Mrs. Stephanie Thomas, CRES School Counselor

The band's back together! To celebrate the end of the 2018-19 school year Mr. Wahls got the CREL Air Band rockers (both old and new) back together to rock the elementary awards assembly. Included for your enjoyment is a video clip of Mr. Wahls very own 'Happy Retirement" song for Mrs. Troester! Rockers pictured in the back row: Mrs. Troester, Mr. Wahls, Mr. Schutte, Mrs. Stannard, Ms. Streich & Mrs. Bockenstedt. Front row: Ms. Vlazny & Mrs. Johnson. Rock on CREL, Rock on! 🤣🤘#EaglesHavingFun (Picture by Mrs. Thomas)

Mr. Louis Cook, HS Social Studies

The Clayton Ridge seniors are ten units short of making their goal for blood units for 2019. If we make our goal, we will receive $1,000 in scholarship funds. Please help us make our goal. You can schedule times at the following blood drives: May 30 at St. John’s Lutheran Church from 1-6 and June 14 at Eagle Ridge Assisted Living from 1-5. Please contact the school at (563) 252-2341 to schedule your donation time today.

Third-grade classes from Mrs. Palmer and Mrs. Connelly’s rooms enjoyed a field trip to the Wetlands Center in Marquette and Pike’s Peak on Thursday, May 23. Parents met the students for a picnic lunch at Pike’s Peak.

Mrs. Stephanie Thomas, CRES School Counselor

Clayton Ridge Elementary Students participated in Field Day on May 30th. This was the rotation called “Dragon Tails”. Students had to try to step on their opponents’ tails while completing other tasks for this station.

Mrs. Karen Reichard, 2nd Grade Teacher

2nd-grade students received their awards and prizes for participating in the Victory Ford Reading Program. Emery O., Natalie T., and Kaja J. were the top readers and earned a “Rock Star Reader” certificate along with certificates for pizza, ice-cream and a free t-shirt!! Way to go girls!!

Keep reading over the summer!!

Mrs. Tami Palmer, 3rd Grade Teacher, and Mrs. Judy Clefisch, 2nd Grade Teacher

The Clayton County Beef Queen, Mia Gibson, and Princess, Tayler Martins, gave a presentation about the beef industry. and a book to the 3rd graders. They brought a variety of items used with beef cows and explained what each was used for.

Each child was very excited to be given a book titled "My Family’s Beef Farm."

Mrs. Stephanie Thomas, CRES School Counselor

Students entering kindergarten for the 2019-20 school year were invited into Clayton Ridge to try out kindergarten for a half of a day on May 15th! Ms. Bodish and Miss Deegan enjoyed their excitement for the upcoming school year and were able to give them a taste of what is to come!

Mrs. Tami Palmer, and Mrs. Kathy Connelly, 3rd Grade Teachers

Third graders learned about dairy cattle on their visit to Iowa Dairy Center in Calmar on May 14.

Awesome Weather + Amazing Scenery = Great Opportunity (for running!) Mr. Jensen's 1st-hour strength class is so amazingly lucky to have the opportunity to not only develop their running abilities but to also enjoy the awesome spring weather and fabulous scenery all at the same time! #OnlyAtClaytonRidge #WeAreCRCSD! #GoEagles #NorthEastIowaRocks!

Mrs. Stephanie Thomas, CRES School Counselor

Mrs. Judy Clefisch, 2nd Grade Teacher

Coos and Ellie showing their finished bunny craft activity as 1 station of the elementary’s Monthly Activities. The bunny’s head is snack pudding.

Mrs. Judy Clefisch, 2nd Grade Teacher

April Bril from the Upper Explorerland Regional Planning Commission did a Regional Safe Routes to School Program with second graders. She taught us about bike and pedestrian safety rules and handed out helmets to students who did not have one at home.

Mrs. Jill Stannard, 4/5 Grade Teacher

4th graders have grown lavender and cascading petunias using hydroponics! They are showcasing the plants and the long roots they have! #EaglesAtWork #InquiryLearning

Mr. Doug Reimer, donated money to Mrs. Connelly’s third-grade class from the Land of Lakes Foundation. Mrs. Connelly used some of that grant money to purchase flowers from Highway 52 flowers as part of their Science unit on Living Things. On April 29, Doris Mueller from Highway 52 Flowers came to the classroom and talked about the planting and care of the flowers. She helped the students plant pansies. The students will care for the flowers at school and take them home at a later date.

