Past projects 11
Filling Our Book Baggies
Funded Dec 13, 2024We are so grateful for your generous donations which brought new books to our classroom library! As we are becoming stronger readers with a greater reading stamina, we are reaching for books that are part of series because they hold our interest over longer periods of time. The Baby Sitters Club series is our current favorite! We are reading books and forming book clubs to talk about them.
The new books are also helping us become stronger writers. We have used the opinion books as mentor texts to write our own opinion pieces. Currently we are studying non-fiction as a genre and starting to do research. The new books on dogs, cats, sharks, and ocean animals are captivating and helping us grow our knowledge. We are working on becoming expert writers so our informational books can become mentor texts for our younger reading buddies! Thank you again for bringing new and exciting books for us to read into our classroom!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Murillo
This classroom project was brought to life by Carter's | OshKosh B'gosh and one other donor.Starting the Year
Funded Sep 23, 2024Once again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping me set the new school year off successfully with brand new supplies for each and every one of the eager scholars in my 3rd grade classroom!
The zippered pouches became portable reading toolkits that students use on a daily basis. Their transportability make them the ideal tool for a student-centered workshop. Each reader is able to choose a spot that suits him or her best at the moment and get right to work with all needed supplies neatly tucked away in one convenient spot.
The pencils, glue sticks and glue bottles are supplies we also use regularly. Sometimes for serious academic work like pasting notes in our journals or building models in science, and other times we let our creativity fly free while we design, assemble, and fashion dreamy creations during art or unstructured exploration time.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Murillo
This classroom project was brought to life by United Airlines and 5 other donors.Flexible Seating
Funded May 7, 2024I can't thank you enough for your donations which helped to fund my project! The flexible seating makes such a big difference in my classroom. The third grade bodies in our room are very squiggly so we move around quite a bit. Being able to take your stool to a different spot is much easier than moving a chair. It also makes the room much less cluttered and safer as stools fit under the desks. Students like being able to move to a place that suits their learning needs at a particular time. An added (and unexpected) benefit of using stools to sit in is that our core muscles are getting stronger! This year I have a student who requires his sensory needs met throughout the day and the bouncy seat placed on his chair is a great tool for that. Thank you again for making such a difference!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Murillo
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 3 other donors.Captivating Counting Collections
Funded Jan 14, 2024Thank you so much for your generous donation that completely revamped our math time! The students are always looking forward to "Fun Friday" when we do counting collections as math stations. The items we received are so adorable and just perfect for little fingers to manipulate. There is a collection for everyone; something shiny, something smooth, glittery, fuzzy, colorful..! The children love counting the collections and use their imaginations in so many ways. They count the items, but they also find other ways to interact with the collections, for example counting the holes in the buttons or legs of the spiders, the fraction of the collection that is red/blue/yellow or big and small. There are endless possibilities for math and fun with our new collections! The containers are the ideal size to corral the items and being see-through makes it very easily to choose the right collection every time. I am very grateful to you for infusing excitement, enthusiasm and fun into our math block.
