Past projects 68
Read, Think, and Act Like Scientists!
Funded Aug 4, 2020What an amazing and versatile learning tool Kids-AZ has been for our students! In this online program, my co-teacher and I are able to manually adjust students' libraries to each student's reading level to provide a variety of texts that are "just right" for them to read. One of our students' only homework assignments is to read for 20 minutes EVERY night; students who read nightly for 20 minutes are exposed to exponentially more words and the impact of reading daily is obvious to both families and educators.
In a time where all students need to learn from home, Kids-AZ creates endless opportunities for learning and exploration! They can find books about oceans, animal adaptations, and great fictional stories, too! Many students do not have extensive libraries at their homes with books on their level - thanks to Kids-AZ, this has changed. When students login to their home page, they can find a large library with texts on their specific level.
Another great feature of Kids-AZ is the vocabulary component! I am able to create engaging vocabulary assignments with tricky vocabulary such as producer, consumer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, and tertiary consumer. Our students love playing the exciting games that are built in to this program.
Thank you so much for supporting our fourth graders this year by giving us the opportunity to use Kids-AZ! We greatly appreciate this online instruction technology that students can use every day to read and explore a variety of texts.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cosans
This classroom project was brought to life by IF/THEN, an initiative of Lyda Hill Philanthropies and 7 other donors.Cashing in at the Carnival! 2
Funded May 6, 2020Like almost everything in the past year, our class carnival had to look much different than I initially imagined! When this project funded in May, I was holding a weekly Google Meet lesson with my 4th graders, and had about 50% attendance (on a good week). There were so many concerns on my mind about how to reach all of my students, and I knew that there was so much going on in their minds and their homes as well.
Thanks to your support, I was able to still provide some sense of normal school life to my students. They were so excited about our classroom carnival and all of the exciting prizes they would win for studiously preparing for exams; I knew how disappointed they were when we realized it wouldn't take place in person. So, the looks on their faces when I showed up at their doorsteps (masked) with bags of prizes for them were PRICELESS (see photo proof!)
Since there were so many awesome materials funded through this project, some of the items have even been able to be gifted to students in this year's class for extra impressive effort and work in virtual class! The fidget spinners, slime, and dry erase clipboards have been some of the biggest hits. I miss my students terribly, and I know they miss being in our building. However, it made me so happy to know that I could at least bring them a bit of the joy we are missing out on this year. Thank you so much for your support, it means more than you'll ever know!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cosans
This classroom project was brought to life by SONIC Drive-In and 12 other donors.COVID-19 Care Packages for Learning! 2
Funded Apr 26, 2020Thank you so much for having an amazing impact on my students through these care packages.
I remember stuffing each care package bag and thinking, "Will this be enough? Will this make a difference?" Honestly, I think that came across every educator's mind when COVID-19 shutdowns happened in March. However, with each porch drop, supply pick-up, and chance that I got to deliver these items to my students, I KNEW that these items were making a difference. With every student logging in to our weekly Monday Google Meet lessons, I knew that I was making an impact. Every time I recorded a read-aloud of one of these amazing and financial literacy-based stories and saw my video views increase, I knew that I was impacting my students.
I was lucky enough to see these care package items in action. I watched many fourth grade students use the dry erase sleeves during our video lessons on topics such as double-digit by double-digit multiplication, area, and perimeter. I saw students enjoying the read alouds and financial lessons of all of these engaging stories, including "How Much is a Million?" which fits wonderfully into our fourth grade standards. I even was able to tutor (masked) one of my students who struggles with place value using the play money counting currency. All of this was made possible thanks to you and your kindness. Thank you for making my students your priority, every day. We appreciate you more than you know!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cosans
This classroom project was brought to life by Charles Schwab Foundation and 3 other donors.Refreshments for Focus! Pt. 2
Funded Jan 2, 2020Snacks and headphones are two classroom ESSENTIALS! Please know that you had a tremendous impact on our classroom during this crazy, unpredictable, and stressful school year. When all of the packages arrived, we opened them together as a class. We took care to label the class headphones, pack the snacks away, and the students were extremely grateful and excited about these items. Who doesn't love a snack while they work?! This became a sort of class tradition from that point on - every week during stations, students would pick a snack around 12 pm during math stations to power them through the last hour of work. Our morning schedule of 8:30-12:40 until lunch could be very difficult!
