Past projects 4
LEGO-Masters Learn to Build, Build to Play, Play to Succeed!
Funded Sep 29, 2022How their eyes lit up when I displayed the boxes out on the tables!
My heart melted when the students ran up to me with the Chinese New Year Set and told me "this looks like my house! And that is my sister, and my other sister, and this one is me!" I am so grateful to be able to provide that connection for my students, making them feel seen, acknowledged, and appreciated with their cultural identities.
Now that we have begun the transportation unit, I have taken at least 3 days to discuss with the class how to use the coding train. With antsy eyes and a few tears when they realized they'd have to take turns, each student will have the opportunity to let their imagination run wild. I can see how they love to show their independence, how they can take control of their ideas and make a traditional Lego come to life through tech. As they build and play, I am observing their social conversation, collaboration, and critical thinking skills.
Thank you again for allowing my students to expand upon their experiences and bring their ideas to life in the classroom.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Romano
This classroom project was brought to life by Valhalla Foundation and 3 other donors.What'd You Say?? Little Voices Heard Loud and Clear
Funded Jul 23, 2019After nearly 6 months of waiting, we couldn't contain our excitement once the second half of our project items arrived! Early spring last year we received 4 Talking Bilingual Dictionaries but were unable to use the books without the talking pens. Students enjoyed looking at the books and comparing pictures, but only those who were more advanced in their home language were able to recite and teach vocabulary words to their peers. With our new talking pens students can click on pictures to hear words in their home language, listen to the word in an English sentence, and even record themselves practicing their newly learned words!
The pens give independence to the students. As a pre-kindergarten student they can make choices as to which words they want to hear and use the pens without needing a teacher to assist. Students learning English or those with language delays, can use these books as a means to communicate with others and engage in new conversations.
Reading in our pre-k class means reading together. You will always find at the least a pair of students sharing a book, but most often a group of students together or surrounding a teacher. The phrase commonly heard in our class? "Mrs. Lowbridge can you read this to me?" Now our class can more actively participate in their reading sessions. Again, we thank our donors so very much for giving us this wonderful gift to the classroom!!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Romano
Hello! ¡Hola! مرحبا! 你好！Building A Multilingual Classroom Through Literacy
Funded May 5, 2019Thank you so much for this gracious donation to our classroom. My initial goal for this project was to get bilingual resources into my Pre-K classroom because the population of my class every year is 95% Language Learners. A common questions to me was always, "Do you have materials in the students' home languages?" My answer was always, "unfortunately, no".
I still didn't have any idea what it really meant for my kids until I saw it with my own eyes. The students immediately recognized their home language and started pointing, "my Mommy reads that!". Students who were on the quiet side opened up the dictionary and pointed to pictures, laughing when I could not properly pronounce certain words, and then correcting me. Students compared how to say a word in each language.
WHAT CONFIDENCE. These dictionaries not only increase vocabulary in English, but in their home language AND in a third language. It helps them develop peer relationships, discover similarities and differences in themselves, others, and their families. It helps develop conversational skills. And as a teacher.... I have a resource that I can use through all 10 units of study! We couldn't have asked for anything more.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Romano
Coding in the Classroom: Mini Engineers and Programmers at Work!
Funded Dec 12, 2018I have never seen students more excited about new materials in our classroom! They have seen new blocks, they've seen new cars, they've seen new dress-up clothes, but none of those are things that make a child feel truly responsible for their play. The LEGO Coding Express Train puts them in control, the power of exploration in their hands with endless options for play. The students work together to build their track, build a destination by matching their structure to a picture, and then determine what their train has to do to get to that destination. Do they need to go forward, move back, or stop for gas? Do they need to sound the horn before going through a crossing to make sure cars are safely across before the train arrives? What happens if the sequence of blocks doesn't work? Students can even use the iPad to drive their train, and suddenly now each colored block has a different function. Do they want to hear music on their iPad, or discuss animal sounds as the train rolls over a block and a sheep pops up on the screen? Coding is about engineering their materials to follow a number of steps just like a robot or computer game. Each step creates a different action. So the students have to think about what they want their train to do before they even do it!
What you will see walking into our classroom as students are exploring with the LEGO Coding Express Train, is a group of students huddled together, building TOGETHER, talking TOGETHER, problem solving TOGETHER. The teacher only has to facilitate when needed, but children are naturals at cause and effect. And these blocks are tough, they can be taken apart, put together, dropped, piled, and constantly changed, all at the hands of a preschooler who has a definitive goal in mind. With coding you will see students place the blocks in a certain order, run the train, observe what happens, change the blocks, run the train again, and repeat over and over until the train does what they need it to.
Everyone is jumping at the chance to play with the new train set! The wooden set has been cast aside for this, which can be manipulated and controlled in so many ways! Right now we are rotating small groups during center time so that all children get an equal chance to explore and code the train. Each day a new lesson will be introduced where we expand on how else the train can be controlled, and then groups are invited to experiment with their newly acquired information.
Thank you to ALL donors who brought such joy to our class. To see a 4 year old demonstrate immense pride in their accomplishments, that they have been given great responsibility (something usually reserved for big kids and adults). All of a sudden I hear voices that were once quiet, vocabulary, awareness of their environment, collaboration between students who once preferred to watch or play alone, and a sense of "I did that!" Thank you for this year, and for every future class that gets to explore with this set.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Romano
This classroom project was brought to life by Con Edison and 5 other donors.