BEN BOLT NEWS

New Year, New Bolts!

As we begin the second half of the school year, and the official start of 2023, we ask that our BEN families and students, both while at home and at school, focus on five New Year’s resolutions.

These resolutions can be found on our school web-site and are also listed here. Throughout the month of January we will be speaking to the students about these resolutions and following up on them during our Sunday calls. We can do this, BEN Bolts!

Please arrive before 8:55 a.m.

Starting January 2nd, we will be working with resolution number one - Be on-time for school. As a reminder to all students and families, the instructional day at BEN begins promptly at 9 a.m. Therefore, it is imperative that all students be on campus no later than 8:55 a.m. Students are, of course, welcome into our building beginning at 8:45 a.m. so our recommendation is to aim for 8:45 as students benefit from these minutes to unpack, settle in, and to get their minds ready for a day of learning. Let’s all try to make being on-time to school a priority in 2023!

Parents and guardians, please note that both the side entry doors and our main lobby doors will now close at 8:55 a.m. If your child arrives at school after this time, a parent or guardian will be expected to park their vehicle along the main driveway and to escort their child into the building to receive a late pass.

Thank you for your help with meeting our first resolution,

Dr. Bevere and Dr. Nieves

Safety Patrols

The Benjamin Franklin 5th Grade Safety Patrol's primary purpose is to enhance the safety of students arriving and dismissed from school. With the support of their Safety Patrol Liaison, Mrs. Wallitsch, all Safety Patrols demonstrate leadership skills and good citizenship qualities such as respect, responsibility, and acceptance. These amazing 5th graders can also be seen promoting those same skills throughout the building being BOLTS and letting their lightning shine!

The Board Game Club

The Board Game Club is a way to get kids off of electronic devices and play hands on board games with their friends. It teaches kids valuable skills such as sportsmanship, taking turns, and teamwork. It will give them the social time that they have missed during Covid. It will provide them the skills of playing a game that is not on a screen. Ms. Gerena used to work in a board game store and her passion was teaching games to customers. Now she shares her love of games with 4th and 5th Grade students. Games connect people and can teach us important skills. This club gives kids the opportunity to be kids again and play games with other students.

Peer Leadership

Peer Leadership: This club is available to fifth grade students. Peer Leadership is a unique leadership program that creates empathy and acceptance leading to inclusion for all children. This program is focused on enhancing students’ leadership skills with a focus on self-care, empathy, kindness, acceptance of others, and the ability to communicate. Peer leaders help run school wide programs to create a stronger school community for everyone! Peer leaders are role models for all students.

Drama Club is designed for students interested in learning more about the aspects of theater. The Drama Club shares the joy of theater and a live performance in a fun environment. We do this by encouraging all students, we hope, to inspire a love and respect for the performing arts. Drama Club also gives students a chance to experience the excitement and rewards of theater arts while developing poise, social skills, confidence and the ability to work with others. This includes learning stage terminology, working on acting skills, set building, and costumes/makeup design.

Garden Club!

The Garden Club is comprised of 4th and 5th grade students. The clubs goals for the year are as follows:

Students will be introduced to the art and science of gardening.

Students will learn about the plant cycle, pollination, nutrition through hands-on experiences.

This club will foster student leadership skills, life skills, and a sense of responsibility to maintain and grow a school community garden 3 tower gardens and recreate a school garden in our courtyard.

Students will assume responsibility for garden planning, care, and maintenance by watering, weeding, planting, and checking ph levels of water for our tower gardens

This club will expose the students to a variety of locally grown produce and provide tastings during our seasonal harvest times.

Students will gain an understanding of what foods grow in each season as well as understand the nutritional and environmental value of consuming foods within their season.

To date, the students of the Garden Club have started to prep to utilize our three tower gardens to begin growing produce through the winter months.

Kindness Club!

The Kindness Club at Ben Franklin School is in full swing again! Our 4th and 5th grade kindness warriors have been working hard and coming up with many ways to promote kindness this school year. With the holidays right around the corner, we made holiday cards for hospitalized children that we will send to put a smile on their faces. We also plan on making care packages for community members who work tirelessly during the holidays to ensure our safety. This year, we have so many unique ideas to encourage and foster a community of kindness in our school and We cannot wait to share them with all of you. Stay tuned! Promoting kindness in our school, community, and nationwide is our mission and we are ready to accomplish it!

One Snowy Night By: Nick Butterworth

Percy the Park Keeper always feeds the animals in the park where he lives. But one cold winter’s night Percy discovers that his little friends need more than food and he must find a way to help them find a warm place to sleep for the night.

Percy’s hut is nice and warm but Percy discovers that if you invite one animal in you’ll have to invite them all in and his hut is only small – it’s certainly going to be a squash!

Book #2 : When Martin Luther King Jr. Wore Roller Skates By: Mark Andrew Weakland

Martin Luther King Jr. led the American Civil Rights Movement. But do you know what he was like as a child? From roller skating to playing football and basketball, Martin was a fun-loving child. This playful story of his childhood will help young readers connect with a historic figure and will inspire them to want to achieve greatness.

Math Olympics Test Prep Challenge Winners:

Grade 2 completed challenging subtraction problems with and without regrouping.

Grades 3-5 completed merry multiplication problems.

Congratulations to Ms. Gerena and Mrs. Zambrano's 2nd grade class, Mrs. Nuzzo's 3rd grade class, Mrs. Parker's 4th grade class, and Mrs. Wallitsch's 5th grade class for all their hard work and improvement shown during this Math Olympics Challenge!