Benton Specialist Monthly Recap

As we settle into the new school year, students are becoming familiar with our art room routines and learning how to use our tools and materials safely. Throughout the month of September, all art classes will be focusing on lines!  Students will explore the many different types of lines artists use and discover how lines can help us create shapes, patterns, textures, movement, and expression. We’re off to a creative start and look forward to seeing where our lines take us!

PE

Welcome back, Benton Bees! I am so excited to be back at Benton with you all. We will start the year by reviewing some important rules and procedures, followed by playing some new and exciting games.

We will also learn about our muscles and bones and how they work together to help us move. Every student will be respected, valued, and encouraged as we discover how teamwork truly makes the dream work.

Engineering

This year, all Benton “Bees” will have an additional class called Engineering, and I am thrilled to be one of the teachers leading this fun experience!

Each class will meet for nine weeks with one of four specialist teachers. My class will meet in the STEM Lab.

Here is an outline of the topics we will cover:

• Kindergarten: Shelter and Safety

• First Grade: Food for the Outdoors

• Second Grade: Emergency Procedures and First Aid

• Third Grade: Knot Tying and Cordage

• Fourth Grade: Navigation and Wayfinding

• Fifth Grade: Water Safety and Hydration

I can’t wait to see you and have a wonderful year together!

Music:

This month students will be building new foundational skills in music that will return constantly throughout the year. All students can look forward to singing, movement, various instruments, and overall building a safe community with their peers. 

 Engineering:

Over the next several weeks, kindergartners are going to learn about how to create sounds and design their own shakers. They will learn to identify high versus low sounds and loud vs soft sounds and design a shaker to meet their desired sound. 2nd grade will learn about sound waves and soundproofing to design a soundproof box. 4th grade will continue to learn about sound waves and analyze bird and animal calls and design a graph to depict these calls. 

Welcome to the 2026-2027 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.

I've been very excited to get back into the swings of things.  So much time has been spent preparing (and sometimes re-preparing) iPads so everyone has workable devices, and now we're finally getting to dig into the library and get to reading!

At Benton, our library books stay in classrooms and do not go home.  However, we are also beginning a new program you can sign up for to have your student take home a book on their reading level.  There is more information in Ms. Chostner's newsletter.

I look forward to helping your students along on their reading journey this year, and seeing them in makerspaces, engineering classes, and other media-integrated opportunities throughout.

Media

In September, Media class will teach our students how to use apps for learning in their regular classes this year. We are learning Freeform and art tools on their iPads to draw ideas that may take too long to write. They will research in Pebble GO and practice moving text and pictures from websites into projects in their apps. 

We are also practicing ways to be kind when we interact with our classmates while using technology like our new BenQ boards. 

Engineering

Ms. Carrow's 5th Grade Engineering class is planning a NASA mission to Ganymede, one of Jupiter's moons. Each day in engineering class they get a different problem during the mission to solve using the Engineering Design Process. In September, they are designing a makeshift device to collect soil samples, studying why Ganymede has an electromagnetic field, using orbit charts to plan the best time to launch the mission, and designing a brush to clean solar panels.

Ms. Hollis' 3rd Grade Engineering Class is planning a NASA mission to Mars. Each day in engineering class they get a different problem during the mission to solve using the Engineering Design Process. In September, they are designing blueprints for a Mars base, studying solar power, and experimenting with magnetism to prepare for October's rover build.

Mrs. Gapsch's 1st Grade Engineering class is learning about how the moon affects Earth. To prepare for their October project of planning a beach party, in September they will experiment with how craters form on the moon, learn how to track high and low tide based on the moon, and test the ability of different materials to withstand moving water.