Benjamin Broadcast

Dear Benjamin Families,

Thank you to those who attended

our Fall Parties last Friday. They

are always fun, and it is great to

see so many parents and family

members!

The first trimester ends on Fri-

day, November 11th. Grades will

be available for parents to access

on Skyward on Friday, Novem-

ber 18th at 4:00pm. Parent/

Teacher Conferences will be held

on November 16th & 17th from

3:00-6:00pm. Conferences are a

great opportunity for you to hear

more about how your child is pro-

gressing this year. Remember to

check Skyward Family Access on a

regular basis, as well.

The water bottle filling station pur-

chased with Student Council funds

was recently installed. Students

are enjoying this! Be sure to check

it out. It is attached to our lobby

drinking fountain!

Please contact

our office at

(309)557-4410 if

you have any

questions.

Sincerely,

Marlys Bennington-

benninmm@unit5.org

Principal

Business Bears

Business Bears is an entrepreneurial program where students have the oppor-

tunity to learn about starting a small business. They create their own product,

come up with an advertisement for it, and then sell their products at our Business

Bears Sale. Applications are currently available and are due on Tuesday, Novem-

ber 29th. Students must submit a sample product with their application.

McLean County Unit District 5

November 2016

Volume 7, Issue 3

GROWL Winners 2

Save the Date! 2

Dine to Donate 3

Music & Chorus 3

Calendar 4

Spirit Week Photos 6

Party Photos 7

Inside this issue:

Picture Re-takes

Picture re-takes will be on the morning of Tuesday, November 1st. If your child was absent on School Picutre Day, they will have their pic-ture taken that day. If

your child had their pic-ture taken, and you want them to have a re-take,

please send their original pictures back to school

for Re-takes.

Yearbooks will be for sale later in the year.

Wednesdays are

designated as Spirit

Wear Days. Students &

staff may wear

Benjamin Bear clothing

or orange & black.

United Way Campaign

Our annual United Way campaign will take place the week

of October 31-November 4. Each day, students may bring

donations in the canister provided by their classroom teacher. On

Monday we will be collecting pennies, Tuesday we will collect nick-

els, Wednesday dimes, Thursday quarters, and Friday bills of any

denomination. All containers should be returned by Friday, Novem-

ber 4th. At the end of the week, we will compile all of the money

that has been collected and give it as a gift from the entire school.

The United Way helps many groups throughout our community.

Thank you for your generosity and for making our United Way cam-

paign a success!!

Congratulations to the following

students who were our Septem-

ber GROWL winners:

Adeline Brent (PE Delveaux),

Elijah Jacob (PE Delveaux), Eli-

jah Noll (PE Myers), Makena

Spaid (PE Myers), Jeron Findley

(KF), Finley Robison (KF), Ava

Chatterjee (KH), Natalie Hans-

low (KH), Patrick Garrett (KL),

Maria Taulbee (KL), Sejal Lal

(1A), Jack Peterson (1A), Maris-

sa Dugan (1G), Owen Henderson

(1G), Addison Max (1H), Noah

Rogers (1H), Kaitlyn Call (1S),

Logan Francois (1S), Laynee

Guyse (2F), Grant Stevenson

(2F), Allen Varghese (2G), Zoey

Winchester (2G), William Olson

(2K), Caleb Rademacher (2K),

September GROWL Winners

Classroom Composite Photos

After picture re-takes have

been completed and processed,

Life Touch will send the Class

Composite Photos. Be on the

lookout for these towards the

end of November.

Page 2 Be n ja m in Bro a dca s t V o lu me 7 , I s s u e 3

Students in PE have been busy testing the pole climb (left) and the horizontal ladder (right). Many students have improved their personal scores from previous years. They are excited to be able to succeed and add their names to the Project Fit America wall of fame! We will be having the Hubba Hubba challenge soon as well. We are also fitness testing to see if our students fall into the “healthy” fitness zones according to the standards of the Fitnessgram test. The tests include curl-ups (abdominal strength and endurance), push-ups (upper body strength and endurance), Pacer test (aerobic capacity), and sit and reach (flexibility). It won’t be all testing though….be sure to ask your child about the fun Halloween games we played at the end of October!!

Respectfully,

Todd Delveaux & Jo Myers

PE Shorts

Save the Date!

March 3rd—5:00-8:30 pm Benjamin Carnival (Lights! Camera! Benjamin!)

