Past projects 6
Book in a Bag Program!
Funded Oct 13, 2022Thank you again for all of your generous donations to our book-in-a-bag program! The program is officially off and running for the 2022-2023 school year! This year, we have approximately 135 kids participating in grades K-3. Your donations have been so valuable to the program as the prizes are the kid's favorite part!
For every 15 books that a child reads at home, they are given a small, reading-related prize for their hard work! In one of our first-grade classes, just today, more than half the class received a reading pencil for achieving the goal of 30 books read! The smiles and proudness you could see on their faces were so rewarding!
We are blessed to have parent volunteers coming to our K-3 classrooms every day of the week to sit and read with our students and they, too play a critical part in the success of the book-in-a-bag program. They help keep track of the books kids are reading, guide the kids to pick just right books for themselves, and help encourage the kids to find that love of reading that we all want them to have.
Thank you again for your donation! You are so appreciated! The K-3 team of Boston Harbor!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Myers
Magnetic Letters!
Funded Feb 14, 2021What a gift your donation has been to my students and our classroom! It is so exciting to have a class set of these magnets! No longer do the students have to share a magnetic board and we always have enough for everyone to use during our reading group time!
These magnets are used primarily during our reading group time. I use these with the kids to build their phonemic awareness and their sight words. Each week, I focus on something new with the kids depending on their reading level; so one group of readers might be building three-letter words with different vowel sounds while another group might be working on building words with /sh/ and /th/. These magnets are engaging for the students to use and they always love using them each day!
One of my favorite things about teaching first graders is watching them when they have a "lightbulb" moment in reading. There is no greater gift than watching a student realize that they are a reader! Thank you for helping my students be able to work towards these "light bulb" moments! You are so appreciated!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Myers
A Year's Worth of School Supplies!
Funded Jul 27, 2020How can I ever thank you properly for all the wonderful school supplies for my students to use this year? I won't be able to, but I hope that you will find joy in knowing what a difference you have made in their lives during this year of virtual learning.
I shot for the moon with our supplies, asking for double what I would normally ask parents to supply. I knew that we would more than likely be learning virtually and I wanted to be able to have supplies that could go home with the kids every two weeks when they came to pick up their school work. Thanks to you, I was able to do just this! Every two weeks, families drive through the school and I am able to hand them a tub full of all they need to be successful learners! Inside the tubs are pencils, pencil sharpeners, expo markers and erasers, spiral notebooks, two-pocket folders for each subject area, glue sticks and so much more.
As we start looking ahead to after winter break, with talk of going into a hybrid learning format, I am comforted knowing that I will be able to use all the supplies you so generously donated inside the classroom as well and because I asked for two of everything, my students will still be able to have a set of supplies at home when they aren't with me in the classroom. Thank you so very much!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Myers
Leveled Readers For First Graders!
Funded Apr 20, 2019It is with my heartfelt thanks that I write this letter to you today. My goal with this Donor's Choose grant was to provide richer, more thought provoking literature to our K-2 reading groups. Thanks to your generosity, I received group sets of books that not only I'm able to use during my reading groups, but also my teaching partners in grades K, 1 and 2 are able to pull any of them and use them. What a gift for our students!
Through your donations, I was able to change what my typical day of reading groups looked like; which was a needed change! Usually, during our small group reading time, kids would get a basal book from our curriculum, come and sit down with me at the table and we would read, decode and comprehend aloud together. Often times, participation was minimal as the curriculum was either dull or the level was to high for most readers. This all changed once all the books arrived to our classroom. Now, it looks like the kids coming to our small group reading table to enjoy a book that was chosen specifically for their level of reading. The best part? These are actual books which instantly engage my students. After we read the story we learn and practice new comprehension strategies such as re-telling the story, answering and asking questions and identifying characters in the book. We also write and often do projects using these books.
The best news donors? These books will touch and reach over 145 students this year (and for many, many years to come!) I sincerely hope you know how thankful I am to all of you for your generous donations! Happy Reading!
