Past projects 3
A Rug a Day Keeps Children at Play!
Funded Aug 16, 2024Students in room 29 have been loving our new classroom rug. From the moment it made its debut, the joy and excitement for our new addition has profound.
Students were so excited to be able to sit around on our new rug. Every time we came around for read aloud, new lessons, to engage in community circles, and overall hang out in our new cozy space we have been very appreciative. We have also celebrated a few birthdays in between all the fun times we have had in our classroom.
We are beyond thankful and extremely excited for the next time around the rug.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Chowaiki
Distance Learning at Home Kits
Funded Jan 23, 2021Thank you so much for donating the resources my students and I needed to bring some art into our distance learning environment. With additional resources to serve my 4th/5th-grade students, I was able to meet their needs from afar and better prepared when it was our turn to take art lessons from our Art teacher at school.
The art lessons included learning the basics from types of lines, balance, symmetry, patterns, among other terms. Students created city landscapes using all types of lines, they also created 3-D models with construction paper, along with practicing balance and symmetry with different materials.
I was safely able to provide all students with their new supplies via an organized dropped off near their school. For those students who were unable to stop by, they received their supplies at home. This drop-off allowed me to not only provide my students with much-needed supplies, but it gave me and them an opportunity to meet face to face (safely) for the very first time in a real-life setting. Seeing them and their families while delivering these kits was the best part and for that, I will be forever thankful. From my 4/5 combo students and myself thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Chowaiki
TK Kits for Distance Learning
Funded May 7, 2020We are forever grateful for your generous hearts and gifts to our classroom.
The books that funded through this project helped us address our emotions from our good days to our bad days. The books also reminded us about our "magic breaths" and how to regulate our emotions, much like our calming corner in our classroom. We also learned about mindfulness, empathy, and compassion and how we can be more mindful at home. Some of the books even helped us understand why we worry and how not to worry too much. Most importantly, the books helped us navigate many of the things we didn't understand about our new routine of distance learning.
Typically in our classroom, we would use pictures books to help us understand different lessons or drive an idea. After reading a picture book aloud, students would follow up with various activities based on the theme or subject of the book. Our most popular activity would be a reading response. Students would respond to question based on the book in their journals. Students also have access to borrow books if they choose to. Due to Covid-19 and distance learning, the best way to carry this out was to upload a read-aloud of the book we read during our zoom meeting onto Youtube so students could have access to the material at their convenience and hear it be read as many times as they wanted. The videos were uploaded unlisted, and the links provided to each student through our classroom Seesaw page. Students also had an activity based on the book located on their seesaw page, which, like in our classroom, consisted of a response. Students were creative with their response and either drew, wrote, or dictated their response through voice dictation or video recording.
During our Zoom meetings, students enjoyed weekly read-aloud, especially books such as "My Magic Breath," which reinforced our strategies learned in class to help us regulate our emotions. Many students commented on how they missed our classroom and our calming corner- a safe place students could go to check out for a minute if needed. Another popular book was "Mindful Movements." Students learned ten mindful movements that they could use at home to bring them peace. Through this book, students learned about the Vietnamese Buddhist monk name "Thay" and how he developed this practice to bring inner peace. Students learned about meditation and practiced this at home through various activities linked from youtube on our Seesaw account.
Next year, many of these books will find themselves in our "calming corner" for students to revisit throughout the year as refreshers to our classroom strategies. While others will help us with addressing kindness, learning from mistakes, understanding our emotions follow up steps. I cannot wait to share these books with my future students.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Chowaiki
This classroom project was brought to life by FamilyAlbum and 9 other donors.