You're on track to get doubled donations (and unlock a reward for the colleague who referred you). Keep up the great work!
Take credit for your charitable giving! Check out your tax receipts
To use your $50 gift card credits, find a project to fund and we'll automatically apply your credits at checkout. Find a classroom project
Skip to main content

Help teachers & students in your hometown this season!
Use code HOME at checkout and your donation will be matched up to $100.

Mrs. Barraza's Classroom

  • Grape Street Elementary School
  • Los Angeles, CA
  • Nearly all students from low‑income households Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more

Support her classroom with a gift that fosters learning.

  • Monthly
  • One-time

We'll charge your card today and send Mrs. Barraza a DonorsChoose gift card she can use on her classroom projects. Starting next month, we'll charge your card and send her a DonorsChoose gift card on the 17th of every month.

Edit or cancel anytime.

cancel

Support Mrs. Barraza's classroom with a gift that fosters learning.

  • Monthly
  • One-time

We'll charge your card today and send Mrs. Barraza a DonorsChoose gift card she can use on her classroom projects. Starting next month, we'll charge your card and send her a DonorsChoose gift card on the 17th of every month.

Edit or cancel anytime.

Give to a project to support this classroom.

Your custom url is https://www.donorschoose.org/mrs-barraza

show projects from all time

Past projects 50

  • Let's Practice Our Blend Skills

    Funded Oct 29, 2024

    My students were really excited when the various magnets arrived. Having a picture to reference when they need to spell a word has brought joy to this skill. They say the name of the object, count the sounds, write the spelling for the sound and finally write the word. It's a long process at first but once they get the hang of it, they will knock it out of the park.

    Having various magnets with different spelling patterns has been helpful especially since I have a lot of groups at different reading levels. I sort out the magnets and give them to my students to write the word. They also help my students by segmenting the sounds the word makes. These magnets have been a lifesaver and engaging for my students to use.

    Thank you again for your generosity and support towards my students' reading success.”

    With gratitude,

    Mrs. Barraza

  • Building Foundational Skills

    Funded Dec 3, 2024

    Thank you for your support and generosity. My biggest struggle with helping my older students learn the alphabet (letter sound correspondence) is having various resources for Phonemic Awareness. With Bridging the Gap book and alphabet cards, I am able to do quick Phonemic Awareness lessons and use the alphabet cards to help them close the reading gaps they may have. The skills they learn will help them manipulate sounds in words, which will help them decode multisyllabic words.

    The cards help my students remember the sounds the letters make. The card set includes various spelling patterns that most alphabet cards sets don't.

    Thank you again for your generosity and support towards my students' reading success.”

    With gratitude,

    Mrs. Barraza

  • Growing in Phonemic Awareness Knowledge

    Funded Jul 16, 2024

    Thank you for the opportunity to receive the IMSE Phonemic Awareness training. I learned how to properly assess my students to help them acquire the foundational skills they need to learn how to read. I also learned different activities to do with them to help them acquire those skills.

    My students require various modifications to be able to learn to read. With the training, I learned that I can use manipulatives to help them learn. I used sand to help them use their tactile senses to learn the letter-sound correspondence. I use pop-it fidgets to help them segment words into sounds.

    Overall, this training has helped guide my instruction to help my students become successful readers. Thank you for your generosity and support.”

    With gratitude,

    Mrs. Barraza

  • Mid-Year Refill for Small Groups

    Funded Sep 30, 2024

    With the materials from this project, I have been able to support my students academic success. While we read our stories, they highlight any high frequency words. This helps them to see that passages are made up of regular and irregularly spelled words that they need to know how to read. With the color pencils, my students are able to use them on drawings for fun Fridays. On fun Fridays, we illustrate the images from our stories we read during the week and they get to use them on drawings that we make for the spelling of the week. Thank you again for your donation and support towards our classroom.”

    With gratitude,

    Mrs. Barraza

  • Tech to Read

    Funded Dec 2, 2024

    I am beyond the moon happy that my project was funded. I truly appreciate your generosity. My students will be able to practice the skills that they are learning in small groups with me. With technology, they can get online and look at videos to reinforce their newly-found skills. They can go onto the different applications that the Amazon Kindle offers to help them read. They can listen to and read stories at the touch of an application. Thank you again for your generosity and support towards helping my students become better readers.”

    With gratitude,

    Mrs. Barraza

  • Setting Financial Habits Early

    Funded Sep 30, 2024

    I truly appreciate your support of my classroom. My students are excited to see their points improve as they make good group choices with me. They get points for attending and participating in my class. I can add points to an application on the Apple iPad. They are adding points to receive different prizes at the end of the quarter. Their hard work is paying off, and they are learning to be better readers. I can also communicate with parents about how their child is doing, and they can communicate with me.

    My students are learning to make good choices and can share their progress with their families. Thank you again for your support.”

