Mrs. Torres' Classroom Edit display name

Past projects 23

• Home School Literacy Connection Through a Lending Library Adventure!

  Funded Dec 16, 2017

  Thank you very much for opening a new door to this beautiful world of literacy experiences to our students and families. With the arrival of the new book collection donated by your beautiful hearts, our students are more eager to listen to stories, reflect on what they've learned, and share or create their own stories. One of our students sits in the book area to look at books and retell stories whenever he has difficulty with concentration. I'm honored to say that reading books in our classroom is the gravity that keeps everything in place. More importantly, this attraction is reaching home.

  Presently, our preschoolers are learning how to make predictions about what the story will be about by just looking at the cover of the book and the pictures. Our students are also answering and asking open ended questions, learning about the characters, setting, author and understanding new vocabulary words. And now they are borrowing books to continue the adventure at home.

  Since the lending Library was inaugurated, many parents have been borrowing many books selected by our students and asking many questions about how to enhance the wonderful interaction. After the children read the books at home, they share small projects or they just retell the story to the group. It is impressive to see how proud our students feel when sharing to the group.

  I'm very proud to see that most of our families are borrowing books from our library, especially a boy with very limited resources. His mother borrowed the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and as a family they created a book about how the family stays healthy at home. He was so proud to share the book with his friends. These are the great rewards we are proud to share with our amazing donors that are making it possible. Together, we can build a better generation who will love and treasure books and stories.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Torres

  This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and 3 other donors.

• A Memory Game a Day to Reshape Our Brain.

  Funded Dec 8, 2017

  A memory game a day is indeed reshaping our brains. Our students are more concentrated, more eager to play together and more creative when solving problems and sharing ideas. We introduced the material by playing a guessing game and establishing the importance of working as a team when using the material. Then, the student were encouraged to pick one game and verbally express their plans to use it. Once the rules and labels were completed, the children were able to use the material. There is a boy in our class that loves the ABC puzzle and is the first activity he does every day. It is amazing to see how he learned the letter sounds and how he already memorized a word that starts with each letter. Our little friend had difficulties making friends but now because he helps others to complete the puzzles his popularity is noticeable. The shapes game is very popular and is helping our students to memorize the names of the shapes and some characteristics about them. The sensory table was placed in the science area and it has been very useful to one of our friends who has a sensory condition. With the teacher's assistance, our friend is more relaxed and able to use phrases to describe her feelings when working in that area. Math skills are blooming because with the games, children can manipulate objects and count with correspondence. I'm very happy to see how our students are developing a love for games and puzzles because it is impacting their behavior, enthusiasm to learn

  and concentration skills. My hope is for our students to start creating new ways to use the material and eventually with open ended material create their own games. Thank you very much donors because of you we can see a better future. We send you a smile a day to reshape your day and a hug a day to reshape your loving heart.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Torres

  This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and 2 other donors.

• Helping Little Hands Achieve Big Things

  Funded Nov 14, 2017

  Thank you very much for making this dream a reality. Our staff and children are very thankful for your support. Our adventure started with the arrival of the material. We included the good news about the new material in our morning message. The message had a picture of a gift with an enormous ribbon on the left side-a heart on the right side and one word printed on top "surprise." The children tried to read the message: "love, present, heart, birthday and surprise." It was at that moment that the important message was share with the students: "We got new material thanks to the generosity of donors with big hearts." They all started jumping up and down, hugging each other and screaming. Then, we brought in the boxes and the children helped to take the new material out. Every single student was holding and item-describing it and dreaming with it. And then, an open ended question was asked; What can you do with the new material? Here are some answers:

  Jaylene-"I want play dough"

  Basim-"I want play with this"(Magna tiles)

  Jazlyn: "I want to color" (Construction paper)

  Jonathan: "My numbers) (Math Peg Game)

  And this is how our project to help little hands achieve big dreams started

  The material was distributed into three different areas in the classroom: Math area(Number Peg Game), Science Area(magna tiles, journals) and the Art Area(construction papers, do a dot art, play dough, wiggly eyes, etc.)

  Distributing the material in the right areas around the classroom promotes the opportunity to develop fine motor skills openly. It is during work time(part of the daily routine in which children decide where do they want to work, with who, the material that they will be using an how they will be using it) that the children are using the material the most. Our students are rolling the play dough to make balls to cover the letters of the alphabet and numbers, to make long snakes and cut them with sticks or scissors and to create tridimensional representations like a snowman and bugs. The do a dot art material is very popular in the classroom. Children have been creating patterns decorating papers and learning math by printing the right amount of dots next to the numbers. The magna tiles are the most popular item in the classroom. We have created a waiting list to teach the students how to take turns and to give each child the same opportunity to use the material. Many students represented many structures including 2d and 3d. Children can concentrate very easily when using the magna tiles I observed. A list of brand new vocabulary words was added to the interactions: pyramid, prism, cube, blueprint, hexagon pentagon, prism, etc. It is very interesting to see that when the children really like the material, the interactions are more productive. I've observed children asking questions to each other and working together to solve problems. As a teacher, it makes me feel so proud to have meaningful conversations with my students during work time and help them develop the skills that they need during this wonderful age.

  This is an ongoing project in which many materials can be use over and over. Rules have been established to take good care of the material. The children helped to make labels for the material before it was available in the different areas. Many pictures have been taken and will be taken during the project. The pictures, drawings and comments will be collected to create a book by the end of the year, I already have the title: "Achieving Big Things Because of Big Helping Hands." Thank you for caring and helping us. Together we are making a big difference in our future generation.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Torres

  This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and 4 other donors.