Another amazing part of this project was the class set of headphones with built-in microphones. Using these headphones for stations activities such as Reflex Math, i-Ready, and GetEpic! allowed students to focus fully on the technology activities without hearing the noise of others learning. These new headphones made students so excited and also so responsible for their learning materials. Everyone would volunteer to carefully put these headphones away, and I saw my students use so much teamwork and exhibit pride in these materials. Thank you so much for all of your generous support to our classroom!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cosans
This classroom project was brought to life by Biz and Livia Stone and 10 other donors.Refreshments for Focus!
Funded Dec 30, 2019The reaction my students had to opening these snacks and headphones was absolutely priceless. Saying "SNACKS!" in a room full of fourth graders is basically music to their ears! We took a break in the afternoon to unpack all of the snacks and put them into plastic storage containers. From that day forward, I felt extreme relief knowing that my students could have snacks while they worked. If you've ever tried to work while hungry, you know how difficult it is to produce quality products and to push through. These snacks were more helpful than you could even imagine for my students who came into school without having breakfast, or needed a boost after lunch to get through the day. The headphones were also amazing for my students! After a few weeks into the school year, the low-quality headphones that are picked up for back-to-school time are often either broken or about to break. These headphones saved us from that struggle and allowed all of my students to have a super handy class set!
Even though times got extremely hectic and stressful after this project was funded, please know that you helped make our classroom feel like a safe and welcoming space for all of us. Thank you so much for your generosity!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cosans
This classroom project was brought to life by Biz and Livia Stone and 4 other donors.An iPad for Engaging Stations! Pt. 3
Funded Feb 25, 2020This project being fully funded on February 25th means that the iPad joined our classroom at a very interesting and crazy time. At that point, none of us could have imagined that our school would close only two weeks later because of COVID-19. When the iPad arrived, students were overjoyed to now have a THIRD station iPad for stations. I'm telling you, the engagement of the students during their station work while using the iPad is completely unmatched.
I had initially meant to write this impact letter the weekend before school closed - truly, I meant to! In typical teacher fashion, however, I became engrossed in classroom activity (and in this case, home teaching activity). All of this is to say that while this expression of gratitude is delayed, it is real. I am so thankful for this community that constantly comes together to support my students in getting engaging materials, such as iPads, to support their learning in and out of school. With this iPad, I am able to create awesome online lessons for weekly Zoom meetings, and even engage a student in using this iPad when I visit their house to tutor them (this was only recently as Phase 2 started in Virginia). Even though the engagement isn't currently for stations, I am able to engage students in learning for home because of YOU and your generosity. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cosans
COVID-19 Care Packages for Learning!
Funded Apr 21, 2020Even though I have a few more stops to make for student care packages, I couldn't contain my excitement! As I'm sure you can imagine, it is a terrible feeling to not be able to reach, teach, and hug my students daily the way I'm so used to. Even though it might sound silly, this project truly gave me a new sense of hope! I instantly got to work carefully filling each bag with treats I knew my students would love. Pulling up to the students' homes, many of them ran out yelling "Mrs. Cosans! Yay!" which made my day every time! It was so comforting to see them in person, hand them their care package, and watch them beam at all of the goodies within.
Having "Frindle" and the fractions, decimals, and percents workbook will be great for students without much technology. In another project, I ordered a document camera - that way, I can record videos reading the chapter book aloud and going over the math pages then post them to YouTube (where they can watch on any device). I've already been able to use the play money and decimals workbook to help support that connection and teach a financial literacy lesson! Through this project, students now have so many different ways to keep learning. They also are reminded that I care about them and miss them, which is especially wonderful for me. Thank you for making these awesome care packages possible!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cosans
This classroom project was brought to life by Charles Schwab Foundation and 5 other donors.An iPad for Engaging Stations! Pt. 2
Funded Dec 4, 2019Reflex, i-Ready, Epic, oh my! I knew that this iPad would make our stations engaging, but it has been pleasantly surprising to see just how much students get excited about their work with this awesome technology addition.
As one donor so aptly put it, "The computer is the new encyclopedia and opens up worlds." This is SO true for elementary school students in a world where information is quite literally at their fingertips! There are SO many possibilities with this iPad! One example that I am especially thrilled to share is a research project that students are currently wrapping up for our district's History Fair. All of my students chose a historical figure we've learned about in Virginia Studies, and spent time researching using our school's subscription of Britannica School. Not only did students get extremely excited and involved in this, but the iPad made this research even more engaging for the students. Britannica allowed the students to view their figure's pictures and primary sources so wide on the i-Pad screen, it really brought the information to life.
