Past projects 10
From Caterpillars to Butterflies
Funded Apr 5, 2023Thank you so much for your generous contributions to our school. When the caterpillars first arrived in the classroom, every first-grader was enthralled by their tiny bodies and wriggly movements. The larvae quickly doubled in size as they ate the food that came with them in their jars. The students noticed how they shed their skin and were delighted to find they even pooped, and we learned vocabulary words like "molt" and "frass".
We waited impatiently for the caterpillars to form chrysalides, as we began to learn the stages of metamorphosis. While our insects formed their adult bodies, we wrote non-fiction books about their life cycles, and first-graders proudly showed off their diagrams and tables of contents to classroom visitors.
Finally, in the second week of May, a wet and crumpled butterfly emerged from each chrysalis. The unfurled their proboscises and drank fruit juice and sugar water. We watched as their wings straightened and they began to crawl and fly. On May 19, we said goodbye to our butterflies and released them into the North Carolina spring, hoping that they would serve as pollinators and find food in their native habitat. The students were as delighted to hold and play with them as they were sad to see them go. Since then we have seen many butterflies around our school, possibly descendants of the ones you donated! Thank you so much for helping create this unforgettable experience for our students.”
With gratitude,
Ms. O'Neil-Dunne
Growing Our Brains Through Play
Funded May 2, 2022Thank you so much for your contributions to our classroom.
When my students last school year saw that we had new materials to use for Fun Friday, many were screaming with excitement. They enthusiastically tried on new personas in the dress up box, helped me unwrap fresh art materials to create new masterpieces, and worked together to build the tallest marble run yet.
This year I have also gotten to bond with my new class by encouraging their imaginative sides during Fun Friday. They too love to dress up, build, and create. I have many students learning English in my class, and we are working to use new vocabulary during play.
My students and I greatly appreciate your support!”
With gratitude,
Ms. O'Neil-Dunne
R is for Reading: Part 2
Funded May 3, 2021Our students have had a great start to their school year. We are listening to stories, singing songs, and growing as readers and writers. I am so lucky to work with such sweet and intelligent students and play a role in their growth!
Many of my students have recently mastered all their letter sounds and are applying their knowledge to books. They love reading the Bob books and discovering that they CAN read.
While all of my students are deepening their vocabulary each day, several are doing this in two languages at once — speaking English at school and Spanish at home. The learning tubs filled with realia are amazing teaching tools to help new vocabulary stick.
Thank you again for supporting my students.”
With gratitude,
Ms. O'Neil-Dunne
This classroom project was brought to life by Ford Drive 4 UR School and one other donor.Becoming a National Board Certified Teacher
Funded Dec 2, 2020Thank you again for helping me to fully fund all four components of my National Boards! Over the course of the next 12 months I will be reading, writing, and reflecting about my favorite topic — teaching my students. Becoming an official National Board Candidate has given me a meaningful task to complete in what has been a difficult year.
Through the process of preparing my portfolio for National Boards, I have learned more about the science of teaching reading, which has helped many of my students make impressive gains with phonemic awareness, phonics, and blending, all of which are important steps in becoming confident readers. I have also analyzed my lesson planning and implementation process by watching video of myself. It has been rewarding to closely observe the small moments that lead to student understanding and mastery, and to notice the ways I can improve.
Finally, working on my National Boards has given me the opportunity to collaborate with other educators who also value the craft of teaching. They have helped to strengthen my pedagogy and my confidence, and I am so thankful for this opportunity.”
With gratitude,
Ms. O'Neil-Dunne
This classroom project was brought to life by FamilyAlbum and 17 other donors.Books for Hispanic Heritage Month (and All Year Long!)
Funded Jul 16, 2020Thank you so much for contributing to my project! I just opened the books and am so excited for the time I will get to share them with my students. Our district school board has recently determined that we will be beginning our school year online, but that doesn't mean our celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15) will be any less joyful or informative. I will be making videos, doing live Zoom read-alouds, and taking good care of these books so that I can physically share them with students when we safely return to the classroom.
