Past projects 4
Kidz Town
Funded Aug 14, 2022All students in our school are thankful for being able to experience purchasing toys and party favors they love. Students in my class created stores for other classes. The first step was to create a name, design a logo, and a slogan for each store. There were 3 kids in each store and they selected a manager, assistant manager, and clerk. Teachers in each class received about $200 in kids money to be distributed to the students according to the teacher's criteria for each class. It could be good behavior, good grades, etc.
My kids get paid for coming to school. They get paid $5.00 per hour. Their weekly salary is about $175.00 a week and could receive deductions from their salary like; talking, being tardy to school, misbehavior, proper attire, and not turning in assignments. My class is very careful with deductions because they love to accumulate their money in the bank. The 5th grade class opened a bank for the kids in our room. Each student has a check book with their names, and they can deposit and withdraw money from their accounts. What they love the most is to see their accounts grow with lots of money. I have stores for them throughout the year, and they can purchase different things that I buy for them.
The donations from sponsors for Kidz Town allowed the kids to have many more toys for them to sell to the entire school. They also brought some cookies, popcorn, and chips on their own since they love to sell at their stores.
The first day of Kidz Town was Tuesday, December 13th. Teachers were given a schedule to come to the stores. For example, PK and K classes came in from 9:00 to 9:30am. First grade classes came in from 9:30 to 10:00 am, and so on. Kids were able to purchase any items they wanted according to the money they had, but they were able to see products they wanted to purchase when we have the next Kidz Town, which is Wednesday, December21st.
The items we received from our donors were toys, party favors, and games, which all the kids loved. This event is very popular in our school since I have been doing it for a few years now and every year all kids look forward to purchase many toys.
I am very grateful to have my students experience the stores since they learn to handle money, the value of real money to them. They know is fake money, but always treat it as real money. They also learn to be organized, to treat people with kindness, they understand what to do when you work at a place and get paid. They put a prize on the items and discuss as to why the items can not be too cheap, or too expensive.
My students were fascinated looking at all the toys and party favors that we received. We are very thankful for getting all these products for their stores. My class had an awesome time hosting Kidz Town for all the other kids in school. Thank you, again.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Villa
This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Funder and one other donor.STEM Learning Fun!
Funded May 3, 2022Students' voices went loud when they first saw the boxes that contained the solar robots. All they could say was "are these robots for us?" Some students grabbed the boxes and started jumping of happiness. It was a sight to see!
Kids started building the robots, and they could say it was easy following the directions. Many of them worked in groups, which allowed them to help each other.
Working with the STEM robots helped my students to work through complex problems and to use their solving skills. Putting the robots together was fun to watch as they focused on thinking critically and creatively. I also saw them working collaboratively, which helps a lot with their social skills. Their comments were very positive and worked enthusiastically just enjoying the process while having fun. After building one robot and watching it crawl, and roll, they automatically started on another design since they knew they could do different ones. The kids were playing while learning the basics behind the robotics technology, which is a great start. They learned a very important lesson that we can count on solar heat energy, which drives the motor to help the robots move.
Thank you so much for allowing my students to have this wonderful experience. They truly had great hours of fun and were challenged to be creative as they build the different robots just with the directions and their imagination. Students in my class are very grateful for getting the robots they could only dream about. Their summer will be wonderful as they will keep working with their robots. Thank you, Thank you. ; )”
With gratitude,
Ms. Villa
This classroom project was brought to life by SONIC Drive-In and 2 other donors.Inspiring Readers to Improve Reading Skills and Comprehension
Funded May 6, 2020I am very appreciative of the books you sent for my class since my students will enjoy these books a lot. I know they are very eager to read them. These books support the growth of my joyful readers and help to keep their minds active.
Reading books in my class, is not only about the content and the story they read, but also how is the story interesting to every student and why. We also talk about how the characters are viewed by the students, and how we would react to the events in the story. We will discuss friendship and loyalty as well.
After reading the book The Report Card, we will discuss different things like: do grades and test scores accurately measure intelligence? Do they define who a person is? What are the negative effects of grades and test scores? What are the positive effects? What are some better ways to measure intelligence and achievement? Then, the kids will do some activities as follows.
Students will answer the focus questions.
• How does Nora's character change throughout the novel?
• How did Stephen's experience with grades and test scores shape Nora's perspective and
actions?
• What role does friendship and loyalty play in the novel? How do they drive the plot of the story?
• What role does intelligence play in the novel? Do grades and test scores accurately measure intelligence? Why?
• Make your own design for a new book cover and a new title for this story.
I don't have pictures yet of the activities since we have not read the books. The kids will start reading during the Holidays since we have been doing what the district has mandated because we have many kids online.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Villa
This classroom project was brought to life by Alane Adams & The Rise Up Foundation and 2 other donors.Kids, News, Cameras, Action!
Funded Feb 1, 2019Obtaining new cameras for our studio has been a dream come true! Working with students delivering the morning announcements news for over 23 years, has been instrumental for me. My goal has always been to engage students when we make announcements for different activities and important events happening in our school. The new cameras are compatible with the equipment the school had bought, and now our transmissions are more creative and engaging as we showcase the news.
The TV crew members are very excited and are enjoying being creative as with the new cameras the colors come through much brighter and with more quality. These kids are dynamic and creative, and love to integrate different backgrounds, make Power Point announcements, and engaging animated images to capture the students' attention.
Students in school have taken notice as the creativity in the new announcements is showing every day. Teachers tell me all the time how much their kids are enjoying the morning announcements news and look forward every day to see what is new and dynamic.
The news crew has made small clips of classes working on Environmental solutions for an Earth Day Event we are preparing in school. This clip will be shown on the morning announcements news for students, parents, and staff to enjoy. These activities are essential for students to learn what the different classes are doing so they know we are working collaboratively for the same cause.
Right now, we are working on a fundraiser for Saint Jude Children's Hospital and we can record with the small camera short clips of students telling the school why this is a great fundraiser. The students in school that watch these clips get motivated and go home telling their parents why we all should donate to save lives of children in Saint Jude Hospital.
Our entire school is very grateful as we did not have the money to buy the cameras that were so essential for the morning announcements news. Your gift to our school is something we will always treasure. You made it possible for our students to be able to experience not only the appreciation of knowing that a great company like Google helped us out, but also experiencing the effects the new cameras have made in the transmission of our news. I am very grateful for your support. We all are grateful for your gift. Thanks a million Google!!!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Villa
This classroom project was brought to life by Google and 7 other donors.