Past projects 7
Let's Bring the Fun Back Into Learning!
Funded Aug 20, 2023I cannot believe we are already almost through the first quarter of our school year! This year has already been incredibly rewarding and fun! My classroom family are all very active, inquisitive, playful, and kind. They have a natural curiosity about everything around them, which makes each and every day a great one in the classroom!
The biggest hit in our room is the our teepee! The students have been taking such care of it and have really impressed me with their sharing skills. It is our cozy reading corner as well as our calm down space in our room. It is a sacred center of learning and absolutely beloved by all our friends and visitors!
Another classroom favorite is our bingo set! My goodness the class absolutely adores playing bingo and it has REALLY improved our numbers 1-100 recognition (and letters as well!) The class begs to play and when we do, the cheering can be heard all the way down the hall and they are engaged the entire time! Not only has it helped improve the skills listed above, but it also has helped listening skills, following directions, recall, taking turns, teamwork, and so much more.
The Lakeshore addition and subtraction family packs have been WONDERFUL tools to send home to families requesting/needing additional support. The children treat it as prize and are incredibly eager to go home each week with a "game" to play with their adults at home or siblings. The families have thanked me countless times and I am so impressed with the care that is taken with the materials each week!
The cards, Boggle, Pictureka!, and Jenga have been huge incentives for students and I love that they are learning while they are playing. The classroom culture in my room has vastly improved with these tools and teamwork is far more advanced at this point in the year compared to years in the past. I am so excited to see them continue to grow and learn and look forward to where they will be in months to come!
As always, thank you from my entire heart for your kindness and generosity. It means the world to me to have caring people like you in my corner, because when you are in my corner, you are in theirs.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Young
Book Bags for Littles
Funded Jan 26, 2023Thank you so much for your wonderful donation to our school! With your generous contribution every single student at our elementary school will have a book bag for our upcoming 2023-2024 academic school year! Even better, every book bag in this donation came with a lunch bag, so every student has a safe and happy place to keep their lunches.
The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated has pledged to donate one book bag for every book bag donated - which means the support of this project gave sixty book bags to students in need! Along with this project and the match from Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, our principal led the charge of assigning every grade band teacher the task of donating one book bag as well. This led to a grand total of 800 book bags donated!
Moving forward with each student having their own book bag to keep their important materials in, it will set them up for academic success each and every day. Students will now arrive to school in confidence knowing they won't drop anything they need, forget assignments/projects, and help build crucial organization skills that they need in life. Thanks to the help of you, every student will have the luxury of having their own bag to keep their things in each and every day!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Young
This classroom project was brought to life by A Philly Special Christmas and one other donor.Care Closet
Funded Jul 23, 2022It has been two months since this project has been funded and I am still at a loss for words to describe my gratitude I have over your support. The first week back when I was setting up my classroom I had administration and colleagues come into my classroom to see me put together the cabinets for the Care Closet. Everyone was so excited and touched to see all the items I had to offer our students and their families!
Once students started school I had a discussion with them about the closet and how we can use it. Within the first week of school I already had two students utilize the closet for home. One family in particular uses the closet every Friday to re-fill items and to have things ready for the weekend - I am so comforted to know that they have what they need (as well as mom and grandma) at home.
With your support students know that my classroom is a safe and comfortable space to turn to at any time, for anything. I am so thankful and honored to be this space for the school and will forever appreciate what you have done to support us!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Young
A Pinch of Crayons + Pencils = Smiles
Funded Aug 14, 2019I cannot begin to thank you enough for the wonderful support you have provided my students and myself. This school year got off to such an amazing and successful start thanks to your generous donations of school supplies! I cannot believe it is already time for report card conferences next week!
Thanks to your loving gifts, each and every one of my students have crayons, pencils, erasers, and scissors that (gasp) cut easily through their papers! It is also the first year that I have enough scissors for my lefty friends! No more taking turns to cut if you are a lefty! We love sharing in first grade, but we also love getting right to our work and not having to wait :)
What you see in the photos I have uploaded is an activity that I did with my students involving inside and outside traits! We read the story, "The Recess Queen" and spent the week describing Jean's inside and outside traits and how her inside traits changed from the beginning of the story to the end. My students used their donated scissors, glue, pencils, erasers, and crayons to color, cut, sort, and exercise their brains putting what they have learned to work!
All of my students are so happy and thankful to have what they need to learn and grow every single day. We have sat down and talked with each other about how it is so nice to know that every day our classroom has all the big and little things we need and that we never need to worry about not having it there. We are very thankful, fortunate, and grateful first graders (and one first grade teacher!). I wish you all a lovely and blessed holiday season! Thank you with all of my heart.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Young
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 6 other donors.Anchor Away Our Learning!
