Past projects 13
Reading Is VENDamental!
Funded Jun 6, 2022I cannot thank you enough for funding our school with a Book Vending Machine. This vending machine has created a buzz in our school community! As you can imagine, the students are excited at the opportunity to use the Book Vending Machine and grow their own libraries. Not only do I love it and but I also cannot wait to see the full impact of this generous donation. Our students are excited about the possibilities!
We are hopeful that the inclusion of the book vending machine in our school community will make students look forward to reading a print book. We are hopeful that it will even make our most reluctant readers eager participants in their reading journey. We are still exploring all the possibilities with the book vending machine and know that this can be a game changer in our fostering the love of reading, building libraries, and creating life long learners and readers. This is all made possible because of your generosity!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Nelms
This classroom project was brought to life by Dollar General Literacy Foundation and 6 other donors.Engage Me!
Funded Dec 1, 2020I cannot thank you enough for funding my classroom with a Pear Deck subscription. This tool has really increased engagement in my lesson and allows me to really pin point my student's needs. As you can imagine, teaching remotely is not ideal for many of my students, but this tool has been a game changer. Not only do I love it, but my students love it too!
Pear Deck offers multiple ways for my students to engage and demonstrate their learning. This makes even my most reluctant student an eager participant. It also works seamlessly with my Google lessons. I am still exploring everything that we can do with Pear Deck and have recently begun to assign asychronous lessons for my students to engage in. It has been amazing because I can add audio to my slides and guide my students through their work without being there. I am going to continue learning about all the tools made available with Pear Deck to further support my student's learning. This is all made possible because of your generosity!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Nelms
This classroom project was brought to life by FamilyAlbum and 3 other donors.Family Learning and Gaming Time!
Funded May 28, 2020I cannot thank you enough for the donations on behalf of my students and classroom. As you can imagine COVID-19 had made our school year incredibly difficult, but the reality is that our students could not afford to lose one more day of instruction. Your donation made it possible for my co-teacher and I to mail our students engaging activities that they could do with their families in days that their technology was failing or when the stress of the pandemic was too much to bear.
Although, I was not able to include pictures of my students enjoying these games and resources, I can tell you that receiving those packages was the highlight of their day. They were so happy and thankful to receive them. I am in your debt for donating to our students in their time of need, thank you. Thank you.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Nelms
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 2 other donors.Understanding Via Technology!
Funded Dec 21, 2018My students and I are extremely grateful for your generous donations to our project. The ability to give the majority of my students access to technology at the same time is a life saver. From an instructional standpoint, it has allowed our students to engage in a multitude of research projects beginning with Hispanic History Month, Native Americans of New York, and Black History Month. These projects have allowed us to have eye opening discussions about the possibilities for our future despite real or perceived obstacles.
Our class uses the Chrome Books in other ways besides for research. We use it for MyON which is a leveled reading library that reads and highlights text for students on not only their reading level, but interest level as well. It also has the added benefit of providing books that are bilingual and in Spanish. This program also has built in comprehension questions about the text they read. Our students also use the Chrome Books for Read Works. This program is similar to MyON; however they have specific texts that are geared for students learning English as a new language. We also use the Chrome Books for math. We use Xtra Math for fact fluency practice and Freckle for ability leveled math activities. We would not be able to access these programs without technology.
Many of our students have access to technology and quality headphones due to your generosity. We are excited to have the ability to engage our students in their learning via technology especially as they tackle learning English. Our students have shown tremendous progress in their English acquisition and we attribute it to having the appropriate resources for our students. These are the resources that your donation helped us acquire. We are thankful to all of you for supporting our classroom and students!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Nelms
This classroom project was brought to life by Verizon and 9 other donors.Let's Make Them Forget They're Learning!
Funded Jun 8, 2017My students and I are extremely grateful for your generous donations to our project. The ability to give ALL of my students access to technology at the same time is priceless. From an instructional standpoint, it saves time and there is never enough time in the classroom. I can have students working on their publishing simultaneously instead of on a rotation. My students love it because they do not have to wait to use the Chrome Books! Patience is not necessarily a fourth graders virtue.
Our class uses the Chrome Books in a multitude of ways. We use it for MyON which is a leveled reading library that reads and highlights text for students on not only their reading level, but interest level as well. It then asks comprehension questions about the text they read. I then have access to assess their understanding on the text they have read. We also use the Chrome Books for math. We have access to Mathletics which allows the students to create an avatar and complete math again on their level. One awesome feature is the ability to challenge peers within your class, school, state, country and even world on math skills! The students love it. We also use the Chrome Books for research and writing.
Each one of my students has access to technology that has a protective cover and quality headphones due to the funding of this project. We are looking forward to using the Chrome Books for our new Native Americans of New York project, the possibilities for creative presentations are endless thanks to all of you.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Nelms
Bringing Family Game Night Back!
Funded Jun 13, 2017My students and I thank you for fully funding our project! My students have been practicing playing with the various games in anticipation of taking them home over the weekend. I love watching them fully engaged in games that supports their learning in a multitude of ways. They are learning not only academic skills, but also social skills in their game playing.
