Benjamin Broadcast

Dear Benjamin Families,

Welcome to the 2017-18 school year! Thank you to all who attended Back to School/Open House Night and to all who will attend Curriculum Night this Thursday. We love how involved you are in your child’s education, and we appreciate partnering with you, as we work to help all students learn and grow.

We have had a great start to the school year, and we are looking for-ward to all that this year will bring.

We are currently MAP testing to see where our students are and how we can help support them.

The trail to connect The Grove at Kickapoo Creek Subdivision to Benja-min was completed this summer, and we have many walkers, bikers, and scooter riders using it to get to and from school each day. We are exploring our options for an additional bike rack, and we are thankful for offers that have been made to help with purchasing another bike rack. We will keep you posted.

Sincerely,

Marlys Bennington-

benninmm@unit5.org

Principal

Happy Fall to our Benjamin Families!

McLean County Unit District 5

August/September 2017

Volume 8 Issue 1

New Staff 2

IMC News 2

Dine to Donate 3

Music & Chorus 4

School Pictures 4

Calendar 5

PTO News 6

Inside this issue:

Thank you for help-

ing to make our

drop off and pick up

to go smoothly! We

appreciate your help

and your attention

to the safety of our

students, staff, and

families.

Wednesdays are

designated as Spirit

Wear Days. Students

& staff may wear

Benjamin Bear

clothing or orange &

black.

Lunch & Recess Time Changes 2017-18

11:00-11:25 Lunch/11:25-11:50 Recess - K & 4th

11:30-11:55 Lunch/11:55-12:20 Recess - 1st & 3rd

12:00-12:25 Lunch/12:25-12:50 Recess - 2nd & 5th

Lockdown & Evacuation Drills

On September 7th, we will be practicing our lockdown and evacuation drills. Stu-

dents and staff will lockdown in classrooms. Once given the all clear sign, we will

all take buses to Eastview Christian Church. We will be practicing getting students

safely, quickly, and efficiently out of the building and to the evacuation site. Each

year our students do an excellent job with this. We look forward to another success-

ful set of drills.

Curriculum Night ~ Thursday, August 31st

You are invited to the Benjamin Elementary School Curriculum Night, a special parents only event ~no children, please. This is an evening for parents to meet their child’s teacher and hear more about the learn-ing that takes place every day in their classroom. The two classroom presentations will be identical, allow-ing you to attend for more than one child. Stop by the IMC to see all of the area teachers and learn more about our new Maker Space and Lego Wall.

The schedule is as follows:

6:00-6:25 pm Classroom Presentations/Area Staff in IMC

6:30-6:55 pm Classroom Presentations/Area Staff in IMC

7:00-7:15 pm Standards Based Grading Presentation—Gym

Please join us in welcoming the

following new staff members:

1. Ms. Alesha Angsten—2nd

Grade

2. Ms. LeAnn Blachowicz—PE

Sub for Mr. Delveaux

3. Mrs. Kristen Hammer—

Paraprofessional

4. Mrs. Alli Nord—Learning &

Behavior Specialist

5. Mrs. Karen Reichard—

Nurse

6. Ms. Tracy Smith—

Kindergarten

Our annual Fall Book Fair is scheduled for September 25-29. Be on the look out for information on great books and special events during that week. Our Ben-jamin community always does an amazing job of supporting our book fair. This allows us to bring our students and teachers great new books and learn-

ing opportunities. Thank you for your support!

Stop by and check out our new Lego Wall. It is part of our Maker Space, which is an area for cre-ative thinking, problem solving, and designing. We are very excited to see what students will create this year!

New Staff

IMC News & Notes

Student Birthdays

In accordance with Unit 5 Board policy, students may not

bring edible birthday treats to school. We do value and enjoy celebrating our students’ birthdays

throughout the school year. If you would like to send a small token for each student in your

child’s class on their birthday, you may do that. Some examples of items that have been brought

before are pencils, Play-doh, spinning tops, and more. We also have a small gift that we give to

each child on their birthday. If you have questions, you may contact our office.

PBIS Expectations

The Benjamin behavior

expectations are available on

our school website.

Students were taught these

expectations during the first

few days of school. Please

take a minute to review

these with your child. You

will find them under the

Students & Parents tab, by

clicking on Behavior

Expectations. Thank you.

Page 2 Volume 8 I ssue 1

If you are interested in volunteering in the library we would love to have you! Please email Mrs. Mroz at mrozjm@myunit5.org. It is an awesome oppor-tunity to make an impact in our school. Volunteers work on checking out books to students, check-ing books in, and shelv-ing. Thank you for con-sidering!

