A team of 5th graders have been reading extra hours the past few months. Each year the AEA hosts a State-wide Battle of the Books. This year the event took place virtually using Zoom, with the aid of Google Forms and a website called Kahoot. The event, even though it was held at each school felt much like the regular competitions held in the past. The group of students had 21 book titles from the Iowa Children's Choice list to read, enjoy and take note of important events the characters came across in each story. The first round of questioning for the near 40 teams across the state included 60 questions. The team from West Elementary finished 8th place after this round advancing them to the championship round of 10 schools. In this round the students answered 25 questions from the book "Sled Dog School", written by Terry Lynn Johnson. This was extra special as Terry Lynn Johnson was the guest speaker all the way from Canada via Zoom. Students were able to interact with the author and learn what it takes to be a professional writer.
The final round took place using Kahoot, which gives teams more points for answering quickly. The team worked smoothly through the 25 questions and ended up with a 3rd place finish. We are very proud of their extra effort in this competition and representing the
Independence Community Schools.
Thank you, and CONGRATULATIONS Grace, Isla, Keira, Landon, McKenna and Myra!
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| Working together on the first part of the test |
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| 3rd Place |
