Past projects 10
All Ears for Reading
Funded Oct 20, 2017Thank you so much for your amazing contribution to my classroom. The books and storage bins have been an invaluable asset to my reading instruction. During our literacy block, I have centers for the students to help them practice reading skills such as reading aloud to a buddy, fluency practice, phonics, and listening to a story. With the addition of the books and CDs, I am now able to offer the students more choices in the listening center. This gives students the opportunity to follow along in a story and track the words being read, while listening to a positive example of fluency and prosody.
My students have already greatly benefited from these texts in such a short time. The listening center has now become everyone's favorite center in my literacy rotations. The kids are excited to hear and see all the new books we received from your generous donations.
Your wonderful donations are greatly appreciated by both me and my students. Thanks again for helping improve reading in my classroom.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Thies
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose.org Community and 4 other donors.Listen And Learn!
Funded Apr 20, 2017Where do I begin? Thank you so much for your generous donations to my classroom! The listening center and cart have been wonderful, and the kids enjoy listening to stories with them so much. We had the chance to use the materials for the last month or so of school, which was a perfect activity for the restless little guys.
We used the headphones and CD player during reading groups so the students could listen to stories as part of their center rotations. The students loved wearing the headphones, being able to adjust the volume on their own headsets, and listening to stories that would be too advanced for them to read on their own all while getting to turn the pages by themselves. What a deal! The headphones were definitely the most exciting part of the materials for the students!
Truly thank you so much for your donations for this project. I greatly appreciate all of the help and support it has been with allowing me to set up more fun and interactive reading centers for my students. This will help them be able to track the story while its being read by someone who is an example of a good reader. Developing these skills will help the students become stronger readers. I look forward to continuing to use the listening center in
upcoming school years. Thank you again for your kindness!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Thies
It's All About the Books!
Funded Aug 28, 2013Thank you so much for all of your wonderful help with this project! My students have LOVED using these books! The books are great because the text level, illustrations, stories, all of it are completely accessible to my students! The kids have really enjoyed reading many of these books on their own or with a friend. And of course they love being read to as well! My students can't get enough of these amazing books!
Most of these books are from a recommended list of Common Core books and have themed units and activity ideas to go along with them. My students have really been excited about the themes and activities we have covered so far. I am really looking forward to using the books about the "Weather" theme. We now have some really interesting books with incredible photographs to show different types of weather, super storms, blizzards, etc. It will be great!
Thanks again for your donations for my first graders! It really does make a difference when children can have meaningful experiences with good literature! I am very appreciative of your support!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Thies
Books, Books, Books!
Funded Aug 20, 2013Thank you so much for all of your donations and amazing support of this project! My students were so excited when the books arrived. They haven't stopped asking to use them! They have mentioned how much they love the illustrations and the stories. They really like the non-fiction books too, with all of their "real pictures" as they call them. We have really enjoyed using these wonderful books in our classroom!
The books are from a recommended list and have unit themes to go along with them. We have used all of the books from the "Alphabet" theme to enhance our understanding of the English Language Arts common core standards. Students enjoyed using some of the books in small groups, as well as having some read aloud to them. We even made an alphabet book of our own using a few of the donated books as models. It was great fun! We just started using the "Animal" themed books and are looking forward to many more meaningful interactions with this great literature.
Thanks again for all of your help in making sure my first graders get to have good reading experiences. First rate literature like the books you donated to our class can help ensure that common core standards are met and learned effectively. Thanks for making a difference with my students!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Thies
Have Cart Will Learn...