Did you know that any State Farm

employee who volunteers 40 hours

in one year for Benjamin can raise

$500.00 for our school? The em-

ployee does not have to be a Benja-

min parent. The hours can be

spent doing a variety of tasks, in-

cluding but not limited to, class-

room help, PTO meeting attend-

ance, PTO phone call reminders,

office help, clerical work, and bulle-

tin boards. Work can even be

completed at home many times. If

you work at State Farm or know

someone who does who would like

PTO/State Farm Good Neighbor Grants

Breakfast

Did you know that we serve breakfast

every morning at Benjamin from 7:25-

7:40 am? The cost for breakfast is

deducted off of your child’s Skyward

lunch account. If you qualify for free

or reduced lunch, your child will also

receive free or reduced price breakfast.

Please talk with your child about

whether they have your permission to

purchase breakfast.

Page 3 Benjamin Broadcast Volume 8 I ssue 1

Welcome to a new school year at Benjamin Elementary! We would like to welcome Ms. LeAnn Blachow-icz (see p. 2) to the PE department. She is subbing for Mr. Delveaux who is recovering from back sur-gery. We wish him a full and speedy recovery. Ms. Blachowicz is from Bloomington/Normal. She taught 4th and 5th grade in Wisconsin for the past 11 years. She is happy to be back in the area and loves work-ing with our Benjamin Bears. Our classes have been reviewing physical education expectations and we will be starting our Project Fit America challenges. Please help your child remember to bring/wear ten-nis shoes daily for PE. Thank You, Ms. Myers Ms. Blachowicz

PE Shorts

Benjamin’s First Dine to Donate at Chick-Fil-A

September 19, 2017

Between 5:00 pm-7:00 pm, 15% of all Benjamin Elementary sales will

be donated to the school! Remember to tell the team member taking your order that you are

supporting Benjamin, or bring in your Spirit Night Flyer! Invite your friends!

to help, please contact Mrs. Bennington

at 557-4410. We hope to hear from

you! Thank you to those of you who

are already participating in this helpful

program!!

State Farm also has a matching do-

nation program. The Benjamin

PTO is eligible! Any donations

made in the 2017 calen-

dar year are now eligible. So any Unraiser

donations of $25 or more would be

matched by State Farm. This is a common

cash donation example. You will need the

approximate date of your Unraiser dona-

tion (most will be from the end of August)

and the amount of the donation. When it

asks for an email for verification, you can

enter Amanda Fischer’s email, aafisch-

er2@gmail.com, as she is our PTO presi-

dent. Thank you for helping our school in

this way!

NCHS Homecoming Week

NCHS will celebrate Homecoming the week of October 2nd-6th We will

have themed Spirit Days each day of that week. More infor-

mation will be coming home about these special days.

We hope you and your family will join the Ironmen on Fri-

day, October 6th at 7:00 pm for their Homecoming football

game. Remember to wear your orange and black! Go, Iron!

Thank you!!

Vocal Music Concerts 2017-18

We

would

like to thank all of the adults

who volunteered during the

eclipse! You were a huge

help, and we couldn’t have

done it without you!

Thank you to the PTO for

the 14 iPads and cases for

classes to use as a set for

learning opportunities.

How wonderful!!

Thank you to the Scouts

for their donation of a

water bottle filling station

for one of our upstairs

drinking

fountains!

We would

also like to

thank Student Council for

purchasing and donating a

spinner bowl for the play-

ground. It arrived at Benja-

min yesterday and will be in-

stalled soon. The students

are very excited about this!

May when they arrive. If

you want to purchase a

yearbook, it is best to do so

in the winter.

Elementary Parent/Teacher Con-

ferences, 5th grade Band and Or-

chestra Concerts at the Junior

High School, and all the High

School events (Fall Play, Band,

Orchestra, Choir, etc...) that occur

throughout the fall, winter and

spring. Below are our perfor-

mance dates for the upcoming

school year:

Monday, November 20 ***Please

note that this is Thanksgiving

We are very fortunate to be

able to use the auditorium at

Normal Community High

School (3900 East Raab Rd. in

Normal) for our concerts.

