Past projects 62
Sensory Materials Help Us Focus
Funded Nov 30, 2024Thank you for your wonderful donation! All the resources you provided have had a meaningful impact on many of my students and has helped in increasing many skills in several developmental domains.
The sensory and fidget toys such as puffer balls and fidget spinners has helped many of my students sit and attend for longer periods of time. Without these resources, some students tend to be out of their seats and engage in sensory seeking behaviors that are not conducive to learning. Something as simple as a puffer ball will help keep the students seated and assists in participation in whole group, learning activities.
Other resources, such as the toy cars and garage, serve as motivators for students who understand that if they complete academic tasks, they will 'earn' highly motivating activities at the end of the instructional period. These resources also provide the students with the opportunity to engage in positive social interactions with their peers, for example, students sit side by side, exchanging materials and verbally interact with one another.
I especially like the puzzles, because they are a excellent in improving visual performance tasks and my students are able to attend to this activity with increasing frequency and duration. The puzzles have improved problem solving skills as well as expressive and receptive language.
Thank you for helping my students achieve at an increasingly higher level!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Schultz
Learning Through Play
Funded Dec 9, 2023Thank you for your amazing donation. My students have demonstrated a strong interest in all the resources you provided. The majority of the students I teach are on the autism spectrum and as you can see from the images, the resources have helped to increase functional play and peer-to-peer interactions.
The sensory materials such as the spinning tops, fidget spinners and hex bugs have been especially popular and helpful. I am able to use these resources in whole group instruction, to help especially active students stay in the instructional area and focus on instruction.
Additionally, the resources help to motivate more advanced students to complete academic tasks so that they can earn the opportunity to use these wonderful resources. For example, many of my students enjoy playing with trains and know that they can earn this activity if they complete their academic tasks first. Playing with toys, like trains, help students increase cooperative play, problem solving skills and verbal interactions.
Thank you for everything!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Schultz
Tech for Tots
Funded Nov 29, 2022Thank you for your amazing donation to my classroom. The iPad you donated to my students has been an excellent, supplemental resource that has been helpful in increasing skills in several developmental domains for all of my students.
Many of my students are speaking with increasing frequency and fluency because of speech & language applications that are designed to increase communicative skills. The iPad also serves as a motivational tool that increases the students' ability to request and attend to tasks to earn an opportunity to work with the iPad.
Surprisingly, there are many excellent ADL (Activities of Daily Living) applications on the device and I have measured significant progress with many of my students' ADL skills.
Finally, there has been significant, measurable progress with academic skills such as sight word identification, phonetic decoding and number concepts. Thank you for helping my students progress on their academic journey.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Schultz
This classroom project was brought to life by an Anonymous Classroom Supporter and 5 other donors.Multi-Sensory Approach to Learning
Funded Sep 29, 2022Thank you for your generous donations to my classroom. My students are using the resources you provided on a daily basis. All the resources have played an important role in sensory regulation and increasing skills in all developmental domains. We use the floor tiles during whole group instruction and these have increased the students' ability to stay in the area of instruction and learn new academic and social skills.
The toy house, cupcakes and eggs are chosen everyday during center time. These resources have helped to increase speech & language skills such as requesting, labeling and speaking in longer sentences. In addition, they have supported growth in social skills such as pretend play.
Many of the sensory items such as the kinetic sand have helped my students better self-regulate, which in turn increases their ability to attend to academic tasks. Words cannot express my gratitude for your support in the development of my students.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Schultz
This classroom project was brought to life by Valhalla Foundation and one other donor.Toys for Tots
Funded Dec 31, 2021Thank you for your amazing donations! My students absolutely loved every resource in this project and there was something for each child that piqued their interest.
One of the best ways for early learners to increase skills is through play-based learning; this project contained many resources that helped my students learn through play.
As you can see from the photographs I uploaded, my students enjoyed playing with the pretend play toys such as the toy vacuum, toy cell phones and the toy vehicles. They especially enjoyed the sensory play materials (e.g. Floam, clay and pop tubes) which also has the benefit of helping my students increase their ability to self-regulate.
There were many items that helped increase a myriad of skills in this project. For example, the stickers helped with increasing fine-motor skills, as well as academic skills. Thank you for your amazing donations and helping my students with their journey in education.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Schultz
Tech for Tots 2021
Funded Nov 15, 2021Thank you for the iPad that you donated to my classroom. Many of my students enjoy independently using technology, and since they are early learners, they have difficulty manipulating a keyboard and mouse to operate a computer. However, an iPad is ideal for increasing independence while using technology, while at the same time addressing needs in many developmental domains.
