Past projects 2
Research and Writing about Backyard Birds!
Funded Aug 23, 2023I wish to send my most sincere gratitude to you for your generosity in donating to my classroom project through Donors Choose. My students have been impacted by this project in many ways, and they will continue to be impacted throughout the rest of the entire school year.
We have several bird feeders located right outside our classroom window now. More and more birds have been finding their way to our feeders as the school year has gone on. Every time the students spot some birds at our window, they announce it with so much excitement! They absolutely have loved having these beautiful animals come visit us every day.
My class has been working on foundational writing skills as they have been observing the birds that come to visit our classroom. We are just beginning our unit on learning how to research and informational writing. The students are completely engaged and totally hooked on this project. This is because of you! Thank you again for your donations to my classroom. I have happy, excited students who are thirsty to come to school and learn about research and writing!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Bickel
Real World Problem Solvers
Funded Aug 30, 2022I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for donating towards my classroom project earlier this school year. My classroom project was just an idea before you stepped in and helped to fund it. I've been working hard to help my students become problem solvers, and boy did these kids find a big problem to solve at our school. Our flower garden in the front of our school had been overgrown for a countless number of years, and it was ugly. My students didn't like that this was the first thing visitors saw when they came to our school, so they started working on a way to fix this problem.
Students had tons of ideas! We soon decided that we wanted to plant some flowers that would come back every year, perennials. Then they discovered that it would be a big problem watering flowers that grew during the summer since we are away from school during the summer. How did they solve that? They picked flowers that grow in the spring and others that grow in the fall. They also thought it would be a good idea to have a rain barrel with a soaker hose on a timer. What about the empty garden in the winter they thought? Well, these students decided to have some letters cut out with our school initials. They then painted some of the rocks we had dug out of the dirt and painted them with glow in the dark paint. They are now sprucing up the garden even though there aren't any plants growing.
My students learned that they absolutely LOVED pulling weeds! Who knew that such a task could be enjoyable? Many of my students have never experienced pulling weeds before. As they worked on pulling weeds, they discovered buried rocks and other things beneath the ground which led to lots of discussion and even more ideas of what could become of the garden. They have so much ownership of this space now. It's simply amazing.
Thank you so much for your assistance in our project. We really could not have followed through with all of the students' wonderful ideas if we hadn't had the funding to complete this project. It made our school look beautiful, and will continue to grow for many years to come. My students will always be able to come back to Orchard View and see what they were able to create in second grade when they became problem solvers. They will always remember this experience.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Bickel
This classroom project was brought to life by The Allstate Foundation and 5 other donors.