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.