March 7th— 6:00-7:30 pm Art Show

April 18th—6:00-7:30 pm Science Fair

Addison King (2V), Rachel Thomas

(2V), Logan Lelm (3C), Saleha

Naseer (3C), Quentin Becker (3D),

Dhruti Joshi (3D), Drew Becker

(3E), Maggie Michaels (3E), Walker

Mullins (3P), McKenna Wolenhaupt

(3P), Nikhit Bhamidipati (4G),

Demir Spaulding (4G), Aryan Tum-

mala (4R), Dominic Taulbee (4R),

Noah Eatman (4S), Paige Pollitt

(4S), Corey Arbuckle (5G), Emily

Bianchi (5G), Kale Hunt (5J), Grace

Mavec (5J), Brady Becker (5L),

Caleb Leverton (5L), Tessa Bittner

(5S), and Colin Johnson (5S).

These students celebrated by enjoy-

ing a pizza party with Mrs. Benning-

ton on Thursday, September 15th!

How does a Benjamin Bear receive a

GROWL? GROWLS are earned by

going above and

beyond our expecta-

tions in the areas of

respect, responsibility, or safety.

These are important behaviors

that will allow them to become

successful adults.

Each month, two students from

each class will be drawn from all

of the GROWL winners from that

month. These students will be

rewarded with a pizza luncheon

with the principal. They also re-

ceive a special GROWL medal.

We hope to recognize quality

character in many of our students

throughout the year.

Dine to Donate

Vocal Music & Chorus

Thank you to those who

participated in our Papa

John’s PTO Dine to Do-

nate. $220.00 was raised

to help our school!

Our next Dine to Donates

are coming up soon! Join

us at Buffalo Wild

Wings on November

10th from 5:00-

9:00pm. All dine in and

take out guests must pre-

sent the PRINTED ticket in

order for their food pur-

chase to count towards the

donation back to Benja-

min. Electronic tickets will

not be accepted. Tickets

will be coming home in

folders soon and will also

be available on our Benja-

min Elementary PTO Face-

book Page.

November 15th from 3:00-

9:30pm, please join us at

Orange Leaf for fro-yo! This

would be a great celebratory

treat for your children after

the school music program!

Please mention that you are

there with Benjamin Ele-

mentary, and 10% of the

proceeds will be donated

back to our school.

Thank you to all the families

who donated their time and

food to make our first Late

Start Breakfast success-

ful. We appreciate you!

Amanda Esparza

website. Congratula-

tions, Brooke! We are

proud of you! Abby

Baumann (5S) recently

completed 67 pole

climbs, placing her at

2nd place for Kong

Elite status! Her

name and information

will soon be posted on

the Project Fit America

6:00 - 4th grade

7:00 - 5th grade

December 20

5:30 - 1st grade

7:00 - Chorus - This is a joint concert with Evans Junior High Choir groups. We anticipate a total of 50-60 minutes for all groups.

Here are the dates for our

upcoming music concerts

this year. All Benjamin

music concerts are held at

Normal Community High

School at 3900 East Raab

Rd. in Normal.

November 15

5:00 - 3rd grade

May 11

5:00 - Kindergarten

6:00 2nd grade

7:00 - Chorus

3rd-5th Grade Chorus will be held on Wednesdays from 2:30-3:30 pm., beginning Sept. 14th.

Lost & Found

Lost & Found is

growing everyday.

Please stop by or

have your children

look for items that

belong to them.

Items not claimed by

December 22nd will

be donated to charity.

Page 3 Be n ja m in Bro a dca s t V o lu me 7 , I s s u e 3

On October 18, 2016,

Brooke Lowery (4G) tied

for 1st Place in the Project

Fit America National

Kong Elite Record Hold-

ing for Pole Climbing.

She completed 100 pole

climbs!! Her name and

picture are displayed on

the Project Fit America

Project Fit National Kong Elite Award

site. We are proud of

you, Abby! Way to go!

Unit 5 will implement 12 Late Start Wednesdays this year, which will have all

students arriving one hour later than regular school start times. Elementary

schools will start at 8:45 A.M. on these days. Transportation pick up times will

run one hour later on these days than on regular days.

The purpose of Late Starts is to allow Unit 5 staff members to meet for 90

minutes of job embedded professional development and collaboration, which

will improve classroom instruction, enhancing the learning opportunity for stu-

dents, despite the state’s financial crisis. Research supports ongoing, sus-

tained, results oriented collaboration.

This common meeting time will allow teachers to: continue training in literacy

practices and assessments, develop student achievement goals driven by data,

collaborate in the development of instructional strategies, develop common

course assessments, analyze assessment data to guide instruction, collaborate

on differentiating instruction for students, and enhance classroom technology

integration through training.

