Past projects 5
Hooray! For the Mouse
Funded Oct 13, 2018We all use technology in our everyday lives, especially our cellphones, and we have also become very dependent on our cellphones. My students are also exposed to technology at home and in school. Parents allow their children to play games or watch videos on their cellphones and some of them have tablets to play with at home. We interface with our cellphones and tablets through the touchscreen and that is why children have become very adept at using the touchscreen. However, in my classroom the two desktop computers that are there for the students to use are old and outdated and require the use of the mouse to navigate. My preschool students are developmentally delayed and/or autistic and most of them can use a touchscreen to navigate a computer but not the mouse. The two laptops that were donated have a touchscreen and can flip to look like a tablet making it easier for my students to use.
My students also have difficulty retaining information. Anything most of my students learn must be repeated and reinforced on a daily basis for them to remember. I had my students work with the ABCmouse.com learning program to help them learn the letters and numbers. The program allows the teacher to develop lessons that are personalized to each student's learning needs. One of my students took a great liking to the letter songs and rhymes he listened to on ABCmouse.com. He kept on singing the ABC song throughout the day and for many days to come. I help my students learn the letters to their name and of course I start with the first letter of their name. A few students had a hard time remembering the first letter of their name so I had them work on their particular letter on ABCmouse.com and after working on their letter for some time most successfully were able to name and recognize the first letter of their name. Mastering Math is another program that is a part of ABCmouse.com. This program helped my students learn to count and recognize some numbers. My students have also enjoyed going to the virtual farm and virtual zoo which has helped them to increase their vocabulary by learning to name some of the animals.
Young children generally have a very short attention span but my students really showed eagerness to learn with the laptops and most of them were able to sit and focus for at least five to ten minutes. Technology is an asset in the classroom because it can help to personalize learning. Children learn differently and at a different pace and technology can help repeat and reinforce what they are learning as many times as necessary for retention and understanding to occur. My Pre-Kindergarten special education students truly enjoyed learning with the laptops and that is why we would like to express our thanks and gratitude to all the wonderful people that donated to our classroom project.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Allen
This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and 9 other donors.A Room to Bloom
Funded Nov 1, 2017Children today live in the age of technology and they are exposed to all kinds of mobile devices at very young ages. iPads and other tablets in the classroom offer a multitude of engaging early learning applications (apps) that help children learn at their own pace. iPads can also help special needs children with their communication, social, literacy, and numeracy skills.
Most of my students are developmentally delayed and have great difficulty communicating their wants and needs and expressing their emotions with words. To be able to improve their communication deficits, I had the students work with apps that helped increase their vocabulary and communication skills. I also added an app that showed them how to sign for basic needs like expressing feelings, saying I need to use the toilet, I am hungry, and I need help.
My students' favorite app taught them the names of all kinds of animals and of course their favorite animal was the lion, but one of my students really found the animal name, wombat, very amusing as I heard him repeat "wombat" all day long. My students have become very efficient in using the tablet as the touchscreen is very intuitive and easy to use. Some of my students were completely non-verbal at the beginning of the school year and now they are naming all kinds of objects in the classroom. It is very exciting to see how much some my students have improved and how they are now speaking and socially interacting with each other and the adults around them.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Allen
This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and one other donor.Kindergarten On Fire Tablets
Funded Oct 5, 2016Technology is a wonderful tool and motivator that helps all students learn by differentiating instruction. Children have different learning styles and the extensive variety of learning apps that the Kids Fire Tablet provides has helped all of my students absorb information. Technology, in today's world, is a part of a child's everyday life. Children are very comfortable using technology and when they are given the opportunity to work with technology that they feel excited about they are more engaged and willing to learn.
My students love learning with the tablets. Each student has the opportunity to pick the learning games they like the most. I also encourage my students to work with the apps that will help them learn to read and increase their vocabulary skills. One of my students is especially fond of "Endless Alphabet". One day, she was laughing profusely while on the tablet and I went to find out what she found so amusing. She told me she learned a new word "bellow" and what she found so funny is the characters in the app demonstrating what it means to bellow. She is an ESL (English Language Learner) student and increasing her English vocabulary is very important to her success in school.
In my classroom I also have a couple of students with special needs. These students have found it very hard to use the desktop computers in the classroom because they have to use the mouse. The touchscreen of the tablets has been easier for them to use. The educational apps have also helped these students learn at their own pace. Ultimately and with certainty all of my students have been able to benefit and learn from using the tablets on a daily basis.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Allen
iLove iPad for Reading and Language Arts
Funded Oct 6, 2015My kindergarten students and I would like to thank Chevron and James Clark for their generous donation to our classroom. We are definitely grateful for your contribution. My students were ecstatic beyond control when they saw the tablets.
All the students cheered with delight "tablets yes, tablets yes", and then they asked "can we play with them". I had to explain to my students that the iPads had to be set up and that as soon as I took care of that they would be able use the iPads during center and intervention time with apps that would help them learn how to read.
I did some research and I downloaded several apps that had good ratings for learning the alphabet, phonemic awareness, reading sight words, and also reading and writing sentences. I gave each student an informal evaluation on letter recognition, letter sounds, phonemic awareness, and reading sight words in order to help me determine which students needed to start with learning the alphabet and the letter sounds and which students could start right away on the sight words.
The iPads with their colorful interface, vibrant graphics, and intuitive touch screen have been especially very appealing to my students. The engagement that the tablets have provided has allowed most of my students to learn how to read on level. The students that did not know the letters can now name and sound out the letters and are learning to read the sight words. The rest of the students are now reading and writing short sentences and reading leveled short stories. I am very excited with the way my students are progressing the iPads have made a definite and positive impact in helping my students learn how to read in Kindergarten. Thank you again for your kindness and generosity.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Allen
Basics Necessities To Close The Achievement Gap
Funded Oct 29, 2013My students and I cannot thank you enough for you generous donations to our classroom. We are so grateful for your contribution. My students were beyond excitement when they received all the new classroom materials. They couldn't wait to open up all the supplies and work with them.
One student squealed, "look colored pencils"' another one said " the colors are so pretty, I love to color". I explained to them that the colored pencils are for them to color their very own reproducible classroom and homework books that they could read all by themselves. One student said "I read to my momma" and another student asked if they could read the books in class which I replied an enthusiastic, "Yes! Of course you can". Now my students have plenty of decodable books to read and color after finishing their assignments early, during transition time, and especially at home.
We use the Lakeshore Language and Reading Kits primarily during center time. The Word Family Picture Wheels are a favorite among my students. They spin to create each new word and use picture clues to help them read it. The Language Folder Games are exciting, colorful, and self-checking. With these folder games my students get hands-on, independent practice with word building, spelling patterns, sight-words, and vocabulary skills. During my differentiated instruction time I repeatedly use the word family flip books. These flip books are ingenious , they match letters, blends, and digraphs with a specific ending sound that builds up to over 300 words.
I especially love the laminator and laminating sheets. I have created for each student sight word flip cards, word building cards, word family wheels and word/picture cards. We read the sight word flip cards daily and I encourage the students to keep on practicing reading the sight words at home every day. Consequently, more than half of my students are reading on level and three of them are reading above level. I am very thrilled with the way my students are progressing. They are on their way to becoming good readers and lifelong learners. Your contributions have definitely had a positive impact in the learning environment of my classroom. Thank you again for your kindness and generosity.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Allen
This classroom project was brought to life by South Florida Kia Retailers and one other donor.