Past projects 34
Empowering Students Through the Arts: Drama
Funded May 23, 2016Thank you for your support! My class is very excited to do this play! If we don't get them in time for this year, next years class will be able to use them. I love the arts and am looking forward to helping my current and future students develop a love of the arts as well! You made this possible! Thank you!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. McArthur
This classroom project was brought to life by an anonymous donor and 8 other donors.Artistic Paper Creations
Funded Apr 21, 2016I am so grateful for your donations. It is wonderful that each of you share my vision of better fine motor skills! By the end of kindergarten children are expected to write up to 3 sentences which must be neat and readable. Currently I have quite a few students who are in desperate need of writing neatly. Practicing fine motor skills helps them improve their writing penmanship.These very children in my class need the multiple and varied practices to gain better control of their fine motor skills. We thank you and look forward to our upcoming artistic creations!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. McArthur
Save our Shirts for Art!
Funded Jul 7, 2015firstly I apologize for the delay in getting this letter out to you all. It has been amazing to have the children utilize these shirt savers! What I found most interesting of all is that they seemed to get a little more serious once their smocks went on. I loved the confidence and empowerment that it appeared to give to them! I have not had one complaint about paint on shirts this year and that is all thanks to your generous donations. I have enjoyed getting art prepared for them to enjoy and have truly loved having worry free art sessions with them. Thank you!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. McArthur
Our Brains Need RecessToo!
Funded Jan 28, 2015The children have been playing with the materials for a few weeks now and we are very excited about what we see happening! They are sharing, talking and collaborating while working together to play a game. I couldn't be more excited to see the children engaged rather than just sitting around. In order to ensure they would be able to play the games well, we had the games "visit" each class so the children could learn the rules of each game and get some experience playing it. To be truthful those "visiting" days were so exciting for the children we worried that there would be mayhem when they finally did arrive on the yard! But thankfully (gratefully!) the children remembered all the rules and there have been no issues with the games and only fun to be had! Thank you for these games and for providing the children with options for play!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. McArthur
iPad, uPad, We All Learn on iPads!
Funded Sep 29, 2014My students have been using the iPads for a couple of months now and have been totally engrossed in them! The biggest issue (which is no big surprise!) is that they want more time on them! We are so grateful for your support of our class and for giving my students this incredible opportunity to learn through modern technology. I have downloaded all sorts of reading and math apps and when they get a turn they have free choice. They are completely engaged! It is wonderful to see the enjoyment that using an iPad brings to them. They talk about the different apps and what they did while playing them. This outcome was a nice surprise because not only are they learning but they are practicing social skills when they discuss the apps. Thank you for the enjoyable learning that you have given them!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. McArthur
Hard at Work with Playdough
Funded Oct 29, 2014Hello everyone! As soon as the box arrived I allowed the children to take a playdough color of their choice and play with it. While they were playing with it I started to pass out the tool that came along with the project and pull out some old ones I had. Of course children love new and have laser-like vision to detect the old ones so they gravitated to the new ones! They are so excited about their own personal playdough. They are allowed to keep them in their pencil caddies. There is a routine to it so they must follow the rules but in the afternoons if we get free time I'll allow them to freely play with it as they wish. Most often they are making letters, numbers, representing numbers, or putting the letters together to make words. But of course they mostly like the fun tools - like the beach set that came with it. Regardless of what they are doing they are having fun and building very necessary fine motor skills! I recently sent home the extra playdough for homework and the excitement was so fun to see! Thank you once again from my class and we hope you enjoy the notes of appreciation!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. McArthur
This classroom project was brought to life by Play-Doh and 7 other donors.Reading through Technology
Funded Feb 1, 2014To all of you who helped with this project: THANK YOU! Our class has been using the Tag Readers for about a month now and they truly love them. When the box arrived I told them all about how people had given these things to them. We opened it to much oohs and aah's! I taught them how to use the tag reader with the books and what the different icons meant and just let them go. It was so exciting to watch them interact with the books all on their own! Over the month we've been using them I've noticed the kids gravitate towards the flash card set most. They love playing the word games with those. What these tag readers and books have done for them is given them the opportunity to build confidence in reading independently. I had a few questions the first week about it but since then they play and learn but most importantly they read all on their own! It is the greatest thing to see this happening. Thank you so much for your generosity!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. McArthur
Circle of Life: Part 1
Funded Apr 3, 2014My class has been so excited watching all the life grow in our room! We planted 4 different plants...rosemary, oregano, basil and watermelon. What we didn't expect was that the watermelon seed sprouted first! Of course the next most exciting thing was watching the insects grow. The ladybugs arrived first and they went into their pupal stage quite quickly. We released about 5 of them on a Friday and as I was about to wash the ladybug land I noticed that there were still at least 2 left to hatch! So we closed it up and let it be. Those final 2 were released about a week later. Now we are waiting for our butterflies to hatch. Our caterpillars arrived so small and each day the class would go over and note how they had grown. We had one poor guy have a very difficult time finding a place but he eventually made his chrysalis. Tomorrow we see if any of them have hatched into butterflies. They have really come to understand the circle of life with this project. They sincerely love watching this miracle happening. Over the past couple of weeks they have come to use the vocabulary well and have even begun writing about what they are seeing during our writing block. So a great big thank you goes out to all of you who helped them have this amazing learning experience!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. McArthur
This classroom project was brought to life by 100 Women in Hedge Funds and 26 other donors.Building Foundational Skills
Funded Oct 27, 2013I was so ecstatic when the boxes arrived and couldn't WAIT to share these items with our classes! I immediately opened the boxes and spent time figuring out where to put them. Since they were to be shared between 2 classes I used a pushcart that I had for sports materials (materials which have since been destroyed from use and tossed) and filled up the baskets. The very next day we attempted to have both classes play together outside. But unfortunately we quickly realized this wasn't the best choice as the cement floor, under trees that drip sticky juice was not the best choice. So now we take turns using the materials in our classrooms. The children LOVE using the materials. Whenever I announce that we get free play time they cheer! But probably my most favorite thing that has happened from these materials has to do with my autistic student. She has a difficult time sharing and does a lot of self-play. In order for her to play with the materials she has to learn to interact with the other students. It has been a a hard process for her but it is giving her the opportunity to practice negotiating, sharing and working together with others. She has come a long way from the first day we put these materials out! From our classes we thank you for your generosity and your love of giving to help these children grow. We are so grateful for you! Thank you!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. McArthur
Artfully Young Experience
Funded Oct 9, 2012This letter is but a small piece of the gratitude I feel for your generous donation to our class! The children have had a few weeks now to experience the art supplies and they truly enjoy their time with it. Giving them this variation of expression and watching them work excitedly has been very rewarding. We have been able to create items for Thanksgiving and Christmas in a different way than I've ever done before! It has been so much fun to plan and see how it develops as the children interpret in their own way.
As the teacher my favorite item is the drying rack! No more drippy paint ruining the projects when I had to hang them to dry or we can continue to work without worrying our projects will get ruined (because they would have to stay on their desks to dry flat).
Thank you once again for your help in our donorschoose project!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. McArthur
This classroom project was brought to life by Rosenthal Family Foundation and 9 other donors.