Past projects 2
The Cozy Reading Nook
Funded Nov 11, 2023The comfy seating has been a great addition to our classroom. We received a class set of seat cushions, 2 gaming rockers, 2 bean bag chairs, and 4 pillows with armrests. The variety of options we got can give comfort to students. Specifically, the seat cushions. Each student gets the option to use these for a back rest or seat cushion during the day. As for the other options there are fewer so each day several students get comfy seating for work time throughout the day. It was a struggle at first to make a fair list for students to use. I worked out the kinks and came to a solution that is currently in use. Each day the students check with me to know who gets the comfy seating. A highlight for the students is if they are celebrating a birthday they could get to choose a comfy seating of their choice for that day. The gaming rockers are the favorite in our classroom.
The students have enjoyed using the comfy seating. One cool use of our comfy seating was creating a video about our school wide reading goal. The video was shown to the whole school to help encourage students to read outside of school. After some use our cushions started to have holes in the seams. One of the students in our class had previously talked about being able to sew and offered to fix our cushions. The student was happy to help out.
Students have learned to follow guidelines to make sure they can use the comfy seating as well as taking care of them so they can continue to use them. We really appreciate the donors who helped fund this project. The students in our class love reading and it is a bonus to have some comfy seating to enjoy it even more.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ratajczak
This classroom project was brought to life by A Wisconsin Family Foundation and 2 other donors.Reading Together
Funded Sep 27, 2022Thank you for funding my project. My class truly enjoyed getting to follow along with our class read aloud. The book, Where the Red Fern Grows is a classic literature book that many people have read or heard of. At our school it is a tradition for our 4th grade classrooms to start the school year off with reading this book. Students value the reading atmosphere that read aloud books create. Students can discuss events, picture what is happening and enjoy reading.
When our class received our class set of books we were excited to get to follow along and to each have our very own copy. Even though the copies were slightly different to the copy I was reading from students made sure to know where they were in their copies. In a way students felt a form of structure when I modeled how a book can be read and discussed. Knowing what to expect made them feel in control and in a way, safe. As students followed along they were able to look at some unfamiliar words, know what chapter we were on and how many pages were left.
Each time before we read we discussed what happened when we read the day before. Many big events happened throughout the book and we were able to make a story event chart to help remind us what happened. Lucky for us there are several movies of this book so we could better visualize the story. Students could also were able to compare and contrast the movie and book. Other ways students strengthened their reading and comprehending skills was through writing summaries on parts of the books, identifying character traits of the main character and supporting characters, and writing a review of the book.
The class set of our read aloud book allows each student to follow along with and will open the door to many learning strategies we can learn, practice, and apply in everyday reading. The practice we do with our read alouds helps students better understand the text. Thank you again for supporting the learning of many young minds.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ratajczak
This classroom project was brought to life by A Wisconsin Family Foundation and one other donor.