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Benson Bulletin
February 2015
February 2015
Sunday
1
Monday
2
Tues day
3
Wednesday
4
C hess Club 3:25-4:25
Thursday
5
Young Rem bran dts
3:25-4:25
Young Rembrandts
3:25-4:25
Friday
Saturday
6
Kindergarten Conferences
1:00-8:00 PM @ Benso n
7
Benson & Franzen Hot Lunch
IPTO Father/Daughter Dinner
Dance
8
9
10
C hess Club 3:25-4:25
11
Young Rem bran dts
3:25-4:25
12
1st Gr.- Dad & Me Read
2nd Gr. Girls - Jr. G reat Books
13
Icee Day
14
Benson & Franzen Hot Lunch
Market Day Pick-up 5:30-6:30
PM @ Itasca Park District
Brd of Ed. Mtg. 7pm
Young Rembran dts
3:25-4:25
15
16
17
District Closed No
School President's D ay
18
2nd Gr. Girls - Jr. G reat Books
Young Rem bran dts
3:25-4:25
19
20
2nd Gr. Boys-Jr. G reat Books
21
Benson & Franzen Hot Lunch
C. Counts Caring Assembly
Wear Red To day 2:4 5pm
Yo ung R embran dts 3:25-4:25
22
23
24
C hess Club 3:25-4:25
25
2nd Gr. Bo ys-Jr. G reat Books
26
Young Rembrandts
3:25-4:25
27
Icee Day
No School
Institute
28
Teacher
Young Rem bran dts
3:25-4:25
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S e x o f f e n d e r in f o r m a t io n c a n b e o b t a in e d @ w w w .ita s c a .c o m c lic k o n p o lic e d e p a r t m e n t lin k .
Traffic Memo to Parents
Safety rules apply when
dropping off and/or picking up students
Please remember…
1. the front of the school is a drop-off zone in the morning.
Parents should remain in the car with the car running and be
prepared to leave once their child has exited the vehicle.
Parents who wish to stay with their student during a.m. lineup may park their vehicle.
2. the front of the school is a pick-up zone in the afternoon.
Parents are asked to immediately move their vehicle once
their child has been picked up. Parents are also asked to pull
all the way down to the west end of the building when pulling
into the pick-up and drop-off zone.
3. double and triple parking is not permitted and students will
not be dismissed to cars that are double or triple parked.
4. to cross Washington Street at the marked crosswalks.
5. traffic supervisors assist with the safe arrival and dismissal of
students. Traffic supervisors may ask cars to move down to
assist with the flow of traffic in the drop-off and pick-up zone
in front of Benson.
These rules are in place
for the safety of our students
Thank you for your help with this matter and for helping us to keep
school safe for all of our students!
Early Childhood News
What can you do with a huge bag of white packing peanuts, a few sleds and a
bunch of excited kiddos? GO SLEDDING!! That is just what we did in the early
childhood classroom. During the month of January, we learned all about winter, and
the fun things you can do in the snow.
During circle time, we have been working really hard on saying The Pledge of
Allegiance, as well as The Days of the Week and The Months of the Year. We
continue to work on expanding rote counting skills as well as patterning. As a great
to integrate math and science we made snow to put into the sensory table. During
art activities we made name snowmen and tissue paper mittens.
We are almost completed with writing uppercase alphabet letters. We will continue
to practice uppercase letters and introduce lowercase letters. We have been
working on numbers 1-8.
During the month of February we will be learning about the Solar System and
Valentine’s Day.
If your child does not have an extra change of clothing/gym shoes in their locker,
please send them as soon as possible.
Please keep in mind that the Early Childhood Classroom is peanut/nut free.
The Early Childhood Team
Let it SNOW! This month in K-Prep our theme is Winter and our
favorite thing about winter is SNOW. So in centers instead of
playing with real snow we played with fake snow (shaving
cream).
We read amazing books all about snow. Some of our favorites
were: Snow Family, Snowball, Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do
You Hear?, The Mitten and The Hat. We have been focusing on
the beginning of the story, the middle and the end. Some of us
are getting great at retelling the story.
We have covered letter M,N,O,P and Q. We are matching pictures
to letter sounds and we are printing the correct letter formation.
In morning work, we are reviewing the letters to get extra
practice with letter formation.
We have a number snowman that we toss bean bags on the say
the number, count to that number and print on the white board
that number.
We are also working on counting backwards and finding the
missing number.
We continue to work on patterns and rhyming during calendar
time.
Our most favorite thing is watching Super Simply Songs on You
Tube, our absolute most favorite song Little Snowflake, and they
ask every day to watch it. It is so cute it will melt your heart!
Here is the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbbKjDjMDok
Thank you for decorating the hearts, they turns out GREAT!
K-prep will pass out Valentine’s on February 13th. Please have
students just sign their names, please do not address them to
anyone. It’s just easier to pass out this way.