Mrs. Jill Stannard and Mrs. Sara Lawrence, 4/5 Grade Teachers

Students participated in a Virtual Hog Facility Tour today at the Neal Wikner Farms. The tour was lead and coordinated by Ashley Kishman, Clayton County's Ag in the Classroom Coordinator. Students were able to ask Farmer Neal and Ashley questions. The tour was interactive and insightful for students. Students were asked what they heard, noticed and saw. Mrs. Lawrence and Mrs. Stannard were impressed with their answers and focus!

Mrs. Michele VonHandorf, CRMS Secretary

The 8th graders took their class trip to the Kalahari Resort at the Wisconsin Dells on May 28.

Mrs. Sara Lawrence, Grade 4/5 Teacher

Working with others is essential and Clayton Ridge 4th and 5th graders have been using these Gravity Maze learning tools to learn about STEM through cooperation, communication, teamwork, and trial and error. STEM stands for Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics. Each box contains colored cubes and directions written on cards that students follow to create a route for a marble to roll through to the bottom. These Gravity Maze games were purchased through a grant from both Andy Reimer of New York Life and the Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation.

Second-graders in Mrs. Reichard’s class show that they are getting ready to kick off a great summer on the last day of school!

CREL 2nd graders are more than ready for summer vacation to start! Students in Mrs. Reichard's and Mrs. Clefisch's classes recently used their iPads to create a Word Cloud and a Pic Collage poster sharing their learning goals, character goals, activity goals and vacation/fun goal for the summer. Let the goal-achieving begin! Click on the links below to listen to a sample of student Word Cloud goals.
https://app.seesaw.me/pages/shared_item…
https://app.seesaw.me/pages/shared_item…
https://app.seesaw.me/pages/shared_item…
https://app.seesaw.me/pages/shared_item…

Mrs. Carolyn Ihde, HS Science/Ag Teacher, and Laura Morarend, HS Special Education Teacher

Students in environmental science learned about the evolution of power. Students studied renewable and nonrenewable energy sources. As part of the unit, students built water wheels with hammers, water wheels to generate electricity, wind turbines to create electricity, and used solar panels to generate electricity.

Mrs. Deb Henkes, District Technology Coach

Congratulations to Clayton Ridge teachers Mrs. Stannard, Mrs. Lawrence and Mr. Lawrence who have all recently received an Agriculture in the Classroom Teacher Supplement Grants. This grant is funded by the Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation through the support of the Iowa Farm Bureau. The Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation and Iowa Farm Bureau believe that by investing in our youth, they are investing in the future of Iowa. To show their commitment, they support educational programs that teach youth about agriculture by using agriculture to enhance student learning of science, social studies, language arts and other curricula.

All of the teachers winning the grants included an Ag + technology and critical thinking component based on concepts that support their curriculum.

Mrs. Stannard used her grant to purchase the LEGO Education 2.0 set. Fourth graders in Mrs. Stannard class take turns building LEGO robots to solve problems. Students used the LEGO robots to build a flower and bee to demonstrate the pollination. Other students built a dump truck to demonstrate the sort and recycle concept. The possibilities are endless.

Check out the following videos for examples of student work!

Problem solving + legos!

Dump Truck Video

Bee Video

Mrs. Lawrence’s project involved Gravity Mazes which are a gravity-powered logic maze game that builds reasoning skills and visual perception. Students use the mazes to solve problems and experiment with their knowledge of gravity and to brainstorm ideas for with how gravity can be used as a force to empower future farm equipment. Fourth grade science students then took the gravity concept to the next level and with a partner created marble runs. The marble runs needed to be 12 inches high and use cardboard tubes and paper plates. Students then used the iPads to record their 3 consecutive runs using the See Saw application. Next fourth graders shared their marble runs with the lower elementary students. The STEM focus brought learning to the students using cooperation, communication,

Makeblock mBot Ranger Programmable Robot is the type of technology that Mr. Lawrence’s classes received from the grant. His students are using the robots to brainstorm transforming Ag practices and creating new opportunity to streamline operations. They are currently considering programing the robots to drive down a straight line, then turn and drive down the next line as a way to simulate automated field planting. In addition, students are working on programing the robot to pick up materials and then drive to a certain location to deposit the materials - similar to automating the delivery of round bales out to a feedlot for cattle. In addition students are experimenting with the robot’s sensors to use it to simulate mapping a land survey or for tag recognition on cattle. Mr. Lawrence commented that even though the project is just getting started...students are coming up with cool new ideas to really “moooove” the project along!