Another reason why this iPad is so fantastic is the long-lasting battery life. Our class laptops are not only shared with different classes for testing, the battery life often only lasts a couple of hours. This makes the laptops really difficult to use during stations; many often end up dying which is terrible for the operating system! I-Pads can last an entire school day of students using them during stations without losing all of their battery. For so many reasons, this iPad has been wonderful. Your generous contributions to our classroom have transformed learning and made my kids so EXCITED! Thank you for bringing joy to our school days.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cosans
This classroom project was brought to life by Verizon and 9 other donors.Up Close and Personal With Estuaries!
Funded May 28, 2019Teachers all over agree that the best way to deeply impact student learning is to give them hands-on experiences. I think teachers improve their practice in exactly the same way! At the Teachers on the Estuary (TOTE) Workshop, I learned so much about forested wetlands, connected with so many new friends and got so excited to enrich my science instruction!
On the first day of the conference, we explored Hobcaw Barony and saw where the land changes from forested wetland to salt marsh. The salt marsh is an insanely interesting ecosystem that I could have stayed and studied for years! As we walked through on a suspended bridge, we enjoyed watching the fiddler crabs waving at us, and heard the scientists give us detailed descriptions, including informing us that there is environmental monitoring and real-time data being used for research!
Kevin Kurtz, the author of "A Day in a Forested Wetland," lead a section of this wonderful workshop where we took our observations and scientific notes to create descriptive poems about the fiddler crabs we saw. Not only did we have a blast and many laughs, we also applied our knowledge in a cross-curricular way (science notes for a Language Arts activity), something that is incredibly beneficial to students!
The highlight of this trip for me, hands down, was our day of kayaking through the salt marsh to and island - this protected beach area was not only incredibly beautiful to explore. While at the beach, I collected huge shells the size of my hand, and even a shark tooth! This experience showed, once again, how important conservation and preservation of our watersheds and ecosystems are. An incredible added bonus was that on our kayak journey to the beach, we saw a 3 foot shark feeding in the estuary!
I was both inspired personally and as an educator by this workshop. One night, we were able to explore the forested wetland (swamp) with many of the scientists from the Reserve. Although this tour was short because of a thunderstorm, one scientist shared an activity of taking a leaf directly from a forested area and placing it on a white sheet of paper. Students observe and explore all of the bugs and write, draw, and make predictions about what they see. Sure, the swamp had some unique critters, but this activity can be done anywhere! Another activity that I always show my students is a "Who Polluted the River?" experiment where we see pollution and human impact by progressively adding pollutants (we use crumbled cookies, paint to symbolize different pollutants etc.) to a tub of water to show how this impacts our watershed. When I did this experiment with my students this year, I was able to connect that to my experience this summer, and was able to show my students all of the photos and books that I've collected about this ecosystem! Through these connections, students can apply knowledge of pollution and human impact to our Chesapeake Bay watershed! This workshop has impacted my practice in so many ways, but most importantly, has reminded me that if I want my students to be explorers and good scientists, I need to bring them solid content knowledge and lots of hands-on experiences. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for helping me to attend this fantastic workshop. Your support means the world!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cosans
This classroom project was brought to life by Google.org and 17 other donors.Give Me a Sign!
Funded Jul 18, 2019This book has opened so many doors for my students! When I first introduced my students to this sign language books, there was a lot of buzz. The students weren't quite sure if they would be able to pick up quickly on signing and when they would be able to use ASL. However, this book makes it so easy for students to pick up quick hand signs, a few at a time!
After students' immediate success and interest with this text, I decided to incorporate some classroom posters for simple hand signals to communicate silently (for things like getting a tissue, using the restroom, and expressing agreement). They picked up so quickly! It's amazing that they now easily sign "Same" to a partner to show that they agree with their thoughts, or sign the letter "R" to show that they need to use the restroom. "Learn to Sign the Fun Way" has been engaging and fun for students. More importantly, it has the potential to expand how many people my students are able to communicate with. Thank you for making a difference in our classroom!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cosans
This classroom project was brought to life by Google.org and 8 other donors.