Mr. Platzek's Classroom Edit display name

Past projects 3

• Learning Earth Science and Physics Through Fine Motor Skills Play

  Funded Jan 23, 2022

  Thank you so much for your generosity. Your donations will have such a positive impact on my students this year and years to come. I am so grateful for all of you willing to reach out and support our struggling special education students. I really cannot express to you enough what a difference these supplies make in my classroom to students who have such a bitter taste in their mouths about learning and school.”

  With gratitude,

  Mr. Platzek

  This classroom project was brought to life by Utah State Board of Education and 2 other donors.

• Building Blocks To Understanding

  Funded Feb 28, 2019

  Thank you so much for your generosity. Having the Lego's in my classroom has helped beyond what I even imagined. With these Lego's I am able to help student's understand multiplication by having them see and hold examples in their hands. learning perimeter and area are now fun for my students because they can manipulate the Lego's to explore different size and shapes. An unexpected bonus that I had not foreseen is that Students who are struggling with emotions that they have not yet learned to control can focus on building something with the Lego's and let go of the frustration and anger. This has been paramount in helping students regulate negative behaviors.

  I am so grateful for all of you who donated to my classroom and helped give my students tools that help them to succeed. Thank you, thank you, thank”

  With gratitude,

  Mr. Platzek

  This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose.org Community and 10 other donors.

• Rocks And Gem Stones: Behold The Treasures Beneath Our Feet!

  Funded Sep 20, 2016

  I wanted to write to you and express my gratitude for your generosity to our classroom. I work in a classroom with kids who have difficult and challenging trials to overcome and getting these students excited to learn is paramount in helping them learn the skills they will need to succeed in school and their families.

  The donations that we received allowed us to get a large rock tumbler, rocks to tumble and all of the media that is needed to tumble. Rocks generally take a month or longer to polish and become shiny beautiful treasures for students. This time allows me to teach my students about each different rock and where they came from and how they were formed. By learning this we can focus not only on the science but overlap geography, mathematics, reading and even writing.

  Rock tumbling is usually done in 4 stages, first is the coarse grit where the rocks are shaped and all of the rough edges are knocked off. This takes a week or two depending on the hardness of the rocks. When we open the drum to expose the rocks , my class loves to look at the changes that have taken place to the rocks. We compare them to the same type of rocks that we have not tumbled yet to see what has changed. Second step is the fine grit, this continues the shaping and starts to get most of the shallow ridges off each stone. Third is the pre-polish stage where the rocks really start to shine and fourth is the polish stage. At each stage the students are so excited to open the drum and see what treasures have formed. I have students so excited they will stay in from recess to assist me changing the rocks to the different stages and cleaning the rocks.

  Your acts of kindness have had huge positive impact upon the students in my classroom and have also allowed my students to have positive social interaction with other students showing them the treasures that have come from our earth.”

  With gratitude,

  Mr. Platzek