There are many educational apps that help to increase skills such as writing numbers and letters, increasing self-help skills and increasing receptive and expressive language skills. As you can see from the pictures, some of my students prefer literacy applications, while others enjoy self-help applications, that teach skills such as washing hands and brushing teeth.
The iPad is highly motivating and many students will 'work' or focus on other academic activities so they can earn the opportunity to work with the iPad. Thank you so much for all that you have done for my students!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Schultz
This classroom project was brought to life by Valhalla Foundation and one other donor.Tech for Tots
Funded Dec 1, 2020Thank you for your generous donations. As you know, technology has become especially important during these challenging times because many students are learning remotely. Fortunately for my students, we have had in-person instruction for several months now but technology is an important component of our daily instruction.
The I-Pads that you provided have helped my students increase skills in many developmental domains, including academic, speech & language and self-help skills.
I am able to design individual mini-lessons for my students that they can access using their I-Pads. There are many amazing applications that are highly motivating for my students that address skills such as literacy and math skills.
Thank you once again for all you have done for my students.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Schultz
This classroom project was brought to life by FamilyAlbum and 9 other donors.Quiet Time Mats
Funded Oct 28, 2020Thank you for your generous donation. We have been using the mats and cleaning supplies daily. My classroom has been up and running for most of the school year and the resources you donated have been essential in keeping the classroom safe and comfortable. As I wrote in my project request, there have been many changes this school year; one of the changes was that all carpets were removed from the classroom. This left us with no soft surfaces for floor play and quiet time. The mats solved both of these issues and has made this challenging year more manageable.
Floor play and quiet time are both an important part of the day in an early childhood classroom. Floor play is important in developing social, speech & language and cognitive skills. During this time, students interact with one another and learn how to expand upon play skills. Floor play increases verbal interactions and I am able to teach academic skills while working on the floor with my students. Quiet time gives the students a break and plays an important part in development for young learners.
The cleaning supplies have been helpful in providing a clean and safe environment for my students. This is more important than it has ever been given the current, worldwide health crisis. I'm hoping to upload photos soon so that you can see your donations is use.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Schultz
This classroom project was brought to life by Equitable and 3 other donors.Learning Through Play for Young Learners
Funded Dec 24, 2019Thank you for your amazing donations to my classroom. NYC schools may be closed at the moment, but my students were able to benefit for over two months from the resources that you provided and I am confident that they will be able to use these resources again in the near future.
My students were very excited when they were first able to use all the wonderful resources and they have been requesting the items on a daily basis. Most of the items were made available periodically throughout the school day and they were an especially popular choice during center time. My students particularly enjoyed the baby dolls, toy truck, doctor kit and tool kit. It was heartwarming to see them play side-by-side with the dolls and interact with one another. They expanded upon their pretend play skills by pretending to feed the babies or using the doctor kit to tend to the babies medical needs.
Speech & language skills were also noticeably improved as my students interacted spontaneously with one another while using the resources provided. They were speaking in longer utterances and many were having simple conversations with one another. Again, thank you for all you do for my classroom now and in the future!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Schultz
This classroom project was brought to life by An anonymous classroom supporter and 4 other donors.Let's Stay Healthy!
Funded May 14, 2019Thank you for your generous donations! One can easily overlook the importance of having cleaning materials easily accessible in the classroom. For example, we teachers often parse out items such as tissues since our classrooms are not budgeted to have such supplies. Through your donation I can leave boxes of tissues out for the students, which they are able to easily access and we can teach the students how to wipe their own noses. This may seem like a basic skill but it is especially difficult to teach this skill to early learners, which is even more difficult if we don't have those supplies readily available.
Many of the students have demonstrated an interest in maintaining a clean classroom, which they are demonstrating by increasingly putting toys away with diminishing prompts. I can now hand them a paper towel or a Lysol wipe and many of my students will clean up their own spills, of course they may need adult support to thoroughly clean up after themselves.
Taking care of one's environment is an important skill we must all learn. With your help, my students are now demonstrating this skill more frequently. The skill also has the effect of less germs being spread and reduction of illness which is important for obvious reasons.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Schultz
This classroom project was brought to life by Craig Newmark Philanthropies and 4 other donors.