Past projects 24
High Interest Books Needed for Motivated Readers
Funded Jan 9, 2025Thank you so much for your contributions! I just shared the great news with students and they yelled in excitement! We are so grateful for your generous donations.
These books will have such a large impact on the students in my class. They will have so many more options to read and will continue building a love for reading. All of this is possible because of your contributions to the project! Thank you so much!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Looney
High Interest Books Needed for Motivated Readers
Funded Dec 12, 2024Thank you so much for your donations! My students are so excited and thrilled to have these titles join our library! I can't wait to watch students read these books and be engaged in reading. This wouldn't have been made possible without your support. Thank you so much!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Looney
This classroom project was brought to life by The Mo & Cher Willems Foundation and one other donor.Making Decoding Fun For All Learners!
Funded Nov 30, 2023Thank you so much for your donations. Students have enjoyed using the items to reinforce the skills they are learning with me. These items have provided students with fun tasks to practice the new skills during independent reading. While practicing their phonics skills they also are improving their social skills because they are working together to use the tiems.
A fan favorite is the stamp collection. Students love finding the missing letters needed to complete the word. They will first figure out the missing letter and then they will use the word to create a sentence. Being able to use the stamps has made something that can be a dull task engaging and fun for students.
Students also love playing Splash. They have even made their own versions of splash with notecards and take those home to play with their families. Your generous donations have had such a positive impact on student learning in our classroom. Thank you so much!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Looney
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and one other donor.Engaging Activities for Community Building and Learning!
Funded Aug 16, 2023Thank you so much for your generous donations to my classroom. Students love the supplies and they have been used multiple times a week since receiving them. When students first opened the packages they had unstructured play time with them. They had so much fun working together to create. The items were then used to help students build relationships with one another. Students were placed in groups and given different tasks. To complete these tasks, they had to work together using the items from this project.
When students earn free choice time they are able to pick what they want to do. In the last few years I have had to tell students they can't use their ipad during this time. After this package arrived, I didn't have to say that anymore because students actively choose to use the items we received from this project. The items in this project have helped relationships grow and have helped students learn that they do not have to be on an ipad to have fun. Thank you so much for taking part in this.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Looney
This classroom project was brought to life by 3M and 2 other donors.Decodable Readers for at Home Practice!
Funded Aug 16, 2022Thank you so much for your generous donation. The decodable readers have had such an impact on my emerging readers. I received so many decodable readers from this project and this has provided a variety of texts for my emerging readers to read at school and at home.
In addition, students have been able to have books that allow them to practice the actual skills they are learning and this is helping students become more automatic when reading the sounds they are learning in their groups with me. I am seeing a confident boost in students because they have books they can read and are reading correctly. Not only are these books a tool for learning, they also are helping students view themselves as readers. This wouldn't have been possible without your support.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Looney
This classroom project was brought to life by Bill Gates and 3 other donors.Cultural Representation Through Books and Art
Funded Mar 22, 2022Thank you so much for your generous donations. My class had several new books added to our collection from this project and each one had a different impact on our learning. We had a unit focused on change makers. During this unit, students learned about different adults that have created a positive change in our world. Many of these adults were adults students could relate to. "Fearless Trailblazers-11 Latinos Who Made US History" and "Be Bold Be Brave 11 Latinas Who Made US History" were two of the main resources we used for this unit.
After learning about Latinas and Latinos who created positive change, students used the model clay to create a model that reminded them of the leaders we studied. Some students made actual clay models of the person whereas other students made symbols that reminded them of the individual. Students were so engaged in this project because of the resources we received and because of the hands on component with the model clay. I truly believe they will remember what we learned in this unit for years to come and that was made possible by your generosity.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Looney
You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream for Phonics!
Funded Feb 1, 2022Thank you so much for your donation. They have changed our phonics block for the better. The decodable readers have been an amazing resource for students to use. Students are able to practice the specific phonics sound they are working on with the decodable reader that matches it. This has helped students master new sounds because they have a text to practice it in and it has helped them build confidence because they are being successful readers.
The long vowels, blends and digraph stamps have been used so much! Students love using the stamps to build sentences and it helps them focus in on the specific spelling patterns they are learning about. Students also find it really calming, so when they are upset so search out the stamps as a tool to calm themselves down. It is great because it allows them to practice literacy skills while calming themselves down.
The materials from this project have increased student engagement in my room during our phonics and intervention block. This couldn't have been down without your donations. Thank you so much for making this happen!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Looney
This classroom project was brought to life by Panda Cares and 4 other donors.High Interest Book Sets to Engage Readers
Funded Oct 21, 2021Our materials arrived this week and students were so thrilled to see the new additions to our class library. The Harry Potter books were the first picked by students to be read. They are so excited to read the actual text and to compare it to the movies they have seen.
The Dogman books had a huge waitlist in my classroom. Everybody who wanted to read Dogman now has at least one book in their hands from that series. Students have been taking the books home and reading for enjoyment because they are so excited about the texts and not because someone is telling them they have to read them.
The decodable phonics books I received were organized into book bags for two of my students who are learning those phonics skills. These two students are so excited to have books at their level and they feel so successful because they are able to practice the skills they are learning in groups with me.
These books have had such a large impact on our classroom already and this wouldn't have been possible without your support. Thank you so much.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Looney
This classroom project was brought to life by Dollar General Literacy Foundation and 2 other donors.Using LEGOs as the Bridge Between STEM and Literacy
Funded Sep 24, 2021We received the materials from our project a couple weeks ago and it automatically boosted writing engagement from students. Students who were hesitant about writing, are now building multiple storyboards and writing descriptive scenes for each storyboard. Not only has the project boosted writing engagement it has also helped strengthen our classroom community. Students are working together to build storyboards and to bounce ideas off of each other. Students who typically do not spend a ton of time together are not inseparable during writing because of their passion for building their stories.
We just started our units of study and in the next few weeks we will be using the legos to support our units of study. In our first unit students will be picking a problem in our community and designing a solution for it while learning about the engineering process. Students will use the legos to build a prototype of their solution. I am so excited to watch the connections between literacy, social studies, and engineering come together for students through the use of the materials obtained through this project.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Looney
This classroom project was brought to life by 3M.Meeting the Needs of Hungry Learners
Funded Jan 25, 2021This snacks received from this project have made such a difference in my classroom. I have had students who have forgotten to bring a snack and normally this would be a trigger for them. They would meltdown and have a hard time getting back on task. This project has curbed this 100 %. I do not have to worry about students being hungry or a forgotten snack being a trigger because I now have snacks that I can provide to students.I think this project has helped reduced anxiety for some students as well, because they know they will be taken care of if they need a snack. Something that may seem so small to others is so appreciated by myself and my students. These snacks keep their bellies full so they can focus and learn. Thank you so much for your donation.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Looney