Past projects 3
Check, Checkmate, Win!
Funded Dec 31, 2022We organized a lunch-time chess club for 4th and 5th graders and started it in January. The students were so excited when they saw how many chess sets you donated. One student said he if he knew how much money that one donor gave to get these chess sets, he would have brought some of his own money to help.
We had 54 students in 4th and 5th grades come to the first meeting in January. As the year continued, we averaged 40 students.
It has been amazing to see their excitement to play and learn chess. The No-Stress Chess sets are wonderful because they give beginnners a visual of how each piece can move and capture other pieces. Using the cards can make for a more enjoyable game because it can be finished in the 45-minute lunch period. It also provided the opportunity for players to discuss what move they woud make if they didn't have to move the piece on the card. Students were reluctant to go back to class and were eager to help put away these sets so all cards & pieces were in each box, ready to go for next week's chess club meeting. You are amazing for your generosity! Comments from our students inlude:
• "Chess is more fun when you are playing against someone and not the computer."
• "It's super fun and I learned where all the pieces go."
• "It was a really fun experience playing with different kinds of chess players."
• "I liked that you could find new people to challenge and get to know better."
• "I liked finding new friends and playing with people you don't normally hang out with. It is fun to play with other people who like chess, and it is more fun than playing with my dad at home."
• I learned brain power and all the different decisions of what to do to build up your brain power."”
With gratitude,
Ms. Holmes
Fun Ways to Focus!
Funded Jun 30, 2021Thank you so much for choosing to support my "Fun Ways to Focus!" project. It was so fun to open the various packages and see what treasures were inside. Many of the items were new to me: Monkey noodles, mesh marbles, pop-its, orbies, and other creative fidgets.
My students love them! I have several students on 504 Accommodations Plans who need a "brain break" and come down to my office for 3-5 minutes to check out the new fidgets. I have enough that I can use about 15 one week, then change it out the next week so students have new fidgets to check out. We have one student who is blind, and these tactile tools are wonderful for him. And our deaf/hard of hearing students enjoy these as well.
Without your generous donations, I would not have been able to buy so many items. Because of Covid-19 protocols, I can have plenty of stress-relief tools in the clean bin while others are in my used bin waiting for me to sanitize them. Our students work hard and these fidgets help them get back to class ready to focus and learn! Thank you on behalf of our Ponderosa students!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Holmes
CHAMPS Toolbox Library!
Funded Oct 27, 2016I am so excited to share with you the impact the CHAMPS Toolbox Library! books are having on our school. With your generous donation, I was able to purchase four sets of 27 books to bring to life the 12 Tools of Toolbox from Dovetail Learning. Students are reading stories that illustrate courage, empathy, listening, breathing, taking time, apologizing & forgiving, patience, personal space, using "please" and "thank-you," finding a quiet/safe place, letting the little things go, and using the right words.
I love reading these stories with my students in small social skills groups. It is wonderful to see each child reading along in the extra books as I read aloud. We discuss how the characters are feeling, what Tool they needed to use to solve the problem they faced, and which other Tools they noticed being used by characters in the story. We then apply what we read and learned in the book to situations in the children's lives that may be similar.
For example, today I read "Sorry!" by Trudy Ludwig to two 2nd-graders I work with in a small group. It is about a boy who is told by another boy that he can do anything he wants as long as he says "Sorry" when caught doing something wrong. The message conveyed in the story is that saying '"Sorry" isn't enough; you have to make right what you did wrong. My students were able to identify how the wronged person felt and what the boys had to do to make it right after they ruined her science fair project.
All of our students have access to these books during our Book Nook reading time in the hallway crossroads. At morning and afternoon recesses, students have the opportunity to read their own books or choose books from the Book Nook cart. Now they can also read the beautiful new books in the CHAMPS Toolbox Library! I roll my Toolbox Library cart out of my counseling office right into the hallway. It is great to see kids selecting these books, reading and discussing them with other students, and telling me how much they like the books. What's even better is hearing from students that the Tools they are learning to use work!
These books are fostering a love of reading in our students and developing their social-emotional learning skills. Thank you so much for making this possible!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Holmes