Funded Feb 23, 2013Thank you all so much for your generous donations for our multimedia cart. My students have really enjoyed using the cart and our other classroom technology. They ask if we can pull it out and use it every day! It has been so wonderful to have such ready access to technology in our classroom on an everyday basis. With the use of the cart and our other technology, I have been able to enhance learning in all of the subject areas. We have used our new set-up to watch movies on anti-bullying, Dr. Seuss, and the life cycle of a frog to name a few topics. We have also learned new vocabulary words, played games, answered comprehension questions, and many other great activities! It has been truly wonderful to have such access to technology on a daily basis. The students have certainly grown with its use and are learning the importance of technology as well. Thank you again for your amazing donations! I greatly appreciate your help and support in furthering the education of my students.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Thies
Techno Tots
Funded Feb 13, 2013Thank you so much for your donations for our projector! My students have been really excited about using it in class and ask for me to use it all the time! We have used it to project student work and project worksheets so we may do them together as a class. Also with the help of the projector, we are now able to use the on-line activities that come with every issue of our Scholastic News. Through these extension activities we have played games, watched movies, answered questions, learned new vocabulary words, and done many more wonderful things! We have really loved having the projector which enhances learning in every subject! Thanks again, so very much for your donations so our classroom may have technology to use everyday!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Thies
Budding Scientists
Funded Aug 10, 2012Thank you so much for your generous donation to my classroom. The science materials have been put to great use in exploration based centers. My students have loved using the pocket charts while learning more about plants and butterflies. The tubs full of science experiments about plants and the weather have also proved to be a big hit. My students love the hands-on experiments presented in these kits. The non-fiction science readers are also so well loved, I have decided to leave the books out for daily use in our classroom library instead of just use them during science centers.
From a teacher perspective, this is a dream come true! Effective and engaging science materials are hard to come by these days especially with all of the budget cuts faced by our schools. So thank you again from the bottom of my heart for helping my little first graders become budding scientists! Without you, we never could have done it!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Thies
Teaching with Technology in First Grade
Funded Mar 17, 2012Thank you so much for this donation! The class really has loved being able to use the document camera, and it makes things so much easier for me as well! Honestly my students weren't quite sure what a document camera would do until I had it set up and working for them...
Receiving the camera when we did was perfectly timed, however. At the end of the school year we do a "big" research project where the students choose an animal, read books, take notes, and write a 10 sentence report on that animal. (A very big deal for first graders!) I was able to use the document camera to project examples of their note taking page and research pages on the board. Using these enlarged examples I was easily able to demonstrate how they should get information from a book and take notes on their note paper. Then I used the note paper to show the students how to turn their notes into a research paper. The students were amazed and excited!
We are looking forward to using it continually in our classroom. With their projects due soon, it won't be long before the students themselves will be using the camera to project their own reports on the board while giving their own presentations! What a great gift this is for these students and my future students as well. Thank you again for your support of this project, technology in classrooms, and furthering education. Teachers couldn't do it without such wonderful donors as yourselves! ”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Thies
Making Scientific Discoveries
Funded Mar 13, 2012My students and I would like to sincerely thank you for your donations to our science curriculum. It is hard to come by good materials that meet the standards. These science materials fit the bill perfectly!
When the materials came, my students were so excited to use them! I had to promise them that I would set up centers for the next day. Once we got the centers going they loved being able to do their own experiments, make their own conclusions, and record what they did. The materials were easy to use, easy to understand, and easy to clean up. All of the activities were hands-on experiments or projects that helped the students understand and practice the standards we were working on.
Since then we have continued to use some of the activities in our free choice centers because they have been so popular! How exciting it is that these little minds are being opened to the interesting world of science! I greatly appreciate your incredible gift to my class and future classes! What a blessing it is to have donors so dedicated to furthering education. ”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Thies
Money Matters!
Funded Mar 1, 2012Thank you so much for your generous donations to my classroom! When the materials arrived, my students were so excited. They couldn't wait to use them! They waited impatiently doing other work while I got things set up so we could use the coins in a math lesson.
Once they did get to use the materials, that is all they wanted to do! They couldn't get enough of counting with the coins. They LOVED being able to do their own work instead of watching me or another student demonstrate for them. They also really enjoyed making the mini-book about adding and subtracting with pennies. For most of the students playing the money bingo game was their favorite activity. All of the materials helped the students be able to practice important skills of counting, sorting, adding, and subtracting with money. They were able to do all of this on their own and in a hands-on way that is so important for students of this age group. What a great help these materials have been and will continue to be for my students!
I cannot thank you enough for your kindness to my class. It makes all the difference for my students to be able to count and sort their own coins while learning about money. With charitable donors such as you, education in our country can continue to get the boost that it needs!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart! ”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Thies
This classroom project was brought to life by Tony and Nanar Yoseloff and one other donor.