Past projects 40
Battle of the Books 2025-2026!
Funded Apr 9, 2025Thank you so much for helping fund our project! I can't believe how fast this was funded, all thanks to you. You all are the best. The kids are going to be so excited when these books start rolling in over the coming days. We're going to get book clubs started right away with them. Thank you again!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Cooke
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 3 other donors.Food For Hungry Kids!
Funded Sep 9, 2024Thank you again for helping make this project a reality. Those kids were so excited when that food came... and it kept coming... and coming... Man, we had so much food. Every child was well-fed every day. Food scarcity is definitely an issue for some of these students, and it wasn't when all that food was here. There were smiles all around and amazing choices for them to feast on.
The food is now gone, but the memories are still there. I have a feeling that this will stick in their minds for years to come: Mr. Cooke's daily smorgasbord. What shall I have today? Thank you again from the kids and me! :)”
With gratitude,
Mr. Cooke
The Best Books for the Best Kids
Funded May 7, 2024Since these books arrived, my students have been devouring them. There are so many great ones it's hard to decide where to start. Dog Man and Diary of a Wimpy Kid books are always out in the room circulating, and I'm pretty sure if I let them, they would happily be reading those all day. Of course, I try to make sure to have them switch it up a little bit from those when possible.
That's when book clubs come in. I haven't had a group read Harry Potter for quite a few years I believe. I'm thinking that's probably because my copies were so old. All of a sudden a group is reading it! I don't think I've ever had a group read Pendragon, but now one is reading it for book clubs. Multiple students have been flying through the Wild Robot series. One student has jumped on everything I've already mentioned plus read Wonder (which you should read if you haven't). I think the only one I haven't mentioned is the Secret Series, which I'm sure will get discovered soon enough.
Thank again for so thoughtfully helping our classroom out. It's been a game changer in here and we really appreciate you!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Cooke
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and one other donor.Food Matters
Funded May 12, 2024My kids have been absolutely loving these snacks. Every day when we come in from our morning recess, almost all of them ask politely if they have have a snack from our new snack bar. They have been super excited to see all of their options every day, as I'm always refilling our box with different additions. It was pretty shocking, even for me, to see new boxes arriving every day with different healthy snacks. Their mornings are pretty long before lunch, and halfway through the morning they definitely are getting tired. I've realized that I should probably make this a pretty regular thing, as these snacks seem to really energize them. I've been impressed with their newfound stamina. Thank you so much!!!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Cooke
Oregon Battle of the Books 2025!
Funded Mar 15, 2024My students have already had multiple book clubs after reading some of these new, powerful books. It's so fun to watch them talk about the books after reading them. The conversations they have are so impressive for only being between 9 and 11 years old. You would be impressed! Some students are also reading some of them independently as well. We have some avid readers in here who are VERY excited about these books!
I'm also really excited about some of my more reluctant readers. I'm hoping that some of them will be spurred on by having already read some of these Battle of the Books books to read more of them and join a team next year. Thank you so much for giving them this opportunity!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Cooke
Amazing Math Apps!
Funded Aug 2, 2023Many of the teachers in my school continue to have our students play these math games every day to work on their math facts and fraction abilities. It's so fun to watch the growth the students make. I have a few kids who struggled to make growth last year in them but are now flourishing and improving quickly in them, especially with Reflex Math, the one to help you learn your math facts. If you don't have your math facts down once you leave elementary school, when are you going to learn them? It is such a crucial part of one's growth as a mathematician. It makes everything else so much easier, and thanks to your generosity, so many more kids will leave our school with their facts down.
Another big part of being a mathematician is having confidence. Fractions often can make or break a kid's confidence. With Frax, I'm finding every student is way more confident with their fraction abilities because the game is so engaging and lays it all out in such a clear way for them. Thanks so much for being such a big part of their growth as mathematicians!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Cooke
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 29 other donors.Oregon Battle of the Books Competition
Funded Apr 12, 2023My students and I are so grateful that you gave your hard-earned money to help buy these books. I've read many of them already and they are all so great for different reasons. Some are great for struggling readers (graphic novels and lower-level books) while others are exciting and deep for higher readers.
We have another teacher who also got multiple copies of each book and we have been able to combine them together for some book clubs. My best book club conversation this year happened thanks to one of these books, The Lion of Mars. The students and I had an awesome talk about it when we finished it. We were all so excited to talk about it because the book is so good!
I know multiple students in my class are going to do Battle of the Books in part because we have these books in the classroom and they were drawn to them. Thank you again for your generosity!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Cooke
Pokémon Decks for Some Reading and Math Fun!
Funded Oct 25, 2022Thank you so much for donating to our Pokémon club. This has not only been fun for our lunchtime club, but it's also been a nice thing to have for indoor recesses or parties we've had. I have fun once a week battling a student and watching their reading and math abilities grow. Their ability to add, subtract, and multiply by 10's grows quickly as all attacks are by multiples of ten. It's also really fun to watch their strategic thinking grow as well. At first they just wanted to play the "cutest" Pokémon, but then they realize that's not going to get the win for them. Thank you again! :)”
With gratitude,
Mr. Cooke
Oregon Battle of the Books
Funded Nov 2, 2022Thank you so much for helping us purchase these new books for our classroom. So many students have already been reading and enjoying these books since they were all required reading for Oregon Battle of the Books (OBOB). I have read a couple myself and enjoyed them immensely. Since OBOB is a schoolwide event, your purchase helped other classrooms as well since kids all over would come and check them out.
While OBOB is now over, these books will continue to live on in our classroom library and I look forward to recommending them for years to come to different students. Thank you again!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Cooke
More Math Games?! Cool!
Funded Aug 17, 2022I love watching my students improve drastically at things and happily thrive. Reflex Math is one of the ways they have been doing this. They are quickly improving on their math facts and having fun doing it. I run them through all of their addition and subtraction facts first. Most of them have done that and moved onto their multiplication and division facts. I have 8 students who have mastered all of those facts. After that I ask them to do Reflex only once a week, but many of them do it more because they enjoy it so much.
In February our Frax subscription is going to start and the students are going to be really excited about that once they see it. It'll also be a perfect time for that to start since that's when we'll be starting our fractions unit. Thank you for making math so enjoyable for us and our whole school!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Cooke