Past projects 3
Sensory Integration in ECSE
Funded Apr 3, 2023Thank you so much for funding my project! My students were so excited to see the new materials in our Cozy Corner. One of my students looks for the weighted frog pillow as soon as she enters the classroom and even uses her words to request it! This is a huge deal for us because this student does not use a lot of spontaneous speech. Having the weighted pillow with her helps her to stay sitting down for longer periods of time and helps decrease her wiggles.
The bouncy ball provides a flexible seating option for some other students who have a hard time sitting in their chairs. They are able to sit a little bit longer and attend to lessons without eloping from the area.
The sensory tiles, rocks, and tubes give my students a place in the Cozy Corner where they feel safe and can calm down when needed.
Thanks again for your generosity! My classroom is greatly improved with the addition of these items!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Andino
This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and 3 other donors.Independent Work Stations
Funded Dec 11, 2017I would like to take this opportunity to send a heart-felt thank you to our donors!!! My students were so excited to have shiny, new materials to work with in Independent stations. These resources allowed me to expand the variety of tasks my students are able to work with on a daily basis and taken some of the strain off my paraprofessionals and me to create things from scratch.
These resources provided work stations for Reading Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, and puzzles. They are used at least twice a day every day during our morning and afternoon rotation times. The students are very engaged when working with these particular file folders because they are so vivid and brightly colored. The puzzles replaced ancient wooded puzzles with dull colors and outdated pictures. Now, my students love to go to puzzle station and complete the new brightly colored, interesting puzzles.
Going forward, I will continue to integrate more of these activities into the rotation schedule to give my students a greater opportunity to independently be successful on a large range of skills. The fact that the students love them makes it that much more rewarding!
Thanks again for your generosity!!!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Andino
This classroom project was brought to life by Someone who cares about Texas and 2 other donors.Sensory Table
Funded Oct 20, 2015My students and I are loving the Sensory Table that your generous donations bought for our classroom! We use these materials on a daily basis to increase motivation during work times, to help the students develop their motor skills, and to assist the students with acquisition of social skills. Students must complete their direct teaching assignments in order to gain access to the sensory table. Production has increased since the sensory table has been introduced as a motivator for students to work harder. While playing at the sensory table, social skills are developed through sharing and communicating with peers about taking turns. Students also discuss their observations. For instance, we put water in one of the bins and allow students to do "sink or float" activities. The students get so excited and want to share which items sank and which items floated. We also use the noodles and balls to hide letters or animals so that students can get a sensory experience while enhancing skills we are learning during structured work times.
When the boxes arrived in the classroom, they could not wait to see what was inside. Just as would be expected, they had a great time playing with the boxes and popping the bubbles that were used for shipping while waiting for me to assemble the materials! I definitely took that as an added bonus, and we had fun anticipating what the sensory table would be like once it was put together.
The next step for using the sensory table in my room is to find new materials that appeal to the different sensory issues my kids have. Some students have an aversion to the sand but love the noodles. I think that the possibilities for using these materials is endless, and I look forward to learning new ways to use it and keep it fresh for the students.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Andino