Benton Weekly Update
Week 30: March 29-April 1, 2021
Spring Break!
This is a 4-day week as Spring Break begins Friday. (Am I allowed to say, "woo-hoo!"?) Monday and Tuesday are regular days, Wednesday is period 5B, and Thursday is a minimum day with 20-minute classes beginning at 9am and the school day is over at 10:35. School resumes on Monday, April 12th.
Yearbooks are now on Sale for $20, you can pay in the office or on the webstore.
Speaking of the yearbook, we're building a "FRIENDS" page and if your 8th grader has been friends with another Benton student since elementary school or before, send us a picture of the friends then and now. We are also still accepting photo submissions of how you're Learning at Home. Send all photos with full names, captions to Ms. Pflanzer vpflanzer@nlmusd.org.
Students complete their Digital Citizenship lessons on Wednesday this week. With so much of our lives being conducted online, it is important for students to understand how to navigate safely in a digital world. Ask your child about what they have learned and take this opportunity as a family to decide how you will help them safely interact online.
Be sure to scroll on down for our Spotlight on Learning and what's coming up this week.
Women's History Month: Martha Graham, Dancer, Choreographer, Innovator
TIME magazine named Martha Graham “Dancer of the Century,” and People magazine named her among the female “Icons of the Century.” As a choreographer, she was as prolific as she was complex. Graham created 181 ballets and a dance technique that has been compared to ballet in its scope and magnitude. Her approach to dance and theater revolutionized the art form and her innovative physical vocabulary has irrevocably influenced dance worldwide.
In 1926, Martha Graham founded her dance company and school, living and working out of a tiny Carnegie Hall studio in midtown Manhattan. In developing her technique, Martha Graham experimented endlessly with basic human movement, beginning with the most elemental movements of contraction and release. Using these principles as the foundation for her technique, she built a vocabulary of movement that would “increase the emotional activity of the dancer’s body.” Martha Graham’s dancing and choreography exposed the depths of human emotion through movements that were sharp, angular, jagged, and direct. The dance world was forever altered by Martha Graham’s vision, which has been and continues to be a source of inspiration for generations of dance and theatre artists.
Martha Graham’s uniquely American vision and creative genius earned her numerous honors and awards, such as The Laurel Leaf of the American Composers Alliance in 1959 for her service to music. Her colleagues in theater, the members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local One, voted her the recipient of the 1986 Local One Centennial Award for Dance, not to be awarded for another 100 years. In 1976, President Gerald R. Ford bestowed upon Martha Graham the United States’ highest civilian honor, The Presidential Medal of Freedom, and declared her a “national treasure,” making her the first dancer and choreographer to receive this honor. Another Presidential honor was awarded Martha Graham in 1985 when President Ronald Reagan designated her among the first recipients of the United States National Medal of Arts.
Spotlight on Learning: 7th Grade Social Science
Students in Mr. Easton's Honors Social Science used the app Chatterpix to create a mini report on a cultural element from Medieval Japan. Watch the mouths in the images; in Chatterpix you can upload an image and have the mouth move as if the image is speaking. Here are Jane's and Rafael's reports.
Spotlight on Learning: 8th Grade Science
What's up this week?
After School Tutoring
Wednesday is Period 5B 9am-10am.
Log into your period 5B Zoom from 9-10, then work on homework, projects, reading, other asynchronous work.
Cesar Chavez Day 3/31
Friday ~ Spring Break Begins
Friday is the first day of Spring Break, there is no school.
Students return to school on Monday, April 12.
Passover 3/27-4/4
Easter Sunday 4/4
Yearbook Photos: Send in YOURS by Friday this week!
8th Graders: we're building a "FRIENDS" page and if you have been friends with another Benton student since elementary school or before, send us a picture of the friends then and now.
Space permitting, your photograph could appear in the 2020-2021 Yearbook. Yearbooks will go on sale in the Benton office and on the Webstore for $20.
Opportunities for 8th Graders attending La Mirada High School
Register for La Mirada HS Cheer Try Outs
La Mirada HS Color Guard
Find out more about Benton!
Want to learn more about Benton? Click here for a Bitmoji tour of Benton and its programs!
Need to speak with the School Counselor? The Doctor is In!
Weekly Wellness with Ms. Allie
Hi guys,
I hope you are still off to a strong start with completing your work and getting everything in on time. Here are a few questions for this week! Click on this link here. Have a great week everyone (:
Clubs, Clubs, Clubs!
Chess Club ~ Tuesdays 2:30-3:15pm
Join the Bible Club
Join the Benton Dance Club!
Join The Diversity Club!
The Schoology GROUP code (not a course) to join is 9R3C-297K-7Q89Q.
Updated Learning/Zoom Expectations
Distance Learning Support
About Us
Email: rridgeway@nlmusd.org
Website: bentonms.org
Location: 15709 E. Olive Branch Drive, La Mirada, CA 90638
Phone: (562) 210-2500
Facebook: facebook.com/bentonmiddleschool
Twitter: @BentonPrincipal