Past projects 3
Come Take a Ride on Our Magic Learning Carpet
Funded Aug 10, 2022Thank you for our amazing rug. We have really enjoyed sitting on our rug throughout the day. When my students found out that our "NEW rug" was here, they were so excited. When are you putting the rug out? When can we see it? Luckily, we had a four day weekend for the rug to stretch out and lay flat. When they came back to school on Monday, they were in awe of their beautiful rug.
One of our favorite times of the day is during storytime. The students love laying on the carpet and spreading out, some like to just sit on the carpet, and others like to find a good spot by themselves to get comfy and listen. We sit on the carpet during math and reading time and all students can find their spot, pay attention and learn without thinking about how hard the ground is and how much their bottom hurts just sitting on the floor. All of the students saw the carpet and started "oooohing and ahhhhing" over how pretty it is. For weeks I had students tell me how comfortable the rug is and how much they love sitting on it. When we eat snack in the afternoon, during storytime any students that get crumbs on the carpet are so quick to get the broom and dustpan and clean it up because, as one student put it "We can't get the rug DIRTY!" After coming in from outside during the cold days, and sit on the carpet, there are wood chips and other debris on students shoes that get on the carpet. There are students that will focus more on cleaning up the carpet, than on what I am teaching. They may be a little obsessed.
We have enjoyed reading The Witches, The Twits, many different Jack and the Beanstalk books and Gingerbread books. We also laid on the carpet while we watched the Witches movie. Next up will be reading many more holiday books and watching The Polar Express! We love our rug! Thank you!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Halford
This classroom project was brought to life by Bill Gates and 2 other donors.iRead, iAdd and iLearn in first grade!
Funded Oct 18, 2021Thank you for the amazing tech donations. My students have been using the iPad, Amazon Fire tablet and the headphones everyday. The most exciting activities on the tablets are Prodigy, Splash Math and iReady Math. They love working with their friends on Prodigy, which helps students practice their math skills using a video game type format. They get to work with their friends and practice adding and subtracting numbers up to 20, identifying names of shapes and practice place value. Every time they get a question correct, they get to cast a spell, earn points, buy stuff to help cast more fancy spells from the market and other cool things to help them on their math quest. They love this game and don't even realize they are practicing math and making their brains grow. Splash Learn helps students get to jump from lily pad to lily pad as they practice their math skills and show they have mastered the focus skill on each lily pad. I-ready math creates a unique path for each student to help them practice the skills they are lower in, all in a lost is space theme.
Many students prefer working by themselves. The headphones have helped those students to feel more comfortable in the classroom while becoming better readers by using the headphones for listening to the stories, sounding out their words and increase their reading fluency skills. Each of my students have increased their grades in math by 5-10% since they have been using the tablets and head phones and have each student has increased their sight word knowledge by 10 words. Students are excited to practice reading, learning sight words (which help them become better readers) listening to fluent readers, practice identifying characters and setting while retelling the story they just read or listened to.
We are currently learning all about polar bears. The students have been able to use the headphones and tablets to go online to Epic books and read books and watch videos to learn more about polar bears and other Arctic animals. This has especially helped our students who are still learning English, by allowing them to watch videos and listen to books without having to actually read. These students feel like they are a part of the classroom, instead of feeling frustrated with their language skills and understanding what we are learning.
Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts for helping each of our brains grow and getting us ready for second grade!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Halford
Phunky Phonics Time!
Funded Oct 18, 2013Dear Donors,
These items have drastically improved our classroom each day. My students love using the whiteboard to practice their spelling words, each day. They also love using the whiteboard to practice their math facts. We do our Morning Message on the whiteboard, each morning, as well as sound out our Words Of The Week. Every day I have students who ask me if they can practice their spelling words on the whiteboard. To have students ASK me to practice their spelling words, is amazing, in itself. Knowing that they can use the whiteboard and I don't have to worry about it falling on them, hurting them, or just falling on the ground takes a major load off my mind, and lets me focus on the students and their needs, each day. I love that it is magnetic, because then we can use it to clip anchor charts to the front. The baskets underneath the board hold all my special books, that I share with the students during read aloud, or during our reading block, each day. They also hold the chapter books, that some of the students are ready to read. It keeps them neatly tucked away, and no one is tripping all over them. We have a limited amount of room in our classroom. The buckets allow for the books to be safely stored away, but still easily accessible. The chart paper hooks allow for our anchor charts, and writing time to be organized and easy. All I have to do is grab the chart paper from the back of the easel, and move it to the front with the hooks. Allowing the chart paper to hang on there, makes writing time so much smoother. And the students are able to refer back to the papers, if they forget how to spell a word, or need help making their sentences correctly.
We use this easel and makers each day. Being able to color code the spelling words (word families one color, sight words another color), math sentences, calendar time, writing sentences and identifying the beginning, middle and end of a story. The markers are so expensive, and as a teacher, nothing else matters but my students and what they need to learn this year, to get them ready to move on to the next grade level. Both of these items will help them make this happen.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Halford
This classroom project was brought to life by NEA Foundation and 5 other donors.