Past projects 3
Building A Base in Kindergarten!
Funded Sep 19, 2016Dear Donors,
I can't thank you enough for your generosity! I wish you could have been in my classroom when our materials arrived. My students were (and continue to be) so excited to have new learning tools. As soon as our boxes arrived, I opened up the alphabet catch game, and we started a game of catch with the alphabet balls. I played "catcher" using a Velcro mitt. As you can imagine, I had a classroom full of happy 5 year olds, who were not only having fun but also learning their letters.
Because of our new learning materials, I've noticed that my students are more engaged. I've started using the word building materials when meeting with my guided reading groups to help build phonemic awareness and spelling skills. They love being able to move the letters around. I've also used the rhyming puzzles to help students understand the concept of rhyming, which can be tricky for students who are learning English.
Your generosity is also helping my students build their math skills. They love the number beanbags and are proud to name their numbers and put them in order. I've begun to use the pipe cleaners and beads to make number bracelets with my math groups. These help deepen my students' number sense. For example, we make a "10" number bracelet with 10 beads and find different ways to make 10. We've also gone outside to practice writing our numbers on the sidewalk with chalk.
You have made a huge impact on my students' learning and have also shown them that they have people rooting for their success! I am so grateful for your support, as are my students. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Atayev
We Want Bean Bag Chairs!
Funded Aug 24, 2014I continue to be awestruck by the generosity of Donors Choose donors. I am so grateful that others care so much about my students and their learning. My five and six year old students are aware of money matters to the degree that they too are amazed that people who don't know us are willing to give money to help our class. If you could meet my students, they would smother you in hugs!
My students love our new bean bag chairs. Every time they have free time or finish work early, students head over to the bean bag chairs to read in comfort. My students are much more motivated to pick up a book and practice their early reading skills knowing that they can sit on these super cool bean bag chairs. I often notice students who aren't my strongest reading students sitting on one of the bean bag chairs, deeply engaged in a book.
My students are also thrilled to have their own reading bins. Once students are able to independently read a book, I allow them to add it to their book bins. I'm a believer in the saying "perfect practice makes perfect," and I believe that rereading books with which they are comfortable is a great tool for building students' reading fluency and comprehension. My students feel confident when they have books that they can read on their own, and I love having a special spot for each student to find his or her own reading materials. I know that over the course of this year, my students will become more enthusiastic and more skillful readers thanks to the tools you have helped provide.
Reading is vital to my students' academic success. Again, thanks for making a difference in my students' lives by helping them become strong readers.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Atayev
This classroom project was brought to life by Gates Foundation Back To School and 7 other donors.Hey, Who Peed on my Rug?
Funded Jan 30, 2014I wish you could have been in my classroom on the day our rug was delivered. My students were working at their tables when the office called to tell me that I had a delivery. Our custodian brought the rug downstairs to my classroom right away. I thought about waiting until after school to unroll the rug, but our excitement level was too high to wait! There were many "oohs" and "aahhs," before students started telling me which color square they wanted to sit on. We stopped our seat-work to come and sit down on the rug. We love how soft and colorful it is. My classroom is directly attached to two other classrooms without a hall, so students in the other classes walk through to get to their classroom. Right after receiving the rug, another class walked through our room. My students told the other students to be careful with our new rug. They immediately felt responsible for keeping it clean and safe! I noticed more parents walked in with their children the next morning, as students wanted their family members to come and see our new class rug. It really made an impact!
We use our rug throughout the day. We start the morning watching our closed circuit announcements sitting on our carpet seats. Our morning meeting and all of my instruction takes place on the rug. We use manipulatives to work on math problems while sitting on the rug. We read with partners on the rug. We even use clipboards to do independent written work on the rug. The rug is truly the most important part of my classroom, because it is where we learn.
I've noticed a huge difference in my students' learning since receiving our new rug. My students are very proud of our rug and feel responsible for taking care of it. Learning responsibility is an important part of character development, and it is important for them to learn to show respect for objects around them. My students know exactly which square belongs to them, and they make sure to stay inside their own square. This change has made a big impact on classroom management for me. I no longer waste time asking students to scoot this way or that to prevent distractions during learning time. Students each have their own space and stay inside of it. My students listen more closely to my instruction because they aren't distracted by other students being too close to them or by unraveling threads that they can't resist playing with. I don't have to worry about students pulling up masking tape name tags while they should be listening to me. I don't have to mark names on the rug because they square system works perfectly for our seating arrangement. Because we've minimized distractions, we've maximized learning time!
Thank you for making such a positive difference in my classroom and my students' lives!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Atayev