Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays from all of us in 4th grade! Thank you for all the well wishes and generous gifts. Have a wonderful relaxing vacation. To end our December, we've been working on imaginative narratives and all the writing techniques to bring our stories to life. Click to read our Stuck in a Snowglobe stories. Klipfel & Kids will see you next year.

Happy Birthday Mickey!

Written by Monkey Business Employees: Ava v M & Brielle & Vanessa

We started off the morning by saying Happy 92nd Birthday to Mickey. We all knew that we had a fun day ahead of us. Before we got started we got on a plane with Mrs. Duerden's class and took off. Wait, where are we? We’re in Disneyland! Mr. Drouin helped us start the day by telling us Disney jokes. We were all cracking up!

We got a map of Disney and each land was a different subject. (Click below to check it out.) 

The day starts with social studies but it wasn't normal, it was magical! Minnie Mouse planned a birthday trip for Mickey around the Northeast Region. We used everything we've learned about the Northeast to take Mickey on an epic vacation.

                       

We headed off to Fantasyland for reading (after a quick spin on the teacups). We practiced the different parts of speech with a digital hunt. In Adventureland (aka Math), we had so much fun spending $200 to buy Mickey birthday presents. We had to round, add, and even multiply to get as close to spending all $200 as we could. 

Click to play parts of speech hunt

 

What just happened? The day just ended! Wow, that was a fast fun day some might even say magical. Everyday is magical with Miss Klipfel.                                                                                           

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

-Walt Disney

Time to Read

Written by Monkey Business Employees: Elina, Gabby & Vanessa

In reading we have a lot of things to do! You are never bored in reading with Miss Klipfel! We have book clubs, fall letters, read aloud, and one of our favorites, the Choice Board! 

In our book clubs we each have a group. As a group we got to vote on what book we wanted to read. One group is reading Sleepy Hollow, another is reading the Homework Machine, another group is reading the book Fantastic Mr. Fox and another is reading Freckle Juice.

With Fall Letters you write a letter to Miss Klipfel about what you are reading for your independent reading book so far. Elina's reading Wings of Fire the Lost Heir. So Elina would write about what is happening in her book and talk about the reading strategies she is using.

The choice board is one of our rotation spots or what you do when you finish what you are supposed to do in reading. When you finish one, you fill it in by the paint bucket. We love choice board there are a lot of fun things to do!  

We also do independent reading! We are reading great books like Wings of Fire The Lost Heir, Ways To Make Sunshine, and New Kid. Last but not least Flashlight Friday! You get to turn off all the lights, make a fort, do whatever you want to make it dark. Then you get a flashlight and read!

That's the fun we have in reading in Miss Klipfel's class!

Spy Day

4th graders arrived on Zoom Friday to discover some shocking news...Mango was missing! We met at headquarters to get our briefing from Agent Bryson and get caught up to speed. Check the video out here:

Quickly, 4th graders were transformed into spies and ready to use their fictional story element knowledge, mathematical skills, and problem-solving strategies in order to gather clues and uncover the secret information. We started by opening our top-secret mission file which had our first clue, spy notebook, invisible pen, and helpful disguise.

Spies discovered the QR code took them to the spy lab where they hunted for hidden clues. There were codes to crack, puzzle pieces to put together, hidden magnifying glasses to use, and mystery high-tech pictures. Check it out:

    

Correctly solving the different clues and discovering the mystery words granted agents access to the confidential information.

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

Case closed!

Cardboard Month

Written by Monkey Business Employees: Camryn & Brielle

The month of October is cardboard month! Our innovation teacher, Mrs. Deeley asked us to make mini Topsfield Fair rides out of cardboard. We watch videos of real Topsfield Fair rides. We also watched videos of cardboard ones too. Some of them were really cool! One of them was a dragon ride, it was where someone turned a lever and it went all the way around the circle outline. Then after that we got to work and started building. Here is the Dragon Slayer by one of our classmates. It even lights up!

Our classmates were using paper towel rolls, string, pom poms, and pipe cleaners. Our innovation teacher also said to make it out of cardboard and make it move its self. Like you can give it a nudge but can't use your hand to control it. 

Since this is cardboard month our projects had to include cardboard we could use other things but it must include cardboard. We can’t wait to share our projects. Virtual Fair Slideshow will be posted next week.

