Past projects 17
E is for Excellent Readers!
Funded Mar 27, 2018Thank you so much for fulfilling our need for level E guided reading books. We have had a shortage of Level E books in our guided reading library and thanks to you, our bins are overflowing with colorful, highly engaging texts. Our first graders readers join us at all different levels and having the materials to meet their educational needs is SO important.
In first grade, each day we teach a C.A.F.E. ( Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Expanding Vocabulary) lesson. During these lessons we teach student strategies that will help them become stronger readers. We practice each strategy while reading a book aloud to the class. Students take these strategies and practice them each day in reading groups and during our "read to self" time. The books that you have generously donated to our classroom will be used in guided reading groups to help model these strategies. Students will take their new book back to their book basket, reread and practice the strategies in the books that are at their just right level.
By increasing the amount of books we have to offer to students, we are more likely to offer titles that will help hook them as readers. As a teacher, I want my students to LOVE reading as much as I do. I know that in order for that to happen I need to offer a variety of leveled texts in different genres and subject areas. Thank you for helping build my dream library, for helping hook our first grade readers and most of all supporting public education. You make our school days a little brighter.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Verney
This classroom project was brought to life by Ripple and 4 other donors.Inspiring First Graders With The "Write" Supplies!
Funded Aug 22, 2018What a great way to start the school year. I worked in my classroom today and set up my writing center and now it will be full of tools that will get students excited about writing!!! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your continued support. I’m thankful to be surrounded by those who support education! Stay tuned for pictures of my little writers!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Verney
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 5 other donors.Enriching Readers - Books About The Environment
Funded Mar 27, 2018These books are incredible!!! They are brightly colored, current photography, high-interest subject matter and SO engaging. Our class went WILD for books about the environment. As soon as they were unpacked, the students gathered on the rug to explore our new books. They sat in groups, read together, sorted the books by title and exclaimed, frequently, "CHECK THIS OUT!!!" Their excitement was contagious.
We are so thankful to be able to add these great texts about the environment to our leveled library. Each day our students meet with a first grade teacher for guided reading instruction. We will use these books with our reading groups that are working on end of first grade and second grade reading levels. We were lacking engaging texts for these higher readers. These books will help engage our first graders while we teach strategies that will make our students stronger readers.
I am beyond grateful for the generous donations that were made to our project. With your help, my classroom has become a richer place to learn. Students in first grade are excited about reading and love having new books in their hands. Thank you for helping students continue to love literacy.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Verney
This classroom project was brought to life by UPS Foundation and 6 other donors.Gather Around and Learn to Read
Funded Feb 7, 2018Our new reading table was hard to miss! Students arrived and saw our beautiful, new, and bright blue reading table and their mouths dropped. "We got our new reading table!!??" "Can I sit there now?" "It's huge!!" "Is it time for reading groups?" The quotes continued, especially once we started reading groups!
Each day we gather around this big blue table and students learn how to become stronger readers. At our old reading table, we were squished together as the table was too small. Students didn't have enough elbow room and were had to sit very close together. Some students found it distracting to sit right next to another student as they were reading. Our old table was much too high and we didn't have seating to accommodate the height of the table. Overall, it just wasn't a great fit!
We are so thankful to have a bigger space to work! Our first grade students want to come to the big blue table to do writing workshop, eat snack with their teacher, and play math games. It's a great space, where students and teachers can collaborate on projects. A huge THANK YOU to our generous donors who have made it possible for our students to have the best work space for reading and many other activities.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Verney
Ringing In The New Year With a Good Book
Funded Jan 25, 2018Thank you for filling our baskets with the best books for guided reading this year. Your contributions have reached 33 of our first grade readers and have moved them closer to reading at first grade level or beyond! The best part is, countless students will benefit from the projects you have funded. For many years to come we will use these books to guide students through our first grade reading strategies and will watch them learn and grow as readers.
