Benton Specialist Monthly Recap

Student in PE were introduced to outdoor pursuits this month.  Third, fourth, and fifth grades learned to shoot with arrows.  Even some teachers stopped by to get in on the action.

At the end of May, all classes get to participate in their favorite end of the year Music Class activity- Karaoke!  Students could choose songs to sing, and choose other students to sing with them, using fun karaoke microphones.  This is such a fun activity, but also helps with practicing good stage presence, as well as how to be a good audience member.  Lots of students heard songs they had never heard before, and loved! 

Have a great summer, Benton Bees!  See you next school year!

We’ve been busy tying up loose ends in the art room as we come to the end of the school year.  Hopefully you’ve seen some last stacks of artwork come home along with our clay hatching baby dinos (K-2nd grade) and rattles (3rd-5th grade).  During our Camping Day everyone got the chance to try some ‘plein air’ watercolor and during this last week, we are competing to make the best sculptures out of modeling clay in our ‘Clay Wars’ game.  Modeling clay is only for practice, so none of those are coming home, but everyone should be bringing home a small prize from the art room for their efforts!

Thanks so much for sharing your students with me this year!  I will be taking a leave of absence next year, but I know that the Benton art room will be in good hands with Mr. Allen.  Wishing everyone a fun and creative Summer!

Happy Summer Break!  In Counseling, we just finished our last unit: Summer Safety and Transition. Students reviewed the 8 Never, Never Rules, and Ways to Stay Safe: Recognize, Refuse, Report, as a reminder on how to have a safe and fun Summer.  Students also share feedback on rules they have when staying home alone, being online, or playing outside with friends.  Please ask your child what rules they know that keep them safe.  Have a healthy and happy Summer! 

We rotated through several robot stations this month in the makerspace.  The robots we worked with were Sphero, Dash, Cubelets, mBot, and Sphero Indi.

This month also concluded our in-school Robotics Club.  I met with several students from each of the 4th and 5th grade classrooms throughout the year to get some extra hands-on time with robotics.  We built computers using Piper Kits, which are powered by a Raspberry Pi computer.  Once the computer was built, they played a Minecraft game that taught them how to wire a breadboard so they could move and jump, and also light up LEDs, buzzers, buttons, and switches that progress them through levels.  When we had our fill of that, we built mBots and learned to code them.

Have an awesome summer!  Can't wait to explore some more next year!

We’re at the end of the school year and in Media we are practicing our typing skills and trying out pixel art.

In kindergarten and 1st grade, students are using the web to access Typetastic which teaches students where the letters, numbers and symbols are on a computer keyboard. Students get to dodge objects to place their letter where it needs to go.

In 2nd to 5th grade students have the option to use typing club which helps them practice their keyboard skills or try out pixel art. Pixel art is just like it sounds. There’s a grid and students fill in the squares to create their creations. Some have made emojis, while others have made colorful patterns.