Past projects 6
Colorful and Long Lasting Center Games
Funded Nov 29, 2022Thank you so much for helping to fund my project. I look forward to using this classroom printer to print our colorful and engaging centers that students will enjoy and last for a very long time. A variety of centers and games support student’s learning in many ways and it’s Fun!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Vera
This classroom project was brought to life by an Anonymous Classroom Supporter and 8 other donors.Listening Center
Funded Nov 28, 2022Thank you so much for your kind donations to fulfill this project. I look forward to sharing this amazing tool for reading for all my students. My hope is that this listening center will enhance student's love and appreciation to reading as they listen to some of their favorite books be read to them in a unique way.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Vera
First Classroom Rug: A Centerpiece of our Room
Funded Oct 25, 2022Thank you, a million times Thank YOU for your generous donation to support this project.
I look forward to seeing how the addition of a classroom rug impacts students learning in a positive way.
I look forward to letting my students know that this was possible because of wonderful and caring families like you all!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Vera
Learning About the World With Laptops!
Funded Oct 9, 2017Thank you for supporting my very first project for such an amazing kindergarten class. The contribution made towards brand new laptops has been helpful in engaging and motivating students to learn in various ways. In our classroom students participate in Daily 5 during our literacy block. Daily 5 is centers based in which students get to pick which center they would like to work in for the day. Centers include Read to Self- student reads their independent level reading books, Read to Someone- two students take turns to read their independent reading books to one another, Word Work- activities that foster sight word recognition, letter and sounds recognition and manipulation of letters to make words, Teacher Time- group of students meet with a teacher to practice a reading strategies and finally the listening center. In the beginning of the school year our classroom had a listening center with audio books on a CD. Although, students demonstrated this being a favorite I still felt like it was not as enriching as having a laptop. With the new laptop students had the opportunity to listen to stories a different way, I was able to get my students to foster their independent reading through a website called RAZ-KIDS which had a variety of books in their independent reading level. Students not only got to listen to books being read to them but also record themselves trying to read and and answer questions about the text. I still recall introducing the laptops to my students and thinking it was going to take a long time to train them how to use the laptop but to my surprise they were more tech savvy than me. The use of the laptop during Daily 5 continues to be a favorite that my students select to constantly use.
Apart from using the laptops as just a tool for students to practice reading, through out the school year it has developed into a tool for which students can look up information and watch videos that are instructionally relevant and/or wonderings that they have. An example of how the laptops have been useful for students to engage in research is through our current writing unit. The current writing that my students are practicing is persuasive writing of all kinds, students are writing to make their classroom, school, community and ultimately the world a better place. Students first need to find and tell problems that they see, then share why it is a problem and how to fix it. For some kindergartners this is a difficult task because at this age they are most of the time only thinking about themselves. Therefore, exposing students to real life experiences of highlighting problems around them in school and in the classroom has been helpful but watching videos and reading information about what is going on in the environment has been even more powerful. It has been nice to hear my students ask me "Ms. Vera can I use the laptop to research why there is pollution in the earth." My kindergartners are learning the power laptops and technology has for the greater good.
Teaching kindergarten this year has been so much fun because this age group has lots to say, they are eager to learn and most importantly are so interested in new technology that we get to use in the classroom. Once again thank you for your donations that helped create another successful year.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Vera
The Right Teaching Easel: Easy Learning!
