Past projects 4
A Kid-Inspired Move to Move More!
Funded Sep 6, 2016The students in our classroom could not be more thrilled to have the array of items to help them "move more" that came upon the completion of this project's funding! It took a little time before Amazon was able to fulfill all of the items from this project order ( the seat cushions were back-ordered but it was worth the wait to get the items that were "just right" for their little bodies). However, we have now received all of our materials and we certainly put them to immediate use the moment they came to our door!
The boys and girls now have options to use wobble chairs, seat cushions, or a singular "jellyfish chair" throughout the school day, and all are hot commodities and very well-loved by their wiggly little bodies! The students share the "jellyfish chair" on a rotating basis and the wobble chairs and seat cushions are scattered all about the classroom for plenty of alternative seating options.
Thanks to you and your extremely generous donations, our children get to move more comfortably as they complete "seated" tasks in the classroom. I can't thank you enough for contributing to the happiness and success of my students. The ability to move about makes a HUGE difference in our kindergarten classroom and, without you, none of this would be possible.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Vicini
Kid-Inspired Tools for Active Tinkering and Teamwork
Funded Aug 25, 2016Our new "Tools for Active Tinkering and Teamwork" have created such excitement for the children in our classroom! Each morning, our students participate in hands-on cooperative learning with their daily "Teamwork Tubs." These tubs rotate daily so that each child gets to use the tools provided as the week progresses. The tools provide opportunities for collaboration, social interactions, problem-solving, and lessons in sharing, cooperation, and critical thinking.
With this having been our first full week using these new resources, the children were super eager to get their hands on everything!! They see other teams in the classroom working in their Teamwork Tubs and are anxious to get to try the other resources throughout the week. This creates another layer of excitement in our classroom and something for my students to look forward to each school day.
In these first several days with these new tools, I've seen my five and six year-old children smiling, devising solutions to problems, sharing materials, and learning how to treat classroom tools with respect. I've also heard laughing, creative suggestions for friends, as well as comments like, "I've never seen anything like this" and "let's come up with a way we can build this together" and "why don't you take these tools and I'll use these" and "let's clean this up as a team." These tools have really impacted our classroom in such a positive manner and we are grateful for your help in bringing them to us.
We will continue exploring our tools throughout this school year and the bright minds in our class will create new ways of using them along the way. These are the types of tools that our kindergarten room had been lacking and we so appreciate how your generous donations made them all a reality for us!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Vicini
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 6 other donors.Materials for Mini Mathematicians
Funded Mar 13, 2016Our new math materials and resources were put to immediate use in our kindergarten classroom. The students have shown great excitement over getting to use the "new math tools" in our daily math work and most all of the materials were things that could be opened and distributed for use in our classroom right away!
In kindergarten math, the "meat and potatoes" of what we have the students do is centered around both "counting and cardinality" and "number operations." The materials your donations provided all enable the children to get their hands on different, unique tools for counting games and number tasks, which is critical when exploring similar content and continually digging deeper with concepts.
As I am able to offer more variety in our math block with the new materials from this Donors Choose project, I feel extremely grateful for the kindness you have shown by contributing to my vision. My students' foundation in number concepts is strong and this is, in part, due to the materials I am able to provide them to help make math more hands-on and enticing to my mini-mathematicians!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Vicini
This classroom project was brought to life by #BestSchoolDay and 4 other donors.Lean and Learn: Let Those Kindergarteners Wiggle!
Funded Feb 28, 2016The arrival of our set of six Kore Wobble Chairs was a thrilling moment! I wasn't expecting them to get to us quite so quickly (three cheers for Amazon's shipping efficiency!), so when our school office staff called up to our classroom and asked for six student volunteers to come down the stairs to the office, I was rather shocked when they all returned with separate packages with our stools ready for assembly inside!
The Wobble Chairs were put to immediate use around our small-group guided reading and math table in our classroom. The students sit up taller in these chairs than they did in our previous stools, which was the first positive for us! The fact that they enable movement while working has allowed the wiggly bodies of my kindergarten students to expel a little energy while maintaining their focus during those precious moments in guided reading.
In spite of the fact that we received them during this high-energy time right before our district's spring break, our small group sessions have run very smoothly and I believe the new Wobble Chairs do play a role in that! Some students have taken to the flexibility of movement that the chairs allow so much that they move them to their tables while small group instruction is not taking place.
My students and I certainly appreciate your kindness and generosity in donating the funds to make these new Wobble Chairs possible for us. As a teacher, I spend a tremendous amount of money myself on getting things "just right" in my classroom, but this Donors Choose project provided us with something that I could not have afforded for my students on my own. Your support has not gone unnoticed and it is with great thanks that we accept and now use these chairs daily!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Vicini