Ms. Fredricksen's Classroom Edit display name

Current requests

Past projects 22

• Bring History Alive for Special Needs Students!

  Funded Nov 27, 2009

  Thank you so much for our wonderful trip to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum! My class had a great time and learned so much.

  I was very impressed with the tour we were treated to. I take my students on many field trips, so after five years of teaching in New York, I feel like I've been to every museum and attraction in the city. The Tenement Museum was one of the absolute best. The students were first delighted by a session with an educator during which they played "detective" and tried to guess what a variety of historic objects were used for, including a potato masher, an antique camera, and a bedpan. This was an engaging introduction to the tour we then took of an apartment that looked as it did in 1916, where an actor playing a girl named Victoria Confino who actually lived there a hundred years ago, showed us around. The great combination of visual and hands-on teaching ensured that my students remembered an impressive amount of the information covered. When we returned to the classroom, we made a web as a class titled "Life in New York City 100 Years Ago." Unprompted, my students came up with three main topics: eating, sleeping, and playing, and proceeded to fill in many details on these three topics. (Though they still have a difficult time imagining life without video games!)

  I apologize for the lack of photos of my students at the museum; the museum does not allow photography at their facility. However, I took some photos of them working on the web we made afterward and I hope you can see how engaged they are.

  Thank you for bringing history alive for my class. We had a wonderful time and learned a lot!

  ”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Fredricksen

• Designed for the Deep: A Trip to the New York Aquarium

  Funded Oct 8, 2009

  Thank you so much for your generous donation to our classroom! We really enjoyed and learned a lot from our trip to the New York Aquarium. (I am sorry for the delay in expressing our appreciation; the trip had to be rescheduled due to a conflict on the original date and we were finally able to go in late May.) My students love science and have been so excited to study animal adaptations, and our trip to the aquarium has been the highlight of our unit. The students talked about it for weeks before we went, and it did not disappoint. In our classroom we've been able to view photos and videos of animals, but there is nothing like seeing live animals in realistic-looking habitats to ensure that students truly understand the concept of animal adaptations. My students really enjoyed the tour we took of the exhibits and seemed to understand that aquatic animals have flippers and fins in order to swim better, and come in different colors in order to blend in or stand out from their habitats, and have teeth adapted to the specific types of food they eat.

  The workshop "Designed for the Deep" allowed us an opportunity to explore this concept further. We worked with an aquarium educator in a private classroom where the students viewed and handled artifacts such as flipper bones, sea lion fur, and shark teeth. They also viewed and handled live animals, such as starfish and horseshoe crabs, and discussed these animals' features. We even completed an art project portraying animals in their habitats. It was a lot of information and excitement packed into one day!

  We are currently extending our study of aquatic animal adaptations in the classroom, and have been focusing on jellyfish and sharks and the unique features that allow them to thrive in their ocean environment. We have had discussions, viewed videos, and done movement and storytelling activities surrounding these animals, but it is obvious that our trip to the aquarium helped my students understand them and their unique features much more thoroughly than if we were not able to see them live. Thank you for making the trip possible and enhancing our entire unit of study! ”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Fredricksen

• Outfit Our Special Needs Library for Reading Independence!

  Funded Jul 7, 2009

  Thank you so much for your generous donation of book bins and a bookcase to enhance our classroom library! It is the envy of all the teachers at my school.

  My old book bins were literally falling apart, so it was a relief to be able to stop trying to tape them back together and put our new ones on the shelves. The new book bins are sturdy and just the right size for my students to handle, which makes it easy for them to pull one off the shelf to choose a book for independent reading. (Less time struggling with awkward, broken book bins mean more time reading!) And having a bunch of uniform book bins and an additional bookcase means that I have finally cleaned out all the books that were sitting in our closet and put them on the shelves where students can access them any time they want.

  My students love to read about different topics and are all at different reading levels, and your donation has made it possible for each of them to access "just-right" books any time they want. Now Melissa can find level N books about detectives just as easily as Jeffrey can find level F books about cartoon characters. This helps make reading time easier for them and for me, and helps them to be more enthusiastic about reading! The books bins and bookcase will be used and appreciate for years to come.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Fredricksen

• Help Students with Autism Explore our Urban Habitat

  Funded Apr 3, 2009

              I can't begin to express my gratitude for the trip you made possible for my students this spring. I wish you could see their faces light up as we went exploring in Prospect Park. We started in the Audubon Center, where the instructor immediately captured their attention by handing each student a stuffed animal—a robin, a squirrel, a chipmunk--to identify and place on its spot on the large tree mat she had spread on the floor. (Johnathan didn't want to give up his chipmunk but we eventually coaxed him to show us it lives at the base of the tree.) The students were also invited to touch turkey feathers in a demonstration of how feathers help birds move through the wind, and tree bark in a demonstration of how it helps protect trees. These activities reinforced our unit of study on adaptations, during which we focused on all the special features living things have to help them survive.

