Past projects 11
Knowledge Building Decodable Small Group Texts
Funded Aug 16, 2024Thank you so much for supporting our classroom with your generous donation. Our class has been using these decodable readers in small groups to practice applying our phonics skills to our reading. Students are becoming more confident with their reading skills using these texts because they are able to sound out the words. Additionally, the texts are highly engaging and related to the concepts we are learning in science and social studies. Students are building their background knowledge around these concepts which is helping their comprehension during our literacy block.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Baker
This classroom project was brought to life by The Gates Foundation and 9 other donors.Decodable Reading Lessons Resources
Funded May 8, 2024Thank you so much for your generosity supporting our classroom project! Your donation helped in purchasing supplemental resources to provide support during small group instruction using decodable text. Some of these resources include easy to use slides to front load vocabulary and practice applying the phonics skill before reading the text. These have been especially helpful when planning for different skill based lessons for each small group of students. This is hugely important in being able to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of all students. Students have enjoyed reading the decodable texts and the confidence it is building as they practice applying their phonics skills to their reading.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Baker
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and one other donor.Knowledge Building Resources
Funded Mar 17, 2024Thank you so much for your generosity to support our classroom project! The donations helped purchased supplementary resources for our knowledge building reading and writing units. These resources will not only save time planning instruction, but also help to make instruction more engaging. Some examples of the resources purchased include organized, engaging slide decks to support instruction of each lesson and a huge variety of printable resources such as vocabulary cards, graphic organizers, text/lesson specific assessments, and more. We just started our first knowledge building unit called "A Season of Change" and we are exploring the essential question, "How does change impact people and nature?" Students have enjoyed the first week of instruction as we studied a poem and pieces of art as we introduce the idea of seasons changing.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Baker
Kleen Slate Interchangeable Whiteboards
Funded May 10, 2023Thank you so much for your donation to our classroom project. Your generous donation has provided a class set of individual whiteboards to our class. Each student has a customizable board that allows the teacher to place different templates for different types of responses. Each whiteboard also has a marker clipped to it and and wipe hanging from it to allow easy and quick distribution of materials.
The class was so excited when they saw their whiteboards and have enjoyed using them to increase engagement during lessons. I have benefited from being able to give immediate feedback based on student responses. Thank you again for this wonderful addition to our learning!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Baker
This classroom project was brought to life by SONIC Foundation and 2 other donors.Morphemes for Littles
Funded Feb 23, 2023Thank you so much for your supporting our classroom project, Morphemes for Littles. This program has allowed us to teach students basic prefixes and suffixes. Students have enjoyed looking at the smallest parts of words that have meaning. We are enjoying expanding our vocabulary by applying the morphemes we learn each week to base words.
Each week, students are introduced to a new morpheme and we add it to our Morpheme Grabber where students enjoy building new words. We also add it to our Morpheme Wall and look for words to add to our wall in our reading throughout the week. This has helped us in our reading comprehension to figure out the meaning of more words and it has helped us in our writing to spell more words correctly.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Baker
Social Emotional Learning Resources
Funded Sep 20, 2022Thank you so much for your support of Social Emotional Learning Resources. This project has given our students an SEL curriculum to tie into our Morning Meetings. We have enjoyed using the resources to complete 3 of the 12 units so far, including Self- Control, Gratitude, and Kindness. In each unit, students learn about the topic through read alouds/discussions, videos, activities such as sorts, journal prompts, and songs. Additionally, students can complete reading and writing activities for each unit to demonstrate their understanding of the topic. We are so grateful!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Baker
Say It! Tap It! Map It! Multisensory Phonics Tools
Funded Aug 10, 2022Thank you so much for your generous donation to "Say It! Tap It! Map It! Multi-sensory Phonics Tools." Your donation helped to bring a variety of hands on tools for students to use when learning how to read and write. We use these tools daily during our small group phonics rotations. Students love the variety and engaging ways to practice reading and spelling words with our focus phonics concept.
One favorite is the magnetic letter tile boards. The first time students got to use these, they were so excited and kept asking when they could use them again. It is a simple way for students to segment words by each sound and then pick the matching letter/letters to match each sound.
These materials will be used and loved for years to come and most importantly they are helping students become better readers and writers. Already in the first trimester, students have made so much growth in their ability to attack a word to read and spell.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Baker
This classroom project was brought to life by Bill Gates and 2 other donors.Digital Resources
Funded Mar 19, 2021Thank you again for supporting this project! Last year during distance learning, students were able to complete interactive, digital practice and submit their work directly to me. This gave me the opportunity to provide feedback to each student and help them in their learning.
This project also funded new hands on, interactive science units that meet the NGSS standards. Students are enjoying activities such as building landforms with play dough. Additionally, these resources integrate reading and writing into science building more literacy across the disciplines.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Baker
Diverse Books for Our Classroom Library
Funded Sep 15, 2020Thank you so much for supporting our project to build diversity into our classroom library. Although this school year has looked different, we are fortunate that students have been able to continue to pick up book bags from the school to continue reading while at home. Thanks to the amazing donations, students have been able to enjoy these books even though they are at home.
Additionally, many of these books have been enjoyed through our zoom sessions during read aloud times. I have been able to bring more diversity to our mentor texts that we study during readers and writers workshop. From the beginning of the year read aloud welcoming students to our class, to our most recent units in poetry and women in history, we have been able to incorporate many of these titles into our curriculum throughout the school year.
In addition to fostering a love for reading, I believe the growing diversity of our library sends the message that we value all people and celebrate our differences.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Baker
This classroom project was brought to life by Google.org and 11 other donors.Flexible Seating Choices
Funded May 28, 2020Thank you so much for your generous donations to bring flexible seating to our classroom. As students have come back to the classroom for hybrid instruction, they were so excited to see an inviting environment to welcome them back. Additionally, student seats are matched to best meet the needs of students during these learning conditions to help keep all student engaged. Once we are able to move more freely about the classroom students will get additional flexibility to pick and change their learning spot throughout the day to keep them engaged and learning in ways that best meet their needs.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Baker
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 4 other donors.