Past projects 8
Kindergarten Restock
Funded Jun 27, 2023Thank you for all of your donations to our classroom. My students have been so excited to be able to create art using our dot markers including making fall pictures, number and letter recognition and for working on our names. Having cardstock available to use for these projects help to make the markers kindergarten friendly!
Having whiteboards with lines is helping our writing time be more productive with students being able to practice accurate letter writing, word writing and name writing. I am able to closely monitor students at the carpet to ensure accurate letter formation. With the whiteboards students are able to practice multiple times and it saves us from wasting paper.
We have just started using our writing journals and already impressed with how well the students are using them to document their writing and drawing. The journals allow us to see students growth in writing across the year. I cannot wait to see the difference in student writing from the beginning of the year to the end.
All of the wonderful work my students are doing would not have been possible without your donations. We are truly grateful for all of your support.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Tuesley
Kindergarten Readiness
Funded Jan 1, 2021Thank you so much for donating to my classroom! We are so appreciative of everything you have done for us. This project allowed us to get crayons, whiteboard markers and notebooks sent home while students were at home learning and have supplies at school ready when they came back to in person learning.
This year we have gone back and forth between online and in person learning. I currently teach a virtual and an in person class. Having the science notebooks for additional stem activities to supplement our science curriculum has been amazing. The books allow students to participate in science using materials they have at home. Currently we are building a windmill and we will soon be moving into building the three little pigs houses.
School this year has definitely been a challenge but we are so lucky to have your support! Thank you so much for your donations, we truly appreciate it.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Tuesley
Perfect Read Aloud Books
Funded Mar 3, 2020It seems like forever ago my classroom excitedly watched me open boxes of books. They were so excited to look through all of the different books and choose which ones were their favorites. They started writing about which books they wanted me to read to them. Unfortunately, not long after this in person school came to an end for the school year. So the books were organized and put away for the following school year, except for a few that I brought home to read to students live over google meets.
This school year is starting off online but I am hoping we will be able to read these amazing stories to our students virtually. The books we purchased are engaging, diverse and language rich stories that will hopefully engage students even if they are not listening to the stories in the classroom.
For the beginning of the year I have pulled out books like "School's First Day of School" and "First Day Jitters" to teach students about understanding our feeling and emotions about school. Books like "Groovy Joe Ice Cream and Dinosaurs" will captivate students imaginations while teaching rhyming skills and "A Perfectly Messed-Up Story" will teach students it is okay to make mistakes. I cannot wait to begin reading these stories to students and get them excited to learn in these uncertain times.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Tuesley
This classroom project was brought to life by A group of anonymous donors and 7 other donors.Writing Expansion
Funded Aug 22, 2018Today I read the book The Squiggly Story for the first time to my class. It was an absolutely phenomenal book to show students who may not be ready to write a story using words or sentences how they can still tell a story. I was very impressed watching students work on their own story after they heard me read the book. They worked and worked and worked on their illustrations and their writing. Even if they were only drawing squiggly lines they are writing stories. I cannot wait to continue using the books we received to enhance our students writing this year.
This week during daily five we are starting to introduce work on writing. It is amazing to see students who are excited about writing. They come to school so excited to share their stories and they are seeing that they can tell their stories through writing. I picked these stories because they are inspiring to our students. They can see where their writing is headed.
Students can become authors.
The writing paper we received has been a blessing, I was able to tear it out of the pad and put it in protective sheets for students to reuse. We are using it for letter writing right now but I am hoping we can move towards using it for writing words and sentences. I cannot wait for students to be able to start using the cvc word cards and blocks to build words while they are writing. It will help them build their confidence in their writing and will hopefully alleviate the "Teacher how do you spell...." that shows up in the coming months.
This year I am excited to see where our writing can take us in Kindergarten. Thank you so much for your support!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Tuesley
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 4 other donors.Learning About Early Literacy!
Funded May 18, 2018Wow! We have been in school for 11 days so far and it has been amazing! I attended the Hello Literacy training after the second day of school for our Kindergarteners. The training was amazing because it made me stop and think about how I was using guided groups in my class and what changes I want to change for this school year.
The biggest thing that I took away from this training was LET KIDS READ! They are going to excel at reading if they are given a chance to read books they are interested in and books that they love. Unfortunately a lot of our students do not have books to read at home. So when they are at school they should be independently reading as much as possible. Judy told us that even in Kindergarten students can read, just like we have taught students in Daily five, they can read the pictures if they cannot read the words yet.
This year I cannot wait to start my guided reading groups. I learned some tips and tricks at Hello Literacy to enhance the time students are spent in their reading groups so they are getting the most out of it. Even something as small as slight changes to the way I organize the groups to make it more efficient. It was a really motivating experience. I am so glad that I was able to attend the conference. Plus on top of it all I won a new document camera to use in my classroom. I cannot thank each and every one of you enough for what you did for me and my students.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Tuesley
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 3 other donors.Whiteboards for Collaborative Learning
Funded Mar 9, 2018My students were absolutely thrilled when they say their new whiteboards! They were so excited for whiteboards that were clean, sturdy and easy to erase. The erasers were especially special to the students because they had only used felt cloth as erasers before. My class has been so appreciative of all of the wonderful supplies we have received.
We are using the new whiteboards in our small guided reading groups and whole group reading lessons to write sight words, cvc and cvce words and sentences. In math we have been using them to write equations, numbers and shapes.
Next year I am excited to use these from the beginning to waste less paper, to give students other options for showing work and finding fun new ways to use them in the classroom. I am looking forward to having whiteboard markers with a smaller point to give students better control of their letter and number formations from the start.
I cannot say enough how appreciative we are of the support we have received and the wonderful donations. Thank you so very much!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Tuesley
Cooperative Group Activities
Funded Sep 14, 2017You would not believe how excited my class was to receive all of these wonderful puzzles and manipulatives! They love that they are able to work together to build, whether it is building puzzles or building anything they imagine with the brain flakes. I love watching them work and listening to their wonderful conversations. It is just amazing watching my students build, create, learn and grow using the manipulatives that were able to be purchased because of you.
During daily five and math workshop students are able to choose a puzzle to build with a partner or partners. While they are working you can hear them applying their learning whether it be what letter comes next in the alphabet when building an alphabet train, what sounds letters make when putting the alphabet house puzzle together or matching objects to numbers with the math puzzles. I cannot wait to start our STEM unit on structures so we can apply what we have learned in our exploration of the brain flakes to building structures.
None of this would have been possible without the help of our wonderful donors. We are extremely grateful for all of your support.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Tuesley
Magna Tiles for Mega Learning
Funded Aug 8, 2017Thank you so much for our classroom Magna Tiles! My class was so excited when they first saw the Magna Tiles and once they saw that they were magnetic they were absolutely thrilled. We had to open them and begin exploring right away!
My kids have loved exploring the shapes and learning how to build new shapes. They are using the magna tiles during math workshop to compose 3-dimensional shapes from 2-dimensional shapes. While they are doing this they are building their vocabulary around shapes. They work together in groups to accurately name shapes and discuss if the shapes are 2D or 3D while building different structures.
In our school we use Project Lead the Way for our science curriculum. One unit is about forces and motion. The students are so excited to start the unit so they can use the Magna Tile car expansion sets to design, build and race a car. We are so very fortunate to have these materials in order to expand our learning. I cannot wait to see what other opportunities wile will have to use the Magna Tiles in our classroom.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Tuesley