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Ms. Kelley's Classroom

  • Palm Elementary School
  • Austin, TX
  • More than three‑quarters 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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show projects from all time

Past projects 6

  • Breaking News: Morning Announcements Get a Tech Update?

    Funded Sep 20, 2022

    Last year, we tried to start a morning broadcast program run by our campus students. Due to the limits of our technology at the time, a lot of the editing and production work was out of our students' hands and videos were limited to once a week.

    This year, with the microphones and webcams purchased through this DonorsChoose project, our students are capably running their own daily morning broadcast program. We've been graciously connected to a software that allows our students to conduct live daily updates to our campus. They run the cameras, manage the production, maintain the script, and so much more. This equipment has encouraged their independence and enabled their creativity to shine.

    We are so thankful to our donors who made this possible!”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Kelley

    This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and one other donor.
  • Books to Build Independent Readers

    Funded Sep 16, 2022

    Thank you so much for your help and support. When learning a new skill like how to read, it's important to build confidence in being an independent reader. With the books purchased through this DonorsChoose project, we've added a large bundle of titles that do just that.

    Picture books are wonderful for catching the imagination and attention of young readers, but some picture books are text heavy and contain more difficult vocabulary than a beginning reader would know. These books are informative, entertaining, and just right in terms of vocabulary difficulty.

    Our first graders in particular love that they can now browse the buckets and easy reader shelves to find books just perfect for themselves.”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Kelley

    This classroom project was brought to life by The Montgomery Family Fund and 3 other donors.
  • Wanted: Our Readers' Favorite Books!

    Funded Jan 30, 2022

    Thanks to your caring donations, we were able to replace many of the popular and well-loved books that were lost in the shuffle of the pandemic. Since we received the shipment of books and processed them for our library collection, they've been constantly off the shelves! The Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Dog Man, Amulet, and Harry Potter books in particular are in high demand and having the complete set is allowing our less adventurous readers to read about their favorite characters nearly every library visit.

    Having taken over the library during the pandemic, my goal was bringing students in to the library with a culture of warmth and welcome. I wanted the library to be a place they were comfortable and for them to view the library as a space that they belonged in. Taking note of their favorite characters and interests has helped me make progress on that goal.

    Right now, the majority of our students love visiting the library. With the help of this and future projects, our students will continue to love the library and nurture their joy of reading.”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Kelley

    This classroom project was brought to life by Panda Cares and 5 other donors.
  • Let's Go! Jumping Into STEM With LEGO

    Funded Jan 10, 2022

    Thank you so much for helping us reach our fundraising goal to add LEGO kits to our STEAM Lab. Our kids are excited to tackle new challenges and use creative problem-solving strategies to build solutions with Lego materials. Our STEAM Lab had a rocky start this year, but our kids greatly enjoyed the experiences they had with LEGO, Storybook STEM, and coding projects we were able to bring to our campus this year. I look forward to incorporating more STEAM challenges into the programming for next school year. Scheduling constraints posed a few issues with allowing our classes to continue their projects to completion, so we're tackling this issue now to ensure our kiddos will have enough time to enjoy all of these projects and collaborate with classroom teachers to bring the STEAM Lab into their classroom projects.

    Thanks again for your support!”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Kelley

    This classroom project was brought to life by Panda Cares and 9 other donors.
  • Diverse and Inclusive Books

    Funded Oct 26, 2020

    We've loved these new additions to our library collection. They are already being checked out and circulated among our teachers and students. Our students have greatly enjoyed seeing themselves in these stories. One of our kindergarteners was so terribly excited to see a little girl that looked just like her on the cover of "Mae Among the Stars."

    Our dual language kinder and 1st grade teachers have enjoyed having a few more options in Spanish. I've seen teachers conduct lessons to build community with "Our Class is a Family."

    The next step in our goal is to provide more chapter book titles with BIPOC characters. I'm currently reading through a few new titles like "Amani and the Night Brothers" and plan to add them to the collection as soon as I can.”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Kelley

    This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Donor and 9 other donors.
  • Hybrid Learning Library Makerspace

    Funded Oct 27, 2020

    These resources have been very helpful in providing our students with hands-on activities during this time of distance learning. Students at school have similar access to materials that remote students have at home. Most recently, I've done a paper hat folding activity with a kindergarten class to accompany the book "I want my hat back" by Jon Klassen. Our 5th grade students were very excited to see materials brought into the classroom and were thrilled to combine their science lessons with library lessons.

    Our next step is to provide an outlet for our students to participate in creative design. I've purchased a machine that has a digital design tool. Hopefully, if it all works out, students can create their own designs that can be printed using the machine and placed on an object, like a water bottle or plastic cup, for students to keep for themselves.”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Kelley

Makerspaces are wonderful interactive STEAM learning centers and having one in a central space like the library provides access to every student in our school. As the campus' new librarian, I was so excited to begin the Makerspace project for our campus. As things currently stand, a traditional Makerspace is not going to cut it in order to serve all of our students (both face-to-face and remote) while meeting the current safety standards. With these materials, our students can still experience the library Makerspace safely whether face-to-face or remote. By focusing on activities with disposable, household supplies, remote students can follow along with the activity from home and face-to-face students can build without supplies changing hands. The storage bins can be used to organize materials in advance and I can sanitize them between classroom visits. Our students would love the opportunity to step away from a device to build with their hands. I've already lined up several books to introduce our upcoming activities and can't wait to get started with your help!

About my class

Makerspaces are wonderful interactive STEAM learning centers and having one in a central space like the library provides access to every student in our school. As the campus' new librarian, I was so excited to begin the Makerspace project for our campus. As things currently stand, a traditional Makerspace is not going to cut it in order to serve all of our students (both face-to-face and remote) while meeting the current safety standards. With these materials, our students can still experience the library Makerspace safely whether face-to-face or remote. By focusing on activities with disposable, household supplies, remote students can follow along with the activity from home and face-to-face students can build without supplies changing hands. The storage bins can be used to organize materials in advance and I can sanitize them between classroom visits. Our students would love the opportunity to step away from a device to build with their hands. I've already lined up several books to introduce our upcoming activities and can't wait to get started with your help!

About my class

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