Past projects 7
Classroom Essentials to Start the Year and Build Community
Funded Aug 14, 2024Thank you for your donation to help fund my project! Your generosity and willingness to support my students and classroom is greatly appreciated. Your kind endeavor to gift my class with books, supplies and other educational resources/materials is invaluable. Your contribution really means a lot to my classroom community. Thank you!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Alston
This classroom project was brought to life by The Gates Foundation and 10 other donors.Help, We Need to Store and Charge Our iPads!
Funded Jan 26, 2024Thank you for your donation towards materials to store and charge our class iPads. Daily my students use their iPads to do follow up activities to class lessons. They work on apps such as Seesaw, Amplify Reading, iReady, and more. These apps have activities to support lessons in Science, Math, Reading, Grammar, Spelling, Art, SEL, Writing, Social Studies, ELD, and more.
What was helpful about the chargers and the charging station was the ability to charge the devices. When the year started, I was given the iPads but no chargers. I brought in 3 iPhone chargers from home and had to rotate the devices through them for charging. As you could imagine, this took forever. Students often had to wait to do activities until their device was charged. Once my charging station arrived, I was able to charge all the devices at once. I also had chargers that students could use when they took home the devices. Having the charging station and the chargers was a game changer for how we used and managed the devices. Now my students had a place to put their iPads each day when not in use and a much simpler system for getting the iPads when needed. Again, thank you for supporting my classroom. Your kindness and generosity were appreciated. Thank you.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Alston
Back to School Supplies
Funded Aug 2, 2023Thank you for your donations towards our Back to School Supplies. The acrylic name plates arrived just before school began which enabled me to have those in place when school started. After having these new nameplate, I will never use any others. They are teacher/student friendly and can be used yearly and they store easily.
Most of the other supplies arrived within the first month of school so my students got to see the "before" and "after" and can appreciate the difference the supplies have made for our classroom. The chair pockets are great because they enable my students to keep their desk clear by storing unfinished work, library book, earphones, and more. The table caddies are a good organizational system for the desks because they help pairs of students manage/organize supplies such as pencils, markets, crayons, pens, erasers, and more. Both the chair pockets and table caddies are very colorful and match the decor of our classroom. My students were so excited when they came to class one morning and all the new stuff was in place. We discussed how to use and respect our new materials and have been using them ever since.
The giant timer allows me to set a time for students to complete tasks and enables them to see the countdown so that they can better manage their time. The timer is used daily, especially for our one minute math fluency activities. The birthday celebration materials are loved by my students because it's a time when a specific student is highlighted with the crown and sticker while wearing them all day. My lesson planner is an organizational tool for me to manage daily, short, and long term planning. It also has a calendar to help me align personal and professional commitments. I have tried online planning but really enjoy a paper planner.
Your generosity with the supplies helped my class start the year in a more organized and colorful way. All materials are used and well taken care of. I appreciate your kindness towards the needs of my students and classroom. Thank you!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Alston
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 8 other donors.2nd Graders Thrive With Classroom Supplies
Funded Jul 31, 2023Thank you for your generosity towards providing necessary supplies for my classroom. Your donation of clear storage containers and supply bins have helped me organize my literacy resources that I use daily. Now the materials are stored in the area where I teach and are organized for several weeks of instruction. The clear containers allow me to easily see my materials.
The supply bins are a great organizational resource. I was able to begin the process of organizing my supply closet. Now all of my pens, markers, glue sticks, erasers, highlighters, tape, pencils, dry erase markers, and more all have their own container. No more boxes of supplies. Since the supply bins are clear and have a handle on the front, they are easily accessible. This is a game changer for me.
The blue folders are very sturdy and will be able to be used for a few years. They are great because directions are written inside (in English and Spanish) to help families and students differentiate which side is for homework and what stays home. In past years, I spent time writing this myself. My students can easily manage their work in their folders. My students were also able to decorate a sheet and slide it into the front sleeve of the folder. The folders go from school to home and back daily.
Daily, I use the various markers to either write on the whiteboard or write my Morning message to my students. The Back to School postcards were important because they enabled me to connect with my students and their families before school started. I used the Welcome Banner materials to decorate the classroom for the first few days of school and Back to School Night. Our new pocket charts are used often for poems, games, math/literacy activities and more. Your donation to my class was needed and appreciated. Thank you!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Alston
This classroom project was brought to life by Kleenex and 8 other donors.Classroom Flexible Seating Galore
Funded Apr 7, 2022Thank you for your kind donation of flexible seating for my second grade classroom. The seating is beautiful and the colors are calming and match our classroom decor.
Having clean, comfy, flexible seating enabled my students to have more spaces beyond their desks to participate in Reader's and Writer's Workshop. They also used the seating for activities in other academic areas like Math, Science, Social Studies, ELD, and more.
The new furniture was perfect for my students to engage in Literature Circles, reading, writing, and other small group work. It gave my students choice to sit at their desks, flex floor seats, the beanbag chair, or our comfy couch. Having flexible seating choices complimented the other choices they have in class. Your kindness was timely appreciated. Thank you.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Alston
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose community & an Anonymous Partner and 10 other donors.Clean and Comfy Flexible Seating
Funded Feb 9, 2022Thank you for your generous donation towards helping my students have clean and comfy flexible seating. They were so excited when they came into the room and the new seating was already set up. They couldn't wait to use it.
The new seating looked beautiful and matched the warms colors and decor of the classroom. This was something that my students noticed and commented on right away. The first time that they used the furniture, was to just relax with a book and a stuffed animal. It was great to see them all enjoying their new seating options such as: the rug, flex floor seats, desks, and the comfy couch.
Having clean, comfy, flexible seating enabled my students to have more spaces beyond their desks to participate in Reader's and Writer's Workshop, engage in Literature Circles, reading, writing, and other small group work. My students and I were grateful for the flexible seating choices that complimented the other choices they had in class. Your kindness was appreciated.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Alston
This classroom project was brought to life by Black History Month Partners and 10 other donors.Project Clean Rug!
Funded Jan 18, 2022Thank you for your donation towards our new classroom rug. Having a new clean rug that matches the calm colors in the class was a welcomed and needed addition to the classroom. My students were super excited when we got the new rug. They decided that we would not step on it unnecessarily to keep it looking nice. Whenever someone visits the classroom they explain that rule to them. They even asked the Principal not to walk on the rug, which he honored. I am happy that they are taking pride in keeping the rug clean. It has actually worked, the rug still looks really good. My students sit on the rug everyday several times a day for Morning Meeting, Math activities, to listen to stories, reading/writing activities, Social Studies/Science discussions, Systems Thinking activities, and more. Thank you for your kindness and generosity.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Alston