Past projects 10
Get Started and Stay Engaged
Funded Aug 10, 2024We are so excited to have these classroom essentials! The students are getting to do art projects with the high quality construction paper and they are really enjoying it. The projects they have made look really great as a result of having nice materials to start.
Also, it may seem like a small thing, but having good pencils that don't break easily really improves the students' experience because they aren't having to interrupt their work to get a new pencil.
The best part to the students is getting to play math games using the sheet protectors. For me, it keeps that games nice and organized and while the students might not care as much about that, when the games are organized, we get more time to play!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Merlo
Let's Stay Focused!
Funded Dec 26, 2023My students were so excited to find brand new, working, headphones to use today! I was watching as they went to our supplies and they started smiling as soon as they saw the new headphones.
The students work on lessons on the computer while I work with groups of students. The classroom can get noisy while my group is reading out loud and it is imperative that they have good quality headphones so they can hear their lessons clearly. This is so critical to their learning. I am so pleased that we now have these materials to support the students! Thank you so much for your support!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Merlo
Spread the Love of Reading!
Funded May 23, 2023My students were so excited to open up the box of Dog Man books. The books are so popular in my classroom that we had to work out a system of sharing so that everyone has their fair share of time reading them. I have a few students who are not readers yet, but they are so drawn to the pictures that they are just as engaged with the books as my students who can already read the words. An important step in creating lifelong readers is finding the books that speak to them. These books really speak to the kids. Thank you to all the donors who made it possible to bring so many of these books to my classroom! We love them!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Merlo
Inspire Creativity with Art Supplies!
Funded Sep 3, 2022My students have been having so much fun creating with the art supplies that you helped to provide. At first I let them do any kind of water coloring, just to learn the basics of how to care for the supplies. They loved it. They were so excited to be able to use the new water color trays.
Yesterday we were inspired by "The Dot" written by Peter H. Reynolds. All the students made paintings with dots as the inspiration. I heard a few students say things like, "This is the best Friday ever!"
Inspiring students to be creative and love coming to school is why I wanted to bring more art into the classroom. Thank you so much for your help in allowing me to realize this goal. Thank you for helping me bring joy into the classroom. I can't wait to do more art!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Merlo
More Hands on Math Fun!
Funded May 6, 2022Thank you so much for the new math manipulatives. My students love them! I love that it took them nearly no time to understand how to use them and how they are helpful to us in mathematics. They love that if they stay on task during the lesson, they get to play with the manipulative for a few minutes. I would not have anticipated that these materials would be so fun for them to play with. I now have another reason to be grateful that I have these materials because next year, I will be moving up to teach 2nd grade and not only do these base ten blocks have tens and ones, they have 100s (which I have never needed before but will need next year). I am so grateful to you, the donors, for helping me restock my supplies after the pandemic and making big numbers really easy for my students.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Merlo
This classroom project was brought to life by Chevron and 4 other donors.Let's Play With Math!
Funded Apr 7, 2022The students have been very busy using the math manipulatives that we received. They were so excited to have new tools and we quickly went to work using them. This was the first time the students were introduced to base ten counting blocks and they quickly figured out how these materials were useful. Almost instantly, the kids were adding with tens ("adding big numbers"). We just recently used the unifix cubes to learn about nonstandard measurement. There was a loud buzz of excitement in the room as students went around using the cubes to measure their books, tables, chairs and even the length of an arm. Needless to say, they have enjoyed the math tools and we are so grateful to your support.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Merlo
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose community & an Anonymous Partner and 2 other donors.Student's Favorite Headphones
Funded Sep 27, 2021Thank you so much for helping my class get new, high quality, headphones. My students use a computer program that is designed to deliver lessons at their "just right" level. In order to do this effectively, they need to have really good, comfortable headphones.
Over the years, my supply has dwindled. I tried replacing them with a low cost version and they either did not work, broke quickly, or were uncomfortable for the students to wear. I am so happy with these new headphones. I was able to switch some of the low cost headphones with these. We call them the "blue pair." My students who finally got their "blue pair" were so pleased!
Now my students can really focus on their lessons. Additionally, this allows me to focus on my students too. While the students are working on the computer, I work with small groups of students. Before, when I did not have enough headphones, the noise of the computers was very distracting to my small reading groups. That has changed! It is nice and quiet and all my students can concentrate! Thank you again!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Merlo
Let's Write....EVERYTHING!
Funded May 28, 2019This is a very basic project but it has meant so much to me and to my students. They are so excited to have a place that is all their own to record their thoughts and ideas. I wanted my students to have notebooks for all our subjects so that I can see their thinking and their progress. The students are so excited each time we pull out the math journal and they get to solve problems using pictures (and colored pencils!). Already my students have shown amazing growth in their math problem solving. It is so easy for me to see how they are progressing using the notebooks because all of their work is in one place. I am so excited to be able to use this as a tool during parent conferences to show students' work in math, writing and science!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Merlo
This classroom project was brought to life by Google.org and 2 other donors.Hands on Math!
Funded Aug 22, 2018Thank you so much for your generous contribution to my classroom. Last week we opened up the package together. The box was full of student rekenreks and the big teacher version of the rekenrek. First, I pulled out my big teacher model and the kids oohed and awwed. Then, the students helped to unpack their version. One student yelled out, "This is just like Christmas!" It was clear, they thought this was a pretty great day in class!
The students began to explore the new math manipulatives and they immediately figured out what their purpose was. I heard students saying things like "Oh we can add with these" and "I can take some away!" They were sliding the beads and the room was full of the sound of beads clicking against each other.
I am so excited to begin using the rekenreks in my instruction. These are going to make adding, subtracting, one to one correspondence and counting so easy. Mostly, these high interest materials are going to keep the kids engaged in the work! I love teaching math and these make it even more fun! Thanks for making it possible!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Merlo
I Can Show You What I Know!
Funded Oct 5, 2017Thank you so much for funding my classroom project! When we received our many boxes of white board pens the students oohed and aahed. They were very excited to use them!
I love having these pens because now we use them all the time, instead of using them sparingly, so they will last all year, and it really increases student engagement. The students have so much fun using whiteboards to show what they know.
Yesterday we used the boards to make pictures in order to help solve subtraction problems. Using the whiteboards and pens gives me immediate feedback as to who needs help and I can quickly correct misconceptions or simple mistakes. For example, yesterday a student used the wrong sign in her number sentence (a plus instead of a minus) and I went very slyly and erased it. The student thought a moment and said "Oh..." and fixed the mistake. Your gift made that aha moment possible. Thanks so much!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Merlo