As curators of books for children, educators often speak about the theory of "mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors" (Emily Style, 1988). It is our job to provide children with books like "I am Latino: the beauty in me" or "René Has Two Last Names" that will reflect students' own identity back to them, like a mirror. We should share books that show them cultures other than their own, and these same books will act that way for the children in my class who do not identify as Hispanic or Latinx. And at the same time, we need to read books that are sliding glass doors, like "Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx," that open a way ahead for what our students can become. Thank you so much for supporting my brilliant students!”
With gratitude,
Ms. O'Neil-Dunne
This classroom project was brought to life by Google.org and 6 other donors.R Is for Reading!
Funded Jul 3, 2020First of all, thank you so much for donating to my project! I know this item may seem strange, but it is really something I have wanted to have for a long time, and my fellow early-childhood literacy nerds were jealous (in a supportive way!) when I texted them pictures. I hope to be safely back in the school building sometime soon and will be happy to share with others.
Our district is going online for the first 9 weeks and we will be using a ton of digital tools. No one really knows yet how using predominantly virtual instruction impacts learning in young children. Last spring, we did an activity over Zoom called "Mystery Box" where I hid items in a shoe box and gave clues for children to guess them, as a way of practicing our question words. Using physical objects, which is a high-engagement strategy from the classroom, also worked over Zoom, and led to richer discussion than sharing my screen to show images. I believe this will carry over to literacy as I use the (magical, miniature) items from these learning tubs in our guided reading groups.
I love teaching reading, especially at the early stages of letter-sound knowledge. Teaching beginning sounds ("cat" and "car" both start with /c/) is a really important early building block. I am excited to use the objects in these tubs to do a variety of games and activities to strengthen letter sound knowledge, develop spelling patterns, and promote verbal expression. Thank you so much for making this happen for me!”
With gratitude,
Ms. O'Neil-Dunne
Powerful Second Grade Writers
Funded Aug 4, 2018Thank you so much for your generous donation. A reality of teaching is that teachers often spend their own money and personal time finding curriculum that will serve their students. For this reason, it is so meaningful to have community support to provide lessons and texts that engage our students and provide them with the tools they need to be strong writers.
Embarking on their journeys as writers this year, second-graders have produced remarkable work. As students read more and more, I see them employing techniques from inspiring writers into their own writing. Each student is developing and refining their own voice, and some even respond to the ever-present adult question, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" with the resolute response: "an author."
I think the best way to show the impact of this project is to see students choosing writing when they have the option to select other activities. When given choice of which literacy activity to do, students frequently select writing. And during our daily quiet time, I see much of the class working on creating their own books. It is a joy to watch and I thank you for making it happen!”
With gratitude,
Ms. O'Neil-Dunne
Listening and Learning in First Grade
Funded Nov 1, 2017Thank you so much for contributing to this project, and sorry for the delay! We had some setbacks, namely that I accidentally ordered 8 listening center holders and 0 actual CD players. But thanks to all of you and with some assistance from the very helpful and patient people at Donor's Choose, the listening center is now up and running!
The listening center has been a huge hit in our classroom. Not only is it our only piece of "technology" with actual buttons that kids get to press, but it is the only center where kids get to all read the same book together without a teacher. It's like a little book club! Hearing the books read to them through the headphones is a BIG DEAL. It helps students access texts that they can't read all by themselves yet, but while still holding the book in their hands and following the words with their eyes. This has been my most successful year of teaching with regard to reading growth, and so much of it has come from getting readable books in the hands of kids.
The books themselves are awesome. I thought the fiction books would be the most popular, but first-graders never stop surprising me. They are also riveted by the National Geographic Kids non-fiction texts, which include titles such as Ants, Storms, and Ponies. My students love them. I seriously heard (and it's easy to hear because they are typically so quiet at this center) a student say "Oh, wow" while listening to the book Trains! You can see him in the photos, his face is very focused. These books also have jokes which cause the kids to laugh in unison, which is slightly unnerving to the rest of us who don't have headphones on, but alright because everyone knows they'll get a turn soon. Sample joke, with credit to Ponies author Laura Marsh: Q: Why couldn't the pony sing? A: Because its voice was a little hoarse!