Funded Nov 2, 2017I still remember the day that large sets of boxes came into our kindergarten classroom. When the students saw the boxes they were all curious to know what was inside. I then decided to make a list of the things my students thought was inside of it. I had let my students know that a group of nice people gave us the special thing that was inside the box. After finalizing their brainstorming list I told them that when they come the following day to school there job will be to notice anything new in the classroom. So, the next day they arrived and right as soon as they walked in they noticed at the corner of our meeting area was a tall easel version from the one we previous had. Some students reactions included "this easel is much more prettier than the other one", some students noticed the hooks/hanger clips on top of the easel and said "I wonder what we will hang up from there" and finally some students noticed the colorful bins and wondered what would go inside them. Once again this was a great opportunity to construct a list with the students of things we can put inside the bins. Ultimately, the students made the decisions of things that would go in there, like math tools, whiteboards, favorite read aloud books, and writing tools for any kind of writing. Students enjoy it when they get to be part of the process of creating the things in their classroom. I believe there has always been an understanding to my students that the classroom is theirs and that it is constantly going to be changing but not with things that are mine but things that are theirs.
The new edition of an "upgraded" easel as I like to call it definitely has helped a lot when conducting mini lesson for various subject areas during the day. The easel is a tool that teachers use on a daily but throughout the school year it has been nice letting kids be the teacher and they immediately choose to want to teach with the easel. The hooks on the easel has also been helpful as it holds the pocket chart of alphabet letters. We try our very best to have students every day come up and say the letter name and its corresponding sound as knowing this skill students will become better readers and writers.
Our students get enthusiastic for teachers to teach and they especially like to ask "are you going to teach from the easel today?". Or when they get called to answer a question or show an answer they look forward to writing what they are thinking on the easel for all to see. Once again thank you again for supporting this great classroom project that has been so rewarding and likable to our students.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Vera
Little Listeners Love to Read & Write!
Funded Oct 16, 2016Thank you for supporting my very first project for such an amazing kindergarten class. The contribution made towards a new document camera and listening center has been helpful in engaging and motivating students to learn in various ways. In our classroom students participate in Daily 5 during our literacy block. Daily 5 is a centers based in which students get to pick which center they would like to work in for the day. Centers include Read to Self- student reads their independent level reading books, Read to Someone- two students take turns to read their independent reading books to one another, Word Work- activities that foster sight word recognition, letter and sounds recognition and manipulation of letters to make words, Teacher Time- group of students meet with a teacher to practice a reading strategies and finally the listening center. In the beginning of the school year our classroom had tons of books with a CD but we didn't have a radio with headphones to allow kids to listen to stories. Therefore, when I introduced the donors choose listening center everyone wanted to be in that center. With the listening center students practiced to take turns to read their favorite books, work together to help a friend who was got lost following along in their book and also become flexible with the whole group or teacher's choice of the book they will read for the day. As an extended activity, students practiced becoming better writers by writing their favorite part of the book and also what they learned in the book. Until this day, the listening center continuous to be a class favorite center.
The introduction of the document camera also had many successes for our students. Our classroom is fortunate enough to have a Smart board and so when teachers teach with it students are very much engaged. On the Smart board we play interactive games, we circle words we know in a poem, watch educational videos that further our learning and much more. However, I wanted a tool that will allow kids too to also be the teachers and explain their thinking when we are working on academic tasks and the document camera helped in achieving that goal. The document camera is plugged to the laptop which is connected to the smart board so even the smallest object under the document camera will be enlarged on the Smart board for all the kids to see. I use the document camera to model handwriting and then kids are called to come and show how they write. We also use the document camera to give kids the opportunity to share out their thinking when solving an addition or subtraction problem using manipulative such as counters. When teachers ask the kids who want to come up and be the teachers, kids that were once shy want to be called up to teach the class. I know speaking in front of others can be hard but the document camera has helped to get kids out of their comfort zone just so that they can show others what they know and what they can do. Apart from the academics we love to use the document camera for kids to enlarge on the Smart board their show and tell objects. For instance, one student brought in coins from the country her family is from and suddenly a conversation about differences of U.S coins versus foreign coins developed and next thing you know I was teaching students a lesson about coins and money that was not part of the kindergarten curriculum.
Teaching kindergarten this year has been so much fun because this age group has lots to say, they are eager to learn and most importantly are so interested in new technology that we get to use in the classroom. Once again thank you for your donations that helped create another successful year.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Vera