Past projects 4
We Love Playing Outdoors!
Funded Dec 4, 2024How am I and my students using the new resources?
I am so grateful to be able to offer my students the exciting outdoor resources that they look forward to daily! Thanks to you, my students get excited when it is time to go outdoors so they can help bring out the multicolored, multileveled stepping stones, and well, get to stepping!
When we first got the stepping stones, the students were invited to help me assemble the stones by pushing into the holes, the stones' little rubber 'feet'. I think this activity helped the students bond to the steps and have a sense of care for them, along with building the anticipation to try them.
It is intriguing to watch the students gather together and figure out how to configure the steps to maximize their wobbly travels. And not only do my now 19 students get to embark on these creative physical ventures, but the other classes that share the yard with us also get to exhibit their gross motor physical prowess and collaborate together on journeys up and down and around the various uneven pathways.
When my students first saw the teeter totter (Teeter Popper), they were super perplexed on what it was! To be able to try it in the classroom was a joy! How often do students get to have an approved and safe body rocking experience on a piece of furniture? Let's go! Pop, pop, pop!
With this activity, my students have the opportunity to rock their individual bodies on the popping, snapping teeter totter. Ideally, when it is used indoors, the suction feet make a more pronounced snapping sound on the tile floor as the students cradle their bottoms in the teeter totter, hang on before they go, and explore the wonder of rocking and rolling back and forth without tipping over! Some little souls even recline onto the teeter totter and entrust themselves to the free movement of a teeter or a totter. Meanwhile back at the ranch, as peers are onlooking, guess what they are having to do? Yes! Self-regulate. Here is a great opportunity to learn more about waiting your turn, and learning productive strategies for waiting, such as counting to 20. I have been pleased to see this strategy work and solve the problem of waiting, and now knowing when time is up to give a friend their turn.
And Donors, as if this were not enough, there is yet another resource you have provided to my students. Last but not least, it is the bean bag toss! My students, as well as the students in the other classes approach this game with such amusement park enthusiasm! After giving guidance, they are able to line themselves up, hold onto a few beanbags and pass them to the next person, then after they have eyeballed their target, they figure out how to use those fingers, wrists and arms to form an aim, and finally, fire! Some of these boys and girls actually have accurate shots! They have the options of tossing for shapes, tossing for colors, or tossing for numbers. The options empower and exercise the children's freedom of choice muscles!
So Donors, do you think you have significantly contributed to my students being able to proclaim, "We love playing outdoors!"?
I think you know the answer to that. ABSOLUTELY!
And for this and more, I truly THANK YOU!
See you outside!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Keaton
This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Supporter and 11 other donors.Calm, Cool, and Collected!
Funded Apr 3, 2023To all of the donors who cared so much for my students, we, and I thank you! You have made our classroom a more engaging space. You have made our classroom a safer place to be emotional beings, by giving us tools to use to express our various rollercoasters of emotions. Students could use their vibrant paint sticks to paint their hearts out on paper, they could squeeze their sensation out through the sensory beads, they could grasp a needed hug with the cuddle ball or get lost gazing at the sensory liquids and choose to be quiet. Thank you for helping us regulate our bodies and our activities with fun timers that buzz and with soothing sand crystals that slip away the time. Donors, YOU ROCK!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Keaton
This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and one other donor.Can You Hear Me Now?
Funded May 4, 2022Who loves music? Who appreciates music? How does music make you feel? Imagine a classroom without music. Imagine a school yard without music. Did those thoughts make you shudder??
Well shudder no more! You Mr. Donor, and you Ms. Donor, have been instrumental in providing a very necessary resource for my students. They went from barely hearing the sounds of learning through music and story, to not hearing anything at all... until YOU came and saved the day!
My students see me coming in daily strapped with my JBL Extreme Speaker, and the first thing I hear after being enthusiastically greeted with hugs and "Ms. Keaton! Ms. Keaton is here!" is, " Can I choose a song??" Or "Yay, play some music!" Or "Yay, play some music!" "I wanna hear.." Though there are particular students who come daily with the requests, all do ask eventually, and I believe each child enjoys exercising the artistic opportunity to express their own, appropriate for school, musical interest. As a result, they see immediately how their song selection can influence the environment of their peers through JBL Extreme 3's long reaching sound waves. How impactful, and what a way to feel empowered when the song they select instantly calls a group or the whole class to join in with squeals of joy!
Need I say any more?
I will add that our JBL Extreme 3 Speaker has also been essential in the implementation of lessons requiring music, particularly in the social emotional domain. Having the ability to play music, LOUD ENOUGH, with audible clarity, is important in setting the tone in the classroom. We are able to access a variety of musical genres such as Spanish guitar, songs about strong feelings, children's multicultural songs, to rain water sounds for calming and sleeping. Our school days are richer in sound because you cared enough to provide us with our JBL Extreme 3 speaker. Thank you, WE CAN HEAR NOW!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Keaton
This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and one other donor.Children Love to Move and Learn!
Funded Sep 17, 2020My students continue to be enriched in their learning with the Scotch Laminator you helped to donate! They have graphic images of laminated alphabet cards, numbers, puzzles, story characters and math props that they can see virtually now and that are protected and preserved for their in person exploration when schools re-open. One example is the laminated Number Sense Sentence Strip Pocket Chart Activity that they will be able to utilize time and time again as they demonstrate understanding of number sense and quantity identifying, for example, "Which 2 animals have the same?" as they identify and count and compare the number of colored hats of the fun Fox, Polar Bear and Penguin characters.
Movement and learning continues! With the height adjustable standing desk, its accompanying high chair and detached keyboard, we have experienced creative movement activities that promote coordination, crossing the body's mid-line, patterning, rhythm, language, endurance and more! One such lesson was expressed during our Study on Trees where we "grew like trees", "stretched our arms out wide" like tree branches, and "squatted down low extending our arms like a vine" (A vine is not a tree!) to the steady slow and fast chant to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It"! This is just the beginning!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Keaton
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose 20th Anniversary Fund and 14 other donors.