Mrs. Deb Henkes, District Technology Coach, and Mrs. Nicole DeGidio, HS English/Instructional Coach

At Clayton Ridge, we believe that technology can be a powerful tool for transforming learning. It can help build and strengthen relationships between teachers and students, reinvent our approaches to learning and collaboration, shrink long-standing equity and accessibility gaps, and adapt learning experiences to meet the needs of all learners. We believe that technology strengthens for learning college and empowers preparation for career-ready skills.

The goals for technology use at CRCSD:

• Students engage in positive, safe, legal and ethical behavior when using technology, including social interactions online or when using networked devices.

• Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions.

• Students communicate complex ideas clearly and effectively by creating or using a variety of digital objects such as visualizations, models or simulations.

• Students contribute constructively to project teams, assuming various roles and responsibilities to work effectively toward a common goal.

Technology at CRMS

Middle school teachers are always looking for better and more engaging ways to utilize technology effectively in the classroom. In addition, CRMS teachers help students to build on previous learning, as well as empowering students to collaborate on projects and presentations effectively. The main goal is always for students to demonstrate new learning in creative and sometimes surprising ways.

One of the projects that CRMS teachers Mrs. Werges and Mr. Lawrence have taught in the past is the “Time Travel” project. This year they gave the project a new twist for students by using Mr. Lawrence’s new Promethean panel as the presentation tool. Seventh-grade students use their research and writing skills from Language Arts to “travel in time” to a historical eras Science - such as the Carboniferous Period, to discover and show what life was like at that period of Earth’s history. “What is the Carboniferous Period,” you ask? Learn about that and more by watching the following video presentations showcasing Mr. Lawrence’s new Promethean panel.

(Pictured: students presenting with the panel.)

Carboniferous Period

Devonian Period

Silurian Period

Quaternary Period

Mrs. Smith’s Social Studies classes showed off their creativity and critical thinking skills by creating Hammurabi Code PSAs using iMovie. The Hammurabi code of laws is a collection of 282 rules that established standards for commercial interactions and set fines and punishments and was enacted by King Hammurabi of Babylon around 1754 BC. A “PSA” is a public service announcement such as Smokey the Bear’s “Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires” commercial. Students used the PSA format to create a short video explaining various sections of Hammurabi’s legal code in a way to help people understand the meaning of the code and to compare ancient laws to legal practices today. Check them out - they’re amazing!

6A Hammurabi PSAs

6B Hammurabi PSAs

Looking for a fun and engaging way to jump into augmented reality and learn Iowa history facts at the same time? 5th and 6th graders had the opportunity to kick start their Iowa History unit with the new Metaverse app. Metaverse is a FREE Augmented Reality Platform that is being used by thousands of teachers to build all kinds of interactive learning experiences for their classrooms.

You can do it, too! See the QR Codes below for help in trying the activity. This Iowa History Metaverse Augmented Reality breakout game was created by Mrs. DeGidio and Mrs. Henkes. If you enjoyed Part 1 and would like an even tougher challenge, check out CRARGVRAI Part 2!

Technology at CRHS

Integration of technology and collaboration are at the heart of high school classes across the curriculum today. Teachers are always searching for a way to make the content relevant and applicable. Students are finding themselves expressing far more creativity in their projects. The results are incredible, both for the learning of the material and the development of real-world skills.