My students could not believe that they would have access to so many games not only at school, but at home as well. They ask all the time to play the games! To have the ability to lend out academic games for my students and their families is priceless. The hope that they will use these games as an opportunity to spend more time together and have academic conversations through play is heartening.
My hope is that throughout the year I will see the positive results of this project. Whether the progress is academic or more developed social skills, it will be all a move in the right direction. A move that was made possible by your generous funding.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Nelms
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.Help Critical Thinkers Discern Fake News From Credible News!
Funded Aug 16, 2017We cannot thank you enough for your generous donations! Our students love the Time for Kids magazines. They often see the magazines on my desk and ask when I am going to let them read the latest article. The magazine articles are so engaging with their colorful photos and interesting topics that are relevant to our students.
We often use the magazines within our guided reading periods. We are currently working on a Informational Text Unit and the Time for Kids has become an invaluable resource. We are able to teach our students how to use graphs, headers, maps, photos, and captions to enrich their understanding of a text. We are also introducing them to understanding what is a credible source.
In this day and age, it is incredibly important to discern what is credible news and what is "fake news". We want make sure that our students are critical thinkers that will become future responsible citizens. Your donation has the potential to allow us to educate our students in a way that goes beyond just comprehending the words on a page.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Nelms
This classroom project was brought to life by Sergey Brin Family Foundation and 5 other donors.Doodling Our Way Through Critical Thinking!
Funded Dec 20, 2016You have no idea how excited my students were when we began to receive the materials from this project! They were especially excited to see the 3D Doodler box, they had no idea what it was and couldn't wait to see what they would be able to do with it. Once we modeled the possibilities, they were in awe! The looks on their faces were priceless.
My students have also been using the Chromebook and Galaxy Tablets to access reading and math online resources and apps. Our school has recently partnered with Mathletics for math and I am now able to have the majority of my students on the program at the same time. The program allows them to access math content live, so they can challenge their classmates with comparable math skills or other students world wide. The materials have allowed my students to grow in their math skills in an engaging way.
My students and I are extremely grateful for your generosity. I am humbled by your belief in my project and my ability as an educator to make it come to life. The word thank you does not seem sufficient to express my gratitude, but please accept my heartfelt thanks.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Nelms
Defying Labels!
Funded Sep 1, 2016My class and I are so thankful for your generosity, as it has allowed us to have access to resources that we normally wouldn't have. When we received the boxes of materials, my students were amazed and excited about all the resources that they would get to use, especially since many of them were games. It's a great side benefit to have your students learn through games, there is definitely more buy in!
My students are currently working on multiplication in math and the "Multiplication Bingo" game has been a huge hit! They are so engaged during the game and don't even realize that they are building fluency in their multiplication facts which is essential to survive fourth grade math. It has been an awesome addition to our classroom resources. In our earlier place value unit, they used the "Place Value Puzzle" and really enjoyed it, as well. Your donation has allowed them to build a stronger foundation in math with these excellent resources.
During our reading block, we use the Scholastic Magazines. My students love the interesting articles and are so much more engaged in reading because of the magazine. I am so excited to start our next unit which is a research project about the Native Americans of New York. My plan is to have them work on an informational magazine modeled after the Scholastic News Reader and to print it out on our new color printer. I cannot thank you enough for your generous donations and I want to assure you that every resource that you have helped purchase is being put to good use. I sincerely thank you for supporting my wonderful class and I!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Nelms
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 18 other donors.Hoodwink Them Into Learning!
Funded Sep 6, 2015I can't thank all of you enough for your donations to my classroom! You should have seen my student's looks of excitement when they helped me unpack our new classroom materials. When I explained to them how we received the math centers, karaoke machine, Scholastic News, Dyna Math and classroom organizer, they could not believe that people that they didn't know would be so generous! You have helped my special education students understand the values of generosity and kindness. These are the teachable moments that I live for.
As I mentioned before, it is so essential that my students build their financial literacy for the future and the math centers have been an invaluable asset in our classroom. My students practice multiple times during the week on building their foundational math skills and we use the math centers for these tasks. We also use the Dyna Math website during their Technology time and it has been a great resource. My students have shown growth in their foundational math skills and most importantly, they are so engaged in their learning and are building on becoming financially and mathematically literate for the future.
My students have also been using the Karaoke machine for presentations and we are looking forward to using it again with our upcoming unit. Our upcoming unit will be on persuasion and we are going to use the debates in our Scholastic News Weekly Reader to build on the exposure and skills needed to be persuasive. The debates in the reader are amazing because they are about topics that students care about like, "Should Sugar be Banned in Schools?" or "Should Recess be Taken Away as a Consequence?" I am excited to start our next unit with these wonderful resources. My students and I are eternally grateful for your generosity and please know that you have made a tremendous impact in the learning of my students!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Nelms
This classroom project was brought to life by Experian and 8 other donors.