Past projects 50
Reading Challenge Books
Funded Aug 14, 2024Thank you so much for donating to my project. The twenty books chosen for the current Battle of the Books reading challenge are out in the hands of children who are voraciously reading them and excitedly sharing their love of the books with me when they finish reading one. The reading challenge kicked off in September and I am happy to report that more teams than last year are participating. I have also expanded the opportunity to both of the elementary schools that I serve in our district. The increase in participation and continued enthusiasm for the opportunity warms my heart as a literacy coach!
Your donation has made it possible to push students to read new genres and engage with books in new ways with their teammates. The students are also learning valuable problem solving skills as each team navigates reading all of the books in the challenge and preparing for the Battles which will take place in February.
I appreciate your support in fostering a love of reading for students and helping to encourage a friendly competitive reading opportunity for readers that need an extra challenge and an opportunity to expand outside of their normal reading comforts.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Schmidt
This classroom project was brought to life by The Gates Foundation and 2 other donors.Battle of the Books
Funded Aug 3, 2023Thank you so much for helping to fund my project. The books have been processed for checking out and Battle of the Books teams are being formed. Students are getting started with their reading and are so excited to embark on this fun reading challenge.
It warms my heart to see teammates huddled together in the morning talking about their books and sharing their reading progress with each other. I love to see the students' enthusiasm when they bring me a signed slip after finishing a book and discussing it with an adult.
Thank you for helping to foster a love of reading in my students and exposing them to new books and genres. The children are definitely practicing their reading skills, but they are also learning other valuable life lessons through working together as a team.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Schmidt
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 2 other donors.Global Read Aloud and Battle of the Books
Funded Sep 23, 2022Thank you so much for donating to my project. The books in this collection are being used for a fun reading challenge with fourth and fifth grade students. Right now they are reading like crazy to get as many books as possible read by our first battle.
At the beginning of February the students will be answering questions about each book to earn points for their team. The students are having amazing conversations around the texts as they prepare and are really challenging each other to remember many details. I am confident they will have a lot of fun as we begin a series of four battles over the course of a month to determine our Battle of the Books winner for this year.
I appreciate you support in helping me secure books for my students to use for the reading challenge.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Schmidt
Battle of the Books Library
Funded Sep 24, 2021Thank you so much for donating to this project. We have officially kicked off the competition for this year. The students have formed teams and are busy reading the twenty books on the challenge list. It is so much fun to see them checking out Battle books. The conversations that they have about the books while they wait in line are priceless. The students are meeting and falling in love with new characters and authors, which is heartwarming!
I love the team effort and relationship building that this challenge fosters. I have been watching three students develop a new friendship because of this challenge. Not only are these students growing as readers, but they are also growing socially as well.
Thank you so much for helping me to foster a love for reading, new friendships, and a friendly competitive spirit within our school building. I am excited to see the students "battle" one another once they are finished reading all of the books.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Schmidt
Global Read Aloud Books
Funded Aug 13, 2021Thank you so much for donating to this project. I am using these books to support literacy instruction in many classrooms throughout our school. The younger grades are doing an author study of Duncan Tonathiuh while also learning important reading strategies with the picture books. In the older grades we are exploring the genre of fantasy through the novels Dragons in a Bag and The Jumbies. Students at all levels are enjoying the books and are very engaged with our activities.
The students are having some amazing conversations during our time together and are enjoying making connections with others across the globe who are also reading the same books. I am not in their classrooms all the time, so it is really interesting to hear the connections students are making in our discussions with other topics they are learning about. It is also fun to see the transfer of skills from the instruction their classroom teacher is providing as they make connections with our global read aloud books.
Thank you for helping me providing this enrichment opportunity for students in my school. We are all loving the books and our time together to learn about new authors and genres while making connections with other students and the world.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Schmidt
This classroom project was brought to life by Bill Gates and 2 other donors.Biography Books
Funded May 4, 2021Thank you for helping us add more biographies to our classroom library. My students enjoyed reading these books and learning about important men and women who have had an impact on history.
