Past projects 19
Keeping Clean in Our Cozy Class
Funded Aug 14, 2024Thank you so much for supporting my project Keeping Clean in Our Cozy Class. I like to start our year with supplies that help our classroom and the students stay as germ free as possible so colds stay at bay and students do not get sick. Our class shares materials and many little hands touch them each day. My priority is always safety first and this Donors Choose Project supports that priority. When students stay healthy, they stay in class and continue to learn.
Thank you for helping my class receive Amazon Essentials Baby Wipes to keep hands and faces clean and tissues to blow their noses. Amazon Essentials Disinfecting Wipes are used daily to keep tables, chairs and shared materials clean so we can continue to share, learn and stay germ free in our cozy classroom.
Thank you for supporting our class and providing many needed cleaning and self care supplies to this little group of learners. I appreciate your support and generosity.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Schaefer
This classroom project was brought to life by The Gates Foundation and 13 other donors.Successful Science of Reading!
Funded Apr 28, 2024I am filled with such thankfulness for your generosity and kindness by funding my project Successful Science of Reading. The students were so excited opening the boxes and could not stop talking about doing centers with their new "games".
Students used the finger pointers in small group reading to help new readers track the words on a line. Students loved using their pointing rings to stay focused while reading.
The Lakeshore Magnetic Letters provided engaging, hands on practice to identify and make the upper and lower case letters using magnets. Students also use the wiki sticks to bend and shape letters as the practiced their alphabet skills.
Students use the Hands to Mind white boards to help build short vowel words and to show and share what they are learning during small group phonics lessons.
Thank you so much for once again helping our class be an engaging and fun place to learn.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Schaefer
Sensory Loving Classroom
Funded Dec 12, 2023Thank you all for helping to fund my project Sensory Loving Classroom. As many of you know, my students learn in a 12:1 special classroom and we all have different needs to learn and make progress. Social emotional skills is always our priority in our class. It is important to know how to self regulate and have the tools that help students calm down, remain focused and help center themselves when things are difficult to process emotionally.
Our class calm down area is a place where children can go to find that safe and calming environment. The students love to hug a weighted plush animals to feel calmer. Some students use twistable and bendable fidget toys to help stay in a meeting area with their peers as they learn and wiggle. Our sensory rug is a place that my class will sit or lay down to touch the different textures as we talk about making safe choices or as a place to have a peaceful moment to themselves. Thank you for helping me provide that to my little group of learners. Every child deserves to learn in an environment that helps them grow. You made sure Class 108 will always be a place for all children to learn.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Schaefer
Keeping Clean in Class
Funded Aug 4, 2023Thank you very much for funding the Keeping Clean in Class Project. Everyone knows that the new school year means the start of sharing materials, working together and learning together. But it also means as we share our materials, little hands are sharing germs. Thank you so much for the Clorox spray, Clorox wipes, Soft Soap, baby wipes, tissues and paper towels to help our class prevent sharing germs and keeping us healthy so we can enjoy our school day.
We are lucky to have a class sink and our Soft Soap is right at our fingertips so we can wash our hands before and after lunch. Our class uses the Clorox Wipes before we have a snack and we wipe down our desks, chairs and ipads at the end of each day. Little noses are using the soft Puffs Plus tissues and we wipe our hands using the baby wipes when learning gets a little messy.
Thank you so much for helping to keep my little learners healthy as they learn to share and engage with each other. All the cleaning products, soap, tissues and paper towels are being used gratefully every day.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Schaefer
Colorful Library
Funded Apr 5, 2023Thank you very much for helping to fund and create a colorful library for Class 108! Students loved the bins to help organize their beloved books in our class. The bins are light enough so students who are 5 and 6 year olds can reach and carry the bins.
My class is a self contained bridge classroom of kindergarten and first grade students. I love to find ways to motivate students to engage and feel successful. Having a colorful and engaging library encourages children to grab a book and read. My students look forward to quiet read around the room time and these bins help students access and organize the shared class library. Students also love to "shop" for books every friday night and read them with their parents at home.
Thank you once again for funding my Colorful Library projects and helping to create a classroom when students love to read.
Thank you,
Elena”
With gratitude,
Ms. Schaefer
Sensory Room
Funded Nov 30, 2022Thank you to everyone who supported this project to build our school a Sensory Room. Thanks to all of you, WE DID IT! Our school, PS120Q, has their first ever Sensory Room and the students are enjoying it.
