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Mrs. Dufresne's Classroom

  • John Ashley Kindergarten Center
  • West Springfield, MA
  • Half of 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

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Current requests

Storage is Key to Success

Help me give my students the autonomy needed by using the four-shelf storage cabinet to house the materials needed for arts and crafts along with the blocks they use during our literacy stations.
Mrs. Dufresne
John Ashley Kindergarten Center
West Springfield, MA
  • 1 donor so far
  • $1,186 still needed
show projects from all time

Past projects 7

  • Happy Learning in Play

    Funded May 11, 2023

    Wow, awesome, so cool are the first things I heard when I showed my students the cash register they'd be using in our grocery store. They loved how it made noise and could open and close. Other students loved being able to read and learn new numbers. It was a joy to see the students sharing and taking turns with the new materials in our dramatic play center.

    I had many students not know their names at the beginning of the year and the use of the magnetic paws allowed them to keep practicing. I used these as a way for my students to answer the daily morning question. Students who knew their names, helped others who still needed support.

    I am beyond appreciative of the donors and how my students are able to grow in their learning through play, along with making our classroom into a community.”

    With gratitude,

    Mrs. Dufresne

  • Creative Learning !

    Funded Oct 3, 2022

    The items from this generous donations have helped improve my classroom management as it has allowed my students access to materials without having to ask me and given my students the independence they need to learn and grow. When my students saw the bags and asked what they were for, they got so excited to be able to have one to put their own books into. They loved the new building blocks and using their imaginations to make and share with their classmates during play center time. My students love being able to showcase their own work and hang it up using the magnetic clips! It's the small things that make my students so happy.”

    With gratitude,

    Mrs. Dufresne

    This classroom project was brought to life by Bill Gates and 11 other donors.
  • Artistic Learning

    Funded Oct 2, 2021

    Thank you so much for the gift card to help purchase a digital calendar to use for our morning meeting. My students love using it each day during our morning meeting and they love to choose this job each week. They don't let me forget any part of it and remind me to do the songs on the pages first!

    The most exciting part to my students are the would you rather, true or false or hypothetical questions. They love to share in their responses and are very thoughtful to what has been asked.

    This technology helped my students learn new skills in math and ELA. With purchasing this calendar, I was able to keep all of the calendar materials in place and students were able to run circle time without prompting and understood the concepts of reading, left to right progresssion and counting by 1's and 10's.

    Additionally, I purchased compatible morning work to go along with the calendar.”

    With gratitude,

    Mrs. Dufresne

  • Hip, Hip, Hooray for Play

    Funded May 4, 2021

    How can I say thank you enough for the gratitude my students expressed and the excitement they had when they saw what we had for classroom use. The Magna Tiles had always been a big hit in our room and to be able to have more than one pod use at a time made things a bit smoother during play time! The students loved to build and crash and re-build structures and were in awe of how the tiles would stick to each other!

    They loved the Monster Trucks and created many new scenarios with the different types of trucks in the package. I loved how students created their own work-shops and pretending the truck was up on a lift to be fixed and listening to what type of tools they would need to solve the problem. It was encouraging to listen to as they did not realize how much they were learning and could apply to other areas in our curriculum.

    As I go into this next year, I most definitely will use these as a resource for students to turn and talk as we use that quite often during math. They will be able to continue using the paint to learn about numbers and how to decompose numbers, add and subtract and how to spell their names. I am excited to see what new and innovative things my new students will do and am very grateful to have seen in a very difficult year how resilient my students had been this past year. Thank you for helping me make this happen.”

    With gratitude,

    Mrs. Dufresne

    This classroom project was brought to life by SONIC Drive-In and 2 other donors.
  • Kindergarten Expression Through Play

    Funded Jul 27, 2020

    Thank you so much for the donations for my project. The items I choose, my students have enjoyed using during our play time in my classroom. They especially loved the feelings monsters which we first used upon full time return to the classroom to see howe we can express our feelings.

