Past projects 5
Perfectly Playful Pre-K
Funded Nov 2, 2013Thank you so much for your wonderful donations. My students are absolutely in love with the kitchen table, doll house furniture, and community carpet. When we first received the packages from Lakeshore Learning, my students could not believe that all of the boxes where filled with toys they could play with immediately. So excited, they all gathered around as I started to open the boxes. Please keep in mind my students are three and four years old and have developmental delays, and yet they sat almost completely still for twenty minutes just to see all the toys being unwrapped. I encouraged them to play, but they all just wanted to see what new toys they were getting. Over the next few weeks all my students got to play and experience the toys and some of the things I have witnessed have reaffirmed my joy in teaching.
Today some of my students that did not speak at all are asking me to play with one to two word phrases. They say "rug" and "car" with a big smile and happily go off to play. Some of my students who are working on social skills are beginning to practice our "feelings" script with friends at the doll house. Where in the past I would have heard yelling and screaming because someone took a toy, I now hear students saying "no, I don't like that" when someone takes the shower stall without asking. These toys are not just letting kids play, they are providing a meaningful reason to practice their speech, social skills, and so much more. The kitchen table has brought some of my more isolated children into play as they have a whole table to separate them from their peers giving them a safety net to work in.
My students are so much more engaged, energetic, and eager to play when they come to school. I know this is because of your generous gift and I cannot thank you enough.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Golas
This classroom project was brought to life by Central Florida Kia Dealers and 5 other donors.Energizing Center Time
Funded Oct 6, 2010Thank you so much for your wonderful donation. After receiving the supplies my students were so excited! I have never seen my students so ready to work with letters and numbers in centers! The ABC boxes where a hit and students are still learning to negotiated who gets which box! Often I hear students debating who should get the candy or truck box, I love that they are problem solving over letter games and not toy cars or housekeeping supplies! When the kids saw the ABC fishing set I had to make everyone sit down and stop centers; it was the only way to stop the begging for which group got to play with it first. The great thing is that each game can be leveled to challenge all students so that everyone can play and learn.
I am also very thankful for all the physical games. I often have trouble with my boys sitting still and working on their letters, reading skills, and number skills. However, with the use of the ABC and number mats the boys are excited for centers and for reading time. They love jumping to the correct answer, as do the girls. Perhaps my students' favorite game is the word building mat. They love jumping on the letters, writing them down, and them working together to read the word. Normally this could only go on for ten minutes before my students would get bored; and forget center work! Now my students actually ask me to work on blending with this center!
As much as I am sure you are excited to hear that my center time has truly been reenergized, I think you would be even more excited to hear that, after receiving these supplies, there was a large upward jump in the percent of my students that can now recognize and name their letters, sounds, and numbers! You have truly helped to make a difference in the lives of children that really need the help. Thank you for all your have done to reenergize my center time.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Golas
Math Mania!
Funded Oct 29, 2009Thank you so much for your generous help in purchasing my math supplies! I have just recently finished teaching my geometric shapes unit, the hardest unit I teach all year, and I was so excited to see how much easier it was for my students to pick up the concepts with the wonderful new hands-on shapes you provided for them. Number recognition has soared as well thanks to the photo library, our new large hands-on calendar, and fun counting ant center game!
My students are so excited for math each day, and love playing math games in centers with the new math centers you bought. In fact, there is constant debate over which game to choose for the day! Math can very easily become the hardest, least pleasant subject of the day for students, but thanks to your help, my children love interacting with math concepts as they play with these wonderful math games! Thank you so much for all your help and for making Math Mania take over my classroom!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Golas
Rocket into Reading
Funded Sep 18, 2009Thank you so much for your generous gift to my Rocket Readers project. The materials we have received have brought so much life into my phonemic awareness time and my students' scores soared after using these great materials.
One of my favorite activities is the Alphabet Treasure Hunt. My students had such a blast hunting for letters in the classroom and winning jewels for naming the letters or the sounds. In fact, the game was so popular students from other classes asked to play the game with their teachers! Not only did you bring learning to life in my classroom with these materials, you brought it to life in all the kindergarten classrooms in my school!
The other materials purchased also had a great impact on my students. The Phonemic Awareness Kit helped my students with their rhyming, word blending, word separating, and other key skills for kindergarten reading. The Letter Ladybugs as well as the beginning, middle, end, and rhyming puzzles were fun interactive ways for me to assess my students with out them getting bored or frustrated!
Thank you so much for your gift, my class is a new class thanks to these materials! We are even beginning to read faster! With out your help I would never have been able to afford these materials and my kids would not have had the extra boost these materials have given them! Thanks again so much for your generosity!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Golas
Containing Kindergarten Chaos
Funded Feb 27, 2009I can not even begin to thank you for your generous gift. As you know, I work in a low income neighborhood and can hardly get essentials like pencils and paper. To be able to get all of these materials to help my crowded room seem just a bit bigger was the best gift I could ever have received and it couldn't have come at a better time.
I received your gift just before Spring Break which meant I could review and familiarize myself with all the materials right away. Then I was able to implement them in class right when the children came back from break, fresh and recharged! Right away I noticed a difference in our class atmosphere. There is less tattling between the children now, I can find things quicker, and we are getting so much more work done everyday!
The At your Seat Storgae Sacks are the best gift we got. Now my students have all there essential tools at their seat without crowding their small desks and my limited shelving! I believe most of my tattling was due to lost pencils and crayons and now with each child having their own place to store them, they are finding their materials quicker and getting right to work, limiting tattling for "stolen" items and reducing off task behaviors. Thanks to the Student Portfolio System, my students now also have a place to put all their work when it is done and where it won't get lost or thrown away. My floors have never been clearer, no more "lost" papers under tables and chairs! However, work is not better just because we can find and put away materials quicker, but because we have so many activities to do in between work that keeps class moving and fun!
The Transition Time Activities guide suggested so many activities to move students from one place to another and from one activity to another. My students don't have much down time now and we are flying through our work! They love the "echo" game the most and like to copy the teacher as we quiet down after a fun game or two to review sight words. I never have had them so quiet before! Centers are easier now too thanks to the Attention Getter! Every student can hear my pre-recorded count down and quiet down right away to clean up or rotate to a new center! My classroom is also free of "What's next?" or "When can we go home?" now that we have a posted picture schedule that the students can see and help keep the arrow moving through the day!
Thanks to you my class is a different class, we are organized and working so much harder and getting so much smarter every day! With out you none of this would have happened and I know my class would have missed so many learning opportunities! Thanks to your gifts, my students love organizing their materials! ”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Golas