Book Tasting

Chefs Klipfel & Durden whet appetites for fiction when we opened the DK Diner and served up six scrumptious genre courses. During our book tasting, patrons from both classes were able to get a taste for their interest level for our upcoming fiction unit and even find some books for future reading. We loved opening our diner so both classes could join together. 

Our historical fiction table allowed students the delectable taste of our oldest recipe and our dessert course of graphic novels was delicious to the last crumb. Even with the Mystery genre still a mystery, we are happy to report that our opening morning of the DK Diner resulted in a 5-star Yelp rating. 

Bon Appetite!

Monkeying Around with Monkey Business

Written by Monkey Business Employees: Camryn & Brielle

Last week we went bananas and got jobs called Monkey Business. Monkey Business is where we each got to apply for a job and we are now Monkey Business Employees. These jobs are called monkey business because our teacher Miss. Klipfel loves monkeys. 

Some of the jobs include chat master which is where you monitor the chat. Another one is Snack Attack which is who designs and picks snack topics. One more is called Smile Manager. With Smile Manager, you pick out school appropriate jokes and memes to help brighten our days and they get added to our slides. Here is an example from the Smile Mangers.

There are many more jobs that we have, these are just some examples. Most of our classmates have already tried out their jobs. We are pretty sure everyone is loving their job so far. Before we got our jobs we needed to fill in an application. Each student was given an application asking them their top three job choices so if another student wanted the same job as you and nobody wanted your second choice you could just have that job. Then we got a message from our Cheif Executive Monkey (aka Miss Klipfel) with our job.

Our job is social media ambassadors. We are writing blog posts for the next month. What job would you want?

1st Week

Our first few days of 4th grade were a blast! The absolute best part so far has been our Wonder read aloud. It is a really great book and it teaches us when having an option to be right or to be kind choose kind. We do lots of really cool games and activities. We have rock paper scissor challenges, we are currently in a dollar word challenge against Ms. Duerden’s class, and we have Klipfel cash this year. 

We even have our own virtual classroom that has links that lead to different activities. Check it out here: 

 

Our first subject is innovation with Mrs. Deeley. We are going to do stop motion videos. Next, we have Writing. Today we decorated our digital writing notebooks with our favorite things like animals, characters, sports, subjects, food, etc. We’ve been reading and using Epic! to find just-right books.

In math we are learning about place value. Today we started math stations. In math stations we have separate groups and in the groups we do stations for about 20 minutes and then we switch. We even got to do a fun "Three About Me" activity.

Another really cool part of our class is we have a lot of sound effects that Miss Klipfel puts on the virtual classroom. So far our favorite sound effect is “here we go”.

We can’t wait to see what else 4th grade brings!

Written by Guest Bloggers,

Elsie & Elina

Welcome!

 

I have been busy and excited for our new adventure this school year. Yes, the monkeys are bananas about it too. We are just waiting for YOU!

I hope you are having a wonderful summer because I will want to hear all about it. I have been busy spending time swimming, reading lots of books, and running. This summer I missed my summer trip to California to visit my nephew but I've enjoyed the extra time to Facetime with him. Many of my summer days have been spent at my oldest brother's lake house in New Hampshire. I’ve loved playing with my three nieces (you will hear lots of stories about them this school year), swimming, wakeboarding, tubing, and water skiing. If you can't tell, I love the water! 

I also love to hear and share jokes. Here's your first joke:

Q: Why did the children eat their homework?
A. Because their teacher said it was a piece of cake.

Enjoy the rest of the summer. I can't wait to see you on Wednesday, September 16th. See you soon 4th grader!

Love,

Miss Klipfel &

Mango (you'll meet Mango the Monkey soon!)

Goodbye Friends

Dear Fourth Grade Families,

Fourth grade sure was easy!

It's finally here-summer! This school year sure has been one for the record books. Even though we might not have spent as much time physically at Howe-Manning, together we have still shared in many memories. Today, I officially give you back the same child from the fall (although some might say you have had them back since March) 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 and be a part of their year. 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 especially while navigating new and unwatered territory with remote learning. You rocked it! 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. 

