Past projects 66
From Your Fingers to Your Toes: Art Connects Us All
Funded Dec 17, 2024Thank you so very much for all these wonderful supplies! The children loved decorating the bags for their Valentine's Day goodies and are excited to make their moms a special painting for upcoming Mother's Day. We take out a variety of sensory movement activities out on rainy days and Fridays for motor planning skills, and vestibular input. The children wait in line to have a turn to spin on the fish chair! It is one of their favorite centers to be sure! We have had fun taking out the slime and I am surprised by it's quality! It is holding up well, unlike other slime products I have bought in the past. Many hands are enjoying squeezing and pulling and smushing! Thank you again for the care and generosity you have shown my little learners.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ward-Loveland
Catch a Ride on My Taxi Tricycle
Funded Oct 3, 2024Thank you all for your generosity. The children are enjoying taking turns driving and being passengers around the path on the new Taxi Tricycle. It was really touching that so many of the donations were from families of current students. The children gave thank yous to each other as each donation came in and we tracked how close we were to funding the project.
This Taxi Tricycle has really inspired more children to access and engage with this gross motor skill of riding a tricycle around that path. I am inspired by how well the children are doing with taking turns, waiting, and problem solving and compromising as to determine who gets to pedal and steer, and who gets to passenger. They have whole conversations about their plan. I am always amazed by all the things children can learn and teach each other when given different opportunities and a variety of equipment and activities. This continues to be the joy of teaching early childhood. Thank you so much for gifting us such a wonderfully fun tricycle that the children will enjoy for years to come.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ward-Loveland
Light Up My Students’ Lives
Funded Apr 8, 2024Thank you so much for your generosity. Our students have thoroughly enjoyed spending time at our new Light Table center. My students' faces lit up almost as bright as our new table. They love the fade feature where the colors of the light change. We have added a variety of materials to interact with, including sparkly crystals, blue sensory rings, green sensory balls, gel and texture alphabet letters, and more. Lately we have been enjoying color disks and color gel pouches that the children can overlap to observe color mixing.
This light table is going to be a wonderful teaching tool for my students to engage in many cognitive explorations such as exploring light, colors and textures, sensory integration, and cause and effect. It has been on my wish list for quite awhile. Now that we have the table, I am eager to shop and add more wishes for engaging, hands on items that we can include at this center. I am extremely grateful that you have donated and brought this wonderful center to our classroom for my current students and my students for many years to come.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ward-Loveland
This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and 9 other donors.Johnny Works With One Hammer
Funded Dec 16, 2019Thank you so much for the generosity you showed to bring this wish in to a reality in our classroom. The children absolutely love the cozy flexible seating chairs. They're light enough that the kiddos can carry them to the circle time rug or the library. We use them mostly during our book club reading groups and they really help the kiddos have a defined space to stay seated through the duration of the story. Also, the building blocks and photos have been a wonderful tool to use as a culmination of our building study. The children love looking at the details and features of the buildings and then try to recreate them with the snap blocks. Lastly, we have a waiting list, almost everyday for turns to use the magnetic path kit. Thank you again for bringing such fun, hands-on learning to my students!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ward-Loveland
Ring-a-Ding, You're Order's Up!
Funded Aug 14, 2018Oh...my...goodness...have my students been having so much time with these materials! The pretend center has become such a popular interest area that we had to open another one during our outdoor time. The children loved opening their PreK Cafe! We have waitresses and waiters serving food and taking orders. Chefs are making sandwiches, pizza, ice cream for dessert, and of course breakfast is served all day! The pretend center is such a wonderful area of our classroom because all of our learners can access lessons in dramatic play, language, writing, and social emotional development in these activities. Public school teachers really do rely on the generosity of our community to help bring these types of materials to our classrooms. We here at Garvanza truly feel showered with love by all of you who donated and helped to bring these wonderful learning moments to our youngsters. Thank you so much!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ward-Loveland
Lights, Camera, Action
Funded Feb 7, 2017Thank you so much for your generosity in bringing this project to life. From the first day we set up our light table at our discovery interest area, the children have been engaged with the materials and excited to make observations and test their theories out about what will happen with our translucent manipulatives and solid objects. They are enjoying creating new colors, making shadows, and this is just the beginning of their learning about the cause and effect of light. It's so exciting to watch and listen to the ideas that students are coming up with different ways we can learn with our new light table. I know we will have so much fun learning with these materials for years to come.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ward-Loveland
Who’s That Tripping Trapping Across My Bridge?
Funded Aug 27, 2016My students are loving our new teeter totter. We are enjoying using it both inside and outside our classroom. It's a perfect addition to our room on a rainy day. The children enjoy trip trapping across it, pretending to be the Billygoats Gruff, and rocking as they sing "Row, Row, Row, Your Boat." They recently had an idea to add it to their big blocks obstacle course during outdoor time where the children create different paths to cross over, balancing and negotiating different terrains. It is fun to see how many different things the children will "turn" it into. One afternoon the kids turned it in to a restaurant boat. Friends sat inside and pretended to have a picnic lunch together. It's the perfect support for our students who struggle to access some of the other gross motor activities on the playground. Peers can help each other get in the "boat" and get across the bridge. This was one of my favorite pieces of equipment when I was in Kindergarten. I am so grateful that your generosity helped to bring such fun memories to my learners.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ward-Loveland
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 7 other donors.Transition Kindergarten Countdown Begins
Funded Feb 13, 2014Thank you so much for your generosity and support in bringing such fun and interactive materials to my transitional kindergarten students. We used the modeling clay to create these wonderfully colorful dinosaur sculptures for our annual Art Show at Open House. The children were so proud of all their creations. They used all the different colors to create spikes, horns, and clubs on a variety of dinosaurs. The children loved having their own journals to write in each day. Whether is be a simple illustration with labels or filling the pages with detailed sentences, having their very own journal was a motivation for my students to own their writing. I am looking forward to using the sound sifters early next year as we introduce a letter each week. I am grateful for your help to bring such engaging materials to my classroom. Thank you for helping me to make learning fun!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ward-Loveland
This classroom project was brought to life by First 5 LA and 5 other donors.Transition Kindergarten Countdown Begins Part 2
Funded Feb 21, 2014Thank you so much for your generosity. I am so grateful to have received your support in bringing these wonderful educational materials to my students. The bean bags arrived in two enormous boxes and the children couldn't wait to see what was inside. They have definitely provide a cozy spot to sit in our library center. I have placed the snap blocks, twist and turn word builders, and the Look What I Can Do Word Builder Center at my Letters and Words Center. The kids have loved using such interactive tools to build simple words as well as the sight words they are learning each week. Thank you again for helping me to make learning to read fun and engaging for my young learners.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ward-Loveland
This classroom project was brought to life by 100 Women in Hedge Funds and 3 other donors.Writing Down Your Dreams
Funded Sep 11, 2013Thank you for bringing this project to life. My students have really enjoyed having their very own journal to write in and I love having their writing all together. When we get ready to begin work time, I have several students ask me if they can write something down in their journals. We are almost ready to begin to use the journals with more writing space. Something that might seem like such a small thing has become very motivating for my students to fill up their journals with all their ideas, writing practice, and illustrations. Thank you again for donating and supporting my classroom and young learners.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ward-Loveland
This classroom project was brought to life by First 5 LA and 3 other donors.