Past projects 14
The Magic of Osmo in Tele-Therapy!
Funded Dec 10, 2020The generous donations to this project made it possible for me to get an Osmo to use with my students in the therapy room. Working with students in a high need area presents many unique challenges on a daily basis. The majority of the students I work with are learning English as a second language, struggle with phonemic awareness and comprehension skills and have a limited vocabulary. This makes many academic tasks very challenging for them and I am constantly looking for new ways to present information so it is fun and engaging; having these new activities in my therapy room will definitely assist with that.
The resources that were purchased thanks to your donations through DonorsChoose have supported my students while they continue to improve their overall language skills, especially: their early language skills.
The interactive learning activities and games that come with Osmo have really helped keep learning fun in the therapy room. Osmo gives them the opportunity to practice letters, follow directive and learn new words in fun and engaging ways. Keeping them engaged and excited about the task is very important, especially when practicing new skills. Unfortunately, due to COVID 19 I have not been able to use Osmo nearly as much as I would like with my students. However, I am so excited to learn more about it with my students and incorporate it more regularly into my lessons.
I am so grateful for your support! I really appreciate knowing there are so many people who care about my students. Thanks again for your generous donations; and helping me make this crazy school year fun and successful.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Adinolfi
This classroom project was brought to life by FamilyAlbum and 4 other donors.Enhancing Early Language Skills Is Key!
Funded Jun 11, 2020The generous donations to this project made it possible for me to get lots of fun and interactive resources to use with my students in the therapy room. Working with students in a high need area presents many unique challenges on a daily basis. The majority of the students I work with are learning English as a second language, struggle with phonemic awareness and comprehension skills and have a limited vocabulary. This makes many academic tasks very challenging for them and I am constantly looking for new ways to present information so it is fun and engaging; having these new activities in my therapy room will definitely assist with that.
The resources that were purchased thanks to your donations through DonorsChoose have supported my students while they continue to improve their overall language skills, especially: their early language skills. They also have the opportunity to work on their social emotional skills, including identifying feelings on themselves and others.
These interactive learning activities have really helped keep learning fun in the therapy room. The students have been so excited to use our new materials. They have been having a great time using the puzzles to learn about and review the seasons. The season puzzles show them visuals for each season which help the students make connections to real life. Having the manipulative has also helped keep them engaged and attending to task. The feelings puzzles and monsters have been perfect for helping them learn about their own emotions and the emotions of others. They love being able to "fish" for sight words, this makes reading a lot more fun for them. Keeping them engaged and excited about the task is very important when practicing new skills.
I am so grateful for your support! I really appreciate knowing there are so many people who care about my students. Thanks again for your generous donations; they will really help make of our school year fun and successful.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Adinolfi
Read Today, Lead Tomorrow!
Funded Jan 14, 2020The generous donations to this project made it possible for me to get lots of fun and interactive resources to use with my students in the therapy room. Working with students in a high need area presents many unique challenges on a daily basis. The majority of the students I work with are learning English as a second language, struggle with phonemic awareness and comprehension skills and have a limited vocabulary. This makes many academic tasks very challenging for them and I am constantly looking for new ways to present information so it is fun and engaging; having these new activities in my therapy room will definitely assist with that.
The resources that were purchased thanks to your donations through DonorsChoose have supported my students while they continue to improve their overall language skills, especially: reading, and writing skills. They also have the opportunity to work on their cognitive skills with these materials, especially their ability to understand and retell a story.
These interactive learning activities have really helped keep learning fun in the therapy room. The students have been so excited to use our new materials. They have been having a great time using the story manipulative to help them comprehend and retell a text. Additionally, I have been using the category sorting to work on identifying, labeling and sorting items. Having various manipulatives has also helped me keep the students engaged and attending to task throughout therapy sessions. The magnetic animals have also been a big hit; my students get so excited when I pull them out. I have been using them to work on yes/no questions and pragmatic skills in a fun and engaging way. My students have also been really enjoying the Power Pen cards focused consonants, short vowels and blends & digraphs, it has been a great way to address their phonological awareness skills while keeping them excited and motivated about the task.