I bet you are wondering what reading groups and literacy instruction in first grade really looks like! Here is a snapshot of our literacy block. Each day in our classrooms we teach a CAFE (Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Expanding Vocabulary) lesson to our students in a whole group setting. We use read alouds to teach a reading strategy that will help students read accurately, sound out words, understand parts of a story, ask questions about a book, add voice to our characters, etc. After our lesson, we start our Daily 5 stations and guided reading groups. Students have an assigned time when they meet with a teacher to get small group reading instruction. We have an assigned time so our students that receive Title I reading services get a double whammy of reading instruction. When a student is meeting in a guided reading group, I use a set of guided reading books (just like the sets you funded in this project.) We review the reading strategy, introduce a new book, talk about tricky words, and students whisper read, while I listen and assist. After they finish their book, they bring their book home and read to someone for their homework. Students return the book the next day and it goes into their book box so they can reread it during Daily 5. Daily 5 are stations that students choose while I am teaching reading groups. Each day they must do read to self and Lexia Core5 phonics program on their iPads. Then they may choose to do buddy reading, work on writing, word work or listen to reading. Each station lasts about 15 minutes and then students switch. Students really enjoy our set up for literacy and the ability to choose which order they complete their daily 5 tasks.
I hope you have enjoyed learning more about how the materials you have provided to our students positively impacts their learning and our daily literacy instruction. Thank you for such a wonderful gift.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Verney
This classroom project was brought to life by The First Million Fund and one other donor.New Work Spaces: Choice, Flexibility & Movement (Part 1)
Funded May 10, 2018The best way to wind down teacher appreciation week is with flexible seating heading our way, thanks to YOU! My students desperately need more work spaces that fit THEIR needs. The days of tables and chairs for everyone is behind us. I’m looking forward to revamping my room and making it a learning environment that is comfortable, engaging and inspires students to do great work! Thank you for supporting my project and making my dreams come true!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Verney
This classroom project was brought to life by Google.org and 5 other donors.Explore. Plant. Learn.
Funded Mar 3, 2018Our class gets so excited when boxes arrive at our door! "Is that for us?" "Did we get something from DonorsChoose.org" "Can we open it!" They become downright giddy. As we ripped into our boxes we found, huge life cycle magnets, books about plants, games, planting pouches and the coolest magnifying glasses ever!
Thank you so much for contributing to our "Explore. Plant. Learn." project. We have kicked off our plant unit with the amazing read alouds that we received from our project. The magnetic book holders we chose are perfect for above our new science table. We are able to display books that connect directly with what we are learning in science. Students have been accessing materials related to plants and growing during science, free-time and morning work. They have enjoyed using magnifying glasses to take a closer look at the seedlings we are growing, other plants in our classrooms and each others eye balls! We were able to plant seeds, care for them and watch them grow. Our classes have really enjoyed our new games and activities. The large magnets have students talking about the life cycle of bean plants and apple trees. We have played bingo as a group and even though this vocabulary rich game is challenging we were able to modify it for our first graders. Our students are excited about all things, "plants." I look forward to changing out the materials in our science table as we change units. Now that it is set up and ready to go, it will be a space that continues to grow and change.
Please know how much my class appreciates your contribution to our project. Our classroom has come alive this year thanks to our projects on DonorsChoose.org and generous donors like yourself.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Verney
This classroom project was brought to life by UPS Foundation and 5 other donors.Ho! Ho! Ho! Our Holiday Wish Is...More Books!
Funded Jan 25, 2018Thank you so much for generously supporting my leveled book project. Nothing beats the feeling of putting brand new, "just right" books in the hands of our first grade students. We are working hard to build a library to meet the educational needs of all of our first graders. Our students range in reading levels from early kindergarten to third grade. As you can imagine, it requires that we have a variety of leveled book sets at all reading levels to meet the academic needs of our students. By having a variety of books, students are often able to pick books that suit their interests as well.