This center also promotes teamwork because students have to work together to get the player started and make sure their buddies are all on the same page (literally). It encourages their peers to step carefully so they don't unplug the power cord. They must take turns pressing the buttons, and resist the urge to turn down their neighbor's volume when their friend isn't looking. Some of us are still working on that one.
Finally, this technology is such a wonderful part of the Readers Workshop, which is the time of day when everyone is working on different literacy skills by creating their own books, playing phonics card games, silently reading, and practicing their sight words. With a group of kids at the listening center, I have four very quiet and engaged students (that is, four fewer potentially noisy students) who are not disrupting my small group teaching. This small group time that I get with students is making a big difference, especially to my readers who need the most help. I am grateful for this listening center every day.
Thank you again for your generosity.”
With gratitude,
Ms. O'Neil-Dunne
Tolerance and Resistance Through Stories and History
Funded Aug 17, 2017I am so appreciative of your donations of books that are now happily part of our classroom library. I feel so lucky that I have these books on hand not just for lessons that I have taught and still plan to teach, but to place in the hands of students who ask great questions about tough issues, and fellow teachers who can use these books as resources in their own classrooms.
An unexpected effect of placing these books in our library is that they serve to normalize what has been historically stigmatized. When visiting the Fairy Tales bin in our classroom library, my students previously had the option of more "traditional" stories like Snow White, as well as humorous updates like Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems. Now though, they can also choose from books like the beautiful King and King by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland. I am proud to have a space, however small, in which all these narratives can be side by side. To really illustrate how powerful this is, I would like for you to imagine what it would be like in your elementary school, when you were a young reader, to find a picture book about two princes who fall in love on your library shelves. I know for me and my classmates, it would have seemed quite scandalous. For my students however, it has raised no more questions than a book about the alphabet. Your donations have helped bring this to my classroom, and I am so grateful.
So far, we have dug most deeply into the books about Hispanic leaders. The concept of "windows and mirrors," created by Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, is much-discussed among educators advocating for diverse books for all readers. The idea is that children need to see themselves in their literature (books as mirrors) but that books also show them a way they may not yet have seen (a window). Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx, by Jonah Winter, was both. My students LOVED this book, and really related to Sonia's academic journey. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that when we turned to the page on which Barack Obama appointed her to the Supreme Court, a cheer of glee erupted on my classroom rug (I don't think they knew Obama was going to show up, and they are big fans). Thanks to you, we have many more experiences like this to look forward to.”
With gratitude,
Ms. O'Neil-Dunne
This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Funder and 5 other donors.Help My Students Fall in Love with Reading!
Funded Dec 25, 2014Thank you so much for your generous donations to my project! After receiving our package, my co-teacher and I were able to introduce a new routine to our class that has fostered our students' feelings of independence as well as their love of reading. During our literacy block, 5 students can choose to go to our listening center, where they find 5 pairs of headphones, and a small CD player. Each week, the center features the supplies you helped to purchase — 5 copies of a book as well and a CD of the book being read aloud. After students listen to the story, they write a short review of the book that includes their favorite part and a rating (almost always "5 stars!").
Students can complete this routine completely independently thanks to the supplies from Donors Choose! Kindergarteners love showing they can work without any help, and their teachers love that we can use the time to provide individualized instruction to other students. Developing opinions about books is a very important kindergarten skill that helps students see themselves as readers. Also, because we rotate through centers daily, everyone gets a chance to work with a teacher, and everyone gets a chance to work alone. This opportunity to teach students in smaller groups has helped them grow so much!
The stories themselves have also inspired my students! A particular favorite of our class is Caps for Sale (as you can see from Khamron's drawing, even the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles like listening to that one), a funny book about a hat vendor whose wares are taken by monkeys. However, they also love Jamaica's Find, a story about a girl doing the right thing: giving back a toy she finds at the playground, even though she wants to keep it. The stories you helped provide will be remembered by my current kindergarteners as they move on to first grade and beyond, and enjoyed again by next year's kindergarteners.”
With gratitude,
Ms. O'Neil-Dunne
This classroom project was brought to life by Kia and 6 other donors.