Past projects 16
Help Young Authors Publish, Collaborate and Share Their Work!
Funded Sep 15, 2015Thank you so very much for your very generous donations. We have been so thrilled to receive these Chromebook computers. It was so exciting to have them arrive and the students were thrilled to try to them out. The process of getting started on them took us much longer than we hoped. We had to jump through some district hoops to get them set up, so our thank you package is coming very late. I apologize.
We are starting to be able to use our Chromebooks to learn both keyboarding and publishing skills. We are able to use our Google accounts on the Chromebooks and within our accounts we are able to use Google Docs and Drive to collaborate on our writing projects. Our students are very familiar with iPads and touchscreens but these computers are giving them some practice with an actual keyboard. We have several students who have found a level of comfort with these that they have not been able to find with "typing" on a touchscreen.
Thank you again so very much!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Harrell
Help Us Take Technology Off the Screen!
Funded Feb 15, 2015We cannot thank you enough for helping to support this project. The Osmo Learning Systems are AMAZING! They are literally the most sought after items in our classroom. When they arrived the children had no idea what they were. Within a few minutes, they had them mastered.
The children LOVE, LOVE, LOVE playing the word game together. They get so excited to build words and race to complete words. They are spelling and making inferences without even knowing it! How often does that happen?
They are obsessed with the Tangram game and the problem solving game. We have even overheard the kids talking about and planning new strategies at lunch and when they are working on other things. It has them thinking!
Thank you so much for making this possible in our classroom!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Harrell
Please Help Us Make Our House a Home!
Funded Sep 17, 2014We cannot thank you enough for your incredible generosity and donations to our classroom project. We have used the materials to make our "house" a school home. All of the materials are used daily!
The beautiful carpet that was purchased through this project has given us a place to sit and listen to stories, to work independently and to work in small groups. It definitely brightens up our learning space. It has even given us inspiration for math problems!
The giant floor mat games give us the opportunity to practice math skills in groups without smashing together around a tiny board. The kids flock to these games when given the choice. We have seen a great improvement in clock skills since we have started using our magnetic wall clock and giant clock game.
We use the document cameras daily to show students examples of problems and to display manipulative use before sending them to use them on their own. Students love to come up and show their work on the document cameras as well.
All of the materials in this project have helped to make life in our classroom better! Our students days are richer and more comfortable because of them. We thank you so much for making this happen!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Harrell
Young Engineers Need Materials to Bring Their Ideas to Life
Funded Sep 5, 2014I cannot thank you enough for the donations you have made to this project. When the materials for this project arrived, it was like Christmas morning in our classroom. We set the materials out on a table for the students to see when they walked in and when they did, it was amazing! They were so excited! They could not wait to bust into those packages and get building and creating!
These materials give our students the opportunity to build and create and explore everyday. We are amazed at the things they have created. They have used Legos to build a home for our Leopard Gecko. They have created chairs and tables out of blocks. They have created bakeries and flower shops out of the Play-Doh. The opportunities they have for creativity and engineering are endless. The conversations that they have and the opportunities for collaboration they have been given are priceless.
Thank you again for providing our students with not only these materials, but the opportunities to learn and grow from them. There are not enough words for us to express how special that has been and continues to be.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Harrell
Help Us MaKey MaKey Something Awesome!
Funded Mar 12, 2014I cannot thank you enough for the amazing gift you gave our class. My students were literally jumping up and down, hugging each other when they heard the news that we were receiving these awesome MaKey Makeys. They were delivered so quickly through Amazon! It was like Christmas morning.
We opened the boxes right up. We had watched videos about the devices before we requested them from Donors Choose, so they had an idea what they did, but I don't think they were prepared for how fun they really are. There was a bit of frustration at first, because they wanted them to work without reading the directions.... but we are problem solvers and they were playing paper pianos and making math cubes into keyboard keys in no time.
We set aside some time each week to "create" and we are getting better and better. It is so wonderful to see how creative my students can be. These little devices could be the catalyst onto the road of engineering and design for one or more of these kids! How amazing is that! Thank you for placing this possibility into their precious hands!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Harrell
Help Us MaKey MaKey Something Awesome!
