Mrs. Koonlaba's Classroom Edit display name

Past projects 16

• Weaving Wonders

  Funded Mar 9, 2017

  Thank you so much for this standing loom. We used it during our community arts festival. This was an event held after school for students, parents, and community members. Everyone was able to walk up and weave! It was a great hands-on addition to our festival. Additionally, I am now using it in my room as a center for early finishers. The kids really think it is neat. I had a visit from a former student last month who said, "You got that loom after I left this school. No fair!" I think that just sort of speaks to how much the kids like it. They think it is interesting. I agree with them. In this time of tech overload, they really enjoy doing something tactile like this. Thank you so much!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Koonlaba

• Frida Kahlo Arts Integrated Project

  Funded Feb 27, 2016

  Thank you so much for these supplies. My students loved this project. I ended up incorporating theme into this lesson. So, they used symbolism to represent an overall theme in their self-portrait. They created the most unique pieces. I hope you enjoy looking at the pictures. These students really enjoyed this project. They verbally shared with me how much they cared about this work. It was special for them to be able to create something that really showed who they are and allowed them to think creatively. I worked with their language arts teachers to incorporate theme because so many were struggling with that language arts skill. So, the students also really liked the cross-curricular connections. They learned a lot about art and language arts. I was able to share this lesson with other teachers at a conference. That went so well that I was asked to share it again in February at another conference for that same organization. I just wanted to share that so you will know that many, many children have benefited from this project.

  Thank you so very much for doing this for my precious students.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Koonlaba

  This classroom project was brought to life by an anonymous donor and 5 other donors.

• Artists Need Art Supplies

  Funded Feb 26, 2016

  Thank you so much for these resources. We created some amazing artwork. I was particularly proud of our Cezanne Apples, which is why I featured those in the photos. I wanted you to see how incredible they look. The students really did a lot of creative thinking to put those together. They had to plan the colors and composition. My favorite part was seeing them blend the paint together to create the apples. They loved creating the backgrounds. They used the tagboard to glue torn newspaper. Then, they painted it. They thought it was so cool to paint over that torn paper. The parents loved these as well. I had parents emailing, calling, texting, and tagging me on social media about this artwork. We hung these for our art show. Every student had a piece of art hung at the show. It was fantastic. I wish you could've been there. I really don't think I've ever been so proud of anything as a teacher in all my years doing this work. I cannot thank you enough.

  From the bottom of my heart, on behalf of my precious students, THANK YOU!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Koonlaba

  This classroom project was brought to life by an anonymous donor and 7 other donors.

• Artists Need Art Supplies

  Funded Sep 15, 2015

  My students loved creating these projects. The third graders were so excited about the Guy Harvey artwork. That one little boy wore his Guy Harvey shirts every week when he came to art. That's him with his back to the camera, holding up his artwork. The second graders loved the Klimt project too. They think his Baby (Cradle) piece is so adorable. They all named the baby's in their artwork. They turned out beautifully as you can see in the photo of the display board. Thank you so much for helping us with these supplies. These kids are amazing. They deserve so much.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Koonlaba

• Plaster Needed For Little Mask Makers!

  Funded Apr 28, 2015

  Thank you so much for funding this project for my students. Plaster is very expensive and is often hard to purchase in large quantities on a small art classroom budget. However, my students love working with plaster. It is one of their favorite things. They look forward to it. One of my students who used this plaster to create a mask moved away. I kept his mask, but it wasn't finished. He ended up moving back to this school. The first thing he said when he saw me was, "Can I finish my mask?" It mattered that much to him. Of course, I allowed him to finish even though all of the other students had already finished and taken theirs home. Working with plaster is so good for their fine motor skills. It also helps develop their sensory and perception skills. Plus, they get to learn about other cultures who are known for mask making and be creative..

  Thank you so much!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Koonlaba

• Building Understanding Through Creative Thinking

  Funded Mar 4, 2015

  This Donor's Choose project has been one of the most successful things I have ever done as a teacher. I was able to take an online course called Making Thinking Visible through the Harvard Graduate School of Education. While taking this course, I developed a lesson plan for my fifth grade art students based on the work of Frida Kahlo. I took photos of their work to show you the quality of products they are producing. I also wanted you to see the high level of thinking this project has allowed them to reach. First, students learned about the life of the artist. Then, they worked together to develop a Circle Map about her. Once they were familiar with her background, they viewed one of her paintings and analyzed it by thinking about how she used symbolism. This was recorded on a chart that can be seen in the photos. Then, students learned how to draw a proportional face. They drew self-portraits and have begun adding their own symbolism. The one that has started painting in the photographs used leaves to symbolize that she likes running in the fall. She has a clock because she never feels like she has enough time to run. She has a crown because sometimes she feels like a queen. However, it is not actually touching her head because she is not a real queen. This shows some very deep thinking!