Our Sensory Room supports the sensory needs and the social emotional self-regulation of students who find it difficult to express their feelings, need a safe place to express themselves, or a room to find that quiet spot where they can touch, hear, bounce, and move their bodies to meet their sensory needs. Some classes are using it to meet for morning meeting, other classes are using the Sensory Room room for small group sessions each day after unstructured time such as lunch, recess or arrival. The Sensory Room provides a fun spot for our guidance counselor to meet with students for small group sessions. Crisis-Paraprofessionals, who support students with behavioral plans, incorporate this room into their day to reinforce and motivate students or to give them a calm space when they need sensory input. I have also witnessed a teacher or two trying to find a calm moment in their day while using the room on their preps.
This is definitely one of projects I am most proud of completing and I thank each and everyone of my supporters for helping me to create this space for my school.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Schaefer
This classroom project was brought to life by an Anonymous Classroom Supporter and 45 other donors.A Cozy Book Nook
Funded Aug 10, 2022Thank you very much for helping me create a "Cozy Book Nook" for my classroom. Students helped to restore and organize our class library with our new book bins. They are colorful and visually labeled so students have easy access to books and can keep it organized. Students also enjoy independent reading time on the bean bag chairs and working with the lap tables. It proves a flexible learning environment.
The students were excited to open our delivery and see the colorful book bins, and the cozy bean bag chairs. Students all wanted a turn that day to sit and read on them. They were very excited to learn that they were going to create their library with the materials we received from Donors Choose.
Our next steps is to use this "Cozy Book Nook" to read independently during guided reading time and use our classroom library to develop an interest and love of reading. Students were so proud to create their library and I believe this helped spark a love of reading.
Thank you all so much for helping to bring this Cozy Book Nook to our classroom.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Schaefer
This classroom project was brought to life by Bill Gates and 21 other donors.Creative Centers Inspire Engaged Learners
Funded Aug 13, 2021Thank you so much for all the resources to develop engaging hands on activity centers in this socially distant year. Students have been actively engaging in the centers for math and ELA by using the washable pocket folders and colored dots to play games that can be easily wiped down and used again.
The Teachers Pay Teachers gift card went to purchase several math and ELA centers that can be printed and placed in the pocket charts. The TPT gift card has made great reproducible resources easily available at my finger tips that can be used again and again.
My students absolutely loved the paint dots. They have used them to model amounts, dab letters and write their names in amazingly fun activities that keep my class motivated to learn.
Thank you so much for helping create a classroom that is active, engaging and a motivating place children love to come and learn.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Schaefer
This classroom project was brought to life by Bill Gates and 5 other donors.Technology at Our Finger Tips
Funded Feb 11, 2021Thank you so much for funding our Technology at Our Finger Tips project. The students were so excited to open the boxes and see that they received 2 ipads for our classroom!
We have been using them every day. The students enjoy learning on apps such as iready and reading on Epic. They have even learned to enter their own information such as user names and passwords and go on to the apps or Google Classroom independently. We use them during guided reading time and students who complete work quickly request the ipads to complete iready assignments or read a book online independently. They actually look forward to using the ipad to do other assignments!
Thank you so much to all the donors who helped support our class and provide much needed ipads to our classroom. This teacher and the amazing students in our class all say THANK YOU!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Schaefer
Sensory Friendly Classroom
Funded Sep 8, 2020Thank you for once again assisting me to provide my students with much need materials for our classroom. The sensory toys for our calm down area has motivated students to monitor and refocus their emotions by using their senses. Students enjoy the Floam, Slime and multi-sensory toys to redirect their emotions and increase their positive reactions and behaviors when they become frustrated. Instead of getting upset, they can ask for a break and use the toys to refocus their emotions. Students were very excited to open the boxes and play with the sensory toys. Students described the toys with their senses as squishy, bumpy, shinny and noisy (sensory tubes with bells are a bit loud but fun!) Students also like to request breaks after completing academics and enjoy making letter shapes with the colorful Floam. It's been so much fun, that Floam has become part of our hands on phonics lessons and students trace the letters into the Floam or bend it to make giant letters as we are learning. Thank you very much for helping me create a positive classroom environment and safe-sensory friendly area for my students to calm down and refocus.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Schaefer