Funded Feb 27, 2014I cannot thank you enough for the amazing gift you gave our class. My students were literally jumping up and down, hugging each other when they heard the news that we were receiving these awesome MaKey Makeys. They were delivered so quickly through Amazon! It was like Christmas morning.
We opened the boxes right up. We had watched videos about the devices before we requested them from Donors Choose, so they had an idea what they did, but I don't think they were prepared for how fun they really are. There was a bit of frustration at first, because they wanted them to work without reading the directions.... but we are problem solvers and they were playing paper pianos and making math cubes into keyboard keys in no time.
We set aside some time each week to "create" and we are getting better and better. It is so wonderful to see how creative my students can be. These little devices could be the catalyst onto the road of engineering and design for one or more of these kids! How amazing is that! Thank you for placing this possibility into their precious hands!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Harrell
Help Us Tell Our Stories, Even When We Don't Have the Words
Funded Sep 26, 2013Thank you so very much for the incredible gift of your donations. We now have our own photo printer in our room and it makes learning so much fun. We are able to take photos of what we are working on, and we can immediately add them to our work. The photos help to enhance our writing, enable us to document of what we are studying in science, help us to document our processes in math, and the list goes on and on. We keep a board up of things we have done in our classroom and we are able to add to it all the time with this great printer. The students love to see pictures of all the have done and how they are changing and growing.
It has been such a blessing! Thank you so much for this wonderful gift!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Harrell
This classroom project was brought to life by an anonymous donor and 4 other donors.Snap! I Got That! Making Learning Visual!
Funded Jul 10, 2013I cannot tell you how fabulous having these four cameras has been in our classroom. This year we are using Project Based Learning. With Project Based Learning, we are learning through DOING rather than by listening and responding. Our class completed our first project of the year in September. Our town mayor launched our project by coming in and challenging the class to help teach others what good citizenship looks like. He invited them to later come to city hall and present their information and their projects to the city council and city workers. My students were able to not only tell what good citizenship looks like, but they were able to take pictures of what it LOOKED like. They used their cameras and their imaginations to create PowerPoint presentations, videos and posters to show what good citizenship is.
Their presentations were amazing! The mayor and town officials were so impressed with their learning and their presentations. But most importantly, my students were PROUD of their work and themselves for doing such great work.
We have also used the cameras to take pictures of our daily happenings, of science experiments, of our class pets and ant farm. My students know how to use pictures to enhance their learning and tell a story. They have been and continue to be an incredible learning tool. Thank you so much for such a generous and amazing gift!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Harrell
Young Authors And Illustrators Need Supplies
Funded Mar 14, 2013There are not words to describe how excited my students were to receive this amazing package of art and writing supplies. I hope that the photos I have uploaded will help to tell the story. It was like Christmas morning in our classroom!
The supplies have completely changed our room already. My students can not wait to illustrate their writing. They are thrilled to hear, "yes", when they ask if they can use markers to color their illustrations. I am thrilled to answer in the affirmative, because we have enough to go around. They are so excited about having a way to keep all their supplies organized in the desktop containers. We are not wasting time gathering supplies because they are all right at their fingertips. It has been amazing! We are having so much fun with all of it! We are in the process of designing a set for our class play and we would not be nearly as successful, if not for your generous donations.
Your generosity has changed our classroom for the better. I can not thank you enough for all you have done for us!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Harrell
Connecting The Dots In Science
Funded Dec 5, 2012I want to spend a few moments and let you know how incredible your donation has been to our classroom. We received our Hot Dots after recess one day and it was like Christmas had arrived in our room. The kids were amazed at how the wands were able to tell if they had the right or wrong answer. They all took turns using them that first day and as we walked out to our buses that afternoon, they were all still talking about how awesome they are!
Hot Dots are available for the kids to use anytime they finish their work early - and they are one hot commodity. The kids are so proud when they do well, and are constantly coming up to tell me what they are learning. I love that they are so very excited about science concepts.
I am so very grateful to have this fabulous resource available in our classroom, and can't thank you enough for your donations that made it possible!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Harrell