Past projects 9
Let's Get Art Smart! Painting with Different Kinds of Paint!
Funded Apr 5, 2025I feel tremendous gratitude at the outpouring of generosity my kids and I have received for this project. I have longed to do a variety of art projects with my students throughout my career, but have been limited by things such as time, lack of materials, and mandated programs that don't take into account the importance of the Humanities in a child's education. As I am retiring this year, it is especially satisfying to be able to fulfill many of my artistic goals before the last bell rings, so to speak. Truly....thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Pace
Learning Sculpture with Foam Carving!
Funded Mar 25, 2025I am flabbergasted at the speed and generosity with which you donated to our project. My students and I are truly touched and cannot wait until we receive our materials and start to create some really cool art! The kids are so excited that they started researching different types of sculpture and have some ideas to start with!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Pace
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 5 other donors.Help Us Express Ourselves with Art!
Funded Mar 23, 2025Thank you so very much for your generosity in contributing to my project. My students and I will tremendously enjoy creating art with the beautiful paint pens and quality paper your donation will provide. It means a lot to me, especially as I end my career, knowing that others care. ❤️”
With gratitude,
Ms. Pace
Personal Interaction in a Digital Classroom is Possible!
Funded Aug 12, 2020The impact of this project was noticeable and positive. After being cooped up in rooms staring at screens and only typing, we all were tired of it. I personally longed to hold a pencil in my hand and be able to write notes to my kids.
Grading a paper is one thing, annotating it and showing examples, especially with math work was exceptionally grueling with only a keyboard to use. Using an Apple pencil and my iPad Pro has given me the ability to have the personal touch again. A little smiley face for encouragement. A corrected math problem. Showing them how to write cursive......these all happened because of your generosity.
In a time of uncertainty in education, having these tools and more importantly, the support of others has meant the world to me.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Pace
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 10 other donors.Help Us Get an Energy EcoSTEM Kit!
Funded Mar 3, 2016My students are eager learners of the 21st century. They are not passive learners...rather, they like to DO things to learn, and boy did this kit help them do just that! They immediately took it apart and configured themselves into groups and started exploring! It wasn't what I had planned, but they were so into it, I just let them go....and honestly, they did more in that short half hour of exploration than I ever could have planned to show them!
My students were floored that people outside of our community would care enough about their education that they would help us and donate. They are used to being cared for by people they know, but it was inconceivable to them that strangers would be this kind. This got us talking about community and our responsibilities to it, which was not only wonderful in and of itself, but also quite related to our science theme.
As for next steps, I intend to use the kit with many of the lessons provided and carve out time for the kids to use it as THEY see fit! They really are excited!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Pace
This classroom project was brought to life by Captain Planet Foundation and 6 other donors.We Need Binoculars to Study Birds of our School Community!
Funded Mar 9, 2016I asked for binoculars because our school sits on land near the ocean and by a freshwater marsh and there is a ton of wildlife to observe. We did a project about birds and studied them and their habitats. We also did an art project that involved details of plants and flowers. Due to the arrival of binoculars for my students, I not only saw a tremendous increase in interest on those two topics, but also noticed that my students' observation skills improved dramatically! Something about them having those lenses, just closed off the rest of the world to them and allowed them to truly look at one thing and to do it in detail. It allowed for them to see in a way they had never seen before and that led to more observations, more and deeper conversations, and a higher quality of writing. I am so eager to use these binoculars with my class this year to not just duplicate the success of last year, but to exceed it.
Truly, these were a blessing and we all appreciate the generosity immensely.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Pace
What Kind of Society Cuts the Arts? Help us Get Supplies!
Funded May 10, 2012I really want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your generosity to my classrooms. While you made this donation many months ago, I have only just now had the opportunity to use the fabulous art materials with my new students in my brand new school! We have used the watercolor pencils many times already, and they really add a punch of color to their projects and are high quality. While they are art materials, I have been able to use them across the curriculum, which is really great. The pictures we have published are of them creating posters of electric circuits that they have been building and studying in Science. They had such a good time and the results were excellent.
Our next project will be with the charcoal. I have begun teaching them to sketch in pencil, and am moving towards shading and value. We will end that exploration with charcoal sketches. We may also attempt self-portraits with the charcoal and compare them to the crayon versions they made earlier in the year. Our really big project will be with the Balsa foam when we work on sculptures. I plan on starting with reliefs, and am currently considering ways to tie that into our History standards. Before we actually use that last precious piece of the Balsa foam, we will practice with soap carvings. We will then finish with a 3D carving of a simple animals, flowers, or masks.
In this age of budget cuts to education, notably the arts, it has become increasingly difficult to teach children the wonder and joy of art.....and because of you, I can do that. I am not tied to simple crayon drawings or tempera or watercolor paintings. Who knows...this could be a turning point for any child who might find their inner artist, or who may find that it is their calling in life. People like you really make a difference, and I am tremendously grateful.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Pace
Help Us Become Published Authors!
Funded Feb 25, 2012This year has been a real struggle for my students and myself. I have a group of nice kids who are woefully behind, not motivated and seem to not see any real joy in learning. In this day and age of testing testing testing, these kids are not succeeding and it seems that it's sucking the very life out of them in terms of even trying. With 20 years experience under my belt, and a fairly larger than life classroom personality, I don't normally have difficulties motivating students or keeping them interested. Until this year. I've tried everything I know, with limited success.
Then you folks came along and made donations.
I don't know if I can explain to you what it did for these kids. Never in their lives had people they never met, people from places they've never been.....done something for them. And they marveled at that. They just couldn't believe that someone would just give money to people they didn't know. It opened up a world of possibilities to them that perhaps they never even thought about. It opened up class conversations about caring for others, taking care of people around you, the joys of volunteering, of community spirit.....it really made a difference.
They may still be behind in their skills, but you gave them something that I could not do inside the 4 walls of my classroom. You gave them hope that there's a world out there that cares, and that they can too. And for that, I thank you.
”
With gratitude,
Ms. Pace
"Yes" We Can! Help Us Publish Our Work!
Funded Mar 3, 2009Thank you so much for your donation! My students love the Yes Paste, and have finished two projects already! We made books about Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny. They were thrilled with the professional quality of the paste, their books to look so much better than the average elementary school project, and it really spurred them to want to do more! Now they beg to make books on other topics.....so in essence, they are begging to be allowed to do research projects! Yay! ”
With gratitude,
Ms. Pace