Past projects 25
Wow! Exciting & Engaging Pop-It Games
Funded Aug 14, 2024My 4 year old students were so excited to unpack the Pop-It Learning Games! They could not wait to play with the new and engaging materials.
Thank you so much for the three Pop-It sets for use in my classroom! My students just love when we use them during small group learning time and are learning the alphabet and numbers! They are so colorful and really do engage them. The Pop-its are so popular now and I love that learning can be so much fun for them.
Many are ready to use the advanced sight words set. It is a fun and exciting way to introduce and learn sight words on their journey to start reading. It's amazing to see them starting to recognize simple sight words!
Thank you for believing in me and my young students as they start their educational journey and start to read! I am truly blessed to have you donate to my projects.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Schatmeyer
This classroom project was brought to life by The Gates Foundation and 2 other donors.Bugs, Bugs, and More Bugs!
Funded May 9, 2024My students are very active and enthusiastic learners. They enjoy learning through hands-on activities, which these materials will help provide. A recent Donors Choose project provided us with magnifying glasses and binoculars to investigate insects on our wonderful school property, with a field and many different trees and bushes.
The real insects preserved in the resin will provide closer investigation using our classroom magnifying glasses, and students will connect this classroom learning to their own investigations outdoors. These will provide a learning opportunity for those students not ready or willing to investigate live insects. The plastic insects will provide and reinforce learning the characteristics of the insects we study.
The transparent plastic insects will provide a great connection to the light table we have. They will be able to sort them by color, type of insect, wings/no wings and create patterns on the light table.
The plastic toy bugs will be used for examination and play. They can sort and use for patterns and play in the garden.
Thank you so much for believing in me and my young students, who are our future.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Schatmeyer
This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Supporter and 5 other donors.Budding Artists Need Process Art Supplies
Funded May 18, 2024My students enjoy being creative and using their own ideas, and find joy in doing things independently. Process art is open-ended, unstructured, creative, and self-motivated. It is about the actual doing, the journey, the discoveries, not the outcome or product.
Process art incorporates scientific thinking, problem solving, experimenting, innovation, mathematical understanding, visual expression, and language development.
It encourages the development of fine motor skills like painting, cutting, molding and gluing.
The model magic, dough tools, dot markers and paper bags will entice the creativity in my students. I cannot wait to see how they incorporate them into their play.
We use the dot markers often in small group and I finally have enough working ones for the whole class to use! We also use them to create signs and large thank you cards or birthday cards and of course they love to paint their own creations with them.
We LOVE all the colors the model magic comes in!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Schatmeyer
This classroom project was brought to life by Quill.com and 2 other donors.Stepping Up Our Outside Learning Environment!
Funded Apr 26, 2024Thank you for your generous donations to my worthy project for all our students and future students in the school.
I wish you could have seen the students as they spotted the Giant Numbered Stepping Stones. They were so excited and quickly formed a line to try it out. This will help students obtain balance, agility, coordination, and confidence. Practice on these enticing stepping stones will hone these gross motor skills, as well as numeral identification and counting.
The dancing streamers will add enjoyment and creativity as they create their own unique movements. They will notice how the wind affects the streamers. Many students have never been bowling and the magnetic game will provide a glimpse to what the game is like. They will learn force and motion concepts. The students enjoy creating an obstacle course or show creative skills in devising their own game with the cones, hoops and bean bags.
The binocular and magnifier sets will provide opportunities for closely exploring and investigating nature and our outdoor environment. We also used them to closely observe the caterpillars and butterflies. We will use them in the fall for many investigations and exploring. A study of birds is used by many teachers and they are excited to utilize the binoculars and magnifying glasses next year.
Thank you for your generosity and kindness. The teachers, students and future students appreciate you.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Schatmeyer
This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and 3 other donors.Refreshing Our Outdoor Play!
Funded Apr 26, 2024Thank you for your generous donations which provided so many new materials for our gross motor aactivities. These materials are used indoors and outdoors in a nature-based learning environment and active play. The materials are utilized by all 10 classes: 145-150 students on the school field, playground and gym. These materials provide many choices for all the students and will extend their learning in practicing new skills.
The students were so excited to see the WeeKidz Number Balance Beam and Shape Balance Beam set up in the gym for the first time. They all quickly formed a line to try them out. The teachers let me know how happy they all were to have these new materials to use twice a day, every day.
They loved the different balls of various sizes, textures, materials and colors. Some are used for the new basketbal hoop, others for the new soccer net, and some for tossing, throwing, catching and kicking. These are all skills they need to develop. I love the "Comet balls" that look like a comet when thrown! They love using the "Hop Along Balls" outside on the soft grassy field for a different experience. These help coordination, balance and confidence during Gross Motor. The hula hoops can also be used to create an obstacle course with the cones and bean bags. Often the students set up the obstacle course themselves.
You helped us create meaningful indoor and outdoor learning environments for these eager-to-learn, active students. Thank you from my heart. You have provided more than you can realize for these students and teachers and our future students for many years to come.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Schatmeyer
This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and 5 other donors.Gross Motor Equipment Needed for PreSchool!
