Benton Specialist Monthly Recap

We kicked off the year in art class by learning about the element of art—line! Students had fun experimenting with all kinds of lines, while discovering how lines can show movement and feeling in their artwork. Next up, we’re excited to dive into the element of shape. We’ll be exploring how shapes can be used to build pictures, tell stories, and create amazing works of art!

We are having fun and learning a lot in P.E. this year!  We are learning the muscles and bones in our bodies, and also reviewing how to havea  safe and quiet line.

It’s been a great few weeks of school in August at Benton!  Looking forward to September:

Kindergarten will be Goin On The Farm to learn about and play our different classroom instruments.  Each week will feature a new instrument to play, as well as a new farm animal to learn and sing about!

1st grade will be using singing, instruments and movement to explore sounds that go up and down, as well as beat vs. rhythm.  They’ll also be reviewing their musical opposites with lots of songs and games!

2nd grade will be working on identifying unpitched classroom instruments through sight and sound, and practicing their quarter notes, eighth notes, and quarter rests.

3rd grade will be working with the pitches Sol and Mi through songs an manipulatives.  They will also be building on their musical vocabulary, adding half note, half rest, and whole note to their music knowledge!

4th grade will be using instruments and songs to learn a new rhythm, tika-tika (sixteenth note) and adding it to their already known notes to compose rhythm patterns.

5th grade will begin a unit on World Music Drumming, learning about instruments from Africa and practicing known rhythms and improvising using these instruments.

Welcome to the 2025-2026 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 connecting 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 "3 Rs": 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 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.

We're off and running in the media center.  All the iPad tech issues have been resolved (as of this moment!), and iReady testing is already underway.

We have been busy checking out books, too!  K-2 visit the library every week, and 3-5 visit every other week.  The books they check out stay in their classrooms and do not go home.

We're starting up the makerspace this month with a stop-motion project in all grades.  Students may choose to do their stop-motion project with Lego bricks or with dry erase markers and boards.  This is always a fun makerspace because the students come up with such creative stories!

Hey everyone!  In Media this September, we’ll be focusing on using technology to share ideas and information in constructive or creative ways.  Our younger students will be exploring digital drawing and creation using apps like Draw & Tell to put words and photos together, while our older students will experiment with capturing and editing information with photography and organizing it to share with others.