Past projects 2
iPad For Easy Access To Speech And Language Apps
Funded Aug 25, 2022Your donation was received with much excitement and gratitude. Our speech and language students have been utilizing the iPad on a daily basis. It makes traveling from class to class much easier and the students love the technology aspect of it. Students can work on their own iPads during sessions rather than passing an iPad on to the next student. We have been able to utilize the iPads for articulation and language practice, as well as for vocabulary tasks and alternative augmentative communication apps. The SuperDuper Wordy Wheels have also been a great hit across grade levels. Students are excited to push the spinner to see how many times we will practice their target sound. The speech team and students at Sycamore Elementary are very thankful and blessed to have received your support.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Finnefrock
This classroom project was brought to life by Arizona Department of Education.Support Language Development
Funded Mar 20, 2022Dear Arizona Department of Education Team,
Our speech and language students at Sycamore Elementary and I would like to thank you for your generous donation to our 'Support Language Development' project. It really has been making a difference for the children during our speech and language sessions.
With your donation, we were able to purchase many items targeting a variety of skills across the speech and language spectrum, as well as early foundational reading and writing skills. The wobbly chairs were a hit and have made a significant impact with many of our students, especially with our students who suffer from Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or Sensory Processing Disorder. Students are not only able to remain seated longer, their overall focus seems to have improved also.
Thanks to your support, we have seen great improvements in children's sequencing and storytelling skills over just a very short period of time. Our students love the sequencing materials and always ask for "One more story, please!" so they can continue practicing their target skills during small group instructions. Although progress in the area of social communication skills is most often not as immediately visible as in other areas of communication, our students have seemed to enjoy playing the social communication games targeting perspective taking, social inferencing, and conversational turn-taking. The social communication books you donated have been very helpful in modeling the identification of emotions in self and others and the corresponding expected behaviors and strategies one can utilize to self-regulate. We have also been utilizing the phonemic awareness skills activities very frequently throughout the week with our first and second grade students to improve their foundational reading and writing skills. The hands-on activities are perfect for younger learners and provide a visual for better memorization and understanding.
Although we always strive to ignite our students' intrinsic motivation to learn and succeed, it is so great to see their motivation and drive kick into gear when new materials are introduced and utilized. Motivation is a factor that plays a critical role in a student's progress and because of the Arizona Department of education, we have been able to provide hooks to keep students engaged, motivated, and moving forward.
We feel very blessed to be given this opportunity of purchasing so many new and exciting materials that can be utilized for targeting the goals and educational needs of so many students on our speech and language caseloads, as well as students who are receiving Response to Intervention services.
Many thanks to you and the entire staff of the Arizona Department of Education. Your Sycamore Elementary speech and language students and staff in Vail will forever be grateful for your generous donation and support.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Finnefrock
This classroom project was brought to life by Arizona Department of Education.