Bensalem News and Notes

District Highlights ~ December 2025

We are delighted to showcase the many wonderful activities and events taking place in our schools. We will feature one highlight from every school, reflecting the memorable moments. Additionally, this month, we have included photos from our winter/holiday concerts!

Also included are upcoming Dates to Remember.

Bensalem High School

The Building Bridges lesson series is officially underway! Last week, Valley Elementary’s sixth graders had a special visit from BHS students, who designed and led lessons to help younger peers get ready for the transition to middle and high school. From tackling challenges to building confidence, these sessions are all about preparing students for what’s ahead—and showing them they’re never alone on the journey. We’re so proud of our BHS mentors and can’t wait for the next lesson in the series.

Image of 3 high school students sitting in front of a group of elementary students who are sitting on the floor

Image of 4 high school boys talking to students who are sitting in chairs in c classroom

Image of computer lab with 5 students working on their own computer

Shafer Middle School

Mrs. Carroll’s Future Ready classes at Shafer Middle School took part in the global initiative “Hour of AI.” Students engaged in hands-on activities that blended artificial intelligence and computer science with music, science, and design. The goal of this event was to demonstrate that anyone can learn the fundamentals of coding while increasing awareness and interest in the field of computer science.

Image of computer lab with students working on their own computer

Image of computer lab with 3 students working on their own computer

Image of 2 students smiling at the camera as they work on their projects

Image of students at a science lab table reviewing their work

Snyder Middle School

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania visited Snyder Middle School eighth grade Science classes to study zebrafish genetics. Students were able to observe adult zebrafish, harvest their embryos, and follow the development cycle over the course of the week. They even observed some fish in the process of hatching. The students had a great experience connecting genetics concepts with real life zebrafish action.

Image of a student looking in a microscope examining zebrafish

Image of 4 students working at a lab table in their science classroom

Belmont Hills Elementary School

Belmont Hills sixth graders are gaining a deeper understanding of Earth’s Systems and the interactions between the spheres. The students worked together and built a scaled-down model of the Earth’s surface with several landforms and a model to show the effects of pollution on a watershed. At the end of this topic, students worked on two large-scale projects, creating a screencast video in which they chose an image that allowed them to showcase their mastery of Earth’s Systems and a man-made environmental disaster to educate their classmates on the historic event, and develop a plan to avoid this type of disaster in the future.

Image of 3 students sitting at their desks selling the robots they made with text that says ROBOS

Image of a student looking at the watershed lab they created

Image of a Quest Project displaying an environmental disaster a fire in the middle of the ocean

Cornwells Elementary School

First grade Cornwellians have been working hard on learning and using digraphs sh and th, in their myView lessons. They did a bonus digraph of ch, as well. Students made lists of digraph words and wrote them on marshmallows to make hot chocolate digraph chocolate cups. It was so much fun learning and making their room warm and cozy with digraph treats!

Image of 3 girls and a boy holding a picture of a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows on top

Image of 4 girls and a boy holding a picture of a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows on top

Image of a girl and 2 boys holding a picture of a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows on top

WWF Certificate of Adoption paper with an image of a kola bear hanging on a tree

Faust Elementary School

Students in Mrs. Myers’ fifth grade reading classes at Faust recently explored the impact of habitat loss on animals around the world. Using resources from the World Wildlife Fund, students learned how deforestation, wildfires, and human expansion threaten species like the koala. Inspired to make a difference, the class symbolically adopted a koala to support conservation efforts. This hands-on project helped students connect their research to real-world action and showed how small steps can lead to big change for endangered species.

Image of 21 elementary students standing in their classroom with one boy holding a koala bear stuffed animal

Image of 20 elementary students standing in their classroom with one boy holding a koala bear stuffed animal

Image of 13 elementary students standing in their classroom with one boy holding a koala bear stuffed animal

Image of 3 students doing an experiment at their desks in their classroom

Rush Elementary School

In science, fourth graders at Rush Elementary have been exploring the internal and external structures of plants. As part of their investigation, students conducted a hands-on experiment using celery, food coloring, and water to observe how a plant’s vascular system works. Through this activity, they discovered how the xylem and phloem transport water and nutrients throughout the plant, helping it grow, stay healthy, and survive. Students were excited to see real scientific processes in action and deepen their understanding of how living things function.

Image of students in their classroom completing worksheets

Image of 5 stalks of celery in different colored water

Struble Elementary School

Second grade at Struble Elementary hosted their traditional Gift of Reading event. Students invited one special person to come spend time with them. This event is special because the children and their special person have a sparkle in their eyes as they sit together and read books selected by the children. Some of the books are holiday favorites, some family favorites, and some are new books that the children are excited to share. Second grade calls it the Gift of Reading, but what really becomes the present is their presence. Listening to 7-8 year olds read with such confidence is just the bow on top! The second grade staff hopes that the event brought joy to all who attended.

Image of a boy and a girl sitting on the floor in their class reading their favorite book

Image of a girl and a boy sitting on the floor in their class reading their favorite book

Image of 4 students with headphones on sitting at their computer in class

Valley Elementary School

December 8-12 was Computer Science Education Week! To celebrate at Valley, all first through sixth grade computer classes, including Adaptive, participated in Hour of Code activities. First grade, second grade, and Adaptive classes used Kodable to navigate gingerbread and candy cane mazes and build Fuzz buzzes in their Winter Wonder event. Third through sixth grade used Code.org to complete activities with music, dancing, Minecraft, and AI. They learned about the training process AI goes through with photographs and descriptions, and they discussed how the students are the creators. AI helps generate their ideas, but they choose what to change, keep, and use.