I am so grateful for your support! I really appreciate knowing there are so many people who care about my students. Thanks again for your generous donations; they have really helped make the end of our school year fun and successful.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Adinolfi
This classroom project was brought to life by An anonymous classroom supporter and 10 other donors.I Learn Best When I Can Use My Hands!
Funded Oct 14, 2019The generous donations to this project made it possible for me to get lots of fun and interactive resources to use with my students in the therapy room. Working with students in a high need area presents many unique challenges on a daily basis. The majority of the students I work with are learning English as a second language, struggle with phonemic awareness and comprehension skills and have a limited vocabulary. This makes many academic tasks very challenging for them and I am constantly looking for new ways to present information so it is fun and engaging; having these new activities in my therapy room will definitely assist with that.
The resources that were purchased thanks to your donations through DonorsChoose have supported my students while they continue to improve their overall language skills, especially: reading, and writing skills. They also have the opportunity to work on their cognitive skills with these materials, especially their ability to understand and retell a story.
These interactive learning activities have really helped keep learning fun in the therapy room. The students have been so excited to use our new materials. They have been having a great time using the story manipulative to help them comprehend and retell a text. Additionally, I have been using the manipulatives to work on labeling items and as visual prompts to help them recall information. Having the manipulatives has also helped me keep the students engaged and attending to task. The Story Wands have also been a big hit; my students get so excited when I pull them out. Using the wands has been a really fun way to get the students to respond to questions and ask questions to their peers. My students have also been really enjoying the Launch and Learn rhyming game and the Magnetic Sound Sorting Boards it has been a great way to address their phonological awareness skills while keeping them excited and engaged in the task.
I am so grateful for your support! I really appreciate knowing there are so many people who care about my students. Thanks again for your generous donations; they have really helped make the end of our school year fun and successful.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Adinolfi
This classroom project was brought to life by Volkswagen.Social Emotional Awareness to Build a Resilient Classroom!
Funded May 6, 2019Thank you so much for your generous donations! The donations I received allowed me to attended a Mindspark conference in Boston. The conference was focused on social emotional learning, which is something that is so important in order for students to feel safe and reach their full potential. The conference focused on strategies I can use for myself in addition to things I can use in the classroom. The strategies that I have learned will help me provide my students with an environment that is accepting and comforting. Putting more focused o on social emotional skills in my classroom will allow me to create a space where students can learn and grow.
During the seminar I learned how to recognize when my students may be going through a difficult time or situation and help them work with their emotions. The skills I have learned will also help me to rationalize, understand and be more compassionate about what students may be experiencing inside and outside of the classroom. Additionally, I now have strategies that will be helpful when there is a need to de- escalate a situation.
I am grateful that I received your support to attended this workshop and believe that the skills I have learned will help make me a more effective educator.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Adinolfi
This classroom project was brought to life by Morgridge Family Foundation and 4 other donors.Interactive Language Activities to Keep Learning Fun!
Funded Mar 8, 2019The generous donations to this project made it possible for me to get lots of fun and interactive resources to use with my students in the therapy room. Working with students in a high need area presents many unique challenges on a daily basis. The majority of the students I work with are learning English as a second language, struggle with phonemic awareness and comprehension skills and have a limited vocabulary. This makes many academic tasks very challenging for them and I am constantly looking for new ways to present information so it is fun and engaging; having these new activities in my therapy room will definitely assist with that.
The resources that were purchased thanks to your donations through DonorsChoose have supported my students while they continue to improve their overall language skills, especially: reading, and writing skills. They also have the opportunity to work on their cognitive skills, including direction following and sequencing, their knowledge of prepositions and their ability to understand and retell a story.
These interactive learning activities have really helped keep learning fun in the therapy room. The students have been so excited to use our new materials. They have been having a great time using the story manipulative to help them comprehend and retell a text. Having the manipulative has also helped keep them engaged and attending to task. The 3 and 4 piece letter puzzles have been perfect for helping them with their blending skills. They love doing the puzzles and the visuals provide support, this makes reading a little easier and a lot more fun for them. The stack and build phonics activities have also been great to practice phoneme manipulation skills. It has different levels so it can meet the needs of most of my students. They really enjoy being able to have the manipulative and stack the pieces. It also helps them understand how they can change letters to make new words.
