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Ms. Munch's Classroom

  • Cecil Elementary School 7
  • Baltimore, MD
  • 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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Past projects 6

  • Vivid Visuals for Sensory Seekers!

    Funded Dec 3, 2024

    Thank you so much for supporting my students and I! It is perfect timing that we got funded now-- that means we will be able to start the new year with new supports for everyone who needs them. I am looking forward to sharing the good news with the students and staff who I work with!”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Munch

    This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 14 other donors.
  • Step into the Zen Den

    Funded Nov 13, 2023

    Thank you so much for donating to make my office a Zen Den for my students! Not only do the students love the atmosphere, so do the adults! School staff who meet with me in my office or stop by to give me student updates always comment on how calming the space is. The lamps I can easily turn on with a push of a button and colorful lights around the room make it so much more welcoming than fluorescent lighting!

    Since receiving my materials, the doll house, complete with dolls who look like most of my students, have been the biggest hit with students from pre-k all the way up to fourth grade! The social skills game, dice, and buzzers all make the "work" students do of acknowledging their own feelings and learning how to cope with them seem more fun, making them much more willing to engage.

    It has also been really nice that I can bring my zen into classrooms and wider school community. Students love to use my fidgets while they are trying to focus, and when I work with students not very comfortable with their peers in class, they have found common ground in drawing with the new markers and crayons. I'm currently working with some students who are now able to learn the life skill of yoga as a calming tool because of the project as well.”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Munch

  • Better than Fine Fine Motor Practice!

    Funded May 5, 2021

    Thank you so much for supporting this project! When we came back in the spring and had just a few students, we already saw the need to make sure we were incorporating fine motor practice into what we do to support students. As our full student body returned we really saw the extent to which there was a need to provide our students access to these materials. Some of our students in second grade barely picked up a pencil during the time we were engaged in virtual learning, and many of our pre-k through first grade students have never used scissors before. Because our students have not had as much opportunity to exercise while at home, or write because of completing learning activities via technology, many students need to build up their strength and stamina for the writing they are now doing back in the classroom. The supplies you helped us purchase have been used to create fine motor centers, which are placed in pre-k through second grade classrooms. The teachers use them for warm-up and welcome activities, and also incorporate them into learning center time (e.g. tong tasks that help the students build strength but also have to do with number identification are used during math). If a teacher comes to me with a concern about how a student is doing with their letter formation or showing what they know through drawing or writing, it is so great to be able to have resources at our fingertips to provide to the teachers. Many of these resources are very game-like, so our students love using them and they don't even realize that they are building up their fine motor skills as they have fun! Thank you for making a big impact for ALL of our younger learners!”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Munch

    This classroom project was brought to life by SONIC Drive-In and 4 other donors.
  • Little People, Big Feelings

    Funded Mar 16, 2021

    Hosting weekly social-emotional lessons for all my kindergarten students was the highlight of my virtual experience during the 2020-2021 school year. The books that you helped procure for me formed the basis of most of these lessons, and I am so grateful to you for providing me with my happy moment of each week. I was so thankful to have these books, full of characters with a wide range of backgrounds and life circumstances, which were able to grab the attention of students through the screen and keep them engaged.

    Here's a specific description of some of the books we used and how. The Day You Begin helped us build friendships and a learning community even though we were virtual. I Am Every Good Thing encouraged students to find and appreciate their own strengths. Focused Ninja taught us how to break down big tasks into smaller ones, and other steps we can take to improve our focus. My Body Sends a Signal helped us identify our feelings based on signs from our body. Alphabreaths taught us all kinds of interesting breathing techniques to help us calm down. I also began writing yoga stories increase story comprehension and provide opportunities for movement during virtual learning. One of our favorites was Jabari Jumps, a story about a boy who finally jumps off the diving board even though he's scared. When we reenacted Jabari's story using yoga, we practiced using self-talk to encourage ourselves to try something new and celebrate our braveness.

    As we have returned to all in-person school, there are many feelings we all are having. One of my emotions I have identified is gratitude, as I have already been able to use these materials in new ways. One of the ways I comforted a student new to the United States was by sharing a book called Dreamers with her, which echoed her journey to our community. I am looking forward to more opportunities to use these books to impact all of my students' social and emotional well-being. Thank you!”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Munch

    This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 5 other donors.
  • Strong Hands Mean Strong Minds!

    Funded Dec 11, 2019

    Thank you so much for your generous donations to make Strong Hands Means Strong Minds a reality! The teachers were so excited to have new resources, especially one who is only in her second year of teaching and is still working on gathering as many tools to help her students as possible! The students were so excited and focused on their new "games" and "arts and crafts" that they definitely don't even realize that all this fun stuff has an ulterior motive to help build the muscles in their hands and form correct grasp when they go to color or write.