Each project that is fulfilled helps build our dream library a handful of book sets at a time. We have 27 leveled tubs that we are currently working on filling or sprucing up. When we started building our library of guided reading sets, many of the books were ones that I read at Great Salt Bay as a student. As a teacher, I know the importance of students reading current texts that are high interest and colorful. Thank you again for helping put more books in the hands of our students. Their future success is built on the foundation of what they learn in first grade!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Verney
This classroom project was brought to life by The First Million Fund and 10 other donors.It All S.T.E.M.S From Creativity!
Funded Jan 25, 2018In first grade our push for academics is always focused on reading, writing and math. One of our goals this year is to weave more S.T.E.M activities and learning into our week. Each week we have carved out time in the afternoon to focus on social studies, science and technology education. In the Next Gen science standards one of our standards is "Engineering Design." We are using the create-a-chain reaction kit to help students explore this standard. One of the initial problems that students ran into was not working as a team. Our kit came with 6 cards with examples of how they could set up the kit to make a chain reaction. At first, students divided into small groups, working with pieces of the kit. As they started building they became frustrated that another group had pieces that they needed to finish. I reminded them that they need to work as a team to problem solve. The next time we took the kit out I only left one set of directions in the box. They continued to break into small groups and ran into the same problem. I am looking forward to watching students problem solve to figure out how to make the kit work.
This year we have a new math program for first grade. One challenge we have had is having enough materials for all of our first grade students. Having an extra set of pattern blocks has allowed students more pieces to build and create with. We have added the magnetic pieces to our stations and student have used white boards to create unique design. They are exploring how shapes work together and recognizing fractions of shapes. One concept that our new math program really pushes is adding numbers within ten fluently. They use a ten frame as a visual and manipulative for students to use to help solidify their thinking around numbers within ten. With our new magnetic ten frame boards, students are able to use magnetic pieces to make equations that add up to ten. When we are teaching we are able to use them as a tool and model for students.
As we move forward with our year, I look forward to seeing what students are able to create with our new materials. They are so excited about S.T.E.M learning and have asked that we add more kits like the chain reaction kit to our classroom. Thank you for continuing to support our first grade classroom by providing exciting materials and equipment that keep our students engaged in learning.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Verney
This classroom project was brought to life by The First Million Fund and 5 other donors.Cool Stools for Reading Groups
Funded Jan 26, 2018I am truly grateful for your contributions to our "Cool Stools for Reading Groups" project. Working with my guided reading groups is one of the most important teaching times in my day. Our reality was 4 students squished around a rectangular table with chairs that were much too small, leaving students uncomfortable as they worked in my groups. I surprised our students and had them set up around the table one morning and being bright, colorful and new the students were immediately drawn to them. They were so excited to try them out. They sat on them immediately and asked if they could move them around the room and read books for morning work. "Absolutely," was my response. My groups have commented about how it is easier to read their books when they are sitting up high at the table. We also received with this project, a pocket chart to use in literacy work stations, guided reading and math. Stickers to help label the sets of leveled books I have received from other projects, highlighting tape that students have been using to highlight sight words in their guided reading books and magnet to help hold up papers and projects on our whiteboard and easel. We have a great new game for our game station where students can practice beginning, ending and rhyming sounds using magnets. What I like most about this game is that we can differentiate students learning depending on what each student needs.
In one of my reading groups, my two students joined and immediately said how happy they were to have stools to sit on. As we started reading we came to some tricky number words in their book. I grabbed the highlighting tape and highlighted the word in my book. I told my students, that is the number four! They said, "Can I do that in my book?" I said, "Of course you can." Both students went through the whole book and highlighted the number words. As they were reading, when they came to the highlighted word, they knew it was going to be a number and used the picture clues and reading strategies to help figure out the word. As other groups were working near by on literacy stations, I could overhear students saying, "Do you think we will get to highlight words in our books today?"
Having these new materials has enhanced the learning in my guided reading groups and kept our learning fun and fresh! Thank you for generously supporting my DonorsChoose.org project!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Verney
This classroom project was brought to life by The First Million Fund and 3 other donors.