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There are so many creative possibilities with the Silhouette electronic cutting tool. So far we have made paper and vinyl cutouts, magnets and stamps with our Silhouette! We cut out a special quote from a motivational speaker that visited our school and hung it above our door - "Leaders start kindness and enjoy watching it spread." It will be exciting to choose more quotes and sayings to display. The kids practiced sight words with both the magnets and stamps that we made. They also made stamps for the 7 habits to emphasize the qualities of being a Leader in Me school.

The machine operates very similar to a printer, yet has a blade where an ink cartridge would be. It is easy to customize the cutouts and the execution is quick and clean. Thank you for helping us gain this equipment that will be utilized for years to come!”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Oltesvig

I can not begin to express my gratitude for your donation to this project. It is wonderful to see that you share my vision for reaching young children. The use of technology is an amazing way to empower 21st century learners. In first grade, students often need hands-on experiences to help them learn to their full potential.

The technology that you have funded has allowed me to model and have my students interact with games and activities at their academic level. In addition, I hope to empower them to be lifelong learners in the future. It was motivating for them to practice concepts taught in the classroom while seeing their learning come alive!

I can't wait to share these materials with my students next fall! THANK YOU so much!!!”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Lovegren

Last fall, I noticed some of my students struggling to learn letter identification and letter sounds. Fellow teachers and our speech pathologist told me about this program, Lively Letters. Lively Letters is a program that involves oral kinesthetics, imagery, hand cues, music, and mnemonic stories to make it easier for students to learn and remember their letter sounds. It helps reach the whole learner by using a variety of learning styles. Plus, it helps make learning fun!

I'm proud to say that all of my students know all of the letter sounds. The students that used this program use the strategies they have learned when they are involved with other activities. For example, when you learn the letter U students put their hands UP! One student was sounding a word out in a guided reading book. When he came to the letter U, he put his hands up and he sounded out the entire word! I was so proud of him! Two students involved in using this program receive speech services. Lively Letters was helpful to me because it taught tongue and mouth positions for the sounds. I noticed this especially helped my student students receiving speech.

Thank you for donating to this project! It is a program that I will use for years to come. You have made a huge impact on our learning!”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Wick

I want to thank each of your for helping us purchase Idea Paint for our classroom. We painted four tables and two cupboards. The kids just love to be able to write on the furniture! I have been putting warm up questions before I start class on the tables. Sometimes I am putting questions on a few of the tables and they have to walk around and answer before we start class. Then we go back to the tables and discuss the questions. I also leave them out so students can look at the work down to apply it to problems they may be working on.

It has been great for just thinking and working out questions. We've used them to answer poll questions. They work great for brainstorming. Students that were NOT motivated to participate now want to participate. Now we will just need to set up a Donor's Choose Project for all of the dry erase pens we are going through. What a great problem to have!

My Sincere Thanks,

Jodie Hardenbrook”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Hardenbrook

Wow! Thank-you for supporting such an important initiative for the students of my school. We got our basketball hoop shortly into the school year. We set it up and established a system for our 8th grade students to move it outside each day (to keep it safe). Students from 1st to 8th grade (400 students) use the hoop daily, for their 30 minute recess. The students worked together in teams to share the balls and rebound. In addition, they got out energy to help them focus and in turn learn better in the afternoon.

As many of you know snow and COLD weather came very early to Chicago this year. I was unfortunately unable to capture many pictures. However, please look for our student thank-you letters from all grade levels. We are so incredibly thankful for this resource that will be used for years to come. Your donation will continue to impact our students as they grow as learners at our school.

Thank-you for your generosity.”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Iehl

This project has really helped to encourage our students to love books. They are easily able to find books on their level and take great pride in being able to read on their own. We have seen their confidence levels go through the roof! Many of our students started this year not able to read and write and now all of them are building these skills. It is so exciting to see them engaged and eager to learn. Our classroom has become a place where students can't wait to finish they work so they can pick a book and go to the reading rug. Thank you again for making it all possible!”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Blevins

My students were so excited to see the science materials that we received thanks to you! They wondered what was inside each of the tubs, and we needed to have a materials exploration day just to satisfy their curiosity. These materials helped raise their enthusiasm for science, and they could not wait to get to the activities that were inside each of the boxes.

Since receiving them, we have used these science kits along side our traditional science program. It is wonderful because the boxes go along with the units that are in our textbooks so well. With these materials, we have been able to do some fun experiments and some really great science writing. The art teacher in our school has also used some materials as enrichment for my students when they go to art class.

I am so grateful for these science kits. My students are so much more engaged than they have been in the past without these amazing, hands-on activities. They have really boosted students' learning! Thank you so much for helping me bring these resources to my students!”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Herrick

I want to thank everyone so much for each of the donations that made this project possible. The students are so excited about each project we open and begin. So far we have our plastic animals available, we just set up the aquarium and are anxiously awaiting our fish to arrive any day. The gel ant farm is amazing and changes daily, the students are completely mesmerized every time they enter the classroom. They eagerly finish their work just to be able to look each item before they leave to see what is different today.

We are able to learn great life lessons and the students are sharing their experiences with each other. They are making predictions about what is going to happen next. Our students with autism especially enjoy the aquarium and the ant farm, they are both very calming.

Your support of our classroom has allowed me provide my students so many hands on experiences that will continue through spring until the year ends. We will begin butterfly and frog life cycles in the next few weeks. Thank you again for your generosity!”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Blevins