Past projects 3
New Books In! Old Books Out!
Funded May 4, 2019Thank you so much for contributing to the Will C Wood Book Club project. Our club promotes literacy on our campus by pairing works of historical fiction with local field trips to enhance our students' excitement for reading.
As you probably know, after several readings our books tend to wear out: broken spines, dog-eared pages and damaged covers. Our project requested funds to replace missing or worn out books for some of our most popular books.
There is nothing like the excitement of unpacking new books and our students were thrilled when their new copies arrived. As they told each other, "There is nothing like the SMELL of a new book!" Thanks again for your donation to our children's education.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Ledbetter
Experience the Excitement of Medieval Japan!
Funded Dec 10, 2018Thank you so much for supporting our trip to the Japanese Tea Garden and lunch at Benihana's Restaurant. Our students had a wonderful time experiencing these elements of Japanese culture.
At the tea garden, students had the opportunity to partake in an authentic Japanese tea ceremony. Our students asked many relevant questions and were genuinely curious about the reasons for following the tea ceremony protocol. Students were totally engaged in the process and savored eating the sweet cookie to combat the bitterness of the matcha tea.
Lunch was a huge success. The staff at Benihana could not have been more welcoming and our service was terrific. Students relished a lunch of soup, chicken and vegetables cooked tableside on the grill, followed by ice cream. Chefs demonstrated their knife skills for our students and created a smoking volcano out of onion rings! Our students left with a huge appreciation of Japanese food and VERY full stomachs.
Back at school, Book Club members were heavily involved in discussions in our classes. During the chapter on Samurai Warriors, members took the lead in explaining to other students how participating in the tea ceremony and working in a tea garden aided the mental training of a samurai and allowed him to focus on his preparation for battle. Being able to share this experience with others in an academic setting, significantly deepened the understanding of the History text for all students.
Thank you once again for all of your support. Our students will not forget this day.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Ledbetter
Japanese "Lunch" and a Show!
Funded Jan 15, 2017Thanks SO much for your generous contributions to our field trip to the Japanese Tea Garden and for lunch at Benihana restaurant. As you know the purpose of our field trip was to extend the learning experience for a unit in the classroom and two novels on Medieval Japan that our Book Club read in preparation for our trip. At CSU-Sacramento, students participated in an authentic tea tasting and ceremony and were allowed to spend time in the Japanese Garden attached to the tea room. One thing we learned there was that visiting Samurai must leave their swords on a sword rack before entering the tea room.
One highlight of our trip to Benihana was a group of 8th grade boys crowded together at one table; each boy wore a paper Benihana chef's hat and clutched a fork in one hand and a pair of chopsticks in the other. Alternately using first the chopsticks and then the fork, the boys managed to demolish every bit of food set before them. They were so appreciative of their chef, Poli, and his performance that Poli ran back into the kitchen and returned with MORE food for the boys!
Here's what one of our students had to say about her Benihana experience--
"One of the very specific moments that I thoroughly enjoyed was that you (the chef) put tons of garlic butter on the fried rice! It tasted bomb....plus I never even knew that garlic butter existed!"--Tiffany
Just as a grace note, a few days after we returned we had a totally unexpected "how cool was that?" moment when a visiting Japanese dignitary came to our class to observe and our students greeted him in Japanese!
Thanks again for giving us such a wonderful day. We will never forget it.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Ledbetter