Mrs. van Oene's Classroom Edit display name

Past projects 14

• Fifth Grade Fabulous

  Funded Aug 14, 2024

  We have really loved our flexible seating wobble chairs. Our class uses them when they are working at the group table. They can also use them when they are working independently. The wobble chairs help some students to keep their focus on assignments because it allows them a little more freedom to move. We have really loved the wobble chairs.

  The calculators that you so generously donated to our class has helped us answer more complex, multi-step math problems. We use them as a tool to check our work and help us to monitor our accuracy in computations. We also use them to add up all of our reading minutes, those totals can be a lot to do by hand.

  Thank you so much for your contributions to our classroom. We appreciate your generosity.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. van Oene

  This classroom project was brought to life by The Gates Foundation and 2 other donors.

• Gathering Space

  Funded Aug 9, 2022

  Thank you for the classroom rug that you donated to our classroom. We use our rug several times a day. We meet to have group discussions in the morning. We meet for calendar and math. We meet to read stories. We meet at the end of the day. You can imagine how grateful we are to have a great rug to use. Students are also able to use the rug when they need to use math manuplatives to work on math problems. Students can gather with a partner to read on the soft rug space. Our classroom would not be as functional without your generous contribution. Thank you.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. van Oene

  This classroom project was brought to life by Bill Gates and one other donor.

• Planting for Science

  Funded Sep 30, 2020

  Thank you for helping us with our gardening project. We were able to set up our composter this fall and begin composting. We were able to go on a virtual field trip to our local waste disposal. They taught us about composting on a large scale and how to begin. Once we learned a little about composting our students got excited about using our composter. We gathered leaves, food scraps, and coffee grounds. Then after Halloween students brought their old pumpkins from home. We broke them up and put them in the composter. This is a long term project that we could not have done without your help. Thank you so much for donating the composter to our class.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. van Oene

  This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 2 other donors.

• Rev up Robots with Coding

  Funded Oct 24, 2019

  Thank you for funding our project for Sphero robots in our classroom. The students love the opportunity to code real robots. They have practiced coding on other programs that move items on a screen, but being able to code robots that move around our room adds to the enjoyment and excitement. We are training the thinking minds of the future by allowing them to problem solve in real world situations. I appreciate your generosity in making their learning more hands on. Thank you for your kindness in donating to our classroom.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. van Oene

• Math Mania

  Funded Oct 9, 2019

  My students and I are grateful for your generous donation to our classroom. I have been teaching for many years sharing math manipulatives with the teacher on my team. It was not always convenient to teaching a student centered math curriculum while sharing. The manipulatives were not always readily available to have the students get from the shelf and use.

  Now I have manipulatives for my own students! It is easy for them to retrieve them when they need them. You have made it an easier transition from concrete to abstract math learning. Thank you so much for your thoughtful contribution to our class. We appreciate how we now have the tools we need in our own classroom. Thank you.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. van Oene

  This classroom project was brought to life by Chevron Fuel Your School.

• Organization for our Classroom

  Funded Jan 18, 2019

  Thank you for the donation to our classroom. We needed organization so we could use flexible seating in our classroom. The students love their new totes. Over and over again I hear how much they like the new totes over the cubbies we had in the past. It is easier for them to find their work because of the upright design of the totes. An added bonus is that the totes are easy for them to carry to their working area. This makes it easy for them to be flexible and productive in their work space. The totes are only part of your donation. Thank you for the carts that carry the totes. They are flexible too because they are on wheels. This is important because it isn't tied to one location. Thank you so very much for your donation to our classroom. We appreciate your generosity.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. van Oene

• Cool Coding Opportunities

  Funded Mar 27, 2018

  Thank you so much for your contribution to our class. We really appreciate your generosity by donating to help our students experience technology in a way that appears fun. Our class has enjoyed the opportunity to investigate coding robots. The robots were programmed to go through a predetermined course. This allowed students to plan, collaborate and ultimately fail the first several times. By having the students fail they learned to be critical thinkers, problem solvers and resilient in their learning. By experiencing that failure is not fatal students can transfer that experience to other areas of learning. We are grateful for your investment in us and the future.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. van Oene

  This classroom project was brought to life by Ripple and 6 other donors.

• Creative Coding Classroom

  Funded Oct 30, 2017

  Thank you for your generous donation to our class. We were able to get 8 Sphero robots to teach our students how to code the robots to move. The robots run through blue tooth from an ipad app. So the students can open the app and create the code then try it out on the robots to see if the robot does what they have asked it to. It sounds pretty simple but it has required the students to use their problem solving skills and created an opportunity for the students to fail.

  You would think that failing would be a bad thing but it has created an environment in our classroom where they can see what didn't work and fix it, try again and then adjust again. Instead of failing in a traditional sense they use it as the First Attempt In Learning. I believe this has created an environment for exploration, trial, error and ultimately learning. I am very grateful for your donation so I can use the technology to create learners that will be comfortable with technology but also with skills like problem solving, perseverance and cooperation. Best of all, they don't even realize it because it seems like fun. Thank you.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. van Oene

• Reading is Fun!

  Funded Oct 24, 2016

  Our class is overcome with excitement since our Kindle readers arrived. It is a very exciting time for the fifth graders. We went right to work downloading books and beginning to read. We had a limited number of books the students could choose from so they were excited to talk with one another about what book they had chosen and how great is was to read it on the Kindle. I've seen students read on the Kindle who were not interested in reading before. I am really appreciative of your generosity to fund our project.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. van Oene

• Chaotic Coats

  Funded Oct 13, 2015

  Our third grade class is a much safer, happier and calmer place because of your wonderful donation of coat cubbies to our students. The smiles on their faces are proof that they appreciate having a place that they can hang their coats and back packs.

  When the cubbies arrived the it caused a stir in the school. Due to the size of the cubbies the custodian had to bring them down on his cart. The whole time students are looking and guessing as to what the large packages would hold. When they were opened to reveal the coat cubbies you would have thought that we had won the Academy Award. Cheers were heard up and down the hall. One student said to me, "Teacher, can I be the first to hang my coat up?"

  I am thankful for your generous contribution to help make my teaching day easier by donating to my class. Thank you.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. van Oene