Benton Specialist Monthly Recap

Hi!

I’m Mr. Allen, Benton’s new art teacher. In the art room, we are building routines and learning about lines. We are also practicing our drawing skills and learning how to develop high quality artwork. I’m so excited to get to know everyone at Benton. 

Students in kindergarten are getting familiar with the motor lab.  This is an instruction time where they are able to improve their ability to maneuver and function in their environment.

We had a great start to the year in the Music Room!  We spent August learning how to care for our classroom instruments, as well as playing games to familiarize ourselves with the Music space.  If you have a 3rd-5th grade student, ask them about their Musician of the Week!  We spend each week listening to a small part of a work from a different composer or performer and discussing as a class what we both liked and didn’t like about that piece of music.  We’ve been having some great discussions!

Welcome to the 2024-25 school year!

I am so excited to meet new Benton Bees and celebrate familiar faces as we return to school.  Watching kiddos learn new routines and uniting in the classroom has been fun.  In Counseling, our first unit is Bully Prevention to help our school family stay safe. Students will learn the Second Steps “3R’s”, Recognize, Refuse, and Report to minimize bullying in our school, neighborhood, and community.  They will be able to identify the differences between bullying, conflict, a mean moment, and teasing while using applying tools to manage those situations.  Watch for information coming home in the Friday folder and ask your child how they would handle bullying if they saw or experienced it.  

It has been such a busy start to the year! 

The first couple of weeks are always occupied by getting iPads up and running.   Now that all those technological logistics are out of the way, I'm excited to focus on the learning.  We start library checkouts and open our makerspace in September.  Let's go!

Finally, you may have noticed our projector screen in the main downstairs hallway.  During the day, we run a slideshow that displays our students and fun facts that they want the school to know about them (just like the pic above).  Most of our 3-5 students have already filled this out, but if you have a K-2 student and you'd like to share something about them on that screen, please fill out this form.  https://forms.gle/GQUK1fWLjYwJAE749

Thank you, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the year!

Welcome Back!

In Media, students in all grade levels have been setting up their iPads.  In addition, students are being introduced to a coding site called Code.org where they will learn the basics of creating code.