Benton Specialist Monthly Recap

K-3 are experiencing great hand-eye coordination. They are heading a sponge type ball off of a tee and are thrilled with their success.

Grades four and five are also working with hand-eye coordination, but with badminton.

Benton Bees have had a very musical March!  Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grades learned the song “Frog in the Meadow.”  This fun song and game helped reinforce high and low sounds with K, quarter and eighth note rhythms with 1st, and quarter rest with 2nd.  3rd Grade took a "field trip" to Ireland to learn about Irish music and instruments.  4th grade began their unit on Hip Hop music.  We explored the four main pillars of hip hop, and worked on breaking down the syllables of words over a beat to practice flow patterns.  5th grade jumped head first into their Video Game Music Composition unit!  We learned about the history of video game music composition and composing for different moods. 

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

Happy Spring and warmer weather ahead!  This month in Counseling we are discussing diversity, learning about our differences and similarities.  Through books and other activities, students are able to recognize how they see themselves and others in a positive way.  Books like Two Eggs, Please by Sarah Weeks and Betsy Lewin, Last Street on Market Street by Matt De La Pena, pictures by Christian Robinson, and New Shoes by Susan Lynn Meyer, illustrated by Eric Velasquez bring about awareness of outward traits, social economics, and equity in our world.  Links to the book read-a-louds are provided for your view. 

March went by fast!  It started off with Reading Week.  Our school read almost 3000 minutes that week!  Our goal was 1000, so all our classes earned an extra recess with me.  Nice!  Every student was also able to check out 5 books from the library that week, so we've been drowning in returned books.  That's a good kind of drowning. :  )

I've also been busy teaching.  Our specialist team has built some integrative projects for 4th and 5th grade that most of us are working on together.  In 4th, we're learning what goes into designing a good poster, and then using that knowledge to make a poster in Canva.  In 5th, we're making video games in Scratch.

And of course Pi Day was busy!  I lead students through an easy activity in which they represented the digits of pi with beads on a pipe cleaner to make a bracelet or necklace.  

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

Students in Kindergarten & 1st grade have been busy creating their own Stop Motion Movie using connecting blocks. These connecting blocks are being used to draw out their initials or name.  While students in 2nd & 3rd grade are using the connecting blocks to create different objects for their Stop Motion Movie.

4th & 5th grade students started their projects this month. 4th grade students are creating their own music poster using the online platform Canva. Canva is an amazing tool for creating posters, presentations, and so much more. Students are even able to explore their new AI tool that creates pictures from just a few keywords.

5th graders on the other hand started their coding project using the online version of Scratch. They are currently learning the process of how to code and customize a chase game. These games will be available to play by anyone who wants to during STEAM night.