Mrs. Stanton's Classroom Edit display name

Past projects 10

• A Classroom Rug With A Spot for EVERYONE!

  Funded Sep 29, 2023

  Thank you so much for donating to my project for a classroom rug. Unfortunately, the rug was no longer in stock and I was asked to choose another need to use the funds with. After much deliberation, I thought it would be a great idea to fund several smaller projects that I had waiting to implement and your donation helped me achieve that.

  The first project was to purchase lego people pieces. I purchased hair, helmets, torsos, legs and all the gear that lego people need. I also purchased small containers to hold the lego people. I have included a picture so you have a better visual. The kids are super excited about this. In our classroom, when a student meets one of their learning goals they may choose a piece for the lego person and they build a lego person through all their accomplishments. This has been a wonderful incentive for all students as they celebrate their learning. As an added benefit, they read to their lego people, do math with the lego people, these lego people are learning A LOT from my little scholars.

  The next project was to purchase bracelets and charms. I have also included a picture of these to aid in the visual concept. The students get to use these as they meet certain academic targets that are individualized for especially for them. The students are completely obsessed with earning a charm and they love to celebrate their learning by wearing their bracelets.

  Another project I purchased was building materials for my students. My scholars love to build and create together. I use these in my stem station and students can choose these during our STEM time. These are very popular and the kids get to build so many different structures. There are also little tools and bolts. The creativity is endless.

  Thank you so much for allowing me to celebrate these students in fun ways and allow them another opportunity to let their creativity shine.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Stanton

  This classroom project was brought to life by Windows of Hope Foundation and 4 other donors.

• Let's Get Coding (with Lego)!

  Funded Oct 3, 2022

  Thank you so much for the Lego Robotic Kits. The kids were so excited when they saw the kits and they were over the moon when I explained the were for building ROBOTS!!

  These kits are designed for primary students and they are perfect. The kiddos identify a "problem" and use legos to build a "solution." We then add coding to bring their creations to life. It is magical. This week we read the story, Pearl and Wagner. The characters are trying to build a trash eating robot. Well, guess what my kiddos did! They built trash eating robots with legos.

  I am extremely grateful for your generosity. Thank you!!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Stanton

  This classroom project was brought to life by Windows of Hope Foundation and 2 other donors.

• Let Their Voices Be Heard!

  Funded Apr 2, 2022

  Thank you so much for donating the Qball THROWABLE microphone to my second graders. Second grade is a time of tremendous growth and utilizing this fun technology allowed me to make learning a little bit more fun for all the students in many learning situations. The students were so excited that they often came up with opportunities to use the microphone that I hadn't thought of. There is something about throwing/catching a microphone that makes kids come alive. I must admit, I enjoy tossing it out too.

  The students use the microphone to read part of our stories out loud and then they get to toss the microphone to a friend. I immediately saw a new eagerness in my reluctant readers to have the opportunity to read. One student even read out loud for the first time! She said, "I want to read, but I will need some help." The kids were so excited, and of course, helped her as she read. After that initial read, she was begging for more opportunities. A wonderful byproduct of this new eagerness to read with the microphone is that the students were reading with great fluency and expression.

  We also use the microphone during our publishing parties for students to read their stories to an audience. I am able to toss it to the student that is up for sharing and students are able to toss it out to classmates that would like to share a compliment about their writing.

  This microphone had a tremendous impact during math lessons. I often have students explain their thinking while sharing their answers. The Qball allows students to toss the microphone to classmates that have a question about their thinking. I saw a HUGE increase in students wanting to ask clarifying questions during our sharing time.

  This microphone allows me to hear the voices of reluctant learners, listen to students share ideas about mathematical thinking, and hear marvelous stories straight from the imaginations of my students-THANK YOU!!!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Stanton

• Hear Ye, Hear Ye, Read All About It!

  Funded Jul 31, 2021

  Thank you so much for supporting our classroom with your donation of Scholastic News. So far this year, the students have been able to read about communities, seasons, bats, Veterans Day and parade floats in their very own "newspaper." They are absolutely thrilled when they get that newspaper in their hands each week and it has led to some dynamic discussions among the students. It is so nice to have a resource that can be read by ALL levels of readers.

