Ms. Anna's Classroom Edit display name

Past projects 32

• Fun Phonics Games for New Readers

  Funded Jan 10, 2022

  We are having a lot of fun playing with our new centers activities. These games are helping students to practice phonics and math skills independently. Some students are practicing their sight words by playing bingo, while other students are building words with magnetic letters. We are also practicing adding ten, subtracting ten, and counting up and down by one with our giant race to 120 game. Many of the students in my class are still practicing the skills that they may have missed last year during distance learning in kindergarten, and these hands on activities are helping them to practice these skills in a fun and cooperative environment.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Anna

• Art Materials for Days and Days

  Funded Dec 6, 2021

  We have been having so much fun with our new art materials. Here are some of the projects we have done so far: drawing heart spirals and mandalas to feel calm and focused; studying a plant as it grows and making scientific sketches in our mini-sketchbooks; coloring symbols to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. and Black History Month; mixing paints to capture our skin colors; and exploring what we can create with oil pastels.

  My first graders are learning from their mistakes and encouraging each other to take risks in their art. They see themselves as artists and see art as a way to express themselves. Thank you for supporting their developing creativity and their growing imaginations!”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Anna

  This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 16 other donors.

• Just Right Books to Jump-Start Reading

  Funded Nov 2, 2021

  These beautiful high quality books are supporting my emergent readers in so many ways. Students read in small groups every day. The are matched with books that are just right for them: not too hard and not too easy. They practice their reading independently and feel the success of being able to do it "all by themselves."

  We have received a year-long subscription to Scholastic Magazine. Each child receives a copy that we read together in class and which they can then bring home to share with their families. The articles are high interest non-fiction, and studies show that students (especially in the lower grades) need more exposure to non-fiction texts to increase their knowledge about the world, which will help their reading comprehension in later grades.

  We are also enjoying a collection of books written by Black authors celebrating Black joy. My diverse class is drawn to these beautiful picture books where some see reflections of their own experiences and others open windows to something which is new to them.

  In the final photo you can see us celebrating our 100th day of first grade. Students worked together to read one hundred books as a class, each represented by a tally mark on our chart. They couldn't believe how much they had read! Thank you for supporting all of our efforts to grow as readers this year.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Anna

  This classroom project was brought to life by Dollar General Literacy Foundation and 10 other donors.

• Staying Safe and Healthy in First Grade

  Funded Oct 13, 2021

  On behalf of our four first grade classes, thank you so much for helping us to keep our classrooms clean and our children healthy during the pandemic. We received boxes and boxes of paper towels, wipes, hand sanitizer, soap, and masks. The children in my classroom helped to sort the supplies and delivered them to the grateful teachers and students in the other classrooms.

  Every day when the students enter the classroom, they wash or sanitize their hands. At lunch time, our sanitizer helper makes sure everyone's hands are clean and each student is responsible for using a wipe to clean their own desk.

  Disposable masks are in high demand in all of our classrooms, since masks often get wet or ripped at recess, or children arrive at school with a mask that is not clean or does not fit properly. They are happy to have an ample supply of masks that are just the right size for their little faces to grab and put on whenever they need them.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Anna

• Celebrating Diversity Through Imaginative Play

  Funded Sep 17, 2021

  This project has been so much fun! We began by discussing what kind of costumes we would like to have so that we could pretend to be anything we wanted to be in the classroom. When the dress up clothes arrived, the students could hardly contain their excitement. We spent several days exploring different clothes and discussing "What could we play with this?" We talked about gender stereotypes and how to challenge them.

  The first few times they tried on their clothes, all the students did was say, "Look at me!" Over time their play has begun to evolve as they are learning how to interact with each other and create imaginary worlds. Every loves to play teacher! Different groups of children play family, assigning roles. We have also taken out the puppets who are helping us develop social skills like asking, "What would you like to do?" and "How are you feeling?" When a new student arrived in our classroom, the cow puppet graciously explained all of our class rules.

  Thank you for believing in the power of children's imaginations to shape their realities!”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Anna

  This classroom project was brought to life by The Allstate Foundation and 9 other donors.

• Staying Warm and Dry and Healthy

  Funded Nov 5, 2021

  Our new socks and dry clothes arrived just in time today! We had another long rainy day and all the students came in from the yard with wet feet. When we opened up the box full of socks they were amazed, and I felt like I had worked some teacher magic! They happily took off their wet shoes and socks, pulled on some dry ones and settled in for an afternoon of peaceful and cozy learning. Everyone was able to focus so much better because they were dry.