              After setting the tone for the trip with a few hands-on activities we headed outside, where we took a walk around the park and saw ducks, geese, robins, a heron, turtles, fish, squirrels, and chipmunks. Although these may all seem like fairly common animals, the way we stopped and noticed each of them and their surroundings was highly uncommon. In our day-to-day rush, my students and I rarely stop to notice the living things around us. During our walk, my students were able to see how each of these animals interact and depends on its environment, including the people that visit Prospect Park.

              Thank you again for making this trip possible for my students. Our day in Prospect Park helped solidify my students' awareness of their environment and the living things they share it with. And on top of that, it was a lot of fun! I am sure my students and I will remember it for years to come.

  ”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Fredricksen

  This classroom project was brought to life by Korein Foundation and one other donor.

• Bring Animals Alive for Students with Autism!

  Funded Mar 19, 2009

  Thank you so much for your generous donation to our classroom! We really enjoyed our visit to the Prospect Park Zoo, including the hands-on Discovery Center. We have been studying animals for the past month, focusing mainly on adaptations, those special features animals have that help them survive. It was wonderful to get to watch my students not only have a lot of fun in the zoo and Discovery Center, but apply the knowledge that they have been acquiring for the past month.

   

  Highlights included our walk along the outdoor discovery trail, where we played on a human sized spider web made of rope, posed in kid-sized turtle shells, hopped on "lily pads" and then continued on to see a lot of animal action. We witnessed red pandas and porcupines eating and climbing trees (they've always been asleep when I've visited before!), a peacock in full display mode (I think his wingspan must have been six feet across), and baboons grooming each other and playing. At the barn we fed sheep, goats, and cows. At the Discovery Center we touched a friendly corn snake named Albus Dumbledore (the instructor told us he used to be called "Cuddles"), pretended we were camping in a tent while we peeked of the tent flaps at the birds in an aviary outside, looked at animal x-rays in the veterinary station, compared a live baby tortoise to a full-grown tortoise shell, and examined a tarantula named Charlotte.

   

  The students had a wonderful time and pointed out webbed feet, porcupine quills, and sharp teeth while we toured the zoo. Being able to identify adaptations in real live animals was a great culminating activity for our animal unit. Thank you again for your generosity! ”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Fredricksen

• Music for All

  Funded Aug 11, 2008

  Thank you so much for your generous donation to our classroom! As summer school winds down it is more and more apparent how much my students love music and how badly we need a new collection of CDs, instruments, and music games and activities. They may be okay with playing Hot Potato every day but they love it when I introduce new activities and songs and I know they'll love to shake up our routine a bit. I look forward to trying out all the new music equipment with my students this fall! Thank you again”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Fredricksen

• Bring Special Needs Students to the Table

  Funded Feb 2, 2008

  Thank you so much for your generous donation! As my students and I were working together this week (finishing up a project for the 100th Day of School Carnival) I was thinking about how nice it would be to have a new classroom table. Thanks to you we have many group projects and activities to look forward to at our new table! I am excited and I'm sure my students will be when they hear the news. Thanks again”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Fredricksen

• Book Binding Machine: Help My Adapted Books Last

  Funded Jan 14, 2008

  Thank you so much for your generous donation to our classroom! While my students may not notice the new book binding machine on my desk, they will certainly notice all the new books I am planning on adding to our library. They are going to be thrilled to have even more of the adapted books they love and learn from available for read alouds and independent reading. Again, thank you. I look forward to using the machine for years to come”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Fredricksen

• Recommended Books for the Reader's Workshop

  Funded Dec 30, 2007

  Thank you so much for your generous donation! I can't begin to explain how useful the books you have given are are going to be. My students love to read but naturally prefer engaging stories with characters they can relate to. They are going to love Horrible Harry, Poppleton, and all the rest! Not to mention that it is going to be much easier for me to plan lessons based on the reader's workshop model. Thank you again”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Fredricksen