Past projects 15
Hi-Tech Accessories
Funded Sep 3, 2015Our school year has gone fantastically, thanks to your generous donations in helping us meet our goal of getting the external drives for our classrooms. With the implementation of our My Math series, we were faced with the challenge of figuring out how to use all of the parts that make up the technology component. Our classroom desktops were extremely outdated and couldn't handle the program; leaving us with our laptops. The problem with our laptops were that they didn't come with a DVD drive; leaving us unable to use any of the software that My Math provides.
That is why we asked for help. Thanks to you, all our laptops now have external drives that allow us to access vital resources that our My Math series provides. Not only can we see interactive lessons, we can now access different activities and allow our students to take the wheel in the classroom. It also has helped us to bring in other software and programs for all of our subjects.
Our students have become very tech savvy and they are confident in leading discussions, problem solving, and engaging programs that they truly have fallen in love with! You truly are our guardian angels! We love you all very much!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Martinez
The Gift of Music
Funded Sep 15, 2014Our music classes have come to life! With your generous and thoughtful donation we have never had such fun taking music classes. With the addition of our maracas, bells, and rhythm sticks our students have not just been having fun but they have truly internalized the vocabulary and the pure love of music! This year we have been extremely blessed as well with an amazing music teacher who really dives in with our students on a weekly basis. Never have I seen our little ones so engaged and excited when it is our music day. I even have little ones wanting to stay inside during recess just to play with all our lovely instruments.
This year's Winter Program was the best show ever! Our parents were blown away by how intricate and entertaining our performances were! They loved every second of it! Our kindergarteners can explain to anyone what a pitch is, sing up and down the scale, and they are not one bit shy to stand in front of an audience and sing all by themselves! I truly love our instruments and how it has helped many of our students break out of their shy little shell and just SING!!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Martinez
This classroom project was brought to life by an anonymous donor and one other donor.Healthy Children! Healthy Future!
Funded Aug 23, 2014Words can not describe how happy our little ones, the teachers, and our yard supervisors are now that we have these brand new trikes and the Frisbee games! When the boxes arrived it was like seeing a surprised adult being told that they won a brand new car. The students were beyond eager for P.E. to start so that they may begin using all the wonderful new equipment!
Students who were before reluctant to try and pedal a trike now were running to be first! Our taller students now could pedal with greater ease because they had the leg room. Our yard supervisors said that it was such a breath of fresh air to have more trikes because students were able to ride more times around the track.
As a teacher I saw more students wanting to participate and I didn't find students just sitting around and not getting any exercise. I was amazed at how they were using the core physical education vocabulary such as pedal, toss, catch, throw, heartbeat, and breath. It was amazing!
I thank you all for helping us finally reach our goal! You are all our fairy god-parents!!!!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Martinez
This classroom project was brought to life by Gates Foundation Back To School and 7 other donors.Help Inspire A Child's Creativity!
Funded Feb 26, 2014Our students were beyond happy to have received such amazingly beautiful journals. They loved the wonderful covers that protected the many pages ready for them to right their little hearts out. They send you all many great big cougar hugs and thank you's. When I told them that generous people were willing to give money and help us get journals so that they may write all school year long, they were surprised and couldn't believe that people would just give money to kids that they didn't know. They said, "Miss Martinez, they are very nice."
We have used these writing journals throughout the day in all subject areas. They were able to right about their favorite stories, informational sentences about different amazing creatures, how to stay safe during an earthquake and a fire, and how to conserve our natural resources so that kids can continue to enjoy this wonderful planet.
These journals gave my students the opportunity to be able to look back at the entire school year and look at how their writing has improved by leaps and bounds. They were able to learn how to edit and correct their errors; as well as share their writing pieces with their peers. What can I say? They absolutely loved their journals and we absolutely love all of you for making it happen!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Martinez
This classroom project was brought to life by 100 Women in Hedge Funds and 12 other donors.Future Writers Wanted!
Funded Sep 7, 2013Our students were so excited and overjoyed when our shipment of brand new writing journals arrived. They were so happy to have such nice and beautiful journals to use. They couldn't wait to get started on them. Our Kindergarten grade-level had never seen such beautiful journals. From the nice hard covers, huge space for illustrations, and the generous amount of writing space. Our little ones couldn't believe that such nice people would just buy journals for our grade-level. They asked why you did it and we explained that all of you donated money to buy journals because you all wanted for them to be the best writers in the world. Many of them wonder when they are writing if you will like their illustrations and sentences. They are so cute!
Our students have gone from hardly being able to write a single letter correctly, to writing complete sentences. Their penmanship improves everyday. Some have better penmanship than some adults! They now can form sentences by sounding out the words and their illustrations contain more and more details. The type of writers that they are now, compared to the type of writers that they were at the beginning of the school year is like night and day.
Our Kindergarten students now have met the challenge of the District Writing Assessments head on. By practicing different writing genres in their writing journals they met their first assessment without any fear. When we first started writing practice assessments in our writing journals we were met with kids who were crying, kids who would say, "I can't," and kids who would say, "I don't know how." When the assessment finally came up, no one cried, no one said I can't, and no one gave up. They all tackled the assessment with confidence and they all tried their best.
Our Kindergarten teachers can't say thank you enough for helping our little ones become the best they can be. We are forever grateful!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Martinez
This classroom project was brought to life by Kia Motors America and 6 other donors.Creating Future Writers
Funded Aug 13, 2012I do not know where to begin in thanking you for your amazing donation to my classroom. The benefits that have come with the wipe boards and markers are beyond what I expected.
My students have used the wipe boards in so many ways. They use them every single day. They have used them in the writing center during Small Groups, in which they practice writing their letters, numbers, names, and words. They also use them every day during dictation and blending. Before using them their penmanship was difficult to read and understand. Now 3/4 of my class are able to write amazing sentences, with the most beautiful of penmanship.
Before using the wipe boards in practicing dictation, I had some that would cry on Fridays when they had to take their dictation quiz. Now because we use them to take practice dictation quizzes, they have built a great amount of confidence within themselves and look forward to taking and being successful on the Friday dictation quizzes.
I know these wipe boards will continue to benefit not just my current students but my future students to come.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Martinez