Past projects 25
We Are All Immigrants
Funded Aug 14, 2018My students are really enjoying their new books! Thank you again for helping our library grow. As a teacher, it is important to me to provide quality literature for my students. Thanks to generous donors in my community, my classroom library is becoming very extensive!
These books about global conflict, immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers have been especially useful to our students as they struggle to understand what is happening to thousands of asylum seekers at the border just 15 miles south of our school. This issue hits close to home for many of them. Some have not been able to travel to Tijuana where they have family because of border closures. Others have family in Central America and are worried about them. Many of my students have gone through the asylum process themselves, and these books are helping them recognize their own experiences in literature and become aware of the many different reasons why people become refugees.
Our new books are available to students during their independent reading time for now, but will play a role later on this year when we begin to study immigration to California and the impact that immigrants have had on our community. I am really excited to provide these materials to my students as supplements to our curriculum.
Thank you, again!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Killeen
Maker Math and Maker Science
Funded May 13, 2018The end of our school year was full of fun and engaging hands on learning, thanks to your generous donations! Simple materials such as straws, cups, beads, and pipe cleaners were all my class needed to get moving and building while thinking about math and science topics.
Students used pipe cleaners and straws to build movable angles, which are so much easier to measure if you're just learning to use a protractor. They also used paper cups, string, and balloons to study sound waves during our last science unit.
In the last few days of school, my students helped to organize and store these materials so that my new 4th grade class will have them readily available to use for math and science all year long.
Thank you so much for contributing to this project!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Killeen
This classroom project was brought to life by San Diego Gas & Electric and 4 other donors.Every Day is Earth Day in Room 8!
Funded Apr 9, 2018I am very excited to inform you that we have received our new books! My students felt so special when dozens of packages were delivered to our door. They had to wait a few days to open them as they arrived in several shipments, but they agreed that it was worth the wait to open them all at once!
We are using many the non-fiction books to teach about informational text. My students read a wide range of levels, so having a variety of books on similar topics allows them to engage in the same activities and discussions while interacting with a book that is suitable for their specific needs. Many of these books connect with our science standards, providing increased access to the the information.
My students follow a Daily 5 schedule every day, meaning that they read to themselves, read to their peers, listen to their teacher read, and work on their vocabulary and writing using information from their chosen book. This collection of new books has become a favorite during Daily 5 time. We haven't organized them into our library yet, but are just leaving them in a neat pile at the front of the room so that students can easily access them when they go to choose a book. It's the most popular place in the room!
Thank you for continuing to support teachers and students. School would not be the same without you!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Killeen
This classroom project was brought to life by San Diego Gas & Electric and 3 other donors.STEM Story To STEM To Story
Funded Oct 2, 2017First of all, my students love books. The simple fact that they have brand new, excellent quality books to read has put them over the moon. They are extra excited about the content of these books as they reflect their favorite subjects- STEM! Thank you so much for giving my students the opportunity to read about STEM, and about the doctors, scientists, engineers, and everyday people who have contributed amazing things to our world. Most of these books feature people my students can relate to- girls who were discouraged from pursuing computer science, kids with ambition but without money for college, regular people who took a risk or overcame challenges to do something great.
These books are opening my students' eyes to what is possible with determination. These books are now available in our classroom library for my students to read whenever they want to, but I am also featuring a new book each morning at our class meeting, to be sure that we have some time for discussion about each topic. We will continue to explore these stories and then add in some STEM projects to go with them, so that we can better understand what the book is saying. And finally, my students will have opportunities to write about these experiences, either in opinion format or in narrative, the two genres of writing we have covered thus far. Thank you again for making learning engaging for my students!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Killeen
This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Donor and 4 other donors.STEM to STEAM: Supplies for Arts Integration
Funded Sep 9, 2017Thank you so much for the STEAM materials that you have provided for my students. You could not imagine the joy in the room as my students opened box after box of brand new art and music supplies. They do not get this opportunity often. They wanted to open everything immediately and get to work! Thanks to your generosity, I have been able to incorporate art lessons to go along with our science topics. We did a lesson on perspective after studying the sense of sight and then did research to make connections between the science and art concepts. We used art supplies to engineer structures with limited resources after learning about how California's native people had to rely on natural resources found in their region. After our winter break, we are going to dive into a music unit that will both supplement our math learning (fractions) and continue to contribute to our study of animal senses. Because of your donation, cross-curricular learning is possible in my classroom and students are being exposed to the creativity that exists in STEM disciplines.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Killeen
This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Donor and 2 other donors.Teaching Tolerance Through Stories
Funded Aug 16, 2017My classroom continues to buzz with excitement everyday during reading time as students get to know their new books. Your donation of books either about diversity or featuring diverse characters has truly helped to expand my classroom library and allow students to see themselves reflected in their reading.
I have had the pleasure of reading a new book to my class every morning at our morning meeting. These stories have made us laugh and cry, and afterward we have important discussions about the lessons they teach us about tolerance and empathy. Students are also using these books for their own personal reading, at times begging me to let them bring them home and show their families that there's a book about a girl who wears a hijab, a boy who likes ballet, a student with autism, a kid just like them.
Additionally, these books are helping students to write our own narratives. We use them as mentor texts for our "stories we wish existed in the world." These books have inspired my students to tell stories that might be difficult to discuss, and helped them to figure out how to make their stories relatable to everyone.
Thank you, again, for your kindness and generosity. Our classroom feels a little more inclusive because of you.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Killeen
This classroom project was brought to life by Sergey Brin Family Foundation and 12 other donors.Gold Star Students Need Gold Rush Novels
Funded Feb 23, 2017Thank you so much for providing a class set of By The Great Horn Spoon for our class. This Gold Rush classic is a staple of the 4th grade curriculum for many teachers. I myself read it in 4th grade, and I was beyond thrilled to be able to share it with my students this year.
Having a class set of the novel allowed my class to dive deeper into the text. This is a difficult book to read, with lots of old-fashioned language and descriptions of things my students know nothing about. They were able to each have their own novel to follow along with, practice reading aloud with, and work in small groups to search for new vocabulary in context and use evidence to support their predictions. They were able to do so much more than just listen to me read, because of your donations.
This story provided a context for our study of the Gold Rush. Throughout our unit, whether we were reading from our social studies book, taking a tour of a real old mining town, or performing a historical play for their families, I constantly heard my students making connections to the story and using it as a reference point for their new information. They got so into the adventure of it, and after we finished the last chapter, the whole class stood up and cheered. It ended exactly the way they wanted it to.
Because of your donation many students in my class had their eyes opened to historical fiction. They were able to identify with the characters and have been asking for more books like this every since! Thank you for helping to encourage a love of reading in our class!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Killeen