Past projects 2
Accessing Our Environment: Sensory Integration for Everyone
Funded Aug 10, 2012I would like to take one last opportunity to thank you on behalf of all of my students for all of your generous support. We are now in our second month of school, and have put to use all of the sensory materials that you helped provide. It has made a quantifiable difference in out classroom environment.
With all schools facing budget cuts and pressure everywhere on test scores, sometimes the simple things are forgotten or put aside. We struggle to have enough day to day materials, let alone the specific things that may help an individual child succeed. We would not have been able to provide my students with the quality materials such as balance boards, chewelery, and sensory seating options without your support.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Helgerson
Seeding the Future: PreK Sprouts a Garden
Funded Jul 25, 2011I am writing to happily share that we received the materials that we were able to purchase because of your generous support, and have begun to use them! When I first signed up on Donor's Choose and wrote this proposal, I had no idea whether it would get any support at all and feared that I was wasting my time. Each of you has challenged my assumption that asking for this would never work, and not only have you blown me away with your generosity, you have also made my students aware and proud of the fact that strangers care about their education and access to gardening.
We have settled into having our grow table and lights in the classroom, and my homeroom students are enjoying being able to explore the plants that we are keeping there now. They have a way to get up close and personal with the leaves, dirt, and flowers on an every day basis. While we do have lovely windows in our room, they are all north facing and we get no direct sunlight so this allows us to bring green into our room permanently.
While that is wonderful in and of itself, the table and lights are not really for that purpose. Our main goal remains the same: to grow our own plants from seed for our edible garden outside the building. Since it is still early in the year, I began using the table with the 5th grade students who garden with me every Wednesday. We learned about trays, cells, potting soil, mini green houses, grow lights, and planting times for onions! Yes, that's right, we are going to try our hands at growing onions from seed. The first seeds are in the soil, under the lights now. Keep your fingers crossed for them! Later in the year we will seed cabbage, broccoli, greens, herbs, and flowers so that we have a real head start on our spring season and will be able to see these plants to harvest before the end of the school year!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Helgerson