Past projects 21
Off-Screen Reading Revival!
Funded Oct 22, 2020I was picking my class up from lunch when I got the good news—our book project is fully funded! Wow! We’ve packed 10 Book Totes with books from our classroom library so far, and will be working on getting the rest set up this week. Next week might be Book Drop time, and then as soon as these new books come in, we'll get them delivered to families! Thank you so much for helping us fund such a large project in only a day and a half. You truly are incredible for supporting public education and reading.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Berenblum
This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Donor and 23 other donors.Voracious Readers Need Varied Books!
Funded Mar 4, 2020As luck would have it, unpacking our new books was one of the last things our class did together before the city announced that schools would be closed because of coronavirus. The children unpacked the books with tremendous excitement and set up our new library checkout system. Each child seemed to have a special book or two in mind on the last day we were in the building, but we didn't realize it was the last day! So unfortunately, the books have been lonely at school for three months, and the children have had to read ebooks in the interim. As you can imagine, they have not forgotten the shiny new books. We promised them that whenever schools open again, they will get first crack at these delicious tomes, even if they are not in our class anymore. Thank you!!!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Berenblum
This classroom project was brought to life by A group of anonymous donors and 13 other donors.Classroom Cleaning with Care and Effort
Funded Mar 2, 2020We did it! Thank you for supporting our classroom with gift cards that made this project so seamless. We are looking forward to adding the vacuum cleaner into our classroom routines. We are currently working on a whole-classroom refresh and the vacuum will go a long way towards keeping the room feeling fresh for years to come. Our sincerest thanks.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Berenblum
Chromebooks for Research and Writing!
Funded Jan 11, 2020I’m delighted that we will get our Chromebooks in time for the kids’ museum research! Not only will my students use the Chromebooks for google searches and for typing their work, they will also use them to access primary sources. I'm so excited for the coming weeks, when they will be able to watch videos made by Native people describing their own cultural traditions. That might seem like a small thing, but videos are often the only form of Native-created "texts" that we can find which relate to the kids' individual research topics. Thanks to your help, our students will be able to go on a medicine walk with a Cree elder, learn how to make baskets from a traditional basket-weaver, and visit an Ojibwe-language immersion school to learn about language revitalization efforts. As you can see, these little Chromebooks will have a tremendous impact on the children's access to the exciting world of 21st century learning. Thank you for opening this door for us!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Berenblum
We Need Diverse Books!
Funded Aug 13, 2018Firstly, my apologies for the delay in sending this thank-you. I have been battling breast cancer since June and this year has been incredibly busy and hard. I finally finished chemo and now have a bit of breathing room in which to think about things like Donors Choose.
I want you to know that my students started reading the books you donated on the very first week of school, and have continued to find books of interest from this special stash. We have set up a separate bookcase for picture books on topics that matter to them, like "gender identity," "all kinds of families," and "race and skin color." Every few weeks I introduce a new topic that is covered in our collection, and show them each of the books. Then I place them on display and watch as they join the rotation. Usually these books become "hot" for the next week or more, and slowly migrate around the room as different kids pick them up. It's lovely to watch them learn so much about the world by reading high quality, diverse picture books.
Thank you so much for making all these moments possible. And for patiently waiting for this note.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Berenblum
You've Got Mail! Monthly Magazines For Curious Fifth Graders
Funded Sep 19, 2017My students can't believe how many different magazines we are subscribed to as a class. They have been truly enjoying the diversity of articles, comics, fiction, and poetry represented by these magazines. It has been wonderful to watch kids gravitate to the magazine title that represents their unique interests, and then wait eagerly for the next issue of that magazine to hit our classroom library. For example my two students who love to horseback ride can't wait for the next issue of Young Rider!
The whole class is benefiting from these magazines, and it is showing up in their writing. We recently started Maya research projects that will culminate in feature articles. In order to see what skills the kids are entering the unit with, we had them write short articles about the cacao tree. Their writing blew us away! It was clear from the way they formatted their quick-draft articles that they have been soaking up much more than the content of their leisure reading. They are thinking and writing like real magazine editors!
