look this amazing without you. 

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!

Summer Adventures

Old friends and new friends, add a post or picture with your summer adventures. I look forward to seeing your days at the beach, reading by the pool and flights to adventurous places. If you are having trouble adding a post or picture, email it to me at jklipfel@middletonps.org and I will add it for you. Happy summer days!

Goodbye Friends

Dear Fourth Grade Families,

Fourth grade sure was easy!

It's finally here-summer! Today, I give you back the same child from the fall a few inches taller, a few months wiser, and much more mature. Although this growth would have happened anyway, it has been my pleasure to watch them develop every day. I am overwhelmingly proud of each and every one of them.

One last thank you to all the boys and girls for their continuous hard work this school year. Thank you also to the parents, grandparents, and relatives for all your support and encouragement from home, as well as, all our faithful blog followers. We loved all the times you visited our classroom as guests, volunteers or helpers.

Enjoy your days at the beach and nights by the BBQ. Don't forget to post your summer adventures on our summer padlet or send me an email jklipfel@middletonps.org with what you are up. I love nothing more than getting notes and postcards too! This summer, encourage your student to join the library's summer reading program. Trips to the library on those rainy days can be a great way to spend time-you might just see me there. Don't forget, our blog and Symbaloo are always there with great links to learning. Your children love to learn – they'll surprise you.

We have truly lived, loved, laughed, and learned together this year. I wish it could continue but each and every one of you is ready for next year. Remember, I will always be interested in your child's future, wherever they go, whatever they do. Their joys and sorrows I will always be happy to share, so please make sure to keep me in the loop for many years to come. Until we meet again!

Love always,
Miss Klipfel

Hello 4th graders                                                               Goodbye my good friends

Field Day

Having Fun at Field Day!!!

At the first station we started with tug-of-war! Of course, we all loved it! That station was also the dress up race. We had to race with a towel around our necks, beach donut on our waist and sunglasses on our eyes while wearing a yellow shirt and running an obstacle course. Next, we had a station named the relay race station,we raced with beach balls in between our legs and we raced on bounce balls. Next we played the bean bag game, we had to throw the bean bag at the hole and try to get points if we made it in. Then we want to the food station we got slushies, popcorn and water. After we did a sponge game who could dump the most water in a bucket with a sponge in one minute. Then our last station was the obstacles we did an obstacle course it was a really fun station to end off field day with. We had a lot of fun!!!!

Written by Guest Bloggers: Roland & Chase

 

Comic-Con 2019

In reading we did so many SUPER fun things that related to our upcoming Comic-Con like read aloud, book club groups, reading comic books, and learning about superheros. Our book club books were awesome, we read Melvin Beederman Superhero: The Curse of the Bologna Sandwich, Powerless, My Brother is a Superhero and Public School Superhero. The books were AMAZING!! We had groups and we read all types of comic books like Batman, Superman, Robin and lots more. We were begging to keep reading our books! We also did poems that were superhero themed. In reading we learned so much to help us with our comic books.

In writing we did a long process to make our comic books be WOWED! First we watched a movie called Sky High. While we watched the movie we took notes down on our papers such as words they use, names they have, powers, and anything thing else to help us brainstorm. Then we got a blank piece of paper and drew our villains and heroes plus did a sheet about their alter ego, age, job etc… When we were done with that we got a packet to work on the plot. We drafted and then moved onto our final Comic-Con book! We did good illustrations for that and when we finished making all the speech bubbles and illustrations we colored the pictures. We did a lot of extra stuff like a nameplate, scratch, and if we finished we could do a clay model of our superhero.

Before Comic-Con Mr. Husson's class came in and they taught us how to animate a scene in our real comic books through coding. We used a program called Scratch. It was so fun! We each got a partner from Mr. Husson's class and we went through a tutorial with Mr. Husson and then he would give us some time and the partners that we got could help us and if anyone had a question they could ask their partners and if their partners didn't know then they could ask one of the teachers. We had so much fun sharing our Scratch projects.

When it came time for the actual Comic-Con, We all got into our costumes dressing like our Superheroes at about 1:00 (30 mins before we had to go into the gym.) When we were all dressed we put all of our Comic-Con stuff in the gym then we helped put all of the pictures that people drew up on the walls. As people were coming by to see our comics a teacher came by and gave us a break and we took pictures in the booths. We made speeches for when the parents came by. After the parents read our comics they left us comments. It really was all AMAZINGLY SUPER!

Written by Guest Bloggers Anna, Victoria & Sophie

Amazing Race

In Social Studies we are working in groups of three and pretending we are competing on the show The Amazing Race. On the show, there are about 6 teams and they race for a million dollars. This race is not normal you travel all around the country and some things you do are crazy hard! But our Amazing race is different in our classroom, we don’t race for a million dollars. Well, I wish! Also, we don’t really go to different states but it seems so real!

Just like on the Amazing Race we have to complete Route Info clues to send us to different states. We have to complete detours which give us a choice of which activity to complete and we have roadblocks. Once we figure out which state we need to "travel" to, we add it to our Google Tour Builder which makes us feel like we are really there. We have been completing this race across the Western Region of the United States.

So far my favorite thing we did was the song. During our stop in Colorado, you could choose to answer questions or make your own song about the mining location we were in. We picked make your own song so we could be creative. I also loved Colorado because it was so fun to make the Colorado flag and the meaning behind it. Check our song out here:

My favorite part so far was the hula dancing, it was so fun to learn how to hula dance, from real Hawaiians. We got to hula dance with the Moana theme song! Other groups choose to make a Hawaiian lei and then we all did the limbo like we were at a luau. It really felt like we were in Hawaii!

My favorite stop was Wyoming. I liked Wyoming because I got to learn about the Lewis and Clark trail. I learned that on the way they ran out of food and ate their horses!! Another favorite stop so far was Alaska because where we learned that the Iditarod Race starts in Alaska. We even pretended to cruise out of Alaska to Hawaii.

At one point of the race we even make Flip Grids with our teams, because on the show they do interviews of all the teams, it is so fun to show everybody how everyone's teams were doing! But we can't forget the best part...jumping on the finish mat at the end of every leg.

Every member of the team had to be there in order for Miss Klipfel to check us in. She even greeted us and helped us feel like we were in that state. So far in the Amazing Race we have learned that we have to work together to get through one leg. You really have to work as a team!

Written by Guest Bloggers: Anna, Victoria, & Cait