Mrs. Duncan's Classroom Edit display name

Current requests

Past projects 20

• Wondrous Weather!

  Funded May 2, 2024

  The materials from this project have been keeping our students busy and happy each day. Math fact blocks for the "Tower of Math" games are pulled off the shelf every morning as soon as school starts. This has been a favorite classroom activity. Additional classes often enter our room and join in also. Students pair up and practice their math facts. This has helped so much. Our class average this past week varied between 88% and 89% accuracy! This is a tremendous jump from where they started.

  The weather books have been popular and in high demand. If someone randomly walked into our class, they'd surely see some of these books on student desks. They are out constantly. Several students have read ALL of the "Freddy the Frogcaster" books. Reluctant readers are especially getting hooked on these.

  We are studying animal traits and adaptations, so "Do Lizards Eat Ice Cream?" and "Do Frogs Drink Hot Chocolate?" have made these studies more engaging and fun.

  It has been wonderful to have enjoyable, entertaining, meaningful books and supplies to enhance our math and science studies. We thank you for making this possible!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Duncan

  This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Supporter and 2 other donors.

• Warmth, Care, and Hunger

  Funded Jan 28, 2022

  This was such a strong and effective project that continues to make powerful impacts! Fortunately for the students, each chose either gloves or hats right before a couple of weeks with the most frigid weather I remember ever having at school. The children were so grateful for the protection for their fingers and ears. The snacks were also appreciated during after school interventions and for "hangry" students having rough mornings. It was wonderful to have all this warmth and care when we needed it most.

  We went on a couple of field trips and I felt more prepared with a backpack full of first aid to carry. Fortunately, our field trips were problem-free and no one had any illnesses or injuries. Still, it was amazing to feel at peace by being fully prepared.

  The games, books, incentives, and calming corner supplies are used all the time. Students are happy and thriving. Thanks so much for giving them the essentials to have their best days at school. You've made an enormous difference for them!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Duncan

  This classroom project was brought to life by Panda Cares and one other donor.

• Catching Up and Moving Up!

  Funded Jan 20, 2022

  This project has been helping our class in many ways. The pencil sharpeners have made a tremendous difference. Earlier this year, students were taking timed math tests and their pencil leads kept breaking. Test administrators came into our classroom, but they didn't bring replacement pencils until after it was too late. The timers kept going, but the students' pencils stopped moving. It wasn't the students' fault. We had only cheap pencils and no pencil sharpeners in our classroom. We won't be having problems like this again because we have good sharpeners now, which means our usable pencil supply is in much better condition.

  Another great help has been the math supplies for our advanced students. They are used daily, but I also added an extra math session on Fridays that we call "Power Hour". This is when the advanced math learners teach the class and/or teach small groups. Students crave these opportunities and it has become a class favorite for all types of learners. Many students are making recordings of their teaching sessions that we play whenever we have an extra couple of minutes. Students are watching them after they complete assignments too. Having this math enrichment is incredible! When I ask students for class reward and incentives ideas, they tell me they want to do more math! They actually think that doing math is rewarding! How amazing is that?!

  Speaking of rewards, we add some fun on Fridays with games and activities in the last half hour before students go home. We use a lot of the multiplication and Bigfoot supplies for these weekly wind downs. Students bond with each other and they end their weeks so positively. Likewise, they start their weeks positively too with the use of morning meeting chips and cards. This project has benefitted our class and each student with tremendous support, by keeping them always performing at their best.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Duncan

  This classroom project was brought to life by Utah State Board of Education.

• Sensational Science!

  Funded Nov 15, 2021

  Students love the items from this project. A couple of the girls informed me that they have decided to become marine biologists after completing the oil spill project. The life cycle sequencing kit was perfect to pair with our reading materials and writing assignments. The tub of animals was used with our animal classification unit. We appreciate the high quality materials and how they've helped our learning make sense.

  Division has been a hard topic for my students to grasp. However, they love the division game and we are using it often in math interventions. I give them bottle caps (for the dividend) that they divide up into the number written on the game pieces (divisor, or number of groups) to determine the quotient (number in each group). Students also relate these groupings to arrays in multiplication. The game has built understanding and also fluency with division facts.

