Recent Academic Success and Awards:

Bottenfield Team Places 2nd in Battle of the Books

May 21, 2009

Bottenfield's team won 2nd place in the afternoon division for the Battle of the Books competition! Our team's participants, grades 3-5, read 30 picture books by or about African Americans and answered either multiple choice, true/false, or "what is the title of ..." questions. The team met three times a week from mid December through February. The meetings took place 45 minutes before school at the Bottenfield library. It was great fun, but the group also worked hard and learned a lot about team building!

Thanks to the Champaign Public Library for setting up and running the competition. Thanks also to Ms. Plaut, librarian at Bottenfield, for selecting the team and supporting them the whole way.

World Music Ensemble: Bottenfield Students Performed at Spurlock Museum

May 21, 2009

Bottenfield students who are members of the World Music Ensemble performed at Spurlock Museum in preparation for their performance there on Saturday, April 18th at 10:00. The Bottenfield students in the ensemble have been working hard with their music teacher, Amber Owens, in a year long project that was funded by the CU Schools Foundation, the Bottenfield and South Side PTAs, the Spurlock Museum, and the Illinois Arts Council. The students have been rehearsing weekly after school since the beginning of the year. The students in this ensemble have learned to play a variety of world instruments such as anklungs, tongatongs, guiros, agogo bells, drums, and other percussive instruments and developed a greater appreciation for the music and dance of a wide variety of cultures, including West African, South East Asian, North Asian, Middle Eastern, and the Caribbean. This program has established young musicians who reflect the growing diversity of our multi-cultural community.

Golden Apple Award

May 21, 2009

Kindergarten teacher, Sandy Newport, is a Golden Apple recipient for this school year.  Congratulations to Sandy!  We appreciate all of her hard work and dedication to our students.

Bottenfield PE Teacher Wins Eastern District IAHPERD Teacher of the Year Award!

May 21, 2009

Physical Education Wendy Huckstadt won the Eastern District IAHPERD Teacher of the Year Award for 2009.  Mrs. Huckstadt's dedication to her students and for her high levels of academic excellence in physical education are the reasons for this recognition.

State of Illinois Academic Excellence Award

May 21, 2009

Bottenfield Elementary has continued to achieve an overall 90 percent pass rate in both reading and math.  Attaining this level of success for 3 consecutive years earned us the Award For Academic Excellence from the Illinois State Board of Education.  We are 1 of 338 schools in the state to receive it.  We are among the more unusual recipients because most recipients have a student population of only 15% free and reduced lunch, our school's student population is at over 30% free and reduced lunch.

*For more information on Bottenfield's 2008 scores please see our Interactive Illinois Report Card.

 Recent Service Projects:

Students, Parents, Staff, and U of I Students Improve the intermediate playground

October 4, 2008

Oct 4, 2008 was a good day for Bottenfield Elementary School. Bottenfield wants to thank UofI students from the IHelp program, Bottenfield parents, and students for volunteering their time, effort, and equipment to improve our intermediate playground. We were able to repaint our soccer goals, reshape the playground layout, repaint some equipment, install a volleyball net, and spread about 8-10 truck loads of bark chips. The new volleyball net will allow for PE instruction and neighborhood fun.

Bottenfield students really have a HEART!

April 2009

Through Physical Education class, students learned about heart health and heart disease.  Then they participated in either HOOPS FOR HEART or JUMP FOR HEART. The event, held April 28, 2009 promoted community service by raising funds to support lifesaving heart and stroke research and educational programs while teaching physical fitness. Classes joined together and enjoyed heart- healthy stations that were either jump rope or basketball skills or games.  Some of the kid’s favorites were the Jump Stick, the skip it, and, of course, knock out!  Everyone enjoyed the nice  sunny weather, and, thanks to Mr. Thomas, Mrs. Owens, and 5th grade helpers, we all had fun! The donations totaled:  $5,691.84! This is $1,356.86 more than what we collected last year!

American Cancer Society

May 2009

Bottenfield raised $533.33 for the American Cancer Society in honor of Deb Woodworth and sent a team to the Relay for Life on May 17, 2008.