Past projects 49
Bringing Color to Our Learning
Funded Apr 5, 2019Having a color printer has made our learning so much better. We appreciate you recognizing the importance of being able to print in color in a preschool classroom.
Starting a school year I can tell you that being able to print in color helps me to encourage children's development of naming and knowing colors.
Ending a school year with the printer has enabled me to tell you what a difference it made being able to send home games and activities to end the year and to continue development over summer. I have a few students that were able to return to preschool this year and I can tell you that their families utilized the games I was able to create and send home. These students are starting the year off better than they ended it. I am grateful to have this experience to see for myself how much of an impact this printer has made in their learning.
In addition to take home materials and classroom games, our classroom is labeled and colorful; students know where things go. I have created a label on each shelf for items we are using. This helps my students better care for our materials and know where to put them back when they are finished using them.
I told you in my project request that I wanted to create books with my students. We are currently creating a class book called meet our class. I created a base page and was able to print this out. Using the base page, children drew a self portrait and filled in the information about themselves. We will scan each page and I will be able to print a copy for every student in our class to take home. I am able to do this because you helped to gift us this printer.
I am so grateful to you, my students are their families are as well! Thank you for making our learning so much better!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Landino
This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and 6 other donors.A Nook for Our Books
Funded Apr 27, 2019I am so pleased to tell you how I ended a year with your gift and how we have started another one.
Last school year you gifted us with the best book nook there is and this year I am able to provide students with its use and my love of books as well. It's cozy and comfortable and research shows that children get more out of reading a book when they are snuggled up next to the reader.
My students last year already had a love for book before you gifted them this book nook but after we received it, they never wanted to leave! They would curl up on the couch and read to their baby dolls or they would curl up on a teacher's lap and ask to hear the same stories over and over again.
On our open house for preschool, we already had students running to the book nook to look at the pictures in our story books. It had me so excited thinking of all the stories that would be read and shared in that space this coming school year. Parent's commented how cute and cozy the space was and that they wanted to curl up and read. I could picture them visiting the classroom and curling up to read to their child only to have 5 or 6 more join them all squeezing in for a space on their lap.
Your contribution is changing children's lives and making adults want to read to them. It has helped me as a teacher to provide a space but also an opportunity for more literacy and I am grateful. Thank you for making our classroom a better place for years to come.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Landino
This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and 5 other donors.We Want to Rhyme All the Time
Funded Mar 20, 2019I sent the first of these rhyming books home over spring break along with rhyming activities and a letter to parents explaining how they can help their student learn to rhyme. When we returned I practiced a few rhyming activities with them and at the end of the week I observed them using a document and activity we have been using all year to judge if students are making progress and to help me decide areas we need to work on when I lesson plan. All of my students moved up one level or more.
The school home connection, students practicing skills both at school and at home with their families, increases learning. This to me was why your gift was so important. One week spent at home with a new rhyming book and activities with parents and a school year spent practicing and children came back rhyming more than they have all year.
With the second book, I sent it home to be used over summer break with more activities and a letter to parents about the importance of keeping the learning going over summer break. Children lose large portions of learned information over the three months of summer; this is called summer loss. One way to combat summer loss is to keep practicing skills with their family while on summer break. Having your donation is going to help my students combat summer loss and will help them to stay ready to enter kindergarten!
My families all mentioned how grateful they were to have these books as resources and a way to spend time together learning. I am so glad families felt that they could be successful at rhyming with these books! I think they may become staple send home books for rhyming for years to come!
I am so grateful to you all for helping me fund this project. I wish I could hug each of you and thank you in person.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Landino
Decreasing the Vocabulary Gap, One Book at a Time!
Funded Apr 4, 2019This project is so important to developing vocabulary in my students. My favorite thing that has happened thus far because of this project is that I have heard my students using vocabulary we learned while reading these stories while playing with their friends at free play. We read Click, Clack Moo Cows that Type one week and Farmer Brown is furious that the cows won't give him milk until they get electric blankets. The word furious showed up in my students interactions with one another for days after. "I'm feeling furious that you knocked my tower over."
We are using our books and card stock from this project to create a repeated read aloud experience that gives my students the opportunity to hear the same book for four days straight. Each day we learn new vocabulary words; review the plot of the story and what happens in the beginning, middle and end of the story; as well as learn a literacy concept such as where we begin to read or what an exclamation point is, or rhyming words. When we finish the story each day, we choose a vocabulary word to discuss. First we think about the word, then we pair up and discuss the word with a partner and what that word makes us think of and then we share. Each child gets the opportunity to share and we reinforce the vocabulary words. This process has had tremendous results, my students have made great gains vocabulary knowledge.