Their space provides the ease

of parking, comfortable seat-

ing where everyone can see

their children, and a stage that

fits all of our students and has

good acoustics. Concert dates

have been planned around

week. We have school only on

Monday and Tuesday.***

5:00 pm Kindergarten

6:00 pm 3rd Grade

7:00 pm 5th Grade

Tuesday, December 5 ***Please

note, 5th grade band students will

have a concert on 12/4 at

EJHS.***

5:30 pm 2nd Grade

Chess Club

We are looking for a parent

volunteer to organize our

Chess Club this year. If you

are interested in this

position, please contact Mrs.

Bennington at (309)557-

4410 or at

benninmm@myunit5.org.

Thank you to Mrs. Ann

Groonwald for serving in

this role the past several

years! We appreciate all

she has done!

Page 4 Benjamin Broadcast Volume 8 I ssue 1

School pictures will be tak-

en on Thursday, August

31st. All students will be

photographed. This way

all of the children will have

their photo in the year-

book. If you wish to pur-

chase a picture packet,

please return your money

in the envelope that was

sent home with your child.

Picture packets must be

paid for in advance. If you

are not satisfied with your

child’s portrait or if your

child is absent on August

31st, picture retakes will be

held later this fall. If you

have any questions, please

feel free to contact the office

at 557-4410.

Yearbooks will be sold later

this winter and will be deliv-

ered in May. Flyers will be

sent home and announce-

ments will be made each

morning for a couple of

weeks. We order a few ex-

tras, but they sell quickly in

School Pictures/Yearbooks

Have a growlin’ great

day!

7:00 pm Chorus

Thursday, April 26

5:00 pm 4th Grade

6:00 pm 1st Grade

700 pm Chorus

3rd-5th Grade Chorus

3rd-5th Grade Chorus will be held again on Wednesdays this

year, from 2:30-3:30 pm. Wednesday, September 20th will

be the first day. Information will be on our website starting

September 1st.

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. Transporta-

tion 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 collabora-

tion, which will improve classroom instruction, enhancing the learning

opportunity for students, despite the state’s financial crisis. Research

supports ongoing, sustained, 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 train-

ing.

Upcoming Late Starts: Aug. 30th , Sept. 13th & 27th

Benjamin Elementary School

6006 Ireland Grove Rd.

Bloomington, IL 61705

http://www.unit5.org/Domain

/9

Aug. 28 5th Grade Band/Orchestra Starts

Aug. 30 8:45 am ~ Late Start

Aug. 31 School Pictures

6:00-7:15 pm ~ Curriculum Night

Sept. 4 Labor Day ~ No School

Sept. 5 School Improvement Day ~ No School

Sept. 7 Lockdown & Evacuation Drills

Sept. 11 6:30 pm ~ PTO Meeting in IMC

Sept. 13 8:45 am ~ Late Start

Sept. 19 5:00-7:00 pm ~ Chick-fil-A Dine to Donate

Sept. 20 2:30-3:30 pm ~ Chorus Begins

4:30 pm ~ Normal West Homecoming Parade

Sept. 22 Normal West Homecoming Football Game

Sept. 25-29 Book Fair

Sept. 27 8:45 am ~ Late Start

2:30-3:30 pm ~ Chorus

Oct. 2-6 Homecoming Week for NCHS

Oct. 9 No School ~ Columbus Day

Oct. 16 6:30 pm ~ PTO Meeting in IMC

Oct. 18 8:45 am ~ Late Start

Oct. 31 1:30 pm ~ Classroom Parties

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 5 Late Starts During the 2017-2018 School Year

Please Help Us

We are working to keep

our school grounds

looking beautiful. One

way we do this is by us-

ing the sidewalks, in-

stead of walking

through the grass.

When you are visiting or

picking up your

child(ren) after school,

please use sidewalks to

help us with this.

Thank you!

PTO News ~ We have a lot of great information this

month from the PTO. Please see additional attach-

ment that came with the Skyward newsletter email.

Benjamin Car Window Cling Decals The PTO is selling Benjamin car window decals for $3.00 each. If you are interested in pur-chasing one, please send your money to school in an envelope. 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 classroom. If you have questions, you may contact Angela at a.redinbo@gmail.com.

Thank you for supporting our school!

Non-custodial Parent Forms

Non-custodial parent forms are available in the office. These forms, when completed and signed, allow us to

send copies of report cards, progress reports, etc... to parents who do not have custody of their child but want to

take an active interest/role in their child’s education.

Our feeder schools are George Evans Junior High School and Normal Community High

School. You can check out their websites to see the great activities that are going on through-

out the year. This is a good way to build school spirit in your child and to get them excited

about being a future Evans Eagle and Normal Ironman!