Past projects 3
Whodunit: Buying Books to Study the History of Mystery!
Funded Aug 15, 2023Thank you so much for your generosity in contributing to my classroom library. Many of my students do not have access to many books at home, and these titles will give them opportunities to read new stories and authors in a high-interest genre.
This year has been wild as I have taught not only my English and reading classes, but this new mysteries elective as well. It has been so much fun to see the kids wrestle with the puzzles in these texts and see their shock and excitement at the end. "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" and the Agatha Christie novels have been especially popular, particularly after we covered Christie and Conan Doyle in class. I was not able to utilize all the titles as effectively as I would have liked this term (I was out with a broken leg for over a month), but I've already seen some great things happening with these stories, and I'm excited to see what happens when I'm able to do more going forward.
Thank you again for giving me the gift of providing my students with books. These stories will stay with many of my kids as they go on in their reading journey.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Pullan
This classroom project was brought to life by The SONIC Foundation and 3 other donors.Sensory Stickers for Super Students!
Funded Aug 2, 2023Thank you so much for your generosity in donating to my classroom. These stickers are going to be a great help to my students this year and next. It is so good to have easy resources to give to my students who need extra SEL support.
I received the stickers in time for the new school year. I have about half of them to my Hope Squad students. If you aren't familiar, Hope Squad is a student organization focused on reducing youth suicide by training students to support their peers struggling with suicidal ideation and direct them to professional resources. Many of those kids are part of this squad because they have struggled with their own mental health, so we focus a lot on mental wellness and self care. These stickers are a great help to the kids to remember the things we talk about in class and to ground them when they are struggling.
Thank you so much again for your support! I look forward to putting the rest of these stickers to work. It's a little thing, but it makes a big difference for my students who need it.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Pullan
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and one other donor.Time Travel to WWII!
Funded Jan 22, 2022Forgive me for the lateness of this note—this month presented some personal challenges for me, and I'm afraid the end of the school year got away from me a bit. I want to thank you so much for your contribution to my class this year. Our WWII literacy circles went brilliantly, thanks to your generous help.
The kids loved having so many titles to choose from. I book talked each title as they arrived to give the students an idea of what each was about. They were so excited to see beautiful new copies coming out of the boxes! The students put in requests for their favorite titles, and made the assignments. Every student got to read a book they were interested in.
At the end, they presented to the class on the point of view in their book and how it shaped their perspective. It was so powerful to see how the students had learned such important lessons by walking in someone else's shoes through these amazing stories. As an added bonus, as they shared their books their peers got interested in titles besides those they read in their groups. Many students read multiple titles—one student read almost every book available!
This project has been an amazing experience. When I teach this WWII unit, my students are always hungry to learn as much as they can. It was such a pleasure this year to give them these stories and let them loose to learn as much as they wanted. Thank you again for making this all possible.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Pullan
This classroom project was brought to life by Utah State Board of Education.