Thank you to our Mystery Readers and Fruit Fresh volunteers.
KINDERGARTEN NEWS
Happy winter! Each day we have been adding winter words to our word
wall! When the word is introduced the students try to figure out the
word by putting the beginning sounds together while thinking of things
associated with winter!
Our language activities now include the following “popcorn” words-GO,
WE, TO, ON, I, A, THE, LIKE, AM, and MY. We are learning about cause
and effect, making predictions and connections when reading stories.
When we are reading our pre-decodable books we are becoming more
confident by reading fluently and with expression. Sentence writing has
become part of our language work too. We are focusing on starting
with a capital letter, leaving spaces between words, and using
punctuation at the end of the sentence.
In Math we have been working with numbers 20-100. We are using a
100 chart to see the patterns in numbers and to find “big” numbers.
Using a 10 frame we are counting groups of 10 to 100, and we have
been practicing proper number writing.
NEWS FROM FIRST GRADE
We have been so busy in first grade. We are well into our third reader from our
basal series entitled Here and There. We continue to build our vocabulary, decoding
skills and comprehension on a daily basis. The children are really progressing in their
reading skills. Please stress
at-home reading on a nightly basis. This includes a parent read-aloud and or independent
student reading. This practice helps to reinforce the skills taught in school and improves
fluency. In addition to the shared reading experience that our basal provides, the children
are also reading books which are leveled and appropriate to their reading level. While the
teacher is meeting with a small group of students, the rest of the class is actively engaged
at Literacy Centers. These centers may include: using the classroom computer to
reinforce different skills, listening to a book on tape, working on an art project, “Working
With Words”, independent reading or writing activities.
In math, we are learning to add and subtract with tens and ones and will soon
begin topic 11 which is subtracting with tens and ones. Don’t forget to use addition and
subtraction flashcards. All of the first graders are doing eight-minute weekly timings.
These weekly timings assess accuracy and speed mixed facts.
We just concluded a science unit investigating the properties of solids, liquids and
gases. The students conducted experiments with these states of matter.
In Social Studies we will be learning all about two famous men born in the month
of February (Abe Lincoln and George Washington). We will be reading about them,
writing about them and doing some fun art projects. At the conclusion of our study of
these men, we will begin a unit on Dental Health.
We are really stressing using proper language mechanics in our daily crosscurricular writing. The children should be using our Word Wall and spelling dictionaries
to attempt proper spelling of high frequency words. We embrace the 6 + 1 Traits of
writing. So far our first graders have learned about generating ideas for their writing,
conventions (punctuation) and are beginning to discuss sentence fluency.
Once again, we would like to thank our first grade parents for their involvement
in the education of their child. It is a partnership.
News
Grade
from
Second
It’s hard to believe that we have completed half the
school year!
During the month of February, Second Grade
students will be reading a variety of stories including
“Dear Mr. Blueberry”, “Cool Ali”, and “The Emperor’s Egg”.
Some of the skills the students will be learning about are
cause and effect, oi/oy words, adjectives, oo/ue words,
and antonyms. With the completion of these stories, we
will once again be giving Reading assessments at the end
of February.
Second Grade students are continuing to sharpen
their math skills by adding and subtracting three digit
numbers. They are also working on improving their quick
recall of both addition and subtraction facts.
Our Health unit during the first part of February is
learning about our hearts. We’ll finish up the month with
a unit about germs.
We are always busy learning about the 6 + 1 Writing
Traits (ideas, conventions, voice, word choice, sentence
fluency, organization, and presentation). Your child will
be writing a variety of papers with emphasis on learning
more about these traits.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Notes from the
The month of January has seen the music room full of singing, instrument playing,
rhythm clapping, and improvising. Here are some highlights of student experiences:
Music Room
•
1st Graders have been preparing for their recent “Snowflakes” informance and
learning important tools to use when performing in front of an audience. Students
have also been mastering how to recognize, count, and perform quarter notes,
eighth notes, and quarter rests. These durations of sound and silence have
allowed them to compose songs as a class, play rhythm games, and perform
rhythms on classroom instruments. Students have also been learning about two
pitches within the major scale, Sol and Mi, which they have used to sing songs
and create melodic patterns.
•
2nd Graders are studying different styles of music and the rhythms that create
different sounds. Recently, students learned how to improvise on instruments
and create their own rhythms along with music. They have been studying musical
phrases, form, and lyrics through body movement. Students have discovered
that taking risks in music and creating different rhythms and sounds can produce
an exciting new creation! While singing our warm up songs, students have
learned the word “octave” and how musical notes are a pattern that repeat over
and over again.
Encourage your child to sing for you at home! Ask them to demonstrate their favorite
song from music, or to make up a song about a specific topic. Happy music making!