  Next week we will be having conferences with families and I am looking forward to offering packets of reusable masks to several families for whom providing clean masks each day has been a hardship.

  Thank you for helping to keep us all warm, dry and healthy this rainy season!”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Anna

• Ready to Write in First Grade!

  Funded Aug 13, 2021

  Our year is off to a great start and we couldn't have done it without your generous support and these basic materials in our classroom. We have used our giant chart paper to share ideas about how to treat each other at school, how to get ready for reading, and to look at big examples of our writing projects about our families. Students have been learning to write about the books that they read in their journals, carefully printing the titles on the dotted lines and drawing a picture in the big space on top. And each student is delighted to be able to take out their own personal whiteboard every day to practice their sight words, add numbers up to 10, and their favorite part of all -- two minutes of free drawing!

  For many of these children, this year represents their first experience physically at school. Thanks to your support, all of my first grade students have the tools they need to start the year off strong.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Anna

  This classroom project was brought to life by Bill Gates and 11 other donors.

• Just Right Reading Adventures

  Funded Mar 14, 2021

  Thank you so much for your generous support of reading in our classroom. We were able to purchase books at the levels that students were able to read independently, as well as a selection of high interest science books. The books arrived just before some of the students in my class returned to school for in-person learning. After struggling to read for most of the year during our zoom classes, the students were delighted to find beautiful quality, colorful, funny, and interesting books waiting for them on their desks. I was also able to send books home to students who were continuing with distance learning.

  Every day, we had reading time along with our friends on zoom. The children at home took out their books to read and the children in the classroom did too, while they watched each other on a projector (or from a screen at home). They talked with their classmates about what they were reading and there were delighted cries of "I'm reading that one about the cat too!" With the move to in-person instruction, many students were able to move up several levels in their reading and discovered new books that they could read by themselves. We learned about volcanos and the solar system. Books offered us a window to the world!”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Anna

  This classroom project was brought to life by A Northern California family and 3 other donors.

• More Art! More Joy!

  Funded Feb 13, 2021

  We have been having so much fun with our new art materials during distance learning! When they were delivered to their houses, my students opened them up and asked, "Are these really for us?" We spent our first week experimenting and figuring out what the different materials could do. We made rainbows with oil pastels, cityscapes with brush markers, butterflies with watercolor pencils, an origami house, and our interpretation of the solar system drawn on black paper.

  With each new material I asked the students, "What can you do with this?" They shared their ideas with each other: try pressing lightly, dry using water, try blending the colors, draw a ninja! We learned along together.

  Now we are beginning to integrate art into our science lessons and other content areas. Today we made careful observations of the flowering cherry blossom trees that we have been noticing on our city streets. We practiced using thick and thin marker points to draw flowers, leaves and branches. Later this week we will make scientific illustrations of butterflies using watercolor markers as part of our information writing unit.

  Families have also been very grateful to receive these supplies, especially since I told the kids they can use them anytime they want and don't have to wait for our class art projects. One mom told me, "It keeps him busy and gives him a break from the screen," and another grandma said, "He wants to grow up to be an artist."”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Anna

• Exploring the World by Writing From Home

  Funded Sep 22, 2020

  My first grade students are having so much fun with their new materials and I have seen an increase in their engagement and participation during our distance learning classes.

  First, we have been doing daily handwriting practice using our new workbooks and "fat pencils" which are appropriate for smaller hands and children who are just learning to write. Before and after writing we do hand and wrist exercises (including squeezing their squishy balls) to strengthen the muscles they need for fine motor skills. The grown ups in their families have expressed their appreciation for these materials because they have been worried about students' physical development with so much time spent using computers and other devices.

  Next, we have been using our new notebooks to create stories! Students are learning to see themselves as experts and authors. They make diagrams with labels and then write everything they know about their favorite topics: dragons, bagels, troll dolls, Minecraft, and insects.

  Finally, the children have been thrilled to try out their new art materials. We have been exploring primary and secondary colors and using playdough to make real and imaginary animals. Students give each other compliments on their work and post their finished products on our online learning platform. They can't wait each week to do more art projects!

  Thanks for helping us to keep the joy and boundless curiosity of first graders alive and well in my virtual classroom!”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Anna

  This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose 20th Anniversary Fund and 11 other donors.