I am so grateful for your support! I really appreciate knowing there are so many people who care about my students. Thanks again for your generous donations, they have really helped make the end of our school year fun and successful.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Adinolfi
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose.org Community and 7 other donors.Printing to Learn!
Funded Dec 18, 2018This project allowed me to get new ink for the printer in my therapy room. Having a printer in the therapy room allows me to constantly adapt lessons and materials based on individual needs of my students. It also allows me to adjust lessons based on student's interests. My students come from grades K-5 with diverse backgrounds, which means I constantly need to adjust and create lessons and materials that will keep my students engaged. Having a printer with ink on hand allows activities and goals to be changed simply based on the type of day the student is having. Having constant access to the printer also allows me to provide consistent practice and carryover of target skills. Being able to print an activity focused on a specific skill at the end of the therapy session allows me to provide the most effective and accurate support reflecting exactly what the student demonstrated during the session. Additionally, having a printer on hand provides the opportunity for letters and progress notes to be sent to parents regularly. Keeping in contact with parents is very important for the success of the students.
One of my students is struggling with his reading skills and is significantly below grade level in reading. One of his weaknesses is his sight word knowledge. At the end of one of my speech sessions I decided to type a letter to send home in his backpack. This letter explained to mom the difficulty, the target words to practice, a suggested way to practice them and my goal time frame for him learning the words. The following week the student came in and was able to read 90% of the target words. He told me that he had been practicing with his mom every night. I was so proud of him and it was obvious that he was proud of himself! This is one great example of how having constant access to a printer allows me to keep in contact with parents and provide valuable materials to my students very quickly.
I am so appreciative of the donations I received. Knowing that there are people that want to support my classroom and believe in my students is really inspiring. Receiving new ink for my printer allows me to provide my students with materials and information that allows them to be successful throughout the school year.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Adinolfi
Scholastic Storyworks for Successful Speech!
Funded Mar 27, 2018The generous donations to this project provided me with a Scholastic Storyworks subscription and some new books and games for my classroom. Working with students in a high need area presents many unique challenges on a daily basis. A significant number of the students I work with are learning English as a second language and have language delays. The majority of them also have a limited vocabulary. This leads them to struggle with comprehension skills, which makes many academic tasks very challenging for them. I am constantly looking for new ways to present information so it is fun and engaging; having Scholastic Storyworks in my therapy room is definitely assisting with that.
Scholastic Storyworks focuses on improving students reading comprehension and critical thinking skills, it has questions to think about as the students read and it reviews key vocabulary words. The Storyworks magazine practices a different skill with each story, including problem and solution, comparing and contrasting, character traits, inferencing, opinion writing and summarizing. Practicing these skills is very important for my students with language delays and Storyworks has given me a fun and interesting way to do it.
A major strength of the program is the online resources. Scholastic provides vocabulary slide shows with visuals, audio of the text, videos and worksheets that are scaffolded to best meet my student's needs. It provides them with templates and guided questions as they practice skills such as, summarizing, comparing and contrasting and identifying problems and solution. My students find the audio and visuals extremely engaging and are always asking to watch or listen to something else. Additionally, the worksheets and activities are created in a way that my students can understand and be successful which is extremely important for them. I think using Storyworks with my students will really help them stay engaged and help them to enjoy reading and working with texts. I am really excited to continue to use this resource next year.
This project also gave me Sight Word Zingo and Obstacles. Anything like a game is always a huge hit in the therapy room and my students absolutely love these new ones. Zingo has been great quick and easy way to practice sight words with my younger students. I am often teaching phonemic awareness skills; however, limited knowledge of sight words typically holds them back from progressing through reading levels. Playing Zingo at the end of therapy sessions has increased my student's expose to and knowledge of sight words in a fun way!
Obstacles has been great to work on creative thinking and problem solving with my older students. Obstacles is a game of imaginative problem solving and focuses on cooperative play. In this game the students are presents with a problem and a "tool," which is typically something silly and unrelated. The students have to come up with a creative way to use the tool to solve the problem. This has been fun and extremely valuable for my students because many of them think very literally and struggle with creative skills. This game forces them to be creative in ways they don't even realize. They are always engaged when playing this game and find it very funny; they don't even realize that they are working on their speech goals!