  It can be difficult for students that are struggling with reading to join into class discussions if they can not read the text. That problem doesn't exist when we are using scholastic news. Each and every student has the opportunity to engage with the text and join lively discussions. The issue on bats and echolocation was particularly popular with my students. Through our discussions we decided to do one of the experiments suggested in the issue. The students even offered to give up their recess time in order to continue to learn about echolocation. That makes this teacher's heart happy.

  I have had the opportunity to introduce nonfiction text features through issues of Scholastic News. We have learned about headings, subheadings, titles and key details. The students are more engaged learning these difficult concepts when learning them through articles that are engaging to them. Now my students are creating their own issues of scholastic news during free write time and they are using nonfiction text features independently in their own writing. Yay!

  Scholastic News is also available on line and this has been tremendously helpful during this pandemic. Sometimes kids have to miss several days of school and I am able to send them their issue through our Google Classroom.

  Thank you so much for your donation. You have truly made a difference in our classroom.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Stanton

• Here Ye Here Ye, Read All About It!

  Funded Oct 9, 2018

  Thank you so much for your donation of Scholastic News for our classroom. My students are able to learn about non-fiction text features and current events through their very own "newspaper." My kiddos already look forward to the new issue of Scholastic News arriving to our classroom because they know it will be on a fun topic that they want to learn more about. I love that the passages are differentiated, so all my students are reading about the same topic, but they get to read it at their independent reading level. In addition to the differentiation in the reading passages there are also videos available on line that allow the children to dig a little deeper into the topic. I am able to teach students how to respond to non-fiction pieces through the articles in our Scholastic News issues. Right now, my students are currently writing to persuade a reader to wash their hands frequently because of flu germs. They are basing their arguments on data presented in their Scholastic News issue. As a side note, I have more students washing their hands than ever before (win-win).

  I use the Scholastic News issues during our small group reading instruction and we will read and discuss a specific article. I also have a spot in our classroom where all the issues are located and students may choose to read an issue of Scholastic News during an independent reading time. These high interest articles make it fun for students to "review" an article and recommend it to a friend.

  Thank you again for your generous donation! Your donation has allowed second graders to read high interest non fiction pieces that pertain to their world. Your donation also allows me to teach social studies with high interest material that is applicable to all the students in my classroom, regardless of reading ability. Your donation also allows parents to have a pertinent prompt for discussions about their child's school day.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Stanton

  This classroom project was brought to life by Windows of Hope Foundation and 2 other donors.

• Let's Get Flexible!

  Funded Feb 20, 2018

  Thank you so much for purchasing the flexible seating materials for my second graders. My students now have more choices when it comes to working in our learning community. Prior to your generous donation I had one exercise ball and one wobble stool. When my students saw all the new seating options they were elated and so glad they would get to choose every day, not just once a month. Now my students have the ability to choose their type of seating option every morning and it is a highlight of their day. As students enter our classroom in the morning they can choose either an exercise ball, wobble stool or traditional chair. When students make these types of seating choices they are becoming even better learners in a super fun way because flexible seating options have been proven to increase student motivation, engagement, academic performance and improved behavior. That is exactly what you have provided my second grade classroom and I can't thank you enough.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Stanton

• Help Us Get Rolling Into Robotics!

  Funded Feb 20, 2018

  Have you ever heard a chorus of cheers from a classroom full of seven and eight year olds? Well, I have had that privilege because of your generous donations. When I told my students that our Donors Choose project was funded and I showed them our new set of Minis- the cheers and excitement could be heard throughout our school and that was before they even got their hands on them.

  My students have had several opportunities to work with our Minis so far and the excitement only grows with each new programming skill they learn. We have programmed the Minis to use as a bowling bowl. The kiddos programmed their mini to go down the "bowling lane" and knock down as many bowling pins as they could. The students kept track of the pins being knocked down with each try and created a bar graph to show their data. The students have also programmed the Mini to write their spelling words, they had no idea they were learning programming and practicing spelling at the same time. We even had a friendly competition to program our Minis to see who could "push" their opponent out of the ring first.

  Next up, will be to create Battle Bots with their Minis. The students will work as a team to design a "cage" to put around their Mini to keep it safe and yet be able to push the other bots out of the ring. This will allow the students to incorporate a plethora of programming, designing and engineering skills while having a BLAST with their classmates. These types of learning activities provide a positive solid foundation in their early education years that can be built upon to create lifelong learners and leaders.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Stanton

• WeDo (Hopefully) Lego Robotics!

