Past projects 4
Whole New World on a Magic Carpet Ride!
Funded Nov 30, 2010When I first wrote this project proposal I remember thinking, "Who will want to donate their hard earned money to a project that is asking for a cosmetic object when there are so many projects out there asking for school supplies or books". If you could have heard the excited words and outcries of joy from my students when the rug arrived, I promise you would have known that your money was well donated! Since their sweet voices are not available today, my letter will have to TRY and do them justice which is no easy task! Every morning we used it to gather around for our morning meeting and before the rug we always had to spend a couple minutes adjusting our circle, solving personal space issues, and worrying about children taking each other's spaces. Once the rug was in place all of these problems vanished and we were able to start our morning off on a great foot. On top of that, the rug lent itself well to our morning meeting games that involved walking in a circle all at the same time, finding letters of the alphabet, and sorting items by colors! Who knew that a carpet could be used as a graphic organizer?
When our language arts block came around the rug was an instant hit for a place to curl up with a fun book. The rug you all funded was top of the line and super plush for the students to sit and lay down on. During quiet time students were asking if they could lay and take a rest on it rather than draw or look at books, and that short rest time really got them ready to get back into learning afterward!
Another final way that this rug has really benefited the classroom and the students is the physical warmth it brings to the room. I have received many compliments from parents, teachers, and even the administration about how it makes the room feel more cozy and welcoming! The principal has even approved the other Kindergarten classrooms to all get the same carpet for next year!
In closing, I will leave you with a direct quote from a student the day I unrolled the carpet. He crawled right over to it, laid his head down, rubbed his cheek on the soft rug and said "this is the best day EVER". Thank you so much for your wonderful donation!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Gavin
Ta He... No, it's "The"
Funded Mar 20, 2011I should feel like a pro at this by now having 4 out of my 4 projects funded on Donors Choose. Yet, I still sit here wondering how to properly thank a kind stranger. I sit and try to figure out how to best describe what their wonderful contribution will do for our classroom. Please know from the bottom of my heart that because of your extremely generous donation, my students for many years to come, will have a more enriching education! If you were to ask my students "why do we need to learn sight words" they would explain to you that sight words can make you a better reading, writer, and speller, and yes they are only 6! However, sight words need to be practiced everyday, flashed and read everyday, and manipulated every day. With class sizes pushing 20 students, that is just not possible for me to do. I try my best to work with small groups of students to learn these new sight words so their reading can take off, but as you can imagine there are MANY things I need to meet with students for, not just sight words.
This is where your donation comes into play! This machine you have help to furnish for our classroom is almost like an individual tutor! I write sight words on these magnetic cards then I record my voice reading them. Children will take turns using the machine to read sight words and if they can't read one, low and behold it is like I am there with them! I think this machine might even need to be named since it will be an important teacher to us!
Like I said earlier, I do not think I displayed my gratitude in full, but I hope I was able to convey even a small part of my thanks to you! ”
With gratitude,
Ms. Gavin
"I Can't See!"
Funded Jul 3, 2010A document camera. Something so simple, mundane, and everywhere when it comes to the business world. However, with your kind donation, a tool that is so coveted and rare in the classroom, is now sitting front in center in our learning environment! When I first wrote up the projects I remember thinking how I would use this piece of equipment, yet when it came, about a million more uses came to mind. Below are a few that the students find the most helpful and engaging: 1) Handwriting: letter formation is tricky for children with small motor delays, yet seeing my hand and movements enlarged to about 3 feet makes it much more manageable.
2) Writers Workshop: trying to explain a space to a child who is only being introduced the wonderful world of writing is hard to do whole group, now with our document camera I can put my writing paper right under it and engage easily with every single student at once.
3) Tracking: tracking is what we teachers refer to when students point to each word as they read. As simple as this task may seem, children easily get tripped up on words like "candy" because they point to the word and say "can" and then the next word and say "dy". You can see how this might be a problem. With the document camera it is easy to correct and model. This can be seen in the digital pictures I have uploaded.
4) Read-a-louds: story books are filled with such vivid details and colors, but when you have 17 students all trying to get closer to see the tiny gingerbread man hiding in the picture, it becomes difficult. I now put these picture books under the document camera and have children come up and point out what they see! Sometimes they even show me things I have missed!
As you can see we really have put your donation to good use and we interact with our document camera every single day. Thank you for being so kind and generous and I wish you a warm holiday season!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Gavin
"I Can't Hear"
Funded Jul 3, 2010From day one upon the whisper phone's arrival, the children were very excited! We used our morning meeting to model how to put the phones on, how to take care of them, and where they go, but then I asked them how they might use them for learning. I was THRILLED when I heard my own students giving examples of what a whisper phone could be used for. One student said "so I don't have to try to whisper into the book and not hear myself", another classmate said "so I can have fun reading pretending to be a phone operator", and another gem "so I don't have to talk loud and distract others". Currently their whisper phones have them name on them, are stored in their reading bins with books at their reading level, and are used every single day! I have noticed abnormal growth results in my class so far as it pertains to their speech, letter sounds, and fluency, and it is only December! Every single one of my students know all of their letter sounds, the children are picking up very quickly how to sound out a word, and they are able to hear mistakes when they misread a sight word. These types of gains aren't usually seen until March. I feel very strongly that the whisper phones are to thank for such quick progress.
Other teachers come in to my room during language arts and they see these really neat tools and wonder when I get them. I tell them that wonderful people from all over have given us the gift of sound! Thank you for helping my students to finally be able to hear their reading, thank you for being so generous, and thank you for helping to support education!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Gavin