Express Yourself

Funded Nov 1, 2022

Thank you for donating money for the supplies to enhance the learning experiences for the students at Waiakea Elementary School. I am an academic coach servicing grades K-5. Looking at the data from the beginning of school, we found out that attendance declined on Fridays. Many teachers instituted "Fun Fridays" to encourage students to come to school. Our Kindergarten classes had 15 minutes of chalk and bubble play at the very end of the day on Fridays. This activity increased Friday's attendance for our youngest students. The donation of chalk and bubbles helped students look forward to coming to school.

As a coach, I support all the grade levels. Many time, students have to use sheet protectors as "white boards" for their calculations. Many times these sheet protectors get blackened and need to be replaced often. Having new whiteboards with pens and erasers was a welcomed surprise for many classrooms on campus. I gave our brand new grade 5 teacher a white board set and the students loved them. They were much more sturdier than the sheet protectors.

The pens that were donated ended up in writing centers. Students used the highlighter pens to highlight text evidence in their stories. They used different highlight colors for different purposes in their writing to indicate their topic sentence, their reasons and their details and explanations.

Next year, I want to invest in bigger whiteboards with stands so that students can work together in groups of three to solve math problems together. They will be able to show their work and explain to the class what their thinking was like as they moved through the problem.

Thank you for helping me help students move forward after a couple of years of Covid.”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Nakano