    With gratitude,

    Mrs. Barraza

    This classroom project was brought to life by Charles Schwab Foundation and one other donor.
  • Let's Morph My Learning with Morphology

    Funded Jul 16, 2024

    My students are learning more and more every day. With the help of IMSE Morphology training, my students can break apart words based on the lessons we are learning. They can find the root word and break it apart to find out its meaning.

    It's incredible how different programs can profoundly affect how my students learn. I knew this training would be a great addition to my teacher toolbox, but I underestimated how it would help my students.

    Thank you again for supporting my classroom and helping my students become better readers.”

    With gratitude,

    Mrs. Barraza

  • Let's Get Organized

    Funded Aug 18, 2024

    Thank you for supporting my classroom and my students. They will be able to learn to be more organized by learning in my class where they need to put their materials. They will be able to store their folders when they come to my class. Since my students come from different classes throughout the day, having a central location to store their materials is key for success.

    Students are learning to put away their work in the mailboxes and they are able to retrieve their materials when they enter the classroom. I've used the Teachers Pay Teachers gift card to create labels for the mailboxes as well as a newsletter where I can communicate with parents what their child is learning. Again, thank you very much for supporting my classroom.”

    With gratitude,

    Mrs. Barraza

    This classroom project was brought to life by The Gates Foundation and 4 other donors.
  • Multi-Sensory Literacy for Success

    Funded Jul 16, 2024

    My students were excited to use the play dough to form the letter we were working on in small groups. Playdough is helpful because it is multi-sensory and will help my students remember the formation of the letters. The mesh canvas is also suitable for practicing letter formation with no mess, but my students still get the multi-sensory effect. The other multi-sensory item my students use is the pop-its fidgets. We use them when sounding out words.

    The poetry books have helped introduce phonemes and graphemes to the students. They can identify the spelling pattern we are working on and practice reading as well.

    This project is helping my students become better readers and spellers. Thank you again for your generosity and support of my classroom.”

    With gratitude,

    Mrs. Barraza

  • Learning Through Orton-Gillingham Method

    Funded Jul 16, 2024

    We have been in school for seven weeks, and my students love the sand trays we use during our phonics lessons. They hear the sound of the letter and write it in the sand as they say the letter and the sound. This has helped them sound out words as they spell. They are using the proper letter formation, and I can help them correct it when we practice on the sand trays.

    I use the phoneme-grapheme card set to practice letter sounds and blend letters to make words. The strategies I learned from the training I attended have really been beneficial for my students. With the funding of this project, I was able to gather the materials to help my students become better readers.

    Thank you for your generous support.”

    With gratitude,

    Mrs. Barraza

I work as an elementary school teacher at an inner city school in California. Some of my students are English Language learners, but most are English only students. My students come to school for an escape from their harsh environment. Most of my families live in poverty and have limited funds for extra school supplies for their children. With my projects, I have been able to help my students learn different subjects, like health and art, through the use of manipulatives, hands on activities, and a material not easily attained at my school due to funding. With your donations to my projects, my students will have access to material that will help them not only learn but make it fun to learn.

About my class

I work as an elementary school teacher at an inner city school in California. Some of my students are English Language learners, but most are English only students. My students come to school for an escape from their harsh environment. Most of my families live in poverty and have limited funds for extra school supplies for their children. With my projects, I have been able to help my students learn different subjects, like health and art, through the use of manipulatives, hands on activities, and a material not easily attained at my school due to funding. With your donations to my projects, my students will have access to material that will help them not only learn but make it fun to learn.

About my class

{"followTeacherId":1195559,"teacherId":1195559,"teacherName":"Mrs. Barraza","teacherProfilePhotoURL":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp1195559_orig.jpg?crop=1:1,smart&width=136&height=136&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1578336422623","teacherHasProfilePhoto":true,"vanityURL":"mrs-barraza","teacherChallengeId":221191,"followAbout":"Mrs. Barraza's projects","teacherVerify":707812223,"teacherNameEncoded":"Mrs. Barraza","vanityType":"teacher","teacherPageInfo":{"teacherHasClassroomPhoto":true,"teacherHasClassroomDescription":true,"teacherClassroomDescription":"","teacherProfileURL":"https://www.donorschoose.org/classroom/mrs-barraza","tafURL":"https://secure.donorschoose.org/donors/share_teacher_profile.html?teacher=1195559","stats":{"numActiveProjects":2,"numFundedProjects":50,"numSupporters":107},"classroomPhotoPendingScreening":false,"showEssentialsListCard":true,"teacherNamePossessive":"Mrs. Barraza's","essentialsTopItemSummary":"bandages","essentialsTopItemImageUrl":"/images/essentialslist/supplies/bandages.jpg","essentialsTopItemPrice":19.09,"essentialsListLength":7,"essentialsListUrl":"https://www.donorschoose.org//donors/essentials-list.html?teacherId=1195559","state":"CA","stateFullName":"California","city":"Los Angeles"}}