November Late Starts: 9th & 30th

Benjamin Elementary School 6006 Ireland Grove Rd. Bloomington, IL 61705

http://www.unit5.org/

Domain/9

Oct. 31st-Nov. 4th United Way Campaign

Nov. 1st Picture Re-takes in the Morning

Nov. 2nd 2:30-3:15 pm Student Council

2:30-3:30 pm Chorus

3:45-430 pm Chess Club Begins

6:30pm Citizen’s Advisory Council Meets at Benjamin in

the Gym

Nov. 9th 8:45 am Late Start

2:30-3:30pm Chorus/3:45-4:30pm Chess

Nov. 10th 5:00-9:00pm Dine to Donate at Buffalo Wild Wings

Nov. 11th End of 1st Trimester

Nov. 14th 6:30pm PTO in the IMC

Nov. 15th 5:00pm 3rd Grade/6:00pm 4th Grade/7:00pm 5th Grade Music

Concerts at NCHS

5:00-9:00pm Dine to Donate at Orange Leaf

Nov. 16th & 17th 3:00-6:00pm Parent/Teacher Conferences

Nov. 18th 4:00pm Report Cards Available on Skyward

Nov. 23rd-25th Thanksgiving Break

Nov. 29th Business Bear Applications Due

Nov. 30th 8:45am Late Start/2:30-3:30pm Chorus/3:45-4:30pm Chess

Benjamin Calendar

Phone: 309-557-4410 Fax: 309-557-4511

Benjamin Mission Statement The Benjamin Bear community will educate and empower all students to be proactive leaders.

McLean County Unit District 5

Late starts during the 2016-2017 school year

We are hosting a book fair,

just for parents!

Our library will be hosting a

parents only book fair during

the evenings of parent/

teacher confer-

ences, November 16th and

17th, from 3:00-6:00pm.

Feel free to stop by to browse

a great selection of book ti-

tles, start your holiday shop-

ping and enjoy some snacks.

We will have some of the

new books we have recently

added to our collection on

display. All of the new titles

were purchased with pro-

ceeds from our last fair. We

look forward to seeing you in

November!

As we enter the season of late fall and winter, please take a moment to review the Unit 5 Handbook for rec-

ommendations regarding sick day guidelines found on page 26 of the link below. http://www.unit5.org/

cms/lib03/IL01905100/Centricity/Domain/49/ElementarySchoolHandbook1415final.pdf

Remember that the number one way to help stop the spread or contraction of any viral/bacterial illness is PROPER

HANDWASHING!! Rem ind your student(s) to w ash hands frequently and correctly throughout the

season. http://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/

***ANY COUGH DROPS CONTAINING MENTHOL, such as the Halls/Riccola brands, REQUIRE a complet-

ed Unit 5 medication form signed by a physician AND parent before the student(s) can use them at school. There

are several types of drops that do not contain menthol (e.g., Citrus Breezers/Ludens). These types do not require a

physician signature.***

Also, remember that if your student requires ANY medication during school hours, the proper form must be

completed. The physician and parent must BOTH sign the form before the medication can be adminis-

tered. This includes any prescription medicines, over-the-counter medications and any medications pre-

scribed by emergency department or immediate care prescribers.

Finally, please remember that as colder weather approaches and hats and coats are worn regularly, it is im-

portant to check your student(s) for signs of head lice. Remind your students that sharing hats, coats and

other clothing is discouraged as a way to reduce spread of the pest. We have not seen any unusual activity

in this area at this time. It is our goal to be proactive and limit any outbreaks in the school. We can better

accomplish this if we are informed of any positive cases.

Thank you for all the support you provide for the students and staff in the area of

health!

Notes from the Nurse ~ Mrs. Murray

Benjamin Car Window Cling Decals

The PTO is selling Benjamin car window decals for $3.00 each. If you are interested in purchasing one, please send your money to school in an enve-lope. On the front of the envelope, include the following information:

Attn: Angela Redinbo/PTO

Child’s Name & Room Code

Angela will pick up orders, and decals will be delivered to your child’s class-room. If you have questions, you may contact Angela at a.redinbo@gmail.com.

Thank you for supporting our school!

NCHS Craft Show

NCHS Bands is holding their annual craft & vendor show Saturday Nov. 12th from 9:00am-

3:00pm at Normal Community High School. There will be 100 booths to shop at, plus a free

children's make-and-take craft table. Wild Style will be there painting faces, & The Unique

Twist will be making balloon characters. Come support the band, have some fun & get some

Christmas shopping done, too!

Homecoming Spirit Week Photos