One of my favorite parts about teaching biographies is listening to children pull out important events from a person's life and sharing it with their reading partner. It always amazes me what a student finds to be interesting or significant. I also love learning more about important historical figures as we talk about the books they are reading during our small groups or conferences. My students never fail to open my eyes to new information in this unit as we work on our nonfiction reading skills.
I appreciate you assistance in providing my classroom with a wide variety of literature for students to use during our reading workshop time.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Schmidt
This classroom project was brought to life by SONIC Drive-In and one other donor.Nonfiction Animal Books
Funded May 9, 2021Thank you for donating to this project. We used these books in a nonfiction research unit to learn about different animals. The focus of the unit was to use nonfiction text features to help us with our research. We also did some work with comparing and contrasting two animals, specifically working on how to write in a compare and contrasting manner.
My students really enjoyed learning about animals. It was interesting to discover how much two animals that seemed very different from one another had in common with each other. It was fun to listen to the students talk with one another about the similarities and differences between the animals. I learned just as much as they did during these discussions!
Thank you for helping me to secure quality books for my students to use for their research. It is so helpful to have materials by the same author and in the same basic format to help guide children as they are learning how to be researchers.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Schmidt
Human Body Books
Funded May 4, 2021Thank you so much for your donation to this project. My students absolutely loved reading the books about the different systems within the human body. This was our second nonfiction research project for the year. The children did a nice job applying their research skills and also learned how to analyze their notes so that they could compare and contrast two body systems.
The best part of this unit was the daily sharing of facts about the new information they had read during independent work time. I definitely learned a ton of new information about our amazing bodies through our discussions each day at the end of workshop.
We ended the unit by using our computer skills to work collaboratively in teams to create a presentation that compared two body systems.
I truly appreciate your support to help me provide engaging nonfiction literature for my students to practice their reading skills.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Schmidt
This classroom project was brought to life by SONIC Drive-In and 2 other donors.Social Issue Text Sets
Funded Mar 16, 2021Thank you so much for donating to my project to purchase social issue novels for my students to read. They really enjoyed the books and became so much more aware of the social issues that are present in our communities. The best part of this unit is seeing their learning transfer even after we are done with the unit. I have students almost daily sharing with me the social issues they are reading about in their current novels or being excited to point out a social issue in a shared text we are reading.
My students read these novels in book clubs and also had an opportunity to practice discussing books. As we near the end of the school year it amazes me how little support they need from me to be able to discuss their novels. I enjoyed this unit because I could teach my students how to take their discussion to the next level and explore new ideas other than story elements, by focusing on the significance of a character's actions or what they say. We also started to explore theme and the life lessons authors want us to learn from the books we read.
I appreciate your support to help me provide my readers with quality literature to help them grow and develop into life long readers and learners.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Schmidt
This classroom project was brought to life by Herb Kohl Philanthropies and 2 other donors.Mystery Text Set
Funded Jan 27, 2021Thank you so much for donating to my project to help me purchase mystery books for our classroom. These books were used to teach fiction reading skills as well as introduce the mystery genre to my students.
We started this unit during a period of virtual instruction and I dressed up in a detective costume to kick off the unit. I made a big deal about having to put on our "detective hats" and read with great care to look for clues to solve the mysteries before the detectives in our books did. My favorite part of this entire unit was once we got back into the classroom, I actually saw students putting on their pretend detective hats when they started reading their mystery books.
My students really enjoyed reading the mysteries and did become quite good at putting the clues together to solve the mystery in the book. Once we were back in the classroom they really enjoyed our daily share time where they could discuss the clues they had gathered and the connections they were making.
Thank you for helping me inspire my readers and cultivate a passion for new reading adventures.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Schmidt
This classroom project was brought to life by SONIC Drive-In and 3 other donors.