Past projects 7
Art and S.T.E.M.
Funded Oct 31, 2022My class was so excited to receive all of the boxes from Amazon! One student yelled "Itʻs like Christmas!" and all the others cheered. As we opened the boxes together, the students smiled and shouted with excitement. Building kits, art supplies, volcanoes and stem space boxes!!! OMG!!! It was better then Christmas.
As a class we do STEM Thursdays. The students get to use the design thinking process and when they go to create their prototype, we bust out our building kits. It is so neat to see the kids work together, problem solve and discuss strategies. It was even more awesome to see our students who donʻt always exceed with general academic work, be at the top of the class and create these awesome projects.
This quarter we have been looking at and learning about space patterns. We are observing what is going on above us. Each week the kids look forward to doing another project from our space stem kit. So far we have made a starry kaleidoscope, laced the constellations, and ate the phases of the moon (using oreo cookies). Did I mention we are only in 1st grade?! These kids are amazing and learning so much, thanks to this generous donation. We are so grateful!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Novikoff
This classroom project was brought to life by Hawai'i State Department of Education.Challenging and Fun!
Funded Mar 10, 2022My students were soooo excited to receive our goodies in the mail. The puzzles are a major hit and the books were such a special parting gift to send them each with as they went on to 2nd grade.
I loved seeing my students little brains moving and think in a different way. It is so fun to see them have fun and still keep there little minds active. At the end of the day we always do 10-15 mins of puzzles and I invite students to work at my teacher desk to work on these puzzles. They LOVE it!!! I find that they love the challenge and feel so good when they figure it out on their own. Everything was so special and I know it helped to make my students first grade year more memorable.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Novikoff
This classroom project was brought to life by Hawai'i State Department of Education.A Hawaiian Rain Forest
Funded Mar 10, 2019Thank you so much for this incredible opportunity to teach our students about our Hawaiian Rain Forests in Iao Valley. Everything about the field trip was magical, from the bus ride there to the bus ride home. The smiles and excitement could be seen and heard in all the children and adults who attended. As we approached Iao on the bus, the clouds were dark and heavy. We worried the rain would cancel the trip but, to our delight, when we arrived the clouds let up and the misty rains stopped. The students learned about food chains, decomposers, habitats and then got to do actual activities like digging for decomposers, nature walks and fishing with nets.
According to many of the students, the high light of their day was the fishing and nature walks. You could see them light up when we were outdoors and they became so much more observant with their surroundings. From a teachers stand point, the high light of my day was that we were the FIRST class to not have a student fall in the pond during the fishing portion of the trip! I thought that was huge!!!
This trip really helped our students understand what habitats are and what they could look like for different animals. It showed me that I need to be taking my class out more often and make real world connections for them, so they can really get it.
We are so grateful and hope you too will get to make it back to Maui soon and explore all your favorite places. Thank you for giving our students an opportunity to have a new favorite spot on Maui as well...”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Novikoff
This classroom project was brought to life by Someone Who Cares and one other donor.A Seat For Everyone
Funded Mar 30, 2018Words cannot express how thankful we are. Each of our students in our classroom now have a comfortable place in our room to sit and enjoy activities and/or read. Our students look forward to using the circle chairs as a reward to read with their reading bins at the end of the week. They work so hard to be the first users of the chairs and it encourages to them to also be on their best behaviors.
I have also seen such a difference in the brightness the carpets and seating have brought to our classroom. The students and visitors that come into our classrooms faces light up when they walk in the room. Everyone is excited to be around so much color and all the information on the carpets are so helpful as we are currently reviewing our numbers, letters, sounds and sight words.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Novikoff
Challenge Our Minds
Funded Apr 17, 2018Mahalo nui loa (Thank you very much)! Words cannot express how thankful we are in our class. My students LOVE LOVE LOVE all the new thinker toys and I can see them thinking while they play...its amazing! Students that have a hard time following during lectures come to life with these toys and create the coolest things. They are eager to share their inventions with each other as well as the teachers in the room.
When we first received the package full of new toys I could hardly calm the kids down. They were screaming with so much excitement and could hardly wait to get their hands on them and start creating.
Now we are exploring the Design Thinking Process and hope to incorporate more hands-on Project Based Learning in our classroom. We will definitely be using the blocks and builder toys to help us bring our ideas to life as well.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Novikoff
A Trip To Our Hawaiian Rainforest
Funded Mar 1, 2018Mahalo nui loa (Thank you very much) for your generous gifts that funded our entire 1st grade class to go on a field trip to the nature center. On this field trip this students were able to absorb so much new information by using all their senses. They got to dig in the dirt for insects; catch fish using nets in the river (and then return them afterwords); see and learn about erosion and ecosystems and lastly act out the food chain. All of the students as well as our teachers and chaperone's had nothing but wonderful things to share about the field trip. We are so very grateful!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Novikoff
This classroom project was brought to life by Naomi Seligman and 5 other donors.We Will Use Them...Help Us Not To Abuse Them
Funded Mar 29, 2017I barely have the words to express how incredibly thankful we are for each of your generous donations. We as teachers strive to have our students using technology on a daily basis. It is important that our students are well acquainted with them since so much of our world today is technology based. Our students and school also rely on them for our quarterly testing and part of our online curriculum's.
The day our computer covers arrived, my students were literally jumping for joy as I opened the box. They could not understand why such nice people, who don't even know us, would buy these new computer covers for them. They loved the colors and the feeling they felt when they touched them. After putting it on the computers, the students could hardly wait to get on them. Each of the students had huge smiles and some even commented how they felt like they were using a brand new computer!
I feel that it is so important that each of our students feel special. This donors choose made each of them feel special and good about the resources in our classroom. It made them excited to come to school and to learn on them. Thank you so very much!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Novikoff
This classroom project was brought to life by Lynne and Marc Benioff and 2 other donors.