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, don't forget to READ, READ, READ. Need a book recommendation or want to chat about a great read, just send me a message. You know I LOVE talking books.

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!

Comic-Con 2020

Deep in the houses of Middleton, students have been showing their true superpowers. By day you know them as Howe-Manning 4th-grade students but when problems arise they turn into superheroes. Some are able to leap Howe-Manning in a single bound while others are able to stop a speeding monkey. They are all here to eliminate crime one diabolical villain at a time!

Over the last month of remote learning, students have been preparing for Comic-Con. They began with lots of planning. Students reviewed parts of plot with these slides and watched clips of past and present superheroes/villains. We met in small groups on Zoom to peer conferences and work together during our planning stage to develop our own heroes and storylines. From here students were ready to create their comics digitally in Book Creator. Check out all the published 4th grade comics here.

Check out the published comics here!

After comics were complete. All the 4th graders let their voices be heard and shared their characters on Flipgrid. This helped them get ready for our live virtual event. Check these ones out:

We might not have been able to hold it at Howe-Manning but we were not going to let students' 4th grade year go by without our annual Comic-Con Event. Dressed from head to toe students, families and friends met virtually to share all their SUPER work.

Remote Learning

When we left school on March 12th never did I ever think we wouldn't be going back into the building for the remainder of the school year. I do remember telling students as they walked out on that Thursday to make sure you grab a book. Oh, how I wish I had packed those backpacks full of tales from far away places. Even though we physically won't be back in Howe-Manning that doesn't mean that 4th grade is over. Now students get the luxury of Miss Klipfel's Remote Learning Classroom which really isn't so different from Room 216. Take a look: 

Flexible Seating:

                             Flexible Seating in Room 216                             Remote Learning Flexible Seating                     

Sharing our Learning:

 In Room 216                                                   While Remote Learning                           

Lessons from Miss Klipfel:

   In Room 216                                                                    While Remote Learning               

Sharing our Passions:

       In Room 216                                                          While Remote Learning                                         

I bet you can't even tell the difference in some of the pictures above. Yes, I would much prefer to see their smiling faces, bright eyes ready to learn, and share the jokes and stories of every day like in Room 216 but even though school right now seems different we are still doing all these things. They are just in new and creative ways we never thought possible. Check out what else we are up to: 

As I always say, learning should and is FUN. My students and I continue to make learning fun in new ways we never even imagined. The first week of May was Star Wars week and now we kicked off our big end of year event COMIC-CON! Saying life is still SUPER in 4th grade is an understatement.

Poetry FOR the Planet

As part of our poetry unit students have been writing poems FOR the planet. We have been focusing on not just writing poems about animals or habitats but writing poems FOR the planet. The focus of our poems is to inform others of our changing planet and move them to make a change to save our planet and wildlife. 

We kicked off these interdisciplinary lessons by highlighting National Geographics Ocean Plastics Video (take the 3 minutes it's worth watching). From students' disgusted facial expressions, gasps of "Oh my goodness", and outcries of "Miss Klipfel, what do we do?" I knew they were hooked and ready to write inspiring poems. From here students explored a multitude of National Geographic Resources to deepen their understanding of the interconnectedness of the natural and human world. 

Students then wrote their brainstormed solutions to the plastic crisis on index cards and sorted them by local, global or regional scale. Students also discussed which perspectives these solutions fell under. This helped students think beyond just our school and local town. I knew students really understood this when they started saying things like "Amazon needs to make a global change" or "the local supermarket gives me plastic bags."

Finally, it was time for Poetry writing! Students felt empowered to take responsibility for the plastic crisis our ocean is facing and do something to change it. They understood that humans caused this problem and they were now going to be the ones to solve it. They did this all while using their newly acquired knowledge of our changing planet and wildlife as a result of the overabundance of plastic in the ocean from humans. Their words truly created waves of change...

Check out all our poems: Klipfel Homeroom & Brown Homeroom

Students' words were amazing but their actions were even better. Students came back from lunch enraged that plastic cups were being used-daily. Collaboratively they created a petition to get plastic ban from our school cafe. Soon names from other grades, cafeteria workers and even teachers were all over the petition. 

Next time you grab that plastic water bottle as you head out the door or head to Starbucks we ask you...

Plastic OR Planet?