Thank you so much for making this possible.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Berenblum
Time For Current Events!
Funded Sep 17, 2017It has been so wonderful to have a Time for Kids subscription for the entire class. Each week our kids get a news magazine to take home with them. Thanks to this subscription, they have been exposed to the world outside our very intense and focused curriculum. For example, they recently read a fascinating article about robotic tutors and then wrote science fiction stories about a robot tutor. They also read an article about the science of "de-extinction," and are super excited about the possible return of woolly mammoths to planet earth! And each week they look forward to reading the "News In Brief" section of the magazine, which has awesome infographics and short snippets of information.
One of the best things about having Time for Kids in the classroom is that the magazine's content is accessible to all our readers. Even though we are subscribed to the fifth grade edition, kids who are not quite reading on grade level can go to the digital edition and select a simpler (but just as meaty) version of the article. We can download these modified articles and print them out to send home to families, too. And what's more, many of the articles now have a "read aloud" feature where a voice actor (not a computer) reads the article to the student. This has been a huge hit and made TFK homework easier for many families in our class.
Thanks again for bringing this phenomenal resource to our classroom!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Berenblum
This classroom project was brought to life by TIME and 5 other donors.Everybody Needs A Little Help Sometimes
Funded Nov 14, 2015Thank you so much for donating materials that help every student in my classroom to focus on their learning. The small cluster of kids who are working on letter-sound correspondence has been having so much fun in our new phonics center. They play sight word games like Zingo, build words using word tiles, and match vowel sounds to objects using the Vowel Teaching Tubs. These are the sorts of multisensory activities that have been proven to work for kids who have trouble learning to read, and I'm glad they are finally available for our fourth graders! Thank you also for all the fidgets and seating options that now populate our classroom. We had to roll them out slowly because the kids were so excited! By now every child who needs a special kind of meeting area seat, has received one. We've got kids sitting with weighted lap pads, a super-fidgety learner who loves to hold the weighted bunny on his lap and tug its ears, and a bunch of students who know that when they get called to the meeting area, they can grab their special seat and settle in for learning. Thank you for making these moments possible!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Berenblum
Books for Bilingual Brainiacs!
Funded Sep 29, 2015I can't thank you enough for bringing these fantastic books to my students. Since the "Books for Bilingual Brainiacs" came in, the kids have been reading more, and they haven't lost steam. It is such a pleasure to see them discover new corners of the classroom library. Over a period of months, this wonderful influx of books has revealed itself to them. Some kids have discovered a new love for nonfiction thanks to the National Geographic Myths series (in fact, another teacher was so inspired by seeing how much our "reluctant readers" love those books, she wrote her own Donors Choose grant and is now raving about the effect they are having in *her* classroom). The books you brought to my class have been "loaned" from friend to friend, and are now making their way back around the classroom. Every Friday when my co-teacher and I check the kids' reading logs, we find little notes telling us how much this or that book is being enjoyed. Thank you for making these moments possible!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Berenblum
Extra! Extra! Help 4th Graders Read All About It!
Funded May 20, 2015These magazine subscriptions have brought new life to our classroom library. Our students feel that they have a "personal" subscription to Time for Kids! Already they look forward to the arrival of a new TFK issue in their classroom mailboxes. This past week they were disgusted (and thrilled) to learn that space smells like rotting meat, and amazed that the youngest woman billionaire earned her fortune with a blood-testing company. They discovered the meaning of the expression "to play by ear" while reading an article about a music prodigy their age. This group of kids is still exploring our classroom library for the first time, and can't quite believe they can take all these magazines home to enjoy. I can think of a few who are waiting with bated breath until their next opportunity to shop our classroom library, screwing up the courage to pull a coveted magazine off the rack! They are still getting comfortable, and soon they will be sprawled out with the latest Sports Illustrated (Kids) or Ranger Rick on our comfy reading rugs. Thank you for making the ever-renewing happiness of classroom magazines possible for our class!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Berenblum