Benton Specialist Monthly Recap

During February, we spent a lot of time on cardio.  Younger grades did hula hoop jumping, and older grades did tricks with a partner through a rope.  Our students are really learning how to work with one another.  I'm always so proud of them.

February was another amazing musical month at Benton STEM!

Kindergarten continued their exploration of basic rhythm building blocks using fruits and veggies!  We’ve also been practicing our tuneful singing with our stuffed friend, Melody the Elephant!

First Grade practiced performing simple rhythm patterns and Sol Mi singing with silly songs and games like Aikendrum and Tick Tock!

Second through Fifth Grade spent some of February learning about a digital composing software called GarageBand.  They practiced creating loops and layers with different instruments in preparation for bigger spring projects.

Our big musical moment this month was Bentons first musical, Pirates!  3rd-5th graders in our after school music club presented the show to the whole school, and then to parents in the evening.  It was a wonderful learning experience in how to put on a show, with learning lines, songs, and choreography!  Everyone had so much fun, and the audience members had a blast watching!

These past few weeks in the art room have been all about using our powers of observation!  The younger grades (K-2) have been wrapping up their unit about observation.  After studying bugs and learning about the three body parts every insect has in common (head, thorax, abdomen), we recreated and invented bugs in paint and cut paper.  Meanwhile, the older grades (3-5) have been studying facial proportions and working on drawn and painted faces.

See all of this and more in our Artsonia galleries!  Our public galleries may be found here:

https://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=94365

And if you’ve not already done so, you can connect with your child’s gallery by following this link:

https://www.artsonia.com/connect/NB8J7YX4

In Counseling, students have been developing skills to handle conflict and resolve problems. Conflict can be anywhere: at recess or lunch with peers, in the classroom, on the bus, and at home with siblings or neighbors.  Learning to identify how conflict affects you, can also lead to making safe choices to solve conflict before it escalates.  Exploring options on the Problem Solving Wheel and applying them to conflict scenarios, students have opportunities to talk it out and practice defusing conflict for themselves and others.  Learning conflict resolution is an important life skill because problem solvers are responsible for what they say and do, and they help build safe learning communities.

In the makerspace this month, we took a step back from robots and electronics and went very low-tech for our pipe cleaner zoo!   The zoo was open to families at the Glow Night, after which students got to take their animals home.  We had a lot of fun doing this, and also boosted our community a bit in the process! : )

Thank you to everyone who purchased something from our Book Fair!  You are supporting your student's love of reading, and also supporting our school.  Thank you again!

And as always, if you would like your student to be included on our hallway "Did You Know?" display, please fill out this form!

In grades 2-5, students have been able to research their favorite topic using Pebble Go, World Book Kids, BrainPop or Culturagrams. This 3-day project starts off with them choosing a topic and writing down 3-5 facts from their source. On Day 2: students then put their facts and saved pictures into a slideshow using the app Keynote. On Day 3: students finish their slideshow by changing the background and text color. As well as finishing writing their topics facts.

In grades K-1 students were able to create beats by writing their name in Song Maker on Chrome Music Lab. They were able to change musical instruments, music tempo, and the songs beats. You can try it out yourself by clicking the link: https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Song-Maker