  The human body kit and x-rays were paired with texts and a science unit on these topics. We spent several days studying bones and the skeletal system. We also studied other systems such as the muscular and nervous systems. It was wonderful to have corresponding supplies to enrich and support our learning. We will continue implementing the project in future years too. Thank you for making all of this possible!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Duncan

• Full STEAM Ahead!

  Funded Aug 12, 2021

  The materials from this project have benefitted students in many ways already. We use the math items twice a week after school, every Friday morning during common third grade interventions, and for indoor recesses. The early finishers have options to use these items also and they often request the Miss Brain's book.

  I have taught science and STEAM topics multiple times a day. It has been wonderful to provide the students with quality learning materials and to provide them motivation. In our common third grade reading intervention block, we've been utilizing the science, STEAM, and reading books four days a week.

  Every student in my class improved in math, according to common assessments we're implementing across our school district. Most gained an entire year of progress within three months. We don't have common assessments for science yet. I am happy about the progress I'm seeing though.

  Students are excited about math and science. I have a few boys that always tell me they want to do math instead of recess. They love recess and so that is really saying something. Thanks for supporting us in reaching our goals. We couldn't do it without you. You're making a difference!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Duncan

  This classroom project was brought to life by Bill Gates and 2 other donors.

• Math Minds

  Funded May 27, 2021

  This is such a wonderful project that came to life for us! We benefit immensely from this every single school day! We were provided with tools that are giving my students a clear advantage. We began learning our multiplication facts starting on the first day of school in August. It is now October and we are just barely beginning our multiplication units this week, in our regular district-wide math curriculum. We are celebrating in my class because most students have already learned a good share of their multiplication facts. We have not had this advantage before. I'm so happy I was able to give them this head start. It would not have been possible without your support. Students love the multiplication stories, activities, and cards. These materials have really been engaging for each of them! My early finishers use the math games after lessons are completed. Students get to use these math tools as incentives too. They spend their points to have a few extra minutes of fun math practice. The most popular item is the game "Chicken Escape". Students always grab that one first thing. We are prepared to accomplish much more in math and students that disliked math before are telling me they love it now! They are even asking to take extra math practice pages home because they want to. How amazing is that? I think that's quite a transformation. Thanks for your dedication and support!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Duncan

  This classroom project was brought to life by Panda Cares and one other donor.

• Math Masters

  Funded May 10, 2021

  The students in our class were very happy when the multiplication books arrived, because they didn't have to work out sharing time anymore for the copies we had. We cleared a shelf so that students always had easy access to them. Students were able to learn more multiplication facts in the last few weeks of school than they had learned all year, thanks to these additional copies. The shelf of books will continue to be highly valued and accessed by students in all the years to come.

  Also, students were thrilled to finally have a class set of clocks. Almost all of my students didn't know how to tell time on an analog clock. We think it was because they were learning online at the end of second grade and they must have missed this type of instruction last year. Having these clocks helped them close their learning gaps and then they eventually understood our time and measurement unit a bit better. These clocks will benefit my incoming students from now on and they'll be able to practice telling time all year, long before we start the unit. I'll have more time to close gaps.

  The Zoom! game quickly became a favorite math and recess activity. It was amazing to end the school year with these wonderful new math tools. I'm sure we'll see more success in math in future years since we can start implementing these materials right from the start. Thank you for always supporting us in our dreams to achieve and for continuing to motivate our learning.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Duncan

• Math Talk: Reviewing & Retaining

  Funded Dec 2, 2020

  We are benefitting tremendously from our new math materials. The classroom timer is utilized many times a day. Our routines for discussions, sharing, and passage reading are much more streamlined because we can stick to time limits and take turns with ease.

  Our number talks were hard to implement before. Now, they are more organized and making sense. Some students are able to take lead of number talks very efficiently. The teacher isn't the one doing all the work anymore. It is awesome to see students taking ownership in their learning and being proud of their skills. The magnetic graph array chart has helped students better understand area, perimeter, multiplication, and division when students carry out whole class number talks.

  Pick-a-Problem is a routine we had been missing out on. It really aids with retention as it offers some vital spiral review opportunities. They aren't forgetting easily like they were before. This has been perfect to pair with number talks too!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Duncan

  This classroom project was brought to life by FamilyAlbum and 4 other donors.