Ms. Hardeman's Classroom Edit display name

Past projects 6

• Integrating Science and Literature

  Funded Oct 19, 2016

  Thank you for your contribution to my classroom. Because of you, my students now have a full science library with books that cover each of the topics we study throughout the course of the year. We use these books in many ways. I mainly use the books to introduce science concepts and topics. The books, because of their high quality graphics, are usually much more accessible for and engaging to the students than our textbook.

  I have used the books in centers and had students go on information hunts to learn more about a given topic. The students love to read the books during their free time and take AR tests on them. We have multiple copies of some of the books that we use during reading small groups to practice reading informational texts.

  I could go on and on with examples of how we use our science library and how big of an impact it has had. However, this is most illustrated by one simple thing- the fact that my students are constantly asking to read from the science library. I can not count the number of times one of them has come up to me to share some random fact they learned from a book. None of this would be possible without your contribution.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Hardeman

  This classroom project was brought to life by The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation and 9 other donors.

• Engaging, Relevant Texts for Literacy

  Funded Oct 10, 2016

  Thank you for your contribution to my classroom. My students are really enjoying their subscriptions to Time for Kids and Scholastic Magazine. They are great resources for practicing reading informational texts. Each magazine comes with a teacher's guide that includes standards alignment and corresponding worksheets.

  For the last couple of months I've begun integrating the magazines into our weekly homework packet. As a result, more students have been completing their homework! Each week the students are able to read the article from the magazine and complete various corresponding activities. The activities include comprehension questions, text feature hunts, and writing prompts. The growth I've seen from my students as a result has been amazing. Their reading stamina is increasing and they're better able to answer text-based questions. This would not be possible without your generous contribution to our classroom.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Hardeman

• Integrating Tech Into Learning

  Funded Jul 7, 2016

  Thank you again for your gift to my classroom. Your contribution has had a tremendous effect on my students' learning. The Osmo learning system is a way to make using the iPads a more active experience for my students. Instead of passively using apps and swiping on the screen, my students are able to use the Words app to build their spelling words. This is by far the most popular reading learning center in my classroom. I love it because it makes differentiating easy. I can quickly create different activities for students on different reading levels using different spelling lists.

  We recently started our geometry unit. My students have always loved tangrams in the past. However, the Osmo Tangrams app has taken this to a different level. The students are able to build their geometric knowledge by composing and decomposing shapes and figures. Again, differentiating is a snap for me because the app comes with levels of varying difficulty. I could go on and on about how much my kids love Osmo and how much it is impacting their learning. But, I think a simple thank you will suffice.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Hardeman

• Classroom Magazine Subscriptions

  Funded Aug 6, 2015

  Thank you so much for your support. As soon as I found out the project had been fully funded, I shared the news with my kids. We visited the Scholastic and Time for Kids websites so that they could see what they will be getting. We spent at least 10 minutes exploring each site. The students were very interested in the sample articles that we viewed. After reading each article, they had tons of questions and thoughts to share. Seeing their level of engagement proved to me just how big of any impact this will have in our classroom this year. I can not thank you enough for your investment in my students.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Hardeman

• Making Math Memorable

  Funded Jul 16, 2013

  Thank you so much for your contribution to our classroom. My students have really enjoyed using the materials you have provided. They were very excited to open the box of classroom materials. They were immediately ecstatic about the number of books we received to add to our math library. They were curious about the other materials, as they were less familiar with them.

  Since receiving the materials, we've used them in a variety of ways. To date, we've done 8 literacy integrated math lessons exploring money, place value, time, and problem solving. Each of these lessons were highly engaging and successful. They allowed the students to connect what we were learning to real life situations.

  We've used the hundreds chart as a part of our daily routine and as a tool for addition and subtraction. I was also able to find printable numbers to extend the chart from 100 to 1000. We've used these additional numbers to study skip counting patterns and counting from random numbers within 1000.

  We've used the magnetic ten frames to build number sense and learn math facts. This tool has been especially helpful for my struggling students. They regularly refer back to the ten frames to aid their thinking.

  We've used the place value board to build understanding of the number system and how to write numbers in various ways. The dice and place value cards have been used in learning centers and sent home to use in activities that reinforce learned concepts.

  I cannot thank you enough for your generosity and contribution to our class.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Hardeman

• Integrating Literacy Into Math

  Funded Oct 15, 2012

  Thank you for your generosity. The books my class received, as a result of your gifts, have been in use since they arrived. I can not describe how excited the kids were as we opened the box of books together. They have abandoned the rest of the books in our library in favor of the new math books during our silent sustained reading period. It brings me joy to have them run up to me with one of the books in hand, pointing at a vocabulary word and exclaiming, "We learned about this!"

  Their independent reading of the books have already begun to impact their learning. There were several students who, having already read My Odd Day and My Even Day, excitedly made contributions to our conversations during the lesson on odd and even. When we read those same books aloud together, the students had a blast pointing out examples of odd and even numbers in the story.

  The kids have been so excited to about these books, that they're even talking about them on the playground. As a result, other teachers have borrowed them for use during their math instruction. So, know that your gifts are having an even greater impact than was intended.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Hardeman

  This classroom project was brought to life by Dream Fund and 5 other donors.