Technology to Support Learning - Angela Williams

Angela Williams and Nicole DeGidio were each awarded Swivl camera platforms through grants. Miss Williams uses hers for food demonstrations and kitchen labs in various FCS. In the videos below, students are competing in a “Cake War”, in which they are employing the skills they learned to create the decorated cakes that were then judged by other staff members. The robotic Swivl works with an iPad to follow and record the “marker”, which Miss Williams wears. Students were also given “non-tracking markers” that record their groups' discussions. All of this is then uploaded to the Swivl Cloud, where the video and discussions can easily be edited and shared. The Swivl platforms will be used to generate professional development videos, a teaching strategy demonstration library, and other classroom activities. See Miss Williams' project here.

Technology to Reinforce Learning - Rick Kolbet

Each year, high school math teacher, Rick Kolbet, does a hypothesis testing project with his statistics students. Students learn several types of testing, select an appropriate project to test, and create a presentation to show the steps. Mrs. DeGidio demonstrated several technologies to provide students options and ideas. Students then completed their testing and chose a technology tool to accompany their data. Several student presentations are included below.

Student-Created PowToon

STEAM - Robotics - Sharon Keehner

Business teacher Sharon Keehner attended a BlocklyProp workshop training on robotics. Students used Blockly to program the robots and code various actions and responses. Students below are seen in action as they work together to construct their robots and program the bots.

Animations - Heather Meyer

Heather Meyer, middle school and high school teacher, challenges animation students to try new ideas and experiment with various media. Student samples of animation can be seen in the examples below.

Brady Behrend - Space Force

Josiah Groth - Boards

Olivia Ertl - Class Historian

Breakouts Using Google Sites/Forms - Rhea Cano and Nicole DeGidio

Spanish students celebrated Cinco de Mayo by participating in a digital breakout, an activity similar to an escape room. Students had to use resources hidden within the Google Site to “breakout” and receive an award for learning about Cinco de Mayo. Mrs. Cano and Mrs. DeGidio worked together to create the activity; students found the experience fun and rewarding. Try to solve the mystery HERE.

Metaverse - Kyle Sperfslage

In preparation for a unit test on different groups of Mexico and Central America, high school social studies and PE teacher Kyle Sperfslage wanted an interactive review. Mr. Sperfslage and Mrs. DeGidio worked together to create an augmented reality activity using Metaverse. Students had to review the material to find the answers and earn badges for each of indigenous civilizations. Check your knowledge using the link below.

Mesoamerica Augmented Reality Review

Mrs. Carole Mackey, MS Social Studies

Clayton Ridge 7th grade Social Studies students in Carole Mackey’s class completed an Iowa History unit this spring. As part of that unit, 7th graders presented a readers theater about how Iowa’s borders were determined in the 1800s. The readers' theater is called "Bees, Trees, and Borders”.

Mr. Louis Cook, HS Social Studies

Pictured above, from left: Erik Sarazua-Zamora, Eva Moore, Victoria Breitbach, Blake Simons, Kristen Willenborg, Mason Reimer, Colton Lawerence, Nate Helle, Kaitlyn Kuehl-Berns, Isaiah Duwe Audrey Helle

Mrs. Stephanie Thomas, CRES School Counselor

Students at CRES were surprised with an airband and motivational assembly to kick off their state testing this year.

Nancy Ruzicka, Assistant Librarian

Toddler Time: May 10 at 10:30 a.m.

Join Miss Nancy for an hour of stories, song and dance, crafts, and playtime.

Ages 2-4

Adventure Hour is back! May 17 at 3:45 p.m.

Stop in and join us for crafts, games and stories.

Open to kids of all ages.

For more information on any of these programs, please contact the Guttenberg Library at 252-3108 or guttlib@alpinecom.net.
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Clayton Ridge Community School District has both a north and south campus. The northern campus is located in the midst of the rolling prairie of Garnavillo, Iowa and currently serves students in grades PK-5. The southern campus is situated among the picturesque Mississippi River bluffs and boasts a magnificent view of the mighty river and Lock & Dam 10 in Guttenberg, Iowa. The south campus serves middle school (6-8), and high school (9-12).

Email: ndegidio@claytonridge.k12.ia.us
Website: http://www.claytonridge.k12.ia.us/
Location: 131 South River Park Drive, Guttenberg, IA, USA
Phone: (563)252-2341
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Clayton-Ridge-Community-School-District-1669852486604559/