Benton Specialist Monthly Recap

In the art room, most classes have been wrapping up our color unit. We’ve explored different color schemes and experimented with various color media, such as paint and watercolor pencils. Our younger artists have been honing their drawing skills in preparation for exciting new art adventures. In January, we’ll revisit our skills and routines with a fun robot-themed unit, which will prepare us to explore the elements of value and space.

Striking implements were used this month in PE by all grade levels. We hit balls off the T towards a target. And we also played different variations of volleyball games.

A great time was had by all.

We had a great December in Music Class!

5th Grade learned piano basics, thanks to our new iPad powered MIDI keyboards.  Students learned note names and staff placement, and learned to play simple one handed songs like Twinkle, Twinkle and Jingle Bells.

4th Grade continued on their recorder journey with notes B, A, and G.  Students mastered their first song, Hot Cross Buns, and also learned a fun holiday tune using the notes they knew!

3rd grade put on their judging hats to decide who has the best version of the Nutcracker- Tchaikovsky or Ellington?  They were able to compare and contrast characteristics from the original classical ballet and newer jazz version, and voted as a grade on who was the better version.  Both classes overwhelmingly voted that they preferred the newer Jazz version of the Nutcracker!

2nd Grade practiced listening and musical recognition skills by identifying different instruments, tempos and forms of many songs in the Nutcracker ballet

1st Grade and Kindergarten took a magical field trip to the world of the Nutcracker ballet.  Using the pieces from the Tchaikovsky classic, students practiced steady beat, rhythm identification, solfege singing and purposeful movement as we acted our way through the story of the ballet.

We also listened to unique musicians who specialize in holiday music, like the Pentatonix and Lindsey Stirling.  Ask your students about their music, and what they liked about them!

Happy Holidays!

As Winter Break approaches, students are feeling anticipation and excitement, while also experiencing a change in routine. To help manage their high energy, we are learning and practicing Mindfulness in Counseling.  Students are learning skills that help them focus on one task at a time, calm their bodies through breathing, and ysing their imagination to settle wandering thoughts.  Mindful listening, seeing, tasting, smelling, and breathing, touch our senses and help calm our nervous sytemns!  Ask your child what favorite acitivity they did in Counseling this month.

December has been busy!

In the makerspace, 4th and 5th grade designed snowflakes to print on the 3D printer.  The task was to take one shape, copy it, and then rotate the resulting two shapes 60° five times to get a snowflake.  They turned out really cool!  3rd grade also got to manipulate designs for the 3D printer for the first time this month.

Hour of Code week was the week of the 9th, so everyone got some extra coding time with me that week. 

As always, please fill out this form if you'd like to share something unique about your student on our hallway projector screen!  https://forms.gle/GQUK1fWLjYwJAE749

In Media, we have been learning how to code using the apps Scratch Jr. and Scratch.  Using these two platforms’ students have created fun holiday inspired scenes, made a basic game using their iPads keyboard keys for directions, and so much more.

You can try it out yourself by going to the link provided: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/editor/?tutorial=getStarted

Have a great winter break and Happy Holidays everyone.