Sincerely,
Heather Myers”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Myers
Creating Life Long Readers in First Grade!
Funded Apr 11, 2019It is with my heartfelt thanks that I write this letter to you today. My goal with this Donor's Choose grant was to provide richer, more thought provoking literature to my students. Thanks to your generous donations, for the past few months, this is exactly what's been happening. Often times, teachers are expected to teach reading through a basal curriculum. This curriculum can be overwhelming to teach with so many parts to it that it's hard to focus on what first graders need most. With these books, I was able to focus specifically on things that they are expected to know before they leave my classroom. There engagement was through the roof and the end result was amazing!
Through your donations, I was able to change what my typical day of reading looked like; which was a needed change! Usually, during our whole group reading time, kids would get a basal book from our curriculum, come and sit down with me at the carpet and we would read aloud together. Often times, participation was minimal as the curriculum was either dull, the level to high for most readers. The kids sat for almost sixty minutes. This all changed once all the books arrived to our classroom. Now, it looks like the kids coming to the carpet to enjoy a read aloud read by me followed by engaging, active learning around the classroom. After we read the story of the week, we often incorporate rich writing, retell the story through teamwork and make lots of connections through non-fiction text as well.
These books are all so different, yet all wonderful! Each Monday, the kids would come into the classroom begging to know what our story title for the week was going to be! I loved giving little hints and clues throughout the day until it was finally time for our whole group reading in the afternoon! Some of the classes favorites this year were sad, funny and factual. They loved the book, Ida Always by Caron Levis and Charles Santoso. This book was about two polar bear best friends and the process of death. It was beautifully told and we didn't have a dry eye in the classroom after I read it. We had powerful conversations on the topic. Although I was nervous to read this to them, it ended up being an absolute favorite. Another class favorite was Naughty Mabel by Nathan Lane. This story was about a chihuahua who always got into trouble because she wanted love from her family. This was a great story that talked about character emotions and how emotions can affect others around you. Finally, one of our classroom favorites was Chameleons Are Cool by Martin Jenkins. This was a true story about different types of chameleons. The kids were so engaged in this story and the activities that they did during the week were out of this world amazing!
The best news donors? These books will touch so many more first graders as I continue to teach during the rest of my career! I sincerely hope you know how thankful I am to all of you for your generous donations! Happy Reading!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Myers
A Home for Our Big Books {and SO Much More!}
Funded Oct 9, 2016I'd like to take a minute to express my gratitude in your choosing to donate to our classroom getting a new easel! I can't begin to explain how wonderful this item has been for our classroom! We've had the easel for a few months now and it honestly has made teaching so much easier!
Each week with our reading curriculum we have a new big book that ties in with our essential question. This weeks essential question was: " What are the different stages of a plant?" Our big book, The Mystery Vine, was the perfect story to get the kids thinking about plants and the different life cycles that they have. Have I mentioned that before we received your gift, we were still reading BUT let me tell you, it was difficult! For some reason, these big books really are BIG- larger than normal. I was having to juggle turning pages while trying to manage the class and teach important reading strategies. Now, that we have the easel, the big books fit perfectly and my arms have been freed up and it's been one less thing to worry about while teaching!
We use the easel for lots of other things as well! It has a whiteboard front, so we are constantly writing on it; sight words, phonic practice and even using it for math lessons as well. My favorite feature of the easel is the storage it has behind it. Before we had the easel, kids were storing their 2 reading books in their desks. We had little names for each of the books to tell the difference between the two. Now that we have this amazing storage, kids can find their reading book quickly. It also has room for me to store my weekly small group reading books as well as all the other little things that we do during the week like our vocabulary and sight word cards.
We've just started doing a write the room activity that allows the kids to use a clipboard and go on word hunts for either sight words we are learning or phonics we are studying. They love this activity and I've found lots of fun hiding spots on the easel! They think it's hilarious that I'll hide a word card on the side of the reading book tub or magnet a word to the front of the easel.
Thank you again for contributing to our project. It truly has made such a difference for our classroom in so many ways.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Myers