Mr. Vatter's Classroom Edit display name

Current requests

Past projects 5

• Print Making Our Way to Safety

  Funded May 6, 2024

  Thank you so much for helping my classroom reach our goal of getting printmaking materials that are safe not only for little ones but for students that have special needs. My autistic support class has been the eagerly awaiting the arrival of our materials and were able to open the materials with me and explore the beginning processes of printmaking this past week. The joy that my students experience couldn't have been possible without your help in generosity!

  Many of my other classes have been curious and intrigued by the rubber sea life stamps and we'll get to share in the printmaking process in the upcoming weeks. Although some of our materials that I originally requested were not available, we are grateful for what we were able to get as replacements.

  Even though some of our materials were not available this fall from this project the markers and color pencils we're greatly appreciated and needed! These color pencils and markers will be used by all students and are definitely a great addition to our classroom!”

  With gratitude,

  Mr. Vatter

  This classroom project was brought to life by Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation and 3 other donors.

• Kwick and Safe Painting for Little Artists

  Funded Apr 2, 2024

  Thank you so much for your generosity and kindness to providing my students with the opportunity to have temper paint sticks. They definitely brought smiles to many kindergarten through second grade students that have used them this far for various projects. Many students are currently using them in order to make mother's Day inspired works and are super excited to get to experience Kwick sticks for the very first time ever! This is all because of your kindness and we can't thank you enough.

  Students also have in second grade got the opportunity to use the quick sticks because they arrived very quickly, on their potential artwork for our up-and-coming spring the art show. Many of my students in second grade are inclusive students that have sensory needs from autistic support and life skills and were able to benefit by using temper paint which they had more control over the color and how it blended with others. Again the giant smiles on their faces and awe of at least tempera paint sticks works definitely was intriguing to my students. It made these lessons a blast to teach and it's something they will always remember and I'll always be grateful for your generosity!”

  With gratitude,

  Mr. Vatter

  This classroom project was brought to life by LOFT.

• Knitting for Kindness

  Funded Feb 17, 2024

  Thank you so much for your kindness and generosity towards helping my students get knitting machines. With your help of this donation my students have been able to explore the basics of knitting I'm an age appropriate level and currently have made many hats that are being donated to a local Cancer society.

  Currently my students in autistic support and life skills have had a chance to explore knitting and make a headband of their choice. Also my 4th and 5th grade students have had a chance to make hats which are those hats that have been donated to our local Cancer society. These donations will go to help community and those need. We greatly send our gratitude and appreciation for giving us this opportunity to use age appropriate knitting machines! This Chance wouldn't have been possible without your donations.”

  With gratitude,

  Mr. Vatter

• Painting a Difference One Paw at a Time!

  Funded Aug 2, 2023

  My students and I cannot thank you enough for your kind donations in generosity and helping us reach our goal! The impact that this new paint has made on my classroom is me the world of difference for many of my classes especially in my classes for autistic and life skills students. The paints we are now using are non-toxic and safe for students with exceptionalities, and this wouldn't have been possible without your donation.

  Students in my adaptive art classes have begun to use the new watercolors and temper paints to create fall themed tree paintings where they explore the color scheme of warm colors. Students were able to use their fingertips and paint falling leaves from their trees on a watercolor background that they created the class prior. My students literally lit up with joy for this new experience and cannot wait until we create another painting project together in the near future.

  Any of my other grade levels are also benefiting from this paint donation where they have created sugar skulls, symmetry pumpkin prints, and for my youngest Learners they have begun to learn about primary color scheme and secondary color scheme by mixing paints for various projects.

  I cannot thank you again for your kindness and generosity to my little cougars and making them have a safe way to paint within my classroom. My next step is to create a vast array of lessons where students have the opportunity to use these paints in various ways. In the near future students will be using this paint donation for my adaptive classes to create a painted pumpkin in which they are able to take home.

  Thank you again for all your generosity and help with fulfilling my classrooms need for non-toxic paint!”

  With gratitude,

  Mr. Vatter

  This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 4 other donors.

• Keeping Our Cougars' Drawings Sharp!

  Funded Apr 6, 2023

  Thank you so much for your donations to help my students with our project to keep my cougars drawing sharp! The impact this is made on my art room for all of my students has given them the opportunity to now keep the graphite pencils sharpened and to have new experiences with oil pastels and chalk pastels which we are using for our up and coming projects for our school art show. Thank you so much for instilling a newfound spark of creativity not only within myself but my students for them to have these resources at their fingertips to create new projects.

  The impact of my students opening up your donations was one of pure excitement enjoy. As the boxes started to slowly trickle in I had students in my third grade class open the biggest box from Staples. Within it it held a lot of our new drawing materials which you generously donated. In many of the photos you can tell the students excitement for the first time using them and seeing them. The particular third grade class that I had open the initial first two boxes definitely have excitement and wonder on their face. They had not yet used oil pastels and I let them know when the boxes were open that these would be used for their self-portrait saber creating. Previously they only have the option of using crayons in this opened up a whole new avenue for them to create their artworks. They were absolutely overcome with excitement and couldn't get over how nice it was to use new drawing materials! In another one of my photos I have my first grade students opening our box of new Crayola markers. Many of my students weren't able to outline because I didn't have enough black markers left over from beginning of the year or were having to use alternative colors to outline. But having those black Crayola markers made a total difference for them making their new cupcake designs. This excitement can also be found in our pictures of my 5th graders using the new sharpies that we had just received to outline and make their lines bold for their tessellation drawings that they have been working hard on creating. Unfortunately many of the sharpies that I had were off-brand and we're drying out and it was causing hardship for students to get their drawings completed. The sharpies made a world of difference and they were so ecstatic to have materials that made nice crisp lines again!

  The next steps in our projects using our donations is for my fourth grade students to create chalk pastel drawings of gems and diamonds using black paper and the chalk pastels that were donated. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of this because they were finishing up a current project. My fifth graders will move forward with using their sharpies and then be able to use the oil pastels to create a wax resist technique on their tessellation designs. My third graders will learn how to blend the oil pastels that they've currently been using this past week thanks to your donation and learn different blending techniques in order to make their objects look realistic. The black Crayola markers will be utilized by my kindergarten students for their first self-portraits ever by making their lines bold self-portrait projects where they turn themselves into a king or queen of kindergarten. Finally all of my students are greatly impacted by the table pencil sharpeners where they can use colored pencils and freely sharpened their materials at their seats. The two electric pencil sharpeners are greatly appreciated by my 5th grade helpers that help all of my students keep our pencils sharp by sharpening pencils at the end of the each day. Also all of my students get to use the pencil sharpener throughout our daily lessons. We are so thankful for the replacement of our pencil sharpener that was no longer working from back in January. Your donations are greatly appreciated and have put Joy, and a spark of creativity back into our drawings. Thank you again for keeping my little cougars sharp!”

  With gratitude,

  Mr. Vatter

  This classroom project was brought to life by LOFT and 9 other donors.