Past projects 19
Representation Truly Matters
Funded Aug 2, 2023Thank you for your generous contribution to my students! Being able to read multicultural books and creating projects using the multicultural arts materials will benefit them greatly. They are having such fun finding colored pencils and crayons that match their skin tones and creating self portraits!
Seeing themselves reflected in books and art is more important than many people realize. It is apparent, however, when you see their joy reading and rereading a favorite book or when asking to draw as their free time choice.
I am so very grateful for your generous gift. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Utke
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 5 other donors.Let's Create With Cricut!
Funded Feb 3, 2023This Cricut has already made our classroom and school more beautiful! The students were so excited when the bulletin boards went up with cursive lettering, something I was never able to do before using the Cricut. We have made captions for bulletin boards, posters celebrating school secretaries, and projects for Mother's Day. We even used the materials to create decorations for the Spring Festival!
Having a lovely, inviting environment to learn and grow in can be such an important part of school, especially when students live in a densely populated urban area. I am so grateful to you that now these children are working in a place that is visually stimulating and beautiful. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Utke
Let's Get Colorful!
Funded Apr 8, 2022Having a working printer in my classroom has made my life immeasurably better! The students can print their written work, I can easily make copies for parents and children, and I can decorate the bulletin boards with clipart and nifty fonts. Because it connects with bluetooth to all our devices there aren't any cords lying around waiting to be tripped on or tangled. The extra ink and reams of paper have already come in handy because we made so many wonderful copies! One of our favorite things to use the printer for is to create comic strip stories on the website Pixton and make copies for everyone. I cannot thank you enough for your kindness and thoughtfulness.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Utke
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose community & an Anonymous Partner and 4 other donors.Books + Art = Long Lasting Lessons (part 2!)
Funded Mar 16, 2022It was with great joy that my students saw the Gooney Bird Greene trilogy of books and the art materials that you all so generously gave to my classroom. The heroine of the books, Gooney Bird Greene, is such a wonderful role model to children. She is inquisitive, brave, kind, friendly, thoughtful, and loves school with all her heart. The students learned about the 6 traits of good character and found all of them within the book. When they found that there were more books starring Gooney Bird the excitement in the room was palpable! The art materials, especially the neon oil pastels and tempera sticks helped us make self-portraits and heart art inspired by Jim Dine, which Gooney Bird Greene would have approved of whole-heartedly, I have no doubt. You have helped us make this year full of joy and beauty, and we thank you so much for your generosity and support!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Utke
If You're Feeling Blue, Try Painting Yourself a Different Color!
Funded Dec 1, 2021Thank you again for your kind and generous donations! We have been using our art materials weekly, and it has been such a lovely way to work through our stress and anxiety. When we first donned our new colorful aprons the children were beyond excited, commenting on how they looked just like "grown up artists". And now whenever we put them on the joy in the room is palpable because they know they are about to use some amazing materials to explore their feelings and express themselves artistically. We have used the model magic to create winter scenes, and the watercolors to explore warm and cool colors. We have used the glitter markers to add pizzazz to our drawings and the India ink to make crisp black outlines. We used the oil pastels to study value and made snowmen drawings that looked 3-D. Having these materials has been such a blessing and we cannot thank you enough for your thoughtfulness.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Utke
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 8 other donors.Books + Art = Long Lasting Lessons
Funded Sep 23, 2021I can't thank you again for your generous donations! We have been putting the materials to excellent use. We read all of Charlotte's Web together, one chapter a day. The final days of the book left us with tissues in hand and bittersweet tears as we said goodbye to Charlotte. The children said things like, "This is my favorite book, ever! It's even better than Gooney Bird Greene!" (which is very high praise, indeed) and "I'm crying about Charlotte because she was like my real friend." We learned about foreshadowing and studied character traits. We then used our new art materials to draw barns and study how Roald Dahl used sensory details to make us "see" the barn where Charlotte and Wilbur lived, and we also recreated our favorite scenes from the book in a sculptural tableau. We will be using our new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory books next, and I am very excited to see what wonderful things the children create as they read about the Charlie finding his Golden Ticket. I cannot thank you enough for your kindness and thoughtfulness.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Utke
This classroom project was brought to life by Dollar General Literacy Foundation and 7 other donors.Mac Attack!
Funded May 9, 2021Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your donation! Because of you I was able to improve the "classroom" experience of my students who were all attending school from home for most of the year. The new MacBook enabled me to easily connect to a second monitor and a projector, which in turn made our "field trips" to the Natural History Museum, our art lessons, and our online group projects infinity easier to do. Even though we were physically apart, the new computer helped us create a classroom community because we were able to stay reliably connected. This enabled me to focus on teaching instead of worrying about technological issues. Although the school year was incredibly challenging, the students were happy and engaged in their lessons. There are not enough words to express my appreciation for your generosity.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Utke
This classroom project was brought to life by SONIC Drive-In and 18 other donors.And Then, Something Really Peculiar Happened
Funded Mar 16, 2021I cannot thank you enough for your generosity. The book I originally asked for was sold out, so in its place I ordered the book Flora & Ullyses, by Kate DiCamillo. It is a wonderful story and such a welcome addition to our reading lessons!
This book addresses overcoming adversity with humor and perseverance, and I can't imagine anything more important after over a year spent away from school and classmates. We will use the copies of this book to study character traits and problem solving and, by extension, begin to discuss how we ourselves have overcome similar issues.
I am hoping that reading this together will not only help us become better readers, but also help us as a community begin to heal. Please know how appreciative I am for your part in this very worthwhile endeavor.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Utke
This classroom project was brought to life by Kathleen and Chip Rosenbloom and one other donor.The Power of Love and Friendship
Funded Apr 4, 2021I cannot thank you enough for your generosity. These books, Flora & Ullyses and El Deafo are such a welcome addition to our reading lessons!
Both books address overcoming adversity with humor and perseverance, and I can't imagine anything more important after over a year spent away from school and classmates. We will use these books to study character traits and problem solving and, by extension, begin to discuss how we ourselves have overcome similar issues.
I am hoping that reading these books together not only help us become better readers, but also help us as a community begin to heal. Please know how appreciative I am for your part in this very worthwhile endeavor.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Utke
This classroom project was brought to life by Kathleen and Chip Rosenbloom and 3 other donors.Finding Our Inner Picasso
Funded Sep 22, 2020What a difference you've made in my students' lives! Your donation made it possible for me to give each of my students fantastic art supplies: watercolors with a variety of brushes, crayons, colored pencils with a pencil sharpener, plus pads of drawing paper and construction paper. Every week we've studied the elements of art and learned about artists like Matisse and Grant Wood. Then we were able to utilize all these lovely materials to create projects while we studied line and shape and color. We've also used them to create holiday crafts like our fantastic turkey headbands for Thanksgiving. Your generosity is making a difficult year for these children so much more engaging and inspiring. I can not thank you enough!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Utke