Past projects 42
Supplies to Soothe Sensitive Preschoolers
Funded Mar 26, 2025Thank you! I am so excited that my project was funded so quickly. I am looking forward to using all of these resources with my students as soon as the package arrives. I know that these items will help my students when they are feeling sad, upset, lonely, or experiencing other challenging emotions. These resources will help me teach my 4 and 5 year olds to identify their difficult feelings and then work towards calming themselves. Thank you for sharing the fruits of your life and labor with my students. I am thankful for your generosity.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Brossy de Dios
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 6 other donors.Playful Puppets Make Learning English a Pleasure
Funded Apr 24, 2024Thank you all for your generosity! My students absolutely love the materials, especially the puppets and the books. Because the books are sturdy board books, I use them in our outdoor library. My four and five year olds enjoy sitting on our comfy outdoor chairs while reading books that are just the right size for their little hands. Every week, I change some of the books in our library area. My students are always excited when they see new books in our book bin, and they share their excitement with their classmates, inviting them to look at the new books. The multi-cultural board books are a great resource for my students. It is important that they see themselves represented in our books. It is also important for them to see diverse characters in the books they read.
Who doesn't love puppets? My students love meeting new puppets. Each puppet represents a letter of the alphabet. We recently met the doctor puppet for the letter "D." The puppets are an engaging way to teach and reinforce alphabet knowledge for my students. Anytime I use the puppets to teach, my students are curious and focused. Thank you for helping me bring these valuable resources to my students.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Brossy de Dios
This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and 5 other donors.Help Us Find Our Mascot!
Funded Nov 29, 2023Thank you for helping us foster school spirit and a sense community. With your generous donations, we were able to purchase a cheetah mascot costume for our school. Our students and staff love to see the cheetah in action. Whether it is at a school assembly, or at the entrance gate on a Friday morning, our cheetah brings smiles to our students, parents, and staff.
Our staff are showing more school spirit since the arrival of our cheetah. Different staff members dress up in our cheetah costume every week and we have a weekly competition to see who can guess who's in the mascot costume.
Some students enjoy hugging our cuddly and fluffy cheetah. While one of our teachers was dressed in the cheetah costume and dancing as she greeted students, one of her students told her, "Thanks cheetah for letting me dance with you this morning."”
With gratitude,
Ms. Brossy de Dios
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 10 other donors.Blocks Build Better Brains
Funded Nov 29, 2023Thank you for the wonderful gift of various types of blocks. My 4 and 5 year olds love them! They use them on a daily basis and never lose interest. We use the Young Architects Design Blocks on the classroom tables. My students explore building towers of different heights and lengths. They try to see how tall they can make a structure before it will fall. They observe and they learn through various experiences with the blocks. They are learning to work together and to share as they play with all of our new sets of blocks.
We use the soft blocks on the floor as well as on the tables. These blocks are a great size for students. They can easily hold them in their hands as they work on their creations.
My students are especially fascinated with the very large Easy-Build Bricks. So far, we have used them indoors, on the floor. But when the weather improves, we will take them outside. They are very durable. My students are able to walk on them, sit on them, build large structures around themselves, and really challenge themselves as they work with these large blocks. All of these blocks are truly helping my students to build better brains - and to have loads of fun in the process!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Brossy de Dios
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 5 other donors.Bilingual Books for Beginning Readers
Funded Mar 30, 2023Thank you for your generosity. These new books have filled a great need in my classroom. I now have so many wonderful books in English and Spanish to share with my students and their families. When my students take home their reading backpacks, they share the joy of reading with their entire family. While a parent or other family member reads a book from the backpack, older and younger siblings can also enjoy the read-aloud. This project increases my students' access to books, which is crucial for their academic success.
My students always smile and get excited whenever I put new books in our classroom library. They were very happy to see that we had received so many new books from kind and generous donors. We all thank you.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Brossy de Dios
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 4 other donors.Exploring the Wonders of Our Earth
Funded Aug 3, 2023Thank you for helping my students explore the Wonders of the Earth. They are all thrilled with the binoculars, books, and magnifying glasses. They love looking at living things with their binoculars. They also get excited when looking at rocks, flowers, insects, and their friends with their magnifying glasses. They spend a good amount of their outdoor playtime looking through their magnifiers.