Funded Apr 7, 2024Thank you so much for your generous donations to my project. I appreciate your generosity and commitment to our future. Many students in the future years will benefit from the basketball hoop and soccer net used for indoor and outdoor gross motor play by the 150 students in the school. Another Donors Choose project provided new balls of different sizes.
My active, eager-to-learn students appreciated engaging, hands-on materials for the Camping and Gardening studies. They loved the campfire, which added creativity and involvement to the camping part of the study. My little garden came "alive" with the vegetables and flowers. They were able to pretend to plant them and pick them. They also loved the Goobi Magnetic Building materials.
We observed bean seeds sprout in plastic baggies and planted the sprouts in clean milk containers with the potting soil you provided. Many students had beans starting to grow before school was out for summer! We also planted our Mother's Day flowers using the soil in pots they decorated. Thank you for providing the Potting Soil for us.
Thank you from my heart for believing in me and my students. They are our future!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Schatmeyer
This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and 3 other donors.Preserving Our Outdoor Classroom
Funded Apr 25, 2024Thank you for your generous donations to my project, "Preserving Our Outdoor Classroom". My recent DonorsChoose projects for outdoor learning supplies and equipment we recieved for the entire school are beyond wonderful. The students love all the new materials provided by the DonorsChoose Projects. Their faces were full of joy when the saw the new basketball hoop, soccer net, kickballs, soccer balls, rainbow balls, Stepping Stones and Balance Beams, the Dancing Rings, Comet Balls, Sit and Bounce Balls, magnifying glasses, and binoculars. They now have so many choices in a vast array of new materials to use in their play and learning. Many skills will be developed using these materials.
This equipment cart will be utilized for storage and transporting our new outdoor learning resources, which will facilitate the implementation of our outdoor curriculum. The equipment will be stored in the garage and transported daily to the field for use by all students in our preschool. In inclimate weather the materials can easliy be transported to the gym for indoor play. We need to safely store and transport the new materials to preserve our natural outdoor classroom.
With your generous support, we can encourage and enhance our young learners' experiences through the exploration and discovery in our outdoor learning environment. Providing an outdoor space filled with nature and new portable gross motor equipment will spark a natural sense of wonder and curiosity for our students, as they develop their physical and social-emotional skills.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for believing in me and my students. They are our future!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Schatmeyer
This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and 2 other donors.Engaging Play With STEAM Materials!
Funded Jan 29, 2024Thank you so much for donating to my Project "Engaging Play with STEAM Materials." The students love to play with the Popmatic Learning Game. It's amazing how the Popomatic makes it so much more engaging for them to play the game and learn their numbers and letters!
They enjoy playing with the Mini Pavers and the Little Bricks I had already. They make such wonderful and interesting things. They built the "Little Pig's house" with the Bricks and Pavers. My students try hard to follow the suggestions on the sturdy cards to build intricate creations.
I knew they would enjoy testing out the "Race and Roll Ramps" and use many materials to test force and motion. It is well built and sturdy. They enjoy changing the strips to test how the various texture affects the speed and distance the items will go. They have figured out how the height of the ramp changes the speed and distance as well. It is a well designed learning toy.
My students deserve to learn as much as possible through play in my preschool class. I am so very grateful for your generous help in making my job so much better.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Schatmeyer
Literature Needed for Makerspace and Steam Play!
Funded Apr 3, 2023Thank you from my heart for all your generous donations to help me with my project; Literature Needed for Makerspace and STEAM Play! The 32 books will go a long way in helping provide the needed Literature aspect for many studies including Loose Parts/Makerspace provocations and my gingerbread/cookie study. I appreciate your belief in me and my young students who need a vast variety in studies and materials. You help me keep it fresh and new for them. They are eager to learn and I need to keep them engaged in learning.
My students always LOVE my Mo Willems author study and now that I have the complete set I do not need to go to all the local libraries searching for all his books. Thank you for allowing me to focus my time and energy on other aspects of teaching.
I appreciate DonorsChoose and of course all the wonderful people and companies who donate to the teachers and students we serve. You help us do our jobs more than you will ever know.
Please know how much we truly appreciate all your donations.
Thank you again!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Schatmeyer
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 4 other donors.STEM Inspiring Young Minds for the Future!
Funded Nov 30, 2022Thank you so very much for donating to my project; "STEM Inspiring Young Minds for the Future!" The students were so vey excited to see all the new additions to our classroom. They love the speaking Alphabet learning puzzle and Number puzzle. I love them because they can work on it independently and listen as they learn the name of the number or letter they matched up.
They are loving the ABC Spot "Twister"- like game! We play it in the classroom every Wednesday since we cannot go in the gym. I use this for small group learning as well. We use the Crocodile Hop Floor Game for learning colors, shapes, numbers, and counting 1-10. They are so excited when they see that the games are set up. I use the Fox in the Box game for small group learning time when learning and practicing positions and rhyming.
The Little Pavers Block builders is a great addition to my tabletop building and are a perfect addition to the Little Pavers Bricks.
Thank you for donating to make teaching and learning more enjoyable. I appreciate your generosity!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Schatmeyer
This classroom project was brought to life by The Henry and Marilyn Taub Foundation and 9 other donors.