Children experiencing poverty hear far less words than peers of higher socioeconomic status but through this project we are lessening the gap. My students love to read and through something they love we are preparing them for kindergarten and exposing them to language and vocabulary. Thanks to your donation, I have students that are ready for Kindergarten. I get emotional and passionate when I talk about this project because the results are so obvious to anyone that has seen us discuss the stories and the vocabulary. I am a better teacher to my students because I have been able to provide them with stories and words to talk about and discuss. I could have never purchased this many books without your help. Next year I plan to do this every week for the entire school year and I know this will require time and more literature but to see the gains and progress of my students makes it all worth it.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Landino
This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and 5 other donors.Teach Us About Teeth
Funded Apr 8, 2019This project is such a success already! My students love talking about sugar bugs and how you need to brush your teeth everyday, twice a day (or wash your teeth as some like to say!). I think we have not only created students who want to brush and keep their teeth healthy but we may have created students who will grow up to work in a dental related field of work! I think we have future dentist and hygienists thanks to this project!
The teeth models have been such a blast to play with and talk about keeping our teeth healthy. My students say they see sugar bugs and use the explorer tool to scrape it away. They brush the teeth and get them nice and shiny. I love hearing them talk about plaque and cavities but even more I love to hear them talk about brushing their teeth at home.
We used to have children say they didn't brush their teeth in the morning but now I hear them talk of holding their parents accountable for brushing before school.
There are a few books in particular that are favorites. One is "The Grosser, More Disgusting, But Still Totally Cool Mouth Book," it's not for the weak stomached but it is really cool for preschool students who love to look at gross things and real images. It has real pictures that a real dentist took of his patients mouths to educate people on good dental hygiene. This is my favorite book from the project and many of my student's as well.
The second favorite book is "Bear's Loose Tooth" about a bear with a loose tooth that won't come out and all the animal friends take turns giving the tooth a tug. I'm sure I have read this book everyday since we have received it.
This project is really making a much larger impact on the lives of these students than just an educational impact and I am so grateful to each one of you that has helped us make this a success!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Landino
This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and 8 other donors.We Got the 'Write' Stuff
Funded Apr 4, 2019My students are so excited about writing thanks to the materials from this project and your donations! They talk about what writing materials they are going to use at free play during breakfast every day. They can't wait to get to free play to write!
A few of my students love to get out the Buddha Boards, a way to "paint" with water and sing a song about letters that we sing everyday. "Letters! Letters! Letters have names! What is the name of this letter?" They write letters and have their friends and any adult in the room guess the name of the letter.
This project is going to prepare my students for kindergarten and this is the best feeling as a teacher.
The crayon rocks are improving students grasp on writing utensils. The crayon rocks are small and need to be held in a three finger grasp which is most ideal for writing. As my students wrote and created with these crayon rocks they said things like, "look how beautiful" and "Wow! Look at the colors!" We also use the small golf pencils for this same reason. The small size encourages children to use only three fingers and is improving the finger grasp of my students.
With our letter stamps and stamp pads, children tried to write out their own names and those of family members and friends. They tried to stamp out the first letter of words they were sounding out. "B like in butterfly," I heard a student say to her friends as she was stamping one day.
The other materials are not directly writing materials but improve pencil grasp by strengthening the muscles in their hands. Dabbers, stickers, and wikki sticks strengthen the muscles and are fun to use so I see my most apprehensive writers using these materials.
Finally we use our magnetic writing paper to practice writing messages or phrases. I model for children how to write a sentence and we talk about punctuation and capital and lowercase letters.
Thank you for your support of my students! I am grateful that they will have lot of writing experience under their belts before they get to kindergarten and they will be so prepared!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Landino
This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and 7 other donors.Feeling Safe at School
Funded Apr 9, 2019My students are very excited to have a safe space where they can be alone. I think the part that surprised me the most was how often it is used and that it has been used by almost every student in the class for one reason or another.
Reasons students have used the safe space so far are missing mom, feeling sleepy, wanting to be by self, angry at friends and wanting to calm down, looking for a quiet space to look at books and looking to lay down in a comfortable space.
I have had a lot of other teachers come in and look at our space and comment that they needed a space like ours for their room. Having this space is making school better for my students and it will also encourage other teachers to make school better for their students.
When we introduced the space children contributed ideas of why someone would use the space and we came up with rules for the space together. We decided as a group that if someone is using the space we can ask them if they are okay but that being in the space means you have to be alone and that we need to respect that. We decided that it's not a space to play so that it can be open for children needing alone time and we decided that if a student wants a teacher to join them, they can ask for the teacher to join them to help with calming down or comfort.