    To introduce the new activities, our Occupational Therapist modeled not only how the games worked, but also how to hold the tongs and tweezers to make sure that the students would get maximum benefit! The teachers listened and participated so that they also learned the language to use to cue the students for correct grasp. The students now are using the activities and materials as an option for their "center" time, which is basically their play and creative time, and they love it!

    There are also a few students who the teachers and Occupational Therapist have realized some some extra special practice, and those students get to find the letter beads hidden within the theraputty (that matches the level of difficulty they need for their individual finger strength) to make their name. As their strength improves, we can move on to the next theraputty that requires a higher level of strength as they get stronger and stronger.

    We can't wait to see how these little friends' crayon and pencil grasp improves, handwriting gets more clear, and cutting gets more precise all from your help! Thank you so much for supporting these students' development!”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Munch

  • Comfy Class Carpet to Create Community!

    Funded Feb 4, 2019

    Thank you so much for your contribution towards purchasing a new carpet for a group of second graders who really needed it! I am a school psychologist and am a part of the Prevention and Intervention for Early Learner's program at the school. For my job with these students, I help provide social skills instruction, an intervention for reading specifically geared towards retelling stories using a visual (the doll you see in some of the pictures), and assist the classroom teacher with classroom and instructional management. The classroom teacher is working on getting her certificate in Early Childhood Education through a special alternative certification program. She received some training and took classes last summer while working in a summer school program, and this year started as a regular classroom teacher on her own. The first year for any new job can be stressful, but for a classroom teacher where they are charged with educating and supporting a large class of students with such a wide-range of needs, can be extremely overwhelming and daunting.

    As a part of my support to this teacher and this group of students, I went with the teacher into other classrooms to observe how other teachers did things to help give her more real-life experience about what works. The teacher had commented in one observation that she felt she couldn't have her students move back and forth between the carpet and desks because her students didn't do well sitting on the carpet. I pointed out that in this particular class, they had a large rug that had squares for each child. Her current rug, which had been something she found in the school when she started (new teachers aren't given much in a large urban district like ours), was a smaller outlined map of the United States. It was dark, uninviting, not something that helped give structure or warmth to the room. We realized that maybe if we gave the children something nice, bright, with specific spaces that could be called their own, that they might be motivated to take better care of their classroom and respect the boundaries of this more welcoming environment. This Donors Choose project was born of that realization, and to give that teacher something positive to look forward to as she dealt with the day to day challenges of being a first year teacher in a Title 1 school.

    When the teacher and the students received the rug, they raved about how nice it was to get something so special, and so new. We are a Restorative Practices school, so the teacher uses the rug to build a class community by having all the students gather on the carpet in a circle to start the day. Each student takes a turn answering a question that helps build relationships among them all as they go around the circle. The students' behavior during whole group times has also greatly improved with each of them having their own space, and the ease of being able to direct them to be "whole body listeners" while keeping their bodies within their squares. Social skills lessons now take place on the rug, with students being able to do things like practice deep belly breathing as one big group, or role play a new skill "on stage" in front of their friends. The biggest change has been the literacy intervention time. It initially started with keeping a small group of the students in their desks scattered throughout the room so that behaviors could be better managed. Once we got the carpet, the intervention evolved to moving the group of highest need students to the rug, and teaching them and reinforcing positive carpet behaviors while engaging in the reading intervention. The other students in the room then became jealous of the other students' carpet time, and it has morphed into a whole class activity that all the students LOVE. They seem to all like being able to participate in one thing as a group together, where they are all engaged in reading and retelling a story in their communal area.

    When the students were asked about why they liked the rug, they said things like how colorful it was, that they had their own space, it made them more comfortable, and most touching, that they liked that other people they didn't know helped buy it for them. Thank you for showing the students there is good in this world!”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Munch

I am a school psychologist in an urban school where we have students with a lot of needs, but so many strengths! I provide in-school counseling to certain students who need more support regulating their emotions and behaviors. I also provide resources to teachers and parents to assist with helping students with educational disabilities, such as autism and ADHD, thrive. Our school community is a loving one, and my goal is to become a key part of that community.

About my class

I am a school psychologist in an urban school where we have students with a lot of needs, but so many strengths! I provide in-school counseling to certain students who need more support regulating their emotions and behaviors. I also provide resources to teachers and parents to assist with helping students with educational disabilities, such as autism and ADHD, thrive. Our school community is a loving one, and my goal is to become a key part of that community.

About my class

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