We use our picture books to help instill a love and appreciation for the Earth. My students especially love books about animals and butterflies. They love learning about plants and how to take care of the Earth through the books we have received.
Thank you for giving us tools to help us explore and learn about our wonderful Earth.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Brossy de Dios
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 7 other donors.Cultivating Calmness and Compassion in TK
Funded Dec 30, 2022Thank you for the gift of our classroom Kindness Kit! My students were so excited when the package arrived. They were eager to use all of the great resources in the kit. We use items from the kit on a daily basis. Some items are in the Calm Corner in the classroom. This is an area where students sit when they need a break because they are experiencing big emotions. The Wonder Wands are very popular. Watching the glitter, sequins, and liquid inside move from one end to the other is very calming. Sometimes a student will feel sad or upset and a classmate will offer them a Wonder Wand or the Calming Cuddle Ball.
It is great to see my students use these resources to help themselves and their classmates when they experience difficult emotions. The kit helps to reinforce the fact that we all experience uncomfortable feelings, but there are things we can do to help ourselves to feel better. Most importantly, the resources help students realize that they won't feel that way forever. Thank you for helping me build compassion and resilience in my classroom.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Brossy de Dios
This classroom project was brought to life by an Anonymous Classroom Supporter and 8 other donors.All Sorts of Letters for All Sorts of Learners
Funded Mar 2, 2022Thank you for your gift of all sorts of letters for all my little learners. They love all of the different materials. The Alpha-Bots are a big hit! My students love to transform the letters into robots and back to letters once again. My youngest learners get excited when they find the letter that is the same as the first letter of their name.
With all the new ABC resources in our classroom, they have so many options for practicing their letter names and letter sounds. Some students enjoy using the Double Sided Magnetic Letter Tiles to spell their name or names of family and friends. Others enjoy using the tiles to build cubes, houses, or whatever their imagination desires.
I use some of the resources for small group work, beginning with Making Words lessons using the Classroom Magnetic Letters Kit. My students have also had fun making letters with colored dough and the Learn the Alphabet Dough Mats (Who doesn't love playing with dough?) Students are learning their letters and laying the foundation to become good readers while having a great time. Thank you for sharing the fruits of your life and labor with my students.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Brossy de Dios
This classroom project was brought to life by Valhalla Foundation and 4 other donors.Strumming and Singing for an Inclusive World
Funded May 3, 2021Thank you for the gift of music! My students were thrilled when they first saw our brand new ukuleles. They couldn't wait for a turn to strum the colorful instruments. And I was so happy to add these to our collection so that all of my students can play at the same time.
We are learning to strum and we are learning many songs of joy and inclusion. We are learning songs about the important work of people who have made this world a better place, like Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and Malala Yousafzai. We are learning songs about compassion and songs about friendship. But most importantly, my students are learning that they can also do important things, even if they are only 4 or 5 years old. We can all take small and big actions to make this world a better place. I am grateful that we have the tools to use to make joyful music. Thank you for helping us strum and sing for an inclusive world with our beautiful new ukuleles!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Brossy de Dios
This classroom project was brought to life by Chevron and one other donor.Meaningful Music for an Inclusive World
Funded May 8, 2021My students love, love, love their new ukuleles! They were so excited when they first saw our colorful instruments. They were all eager for a turn to hold and strum our new ukuleles.
I have begun to teach my students some songs to play on the ukulele. We are learning songs that bring joy and songs that inspire. Very soon, I will introduce them to some very important and inspirational people like Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, Harriet Tubman, and Malala Yousafzai. We will sing songs to honor and remember their good work. But we are also learning songs to honor the good work that my 4 and 5 year olds do now and can do in the future. It is important for my students to see that they are an important part of this world and that, together, we have the power to use music as one tool to make this a more joyful and inclusive world.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Brossy de Dios
This classroom project was brought to life by Chevron and 3 other donors.