I am so grateful that we have this space. In years past, it was difficult to provide children with a place to be alone but now that we have a safe space, school will be so much better for so many students. Some children enter school with trauma and school can open sore spots for children; this space is going to help ease the affects school has on trauma for some students. Your support of this project is everything! You know how important it is for children to feel safe and how feeling safe, one of the most basic needs, will lead to children learning and getting prepared for kindergarten.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Landino
This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and 4 other donors.You Can Be Instrumental to Our Learning
Funded Apr 4, 2019This project has really helped me encourage my student to take care of our instruments. We have labeled this shelf with images of the instruments with drawings created by students and real images of the instruments which has made it very easy for students to know where they go.
When we received the shelf we retaught the proper ways to use our instruments and it has really helped students learn to use our instruments with respect already. I know that now that we have this shelf, our instruments will last for many years.
The first day I set up the shelf, one of my students invited all the other children to join her in playing. At first the children were all playing different beats. "No, guys. We're a band. I will tap a beat and then we all can play the same beat," she told the others. I watched her tap out a beat and one child suggested that it sounded like the song Bingo. They began to sing Bingo together and when they were done singing Bingo another tune was created and children copied it. This was such a rewarding interaction for me to watch.
The multicultural music books are going to have such power for my students. Seeing people that look like them will inspire them to live their dreams. These books will also help me to talk about other cultures and how they create music. These books inspired me as a teacher to show my students videos of people dancing from all over the world. As we watched the videos we attempted the dances ourselves. It was truly a lot of fun and it helped me teach my students about other cultures and the way the express themselves artistically through music and dance.
I am so excited to have this shelf to store our instruments and these books for years to come to inspire group after group of student to express themselves through music!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Landino
This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and 16 other donors.Surface Go For On The Go Preschoolers!
Funded Feb 6, 2019The use of the Surface Go in my classroom has greatly improved teacher productivity in entering observations and documentation of my student's progress. Both educators in the classroom are able to use a device at the same time eliminating the wait time to enter current observations. Through use of this device I can record videos and take photos to document progress. When I am lesson planning I use the observations I have to decide what went well or what needs more work.
The best part for me has been that all documentation is accurate and up to date each week as I am lesson planning. The best part for my students has been looking back at what they have done. We have looked over the videos together and discussed what they see. I think sometimes seeing yourself in action is the best way to learn where you need to improve or to see what you do very well.
Another way we have used our Surface Go is to explore a subject further. If a group students are talking about an animal that another student has never heard of we can instantly look it up and see images and videos as well as read more about it.
At conferences, I was able to show parents what their kids do while they are at school. I was able to pull up videos and pictures and show them that their child does more than what they think!
Thank you so much for valuing education and understanding my classrooms need for this device. I feel excited at the success my students are having this school year and my ability to better access their needs. I am so grateful to each of you! I would love if you keep in touch with my classroom on Twitter to see what we are up to this year!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Landino
This classroom project was brought to life by Microsoft Corporation and 5 other donors.Put the Rhythm in Preschool
Funded Dec 4, 2018We have so much more music in our lives thanks to your donation. Our music instruments are literally used every day. These have easily become one of my students favorite things to do in our classroom.
So many wonderful learning experiences have happened thanks to these instruments. Maybe an obvious learning experience but my students have used musical creativity to create their own songs or attempt to play a song they know. A fun game they played was "Guess what song this is?" They tapped out a tune on castanets or drums and students had to guess what song it was. Daily we listen to songs and play instruments. We do this after snack and my students cannot wait for music, some have asked if they can take their snack home and instead start music early.
We also used our instruments for literacy learning. We tapped out the syllables of words onto the drums. I know this activity was successful because my students did this without a teacher being present and by choice during their choice time.
A goal of my project was to teach my students about instruments from other cultures and parts of the world. My students are so much aware of music from other cultures. We not only have played the instruments and named them but we also showed videos on YouTube of people from other countries playing them in traditional ways. My students loved trying to recreate the sounds they heard in the videos. I created a book for students to see the instruments being played by people from the country of origin. They enjoyed turning the pages and then looking for the instrument they saw in the book and attempting to play it!
Thank you so much for contributing to this project and my student's learning. Music is incredibly important to a preschool program being that young children are so musical and they learn best through song. I plan to continue to bring music into our program and continue to increase their knowledge on music from other countries and cultures. Your donation means so much to us and I will continue to share your generosity with future students!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Landino
This classroom project was brought to life by CRUNCH and 11 other donors.