I am so grateful for the donations that allowed me to receive Storyworks and some new games for my therapy room. I am so excited to have new resources to use with my students. Having people support my therapy room and believe in my students is really inspiring. Thank you again for your generous donations!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Adinolfi
This classroom project was brought to life by Ripple and one other donor.Fundations to Improve Foundational Skills for Classroom Success!
Funded Dec 14, 2017This project provided me with the Fundations Level 1 program. The Fundations program focuses on phonemic awareness skills, phonics/word study skills, knowledge of high frequency words, fluency, vocabulary, handwriting and spelling skills. My goal is to use this program to help my students advance their reading and spelling skills. These are skills that many of my students demonstrate extreme difficulty with. I have only been using this program for the past few weeks; however, even in that short amount of time I have found it to be very successful for the majority of my students who struggle with their phonemic awareness skills.
A strength of the Fundations Level 1 program is the letter cards. The letter cards in this program have both the upper and lowercase letter, along with a picture to help the students recall the sound. I have found that the picture is extremely helpful for some of my students who demonstrated significant difficulty recalling sounds. This program also has vowel prolongation strips, which gives the students the opportunity to identify the letter and trace their finger along a curve line while they prolong the initial sound of the target picture for each of the vowels. Vowel sounds present some of the biggest challenges for my students; I have found these charts extremely helpful when the students are recalling vowel sounds. I often see my students looking up at the posters when writing and reading words, which shows me that they understand the concepts and are using the resources around them to be successful.
Fundations also comes with small letter cards, which I have used to provide an interactive experience for my students during speech. I have magnets on the back of each letter and have the cards placed on my magnet wall. My students use these letter cards to practice encoding and decoding words. They also practice phoneme manipulation and creating rhyming words. The best part of this is that having these letters on the wall allows them to stand up and move around while they work, which keeps them engaged and attending to the task. Now a lot of my students are always requesting to practice their sounds when they enter the speech room!
In just the short time I have been using Fundations I have found it to be extremely successful and I cannot wait to continue to watch my students grow as the year progresses. Additionally, I am excited to improve my own knowledge of the program as I continue to use it in my therapy room.
Thank you for your continued support to my classroom, I am so appreciative of the donation I received. Knowing that there are people that want to support my classroom and believe in my students is really inspiring. I believe that this program will help me provide my students with some of the resources they need to continue their success throughout the school year.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Adinolfi
The "Recipe for Reading" Success!
Funded Oct 31, 2017This project allowed me to get additional materials for the Recipe for Reading program; which is the program I have been using to enhance my students reading skills. I have been working with the Recipe for Reading program since March of 2017; when I was trained in the program and received some of the materials to use with my students. Over the past few months I have found that my students are very successful with this program. This program also makes it easy to integrate additional strategies into the lessons, (for example body motions) that help my students recall and retain information. Some of the major benefits are the fact that it includes both encoding (writing) and decoding (reading) into each lesson. It also provides CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words and phrases into the lessons from the very beginning. I have found that this allows my students to be successful and see the improvements they are making right at the start of the program. The donations from this project allowed me to order additional focused readers that support the program. The readers for this program are in a sequence based on how the sounds are taught and each reader only includes concepts that have already been taught. This gives the students the opportunity to start reading and testing out their newly acquired skills right off the bat. It also allows the program to adapt to each grade that I work with (K-5).
I have one student who has been a great example of the success I have seen using this program; this student went from a level B reader to a level M reader in just a few months. When a student is able to make improvements like that you see a major change in them in all areas. Suddenly they are more confident in their abilities, they are more social and willing to participate in the classroom and open to trying new things. As a child's reading level improves they become more successful in all areas both inside and outside of the school environment. This is one of the reasons I felt having additional materials for the Recipe for Reading program was important. Thanks to your generous donations my students and I now have access to all of the program materials.
As my students are excelling through the program I found myself needing additional readers and workbooks in order to reinforce the skills I was teaching them. Through the generous donations to this project I have now received readers and workbooks for the higher level skills. I am extremely grateful because having these materials will allow my students to continue their success.
I am so appreciative of the donations I received. Knowing that there are people that want to support my classroom and believe in my students is really inspiring. Receiving additional Recipe for Reading materials allows me to provide my students with some of the materials they need to continue their reading success throughout the school year.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Adinolfi