    The Social Emotional Match ups were very useful this past year as students had lots of new feelings and sometimes needed help in understanding what those were. Over the course of the year as students became more comfortable in the classroom, they would use them to express themselves to me when they were feeling unsure and needed reassurance. I found these resources to be quite helpful and as the year continued I could see how students could talk to me more about how they were feeling.

    We used the craft trays daily when having our play centers as these items helped student keep their materials neat and organized for use. They loved being able to use the trays and paint with the art paint daubers and make fantastic paintings to showcase in the classroom. Having several artistic students in my classroom this year, the tissue paper, googly eyes and pompoms gave way to artistic liberties. How they would make flowers, butterflies, birds, houses, etc was truly wonderful experience for me to watch. I was very happy to see them explore and learn with the materials I had chosen. This upcoming year this materials will be again out for use and see what type of creativity comes alive in my classroom.”

    With gratitude,

    Mrs. Dufresne

  • Kindergarten Exploration

    Funded Oct 23, 2020

    It was like Christmas when my students saw the materials from this project for the first time. They were so excited to see that we had several of the popular items in our classroom for our pods to use! The magnetic blocks were the most popular with all of my students and to see what structures they would build together was amazing. They would talk and discuss how to maneuver pieces so the structure would be taller or longer. It was fascinating on what their imaginations came up with.

    Several students loved the STEM challenges and worked on those daily! They wanted to find out all they could explore and what would happen and were able to use them in an independent center and explain to the class on how they figured out a solution and this encouraged others to challenge themselves to try these!

    Just like the magnetic blocks. the magnetic letter tiles were very popular. It was great to see students using them to spell sight words, their names and put them in ABC order. These are going to be useful in this upcoming year to help students as well in learning through play.

    I am very appreciative of the heavy duty storage bins that allowed us to maintain a clean and organized classroom. Students learned very quickly where materials needed to put away and this was one of my favorite parts!”

    With gratitude,

    Mrs. Dufresne

    This classroom project was brought to life by OshKosh B'gosh and one other donor.
  • Individual Storage

    Funded Dec 7, 2020

    Thank you so much for your generosity in helping to fund this project. During this most trying year it was very important for students to have individual spots to keep their materials and the cubby units helped in doing so. Each student was able to keep their belongings in one place while keeping themselves socially distant when required.

    The cubbies helped to maintain order and a sense of normalcy in our classroom routines. The students loved seeing their things labeled and where able to work independently during the day. These cubbies made my students feel safe as they knew they could access what they needed without interrupting or getting too close to each other. I could not have asked for a better item as each student was in awe when they saw them for the first time when we were able to all be together in the classroom in April.

    The large storage boxes and lids also helped our class maintain order and gave students a place to put away the materials they had used and did not require me to do so for them. To help with this independence during a time when things were uncertain helped my students build confidence. These will continue to be used over the years as they are highly effective in helping to keep our classroom organized.”

    With gratitude,

    Mrs. Dufresne

    This classroom project was brought to life by FamilyAlbum and 15 other donors.
The tables I have chosen will give my students choice where to work and be at their level. I believe by allowing my students to make this decision, they work better independently and over all make better choices when working next to a peer. These tables make the work seem more interesting because children often enjoy things that have some similarity to themselves. The tables are the right height and can easily be used for center work, writing, and reading! Children find new things exciting and want to use them because it makes them feel important. It is just as important to me they feel important because then I know I have them hooked on learning forever. I have found over time, my children love to use materials they can put on their lap and these tables bring the work right to them. If providing my students with something as simple as a table to engage their learning I say, why not! They are young and innocent and can enjoy the small things in life!

About my class

The tables I have chosen will give my students choice where to work and be at their level. I believe by allowing my students to make this decision, they work better independently and over all make better choices when working next to a peer. These tables make the work seem more interesting because children often enjoy things that have some similarity to themselves. The tables are the right height and can easily be used for center work, writing, and reading! Children find new things exciting and want to use them because it makes them feel important. It is just as important to me they feel important because then I know I have them hooked on learning forever. I have found over time, my children love to use materials they can put on their lap and these tables bring the work right to them. If providing my students with something as simple as a table to engage their learning I say, why not! They are young and innocent and can enjoy the small things in life!

About my class

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