Thank you for your kindness and generosity!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Murillo
Soft Starts With STEM
Funded Oct 13, 2023Thank you for your generous donations to make our STEM starts a reality! Since receiving our STEM kits, my students have had lots of fun designing intricate creations and thinking of new designs and projects. We have had marble runs on our white board, and extending from desks to floor, we've also had castles, rockets, cars, trains, and gorgeous geometric designs created from magnet tiles. It is a joy to watch my little engineers visit with each other as they begin to play and slowly merge into team building and problem solving. The kits have also helped with classroom management, as the students on their own, decided to come up with expectations for each station to ensure that materials are taken care of responsibly, each person has a space to work and play, and everyone gets along. This outcome was not something I was expecting, but I am so grateful for it, as it extends from our STEM stations into all parts of our day. Thank you again for making our classroom a fun, collaborative, and imaginative space to grow and learn in!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Murillo
This classroom project was brought to life by United Airlines and 2 other donors.Calm and Quiet
Funded Oct 11, 2023Thank you so much for your generosity which enabled our calming area to get an upgrade! The space is now an inviting and calming area where students go to to decompress, to collect their thoughts, to regain composure, or to take a break. Students have learned breathing techniques that help with calming big emotions, they have also learned to choose affirmations that are meaningful and uplifting which they decorate in the space. The area is comfortable for sitting or laying down thanks to the cushion and pillow and beckons those who need it to take a quiet moment to reconnect. Lastly, our aromatherapy diffuser helps the entire classroom smell delicious (the scent is often the first thing visitors comment on) and students enjoy standing near it to immerse themselves in its calming mist.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Murillo
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community & an Anonymous Partner and 2 other donors.Round About Way to Writing
Funded Oct 6, 2023I am so grateful for your donation to our writing center! Thank you so much for making this project become a reality, it has made a big difference to our classroom. My students were very excited when they saw the package come in and were eager to help me put all of our writing material in the shelf once it was assembled. Our writing center now corrals all of our supplies in one easy to access place. The students have their writer's notebooks on the top shelf, which we file away by table groups and they take turns displaying their notebook covers for each team. The rest of the shelf is occupied by reference materials, editing/revising supplies and supplies for publishing. Students love personalizing their books so having all the available materials visible made a big difference in motivating my writers to be careful illustrators as well. Personally, I also appreciate the aesthetics of the shelf, as it is a stylish piece of furniture :-) I also love that it does not take up very much space and the fact we can turn it to access all sides of the shelf easily makes it a winner! Once again, thank you so much for your kindness and generosity!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Murillo
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 3 other donors.Privacy Please
Funded Apr 6, 2023Thank you for your generosity and interest in my classroom! The dividers this project provided were a game changer for me and my students. The kids loved the different colors of the dividers and were excited to choose one that matched their mood of the day. And I loved looking at the rainbow of colors all around my classroom. Students loved setting up their "work cubicle" to have a private space for working. The dividers were especially useful during testing. Students decorated them with notes and pictures. I feel that this gave them a secure space to concentrate in and focus on their task. Some students chose to use the dividers every day throughout the rest of the school year, while others prefer the open space of our traditional classroom set up. I love that this addition to my classroom gave the students the option to choose a work station that suited their needs (and could be changed and moved easily).”
With gratitude,
Ms. Murillo
This classroom project was brought to life by LOFT.Bring on the Butterflies
Funded May 6, 2023I am grateful for your generosity which made my project come to life! My students loved the garden tools, seeds, and birdbath and got right to work improving our garden space. We researched pollinator needs and preferences as well as plant requirements to ensure our seedlings had enough light and space to thrive. Students worked on garden designs to maximize the space of our plot and make access to all plants as easy as possible. Once we were ready to plant, everyone in my class was happy to dig into the soil and get their hands dirty. The students chose to divide our garden into parts: edible garden, pollinator garden, and a low water/succulent space. They took turns every day to water and refill the bird bath. The excitement in my class once seeds started to sprout was magical! Students were so excited and tended to their baby plants with such loving care! They were very worried about how our garden would fare over the summer and all promised to come and teach my next year's students how to be the best gardeners possible. Thank you again for igniting this passion for our environment and helping my students find a way to be actively engaged in its care!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Murillo
This classroom project was brought to life by General Motors and 3 other donors.A Soft Rug Is a Comfy Place to Read
Funded Aug 29, 2019I'd like extend a heartfelt "thank you" to each and every one of you. Your generosity has made a great impact in my classroom, far beyond the hopes I first had. When I initially wrote my project, I wanted to provide a comfortable and inviting place for my students to read. However, the rug has become a favorite spot to work on our writing and do authors' conferences. We make the rug one of the meeting areas during our math workshop where we can spread out manipulatives and talk about strategies. We started inviting our kindergarten reading buddies to our classroom because they love hopping around the map until they find their perfect "state" to settle in for buddy reading. And during our class read-aloud time, the students, who used to sit at their seats, now come to the carpet and get comfortable as they listen to me read. Not only is the rug helping with actual learning, but I have also noticed that it has improved the class morale. Many of the kids have commented how colorful and pretty the rug is. It makes our dated classroom in an older school look and feel inviting, friendly, and a fun place to be and somehow the kids seem happier and take more pride in their work. You've made a huge difference to me, my present and future students, and for that I thank you!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Murillo