  We love this! I learned so much as the teacher, and my students are reaping the benefits.

  Thank you so much!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Koonlaba

  This classroom project was brought to life by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 6 other donors.

• Leonardo da Vinci's Horses for 5th Graders

  Funded Aug 23, 2014

  These fifth graders love this project, which is incredible in itself. That's reason enough for you to have helped fund it. But, our community is also loving this project.

  Let me tell you two quick stories. First, I was walking down the fifth grade hallway one morning when a little girl stopped me with tears in her eyes. She asked if she would be the only fifth grader without a sculpture. She had missed some of her art time and had gotten behind. I told her absolutely not and called her mom. Her mom knew she was worried about that and how important it was to her because she had talked about it at home so much. So, her mom offered to help her catch up on the project at home over the weekend. Let that sink in! She had been talking about it at home. She even wanted to work on it (like homework) over the weekend...and her mom didn't mind helping her! I was touched by this level of involvement and engagement. This story really speaks to how impactful this project, and your donation, has been on my students.

  Second, on the very first day that teachers returned from the winter break, our local newspaper came to my room to do a story on how teachers were getting ready for the new semester. I happened to be preparing the next step for those sculptures. They talked to me for a few minutes and decided they wanted to come back just to do a story on the sculptures. I think they were impressed with what the students were doing. They do look quite impressive. So, there has been a high level of community engagement in this story as well. Here's the article:

  http://djournal.com/news/learning-creativity-lawhon-students-make-sculptures/”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Koonlaba

  This classroom project was brought to life by Gates Foundation Back To School and 8 other donors.

• Learning from the Masters

  Funded May 14, 2014

  Thank you so much for helping me provide this instruction and these experiences for my students. They love art! It amazes me on a daily basis how much they enjoy learning in the arts. Its hard to provide experiences in visual art because visual art supplies are so expensive. I appreciate you helping with that! My students do too!

  We were able to get some books to go along with our lessons. I think that made a big impact. They love for me to read to them. They also really like to act out the stories about artists. It helps them connect to what they are making. So, its not just about producing something cute in my classroom. They really learn on a deeper level and they make lasting connections as well. Thank you so much for helping me provide this for them!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Koonlaba

• Artists Need Supplies

  Funded Oct 19, 2013

  Thank you so much for supporting my students. As you can imagine, it is extremely difficult to fund an art classroom that serves over 500 students each week. In general, supplies are not reusable and are quite expensive. I have made it my mission to seek funds to provide high-quality arts experiences for my students. I believe that my students deserve these experiences and that even though (and maybe especially so) art is not a tested subject, it is vital to their education! I believe that the arts have the power to help them grow into life-long learners and strong, admirable human beings! My students love art. I know they don't understand school budgets and how much planning/effort on the part of the adults is involved in providing these experiences, but I do talk with them quite often about how we receive supplies and the power of giving. I try to incorporate acts of giving into our lessons as a way to help my students pay it forward. That's where the impact of this projects is! We have been able to use these supplies for so many things. Not just individual student projects (we did use the supplies for some individual things), but mostly to create pieces to be hung permanently in our school. This is significant because it enables my students to give back to a place that has given them so much. One of my fifth graders nearly brought me to tears one day when I overheard her talking about this. She was telling another student that it didn't matter to her that she wouldn't be at the school next year to enjoy the piece she was working on because she knew of a little boy who would be coming to second grade. She said, "I just want this school to be the best school for him and all the other children". It occurred to me that, because of her background, it was unlikely that she had ever participated in any type of service project in her lifetime until this point. I wish you could have been there to witness what you provided for her! This is just an example of the kinds of reactions that I see in my students when they are creating art! Thank you for the bottom of our hearts! You've helped us make our world a little bit better and we are incredibly appreciative!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Koonlaba

  This classroom project was brought to life by an anonymous donor and 7 other donors.

• We Need Paint

  Funded Nov 5, 2013

  Thank you so much for helping my art class get acrylic paint. As you can see from the photographs, my students were able to used this paint on several projects. After they created several larger pieces for school beautification, there was enough paint left over for them to create some of their own, individual pieces. They created the flowers on the wooden pallet for us to display in an outdoor learning area that we've been sprucing up. They created the large cacti for display in the hallways. They also created a collage of canvases with this paint to hang on a wall in our media center. Throughout each of these projects, students were able to collaborate with their peers. Collaboration is such an important skill for students to learn, and I believe the art classroom is a prime location for this learning. You can also see an example of an individual piece that was created after studying Wayne Thiebaud. We were so lucky to have enough paint from this project to work on all these things. Thank you so much for helping me provide these experiences for my students.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Koonlaba

  This classroom project was brought to life by an anonymous donor and 9 other donors.