Past projects 107
Rewarding the Helpers in Our Maker Space
Funded Sep 7, 2023It has been incredibly fulfilling to reward the hard-working helpers in our maker space. They spend time helping classmates learn fabrication skills and helping younger students navigate our space. This creates a nice-sized group of student makers as they aquire new skills through helping others. They have been so excited to be selected for a Joann's gift card and it is fun to see what they choose for their personal projects. We are extremely grateful to you for giving us the opportunity to give back to the kids who help keep our projects flowing.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Kovach
This classroom project was brought to life by Infosys Foundation USA and 3 other donors.We Are Learning to Crochet!
Funded Aug 2, 2023Our students are rapidly learing to crochet and several of our staff members are learning right along with them! Our phone lanyards are very popular, and we learned that using thicker blanket yarn and larger crochet hooks helps students learn to make crochet chains very quickly. Students are able to complete the lanyard project in one class period with no prior experience. We have started training the trainers for the second project, where they will work in small groups to make crochet ferns.
The kids asked me to let you know that they really love crocheting and are very thankful to you for helping them learn to make new things.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Kovach
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 15 other donors.Learning to Sew for the Littles
Funded May 9, 2023Our littles have been busy! They absolutely love learning to sew and are very proud of their sharper needles. We spent our first rotation refeshing sewing skills with our wooden sewing boards. In the rotation this month, we are jumping right in to felt food. Our first two lower elementary classrooms are working on felt pancakes with syrup and felt iced donuts with sprinkles. Next week, a new group comes in and they will be making sunny side up eggs. We hope to make several sets of food for the Pre-K and Kindergarten classes to use during free play.
It has been a lot of fun watching our students grow in skill and confidence. The kids are very proud of their work and can't wait to take them home and share them with their families. Thank you for helping us create projects that build such important skills and teach life-long skills.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Kovach
This classroom project was brought to life by SONIC Foundation and 3 other donors.Stocking Up the STEAM Lab
Funded May 9, 2023I know it seems crazy when you look at the pictures of our new and newly stocked supply cabinets, but when you have 400 students, we fly through materials. The kids are so excited to have the tools to complete the projects we have planned. We are diving into some engineering projects right away in the upper classes, but the littles are starting with sewing. They are So excited! They love learning to sew so much and are so proud of their progress. The middle grades are starting to crochet and they are fiercly determined to learn. It is especially helpful to have the kids who inspired the projects helping their classmates.
We are so thankful to you for enabling us to give these experiences to our kids. They are projects and skills they will treasure far into the future. Thank you for making this year amazing!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Kovach
This classroom project was brought to life by SONIC Foundation and 10 other donors.Please Help Me Become a Better Robotic Coach
Funded Apr 8, 2023Wow, what a busy robotics summer! I have learned so much as a coach and computer scientist. The training from the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy was outstanding for the team. We met virtually multiple times this summer so students could discuss the course work and met in person to launch the new game mat. Our rookie team memebers are so much stronger, and our best coders still feel they learned a lot from the process.
For my coach training, we went back through the same coursework I completed with the team, and learned lots of insight about sensors and more complex coding. When I went throught the training in my live virtual sessions as a coach, I did all the coding on an ipad and with a physical robot instead of the virtual robot option. This allowed me to strengthen a whole new set of skills.
We are all looking forward to this season and hope to make great gains as a result of our extended practice. Thank you for giving us this amazing opportunity!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Kovach
Making Our Maker Space More Montessori
Funded May 25, 2023With the help of my husband and daughter, we spent several sweaty hours assembling the cabinets for our maker space materials. We now can store items by skill or project and students will be able to help themselves to supplies, while still being able to lock up materials not suitable for our smallest students. We anxiously await the call that we can get back in to the building and put everything away. I have been crocheting baskets for different supplies all summer to adhere to the Montessori practice of using natural materials.
Thank you for helping us in our journey towards Montessori accrediation. We will post lots more pictures when everything is put away, but want to make sure you know how much we appreciate your support.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Kovach
This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Supporter and 3 other donors.Please Sponsor Our Robotics Team for the 2023-24 Season
Funded Jun 9, 2023Our team has been working dilgently all summer and we have been meeting virtually every week. Today was our first in-person meeting since May. We were able to trouble-shoot some of the modules we have been using in the Carnegie Mellon University program and work with micro:bits. We also were able to roll out the competiton mat and make some guesses about what we will need to do with our robot. We plan to focus heavily on sensors and really use the line following this year.
Thank you for making this program availble to our kids. We are the only elementary robotics team in Cleveland Metro Schools and are working hard to try and recruit other teams. The truth is that FIRST LEGO League is expensive and puts kids like ours as a disatvantage, becuase funding every year is such a hurdle. We 100% would not be a team and would not have these life-changing experiences without your support.
Wish us luck! We are ready to hit the ground running!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Kovach
Virtual Robotics to Train a New Team
Funded Mar 14, 2023Thank you for the inspiration for this project. We are so thankful we found a virtual SPIKE program. Carnegie Mellon university has done a fantastic job creating training that is highly engaging and informative. They all want to take the test offered to become certified student SPIKE Prime users. (They also begged to stay in robotics all day). I love that this program is so affordable and that it allows our students to code and manipulate robots from anywhere. It breaks down another barrier keeping low-income students from learning robotics. Even our top coders feel like this course is filling in gaps for them. I'm so excited to share our experiences with other teachers and hope we can encourage more elementary teams to form in CMSD.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Kovach
Stocking Up on Snacks for Hard-Working Students
Funded Feb 8, 2023Thank you for keeping our students motivated and fed. We work in long blocks of uninterruped time at our Montessori school, and when they break and go to specials, like computer, they come hungry. Having snacks on hand helps fuel them and keep them focused. They also love to have edible prizes and there are days where earning a snack turns the tide for the whole class.
I love having the snacks out and available, too. The students haven't abused the privlege and only take what they need. There is a calm that settles over the class when they know they don't have to worry about being hungry. Thank you for making our class a place of comfort.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Kovach
This classroom project was brought to life by Black History Month Partners and 15 other donors.Every 7th Grader in Britain Learns This, Too!
Funded Jul 1, 2021We appologize for taking so long to thank you for the amazing micro:bits donated to our class. It took us far too long to figure out how to integrate them without getting the parts lost or damaged, but after multiple discussions with the robotics team, we moved away from our place of fear and dove in. I wish you could see all the brain stretching happening when the kids use them. They've taken to them readily and are so excited to work their way through the demos and project tutorials. We even had a third grader design a rolling die today and he was just so proud.
Thank you for allowing us to try technology that takes us outside our comfort zone. It keeps us competitive with other districts and countries and motivates our kids to do more hard things.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Kovach