Funded Feb 20, 2019Wow, I cannot believe it has been two months since I received the news that this project was funded! Time has flown by and my little learners have grown so much! They are nearing the end of their kindergarten careers and soon will be gracing our school halls as bright first grade scholars!
The first thing we did after unwrapping our new supplies was create an anchor chart writing project for school staff. Together we learned how to write letters of kindness to others, and we surprised staff members, teachers, and classes by leaving our "Giant Love Letters" on their doors as a surprise! Students were so excited to write on the "big paper" and to leave our gifts of kind words throughout the school. We used the markers to write and the crayons to color in our very own Frog Informative Texts. Students were authors and illustrators of their very own nonfiction frog life cycle books!
Every day we have been using our clipboards to write together on the carpet. The students love having their own boards and are doing an amazing job taking ownership and caring for their materials. We also have been using our highlighter tape to outline sight words, rhyming words, interesting words, and more on poems and stories that I write on the chart paper.
I am going to continue to use the anchor chart paper every day in phonics to build digraph charts, in shared reading to build interactive reading response charts, in science to learn about the plant life cycle, in social studies to discover landforms, and in math to learn about 3D and 2D shapes!
I will never be able to express to you enough how thankful and honored I am that you helped support my students and their love of learning. Although words cannot do my gratitude justice, I promise to continue to show how grateful I am through my dedication to teaching our young friends with everything I have!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Young
1+2= 3 Cheers for Math!
Funded Mar 29, 2018I still cannot find the words that fully describe my gratitude and appreciation for your donation to my classroom and students this past school year. This particular year tested my emotions and capabilities as an educator and I am so proud to say I became a stronger, more insightful, and professional teacher than I ever was before. This would have never happened without the generosity and support of people such as yourselves.
My class was in such need of fun and engaging centers during math. We had used all of our materials throughout the school year and were ready for some more challenging and exciting centers to use during our guided math block. They were SO THRILLED to see the boxes arrive and could not contain themselves waiting to open them up to see the donations that you provided them. With each item that was removed from the box, the students jumped, threw their hands in the air, and "woo-hoo!!" at every gifted center. You made their day (and all the following) so special and my students were so grateful!
I used the centers on a rotating basis and each week a new center was taught and then sent to a choice shelf for when we were doing group work during Guided Math. They took such special care of each game, book, and supply. I watched them BLOOM during math. Math was no longer a "need to do" it was finally a "want to do!" and it is ALL BECAUSE OF YOU. My class this past year not only benefited from your generous donation, but the upcoming class will, as well as so many others in the future. I truly hope you know that your donation will never be forgotten and to this day, I am still so touched and honored that you chose my classroom. You made such an impact on 30 little kiddos, and so, so many more (not to mention one thrilled kindergarten teacher!) THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Young
Kindergarten Cool-Down
Funded Mar 12, 2018I would like to take a moment to once again thank you for your support in not only my students, but also in support of me! This particular school year has been trying for me - I have learned a lot about "out of the box" methods in handling difficult moments and this project was something that I have not done before!
My students were in awe and excitement when they saw the boxes get delivered to our classroom. Each student had a look of curiosity and pure wonder in what could possibly be inside! We set aside a special portion of our day, right before lunch, to open the boxes together and learn about what the items will be used for. As my helpers each took out one of our special classroom tools, we discussed what we thought they could be used for and how they may help us learn. Once all ideas were shared, I talked to them about our emotions and how sometimes we need a little bit of extra help to get refocused for learning. Then I read our book, "Calm Down Time" and began teaching my friends about a Calm Down Corner in the room. We all agreed that it would be a great addition to our second home and together, we found a perfect corner for calming down. Finally, I unveiled what each tool can be used for and we made two bins of our new tools donated by each of you! We found how to properly handle them, how they can help get our minds off of what may be making us feel not our best selves, and lastly, learned that it is not a play time break - instead it is a moment to unwind, breathe, reflex, and refocus.
Along with the generous donations from all of you, I added in some stuffed animals, Play-Doh, stress balls, and emotion picture cards/reflection papers. On the papers, it is a moment for my friends to draw or write what they are finding to be frustrating, and then draw a way that they can handle a possible similar situation differently next time. These papers are not a forced activity; instead it is an option for students to choose if they wish.
I am still in the process of getting my students acclimated to the independent use of this Calm Down Corner, however I am already seeing successes! It is proving to be an excellent tool to get their minds off of whatever is really firing them up which is infinitely helpful when I am in the middle of a lesson. I cannot wait to see where this project further leads us and I am forever grateful to each and every one of you. Thank you truly, from the bottom of my heart, for not only caring about me, but my little ones!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Young