  Funded Dec 15, 2016

  Thank you so much for your generous donation to allow my students to learn robotics, coding and engineering in our primary classroom. This is a skill that is often overlooked for this age group, yet this is the perfect age to start building enthusiasm and confidence for skills that will be essential to their future. My hope is to build a foundation that will allow boys and girls to see robotics, coding and engineering as something they can do and love to do. Your donation is a first step in building this foundation and we can't thank you enough. When I told my students about our project being funded they cheered and could barely contain themselves. Your donation has allowed students to work in pairs to build their robots. That means more hands on time for each and every student. During our very first lesson the kids were able to build a robot that moved and even talked. The kids could not believe it and they wanted to do more!!! We have only taken a first step on this adventure, but I know it's going to be a journey that lasts them a lifetime and that was made possible by YOU!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Stanton

• Bats and Spiders, Oh My!

  Funded Oct 13, 2016

  Thank you so much for your donation of bat and spider non-fiction books for my second graders. Bats and spiders are a very interesting topic to seven and eight year olds. Having texts with a highly engaging subject matter made learning about non-fiction text features and research writing so much more meaningful.

  I kicked off our Bat/Spider learning extravaganza by transforming our classroom into a bat cave and the students were super excited when entering the classroom to become Bat Experts. I made each student a new name tag that declared them a bat expert and we had bats hanging all over the room. The students told me all the things they already knew about bats and then they got to tell me all the things they wanted to learn about bats. I made sure to tailor the following research activities to answer the students questions.

  I introduced the (donated) texts to the students and let them take a picture walk before we began our official research. The students had lots of ooohhhs and awwwwees as they looked through the text. They were sharing cool pictures with each other and bat conversations were started all throughout the classroom. Then we discussed why the author would use real photographs instead of cute illustrations and they unanimously agreed it was so they could see the real thing and LEARN! We also discussed non-fiction text features: heading, captions, table of contents and glossary.

  The next activity had the students taking their text and taking notes on interesting bat facts. In order to set the stage as official bat experts I turned down the lights and the students used glow in the dark fingers and flashlights to read the book and document their facts. The kiddos came up with a ton of facts and were very eager to share their bat knowledge with a partner. They used those INTERESTING bat facts to create a bat research project. We used the texts throughout the month of October in small group reading, buddy reading and independent reading. Repeated readings of the text allows for an increase in comprehension and fluency. The following week was the official Spider Week. I did followed the same lesson formats from the previous bat week. We kept the bat cave, because spiders live in caves too. These texts are still available for students to use as part of our non-fiction library and they are very well loved.

  Thank you so very much for allowing these students the opportunity to get EXCITED about the tricky topic of non-fiction text features and research writing.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Stanton

• First Grade Shark Week!

  Funded Apr 11, 2016

  Thank you so much for the materials to bring "First Grade Shark Week" to life. Kids this age have a natural curiosity for sharks. I was hoping to harness this natural curiosity and provide a week of instruction rich in non fiction texts and hands on opportunities to handle sharks (through models of course). Your donation provided exactly that opportunity and the kids LOVED it.

  The first graders were in charge of researching sharks by using the non fiction readers at their independent reading level. This was a powerful piece of the project. Kids learned that they can learn about anything that interests them in the WORLD. Each child was able to have their own book to use which allowed me to differentiate the instruction in a way that each individual child could learn about sharks at their level and feel confident in their abilities. We also used these readers to learn about non fiction text features (Table of Contents, Glossary, Headings, and Diagrams.)

  The large shark reference books were a wonderful tool to work with the kiddos in small group and see large photos of sharks in a variety of ways. I was able to model how we could get our questions answered by using the books to find key information. I then left the books out to be used during research time and independent reading time. The kids LOVED them and we used them way past Shark Week. The shark model was another great tool that allowed the kids to see and touch the different parts of the shark. They enjoyed putting the anatomy back together and naming each part as they did so.

  I am lucky enough to loop with these students to second grade. They are already asking when we will start Second Grade Shark Week! Thanks a million for your help with this project. It was truly an experience the kids will never forget and they acquired skills that will last a lifetime.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Stanton