First grade artists are learning about Pop artist, Jim Dine and creating their
own Pop art hearts. We started by creating a heart shape on our papers. Next, we used
warm colors and cool colors to add color to our artwork, carefully blending with oil
pastels. The final step was tracing the heart with black oil pastel and blending along the
edge to give the hearts a three-dimensional look.
Second graders are learning about artist, Marz Jr. and viewed images of
his illustrations. Students discussed what a cityscape is and created their own skyline that
included at least one famous building. We reviewed warm and cool colors as well as
watercolor blending techniques. Our final steps for this project are to transfer our
drawings onto scratch foam and create prints. Students will be applying the block printing
technique using brayers, barens and ink to create their cityscapes.
Student artwork will be displayed throughout the school as well as the
community, including locations such as the District Office, Village Hall and Starbucks!
If your child has work on display a postcard will be sent home so, please stop by these
locations to see all of our wonderful artwork! The artwork shown is selected randomly
and is changed every few weeks or so. I am very proud to be able showcase the students’
artwork within the community! Please check Artsonia frequently to see new artwork,
leave comments or join a fan club for your artist! Students love to see comments and
have fan club members!
Parents, if you ever have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to call
or email; I appreciate all parents’ input!
Lauren Marino
Art Teacher
Benson/Franzen
630-773-4018
lmarino@itasca.k12.il.us
BENSON
@ BEDTIME
Families can call 773-1232, press “5” and then one of
the extensions listed below ANYTIME of the day or night
to hear a short story read aloud by a Benson Primary
student. Volunteer students record at school, and the
stories are available for several days before a new
reader makes his or her debut.
The stories and readers change frequently, so make
Benson@Bedtime a part of your bedtime routine!
Call 630-773-1232 … press “5” …then …
“1579”
“1502”
1/30
2/3
2/6
2/10
2/13
2/17
2/20
2/24
3/3
Mina Carey
Nolan Hatfield
Martina Passarelli
Brody Kelly
Lilly Kent
Dior Hearn
Nikoleta Pisanko
Rachelle Orrico
Daniella Rottinger
OR
1/30
2/3
2/6
2/10
2/13
2/17
2/20
2/24
3/3
Do you want to be a
Benson@Bedtime reader?
Just contact Mrs. Reuter by note,
phone 630-773-0554, or e-mail
(areuter@itasca.k12.il.us)
to be put on the schedule!
Matthew Poe
Gina DeSantis
Ava Garcia
Giulena Carello
Kadince Zuniga
Joyce Chen
Basia Papuga
Sahasra Boyina
Maggie Frank
SECOND GRADE FAMILIES ONLY
PLEASE JOIN US FOR BENSON PRIMARY’S
MOM & ME
READ
Come to school and enjoy a book together!
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18
8:00 A.M. – 8:45 A.M.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
Do not bring food or beverage with you into the school
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
PARK IN THE EAST BUS LOT NOT IN THE ST LUKE’S LOT
What if you have a second grader … and a child in another grade at Benson, too? If
you want quality one-on-one time with your second grader, leave the other youngsters
at home. If you want to make this a family reading event, bring the whole gang.
Students will be supervised in the library from 8:45 – 8:55 a.m. If a mother is unable to
attend this event, an adult family member or friend may attend in his place. Please
contact Mrs. Reuter with any questions: areuter@itasca.k12.il.us or 630-773-0554.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please return the RSVP below by Wednesday, March 4
Yes! We will be attending the second grade MOM & ME READ on
Wednesday, March 18 from 8:00 – 8:45 a.m.
Child(ren) name(s): ____________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Adult name: _____________________________________________
Look for collection cans
(decorated by Benson second graders)
in Itasca businesses this week.
The Itasca Bank has donated a
coin counting machine to help us
with all of the pennies, nickels,
dimes, quarters.
We can count the dollars on our own!
Please give thoughtful
consideration to
participating in this
annual fundraiser.
THE RONALD McDONALD HOUSE
THE RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE provides housing close
to hospitals for families of ill children, where they are able
to comfortably stay during their child’s treatment and
recovery.
Benson Primary School has gathered pop tabs for THE RONALD
MCDONALD HOUSE for over thirteen years! The Ronald
McDonald House collects the tabs for the aluminum content - the
tabs are more manageable to store than entire cans. The Ronald
McDonald House receives 40+ cents per pound of tabs, which
allows them to raise over $5000 per year. (Information provided by The Ronald McDonald
House, Chicago, IL)
We continue our support for several reasons. Giving our students
the opportunity to help other children increases their
understanding and ownership of making a difference in the lives
of others. Every child in our school can easily participate in
collecting pop tabs. Second graders count and report tab totals
to the student body and community on a regular basis. The
“tab”ulation math activities (measurement, estimation, addition,
subtraction, problem solving) build on one another, developing
from week to week.
To date, Benson Primary
has delivered over
2,817,581 pop tabs to the
RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE!