Past projects 61
Literacy In Small Groups = Huge Success In Learning!
Funded Nov 2, 2018Thank you so much for the small group tools you sent to my students! We have not yet ventured to use them all but as we get to skills and tasks, we pull them out and put them through the second grade paces! My students are loving the different genres of reading materials and the close reading tools. Not only am I able to lead small groups using the passages and lesson resources, my student teacher was able to as well.
Surprisingly, the students are even eager to lead their own groups. I have a group of little leaders who enjoy participating in the teacher groups and then ask to conduct their own groups with other friends who need a bit more practice. While I never expected this to happen, as a teacher, I can't even begin to tell you how proud this makes me! My students are taking initiative in helping everyone to learn because of the resources we received. They make the lessons easy to teach, even for students!
Your generosity has created such an engaging time during our small group instruction!
Thank you so, so much!”
With gratitude,
Dr. Pelafigue
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose.org Community and 3 other donors.ChromeBooks for S.T.E.M. Success!
Funded Oct 24, 2018Thank you so much for believing in my students! When the box of computers arrived we brainstormed ideas of what could be inside. Some guessed toys, some math tools, books, and many other things. No one guessed computers! When they saw what had come for us, the joy was clear! Having 5 more computers in our class affords us extended opportunities to research and learn through technology. In the last week we have found videos about the Native Americans, explored Google Earth to locate some of the historical sites we are learning about, worked on interactive math programs to boost our student achievement, and even practiced our typing through websites and typing our own thoughts on a document.
Can you imagine a place where this is not possible? We can, but thanks to you, we don't have to! Your kindness will be spread throughout our school campus as you have inspired us to give back! We will be putting our computers to good use and plan to do some "buddy learning" activities which will put our technology in the hands of even more students!”
With gratitude,
Dr. Pelafigue
This classroom project was brought to life by Chevron Fuel Your School and one other donor.STEMing the Way Through Science
Funded Jun 11, 2018It has been a wild ride so far in our class! The first nine weeks is nearly over and the students and I have been busy immersing ourselves in new curriculum all day long! Thanks to your kindness and generosity, we are no longer at a loss for what to do in science! We've explored how to be a scientist, the scientific experimental method, and now we are exploring matter and all things solids, liquids, and gas!
The kids are so excited when I pull out a new Science Weekly magazine! They use to large teacher copies in centers and I often see them "teaching" each other! It surely is music to my ears when I hear them repeating my words and sharing what they've learned.
I can't wait to see what new topics are in store for us later in the year. Thanks to you we have enough science to keep us busy until these little friends of mine head off to third grade!”
With gratitude,
Dr. Pelafigue
Making Math Make Sense!
Funded Jan 26, 2018Have you ever wondered about this "new math" everybody talks about? If not, well I'm here to tell you that your donations have helped so much that my students can now explain it to you! Thanks to your generosity, my students have a concrete understanding of how to add and subtract large numbers. They can also tell you why, when, and how you may need to trade or regroup tens to make a hundred or unbundle a ten to make ten ones. Sounds complicated, right? It's surely not how we all learned math but what it is doing is teaching our students how our brain processes information. Having these manipulatives and other tools has opened their eyes to the possibilities and has encouraged them to think beyond two- and three-digit numbers. We are subtracting in the ten-thousands and millions rather than just the hundreds!
Thank you so much for giving my students the gift of excitement when it comes to math! They are so thrilled to have new opportunities to learn from!”
With gratitude,
Dr. Pelafigue
This classroom project was brought to life by The First Million Fund and 5 other donors.It's Hard to STEM Without Technology!
Funded Oct 30, 2017Wow! That's what my students said when we opened to boxes! Wow - so many people cared for us! Wow - they really sent us these computers for our class? Wow - we get to keep them? Wow - we are so lucky! I wish I could have shared their excitement with you all. Kindness goes a long way for my little friends. Your generosity has afforded them new opportunities, new avenues for success.
Because of the new computers in our classroom, each student in my room now gets at least 90 minutes of learning through active engagement with our technology every week! They get to not only do their assigned tasks but are exploring new apps and learning tools that are taking their excitement to a whole new level!
They love the keyboards for our iPads. It really opened my eyes to the fact that they don't really know HOW to type but they sure want to learn! That's next on our list of things to do - remember Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing? Well, Mrs. Pelafigue Teaches Typing is happening in our classroom - thanks to YOU!”
With gratitude,
Dr. Pelafigue
Binding Our Learning One Experience at a Time!
Funded Apr 20, 2016Hi! Just wanted to pop in to say thank you again for our binding machine, spines and tools to make books! This year is off to a great start and although we have not gotten to do a whole lot of creating yet, our binding machine has made a huge difference in the start of our year! We bound together our morning work and now there is less paper passing, less lost papers, and more time spent learning!
Thanks to you guys we can keep track of our daily work and use it to reference later in the year.
Creative writing projects are on the horizon for us once we get settled! We can't wait to see what's in store for the rest of our year!”
With gratitude,
Dr. Pelafigue
EcoSTEMing Our Way to Science Success
Funded Mar 9, 2016Wow! We are so overwhelmed by the generosity of others! We got two giant boxes delivered to our classroom and it was like a holiday! The children were eager to open them up to see what we got! While it is nearing the end of the school year, we haven't been able to try everything yet but we have certainly had some new experiences!
We shared our materials with our middle school students in an effort to create some memories with our older children. Our 6th grade science students helped us to start our worm farm! We've also used the binoculars to search outside for natural resources! The kids were so excited! It's such an amazing experience for the kids to be given something (like binoculars and microscopes) that the children think are for grown-ups and out of their reach.
Thank you! Thank you for bringing science, community, and excitement to my students!”
With gratitude,
Dr. Pelafigue
This classroom project was brought to life by Captain Planet Foundation and one other donor.Whiteboard Easel for Mobile Learning
Funded Mar 9, 2016Thank you! I wish you could see the impact this easel has made in our classroom! I'm so excited to say that things have changed in our classroom since our easel has arrived! Although it isn't obvious to everyone, my students and I have been greatly relieved to have extra storage space, a common place for creating classroom charts, and a dry erase board that works and that all students can reach!
My students created an organizational system for the bins and they even sorted the books themselves! It has become a really effective part of our classroom!
Thanks to you we can even take our learning outside! We are so blessed to have been given this gift! Thank you!”
With gratitude,
Dr. Pelafigue
Helping Hands to Make Our Year Grand!
Funded Dec 4, 2015Thank you for sending us supplies! We are using things as we need them and it has surely come in handy to have cardstock and colored paper! We have made glasses for celebrations, cards in support of our school and families, we've even created themed mobiles to help us remember different parts of speech! The children have been especially excited about the library pockets. We are using them to store important words in our notebooks for studying. Since we've started storing our vocabulary cards we are able to keep track of them easily and refer to them when needed!
Thank you for supporting our learning and making tools more accessible to our classroom. Although to many people our requests seem strange but to us they make all the difference!”
With gratitude,
Dr. Pelafigue
STEMing It Into Second Grade
Funded Oct 13, 2015I cannot being to describe how thankful we are to have been chose to receive funds to support our classroom for a third year in a row. My students have been eagerly making words and developing their math skills thanks to the Osmo gaming systems you all provided for us.
We are holding onto our STEM science experiment kits until after the New Year so that we can do some more reading on jobs that relate to the projects. We will be exploring what it's like to build cars and planes before we actually do it ourselves. We've also learned a little about wind and solar power which will be very helpful when we build our windmill.
Your commitment to education is instrumental in bringing STEM skills to my students.
Thank you, your generosity is appreciated and shared as we plan to pay it forward thanks to you!”
With gratitude,
Dr. Pelafigue