Past projects 22
Help Our Pre-K Class Get Basic Art Supplies
Funded Jun 3, 2015Thank you so much again for getting these extremely necessary markers and crayons for our classroom! For Pre-K students, having the necessary tools to draw and write is crucial for their development.
With these markers and crayons, my students have been able to express themselves on paper, to practice writing their names, and to genuinely enjoy being creative. This is such an important aspect of school for them, and it would not have been possible without your generosity.
Thank you again for taking such great care of my students and for believing in them and their education!!!!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Maller
Our Pre-K Class Needs an Air Conditioner!
Funded Jun 3, 2015You cannot even begin to imagine how much more comfortable our June and September were with this air conditioner in our classroom! Prior to its arrival, our classroom was stuffy, hot, and it was very difficult to keep our attention focused. Once we received the air conditioner, it made a world of a difference! Children and teachers were able to focus on our school work without thinking about the temperature.
All children deserve to be comfortable in their learning environment, and this air conditioner was single-handedly responsible for regulating the classroom temperature. Thank you again for caring so much about my students. We really, really, REALLY appreciate you!!!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Maller
Help Our Pre-K Class Hatch Baby Chicks!
Funded Mar 27, 2015Hatching chicks in our Pre-K classroom was definitely in the top five most exciting things we did all year!
As we waited 21 days while our fertilized eggs were in the incubator, my students were very busy learning about chickens. We read the books that we received about the process, eagerly looking at the pictures and anxiously awaiting our chicks' arrival. We also spent a lot of time looking at the Chick Life Cycle Exploration Set, and each day we would open the corresponding egg to see what our real fertilized eggs looked like on the inside.
Finally, our chicks poked through the eggs and arrived! The excitement on my students' faces was unmatched. For two weeks we played with them, fed them, changed their bedding, and watched them grow.
It was truly incredible to watch these inner-city children experience farm animals hatching and growing before their eyes. When it was time to send the chickens to live on a farm, the children cried!
Thank you again for giving us such a wonderful gift. My students absolutely loved this project, and I can't wait to hatch chicks every spring with each new group of students!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Maller
Help Our Pre-K Classroom Get New Books for Story-Time
Funded Jan 13, 2015Thank you both again so much for your extremely generous donation to our classroom! My students were so excited to receive the new books, and so thrilled to know that you were thinking of them.
We love all of the books that arrived, and some of our favorites are the "Pete the Cat" books and the "Elephant and Piggie" books. My students love becoming familiar with characters, and reading about them in more than one book and learning about their personalities really helps my students develop important pre-reading skills.
Thank you again so much for believing in my students!!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Maller
Our Pre-K Classroom Needs Cleaning Supplies!
Funded Dec 17, 2014I can't thank you enough for donating these cleaning supplies and healthy snacks to our classroom! My students were so happy that somebody cares so much about their well-being.
The impact that these cleaning supplies has made is astounding. We can now be assured that our carpet is vacuumed every day, and that when the children lie down to read a book or play a game, they are on a clean carpet. The paper towels have also been tremendously helpful; We have not had to worry about running out of them, and the students are able to take ownership of their own spills by wiping it up themselves.
I think the most astounding effect, though, is on the attendance of the students: In the three full months that have passed since the cleaning supplies arrived, my class has won best attendance in the school for two of the three months! Our class attendance jumped from 89.2% the month before the arrival of the cleaning supplies, to 94.9% the month after we received them! I have no doubt that is largely due to our Clorox wipes, paper towels, vacuum, Swiffer, among all the other supplies you donated to us!
You have helped to teach my students that a clean and healthy classroom translates to happy children! Thank you again!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Maller
Help Our Pre-K Classroom Create a Lending Library!
Funded Dec 15, 2014I cannot thank you enough for giving our class this Lending Library! My students were so excited to receive the books, and couldn't wait to share some of our classroom favorites with their families.
Students are now able to independently sign-out our Lending Library books to take home. Not only have you given this beautiful gift to my students and their families, but you have also helped to teach them responsibility; we are now 4.5 months into this program and zero books have been lost!
It is so wonderful to hear students talk about the experience of reading the books with their family members. They will say, "My mom didn't know this book! She liked reading it with me." Thank you again for giving my students this incredible literacy gift and bonding experience!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Maller
This classroom project was brought to life by Kia and one other donor.We Need a Computer to Keep Up with Our Peers!
Funded Sep 26, 2014As I first began calling the children over to have a turn using the computer, they were incredibly excited. "Is it my turn text?!" Each child would ask. "I've seen one of those before!" Some said. Most had never used one.
My initial plan was to have the children play a game called "More or Less," where they were shown two groups of items and asked to click on the group that had "more," or to click on the group that had, "less." To my surprise, the children did not know what it meant to "click," so I showed them the button on the mouse.
I was surprised again to find out that they didn't know how to move the cursor around the screen! I showed them how to move the mouse, and we practiced moving the cursor up, down, left, and right across the screen. I was shocked that these two seemingly simply skills, clicking and moving the mouse, did not come naturally to these children who had little or no prior experience with computers.
As time went on, each child became more comfortable with navigating the computer, and we were finally able to focus on our fun math and literacy games. It is no secret that in our increasingly technological world, not knowing how to use a computer could be detrimental to an individual's success. With zero computers in our school for students to use, it is impossible to teach our students these skills that they so desperately need to keep-up with their more affluent peers across the country. Thank you for giving my Pre-K students the opportunity to learn these computer skills at such a young age!
My students and I are extremely grateful for this very generous gift.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Maller
Help our Pre-K Enhance Music and Art in the Classroom!
Funded Sep 29, 2014One of the items from your donation that my students noticed first was our new basket filled with song books. Once they realized that each of the books in that basket had a song to go with it, they couldn't wait to learn them. "How does this song go? Sing this one!" They exclaimed. You should hear my students' beautiful voices sing these songs. Whether we are in the classroom, walking through the hallways, or traveling up the stairs, my students are always singing! Once a month my class has the opportunity to make a presentation at our school-wide "Town Meeting," in front of the entire faculty and student body. These song books have been absolutely perfect! We have performed "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed," "I Love You, A Bushel and a Peck," and "Alligators All Around" so far. Everybody is always so impressed with the ability of these Pre-K students to learn such long songs, and I am confident that we owe their success to the guidance and visuals of these books.
The art supplies have also tremendously improved our classroom. Most importantly, I do not have to worry about rationing paper, as you have provided us with enough to last the school year. My students absolutely love the dot paints, and make the most beautiful paintings in such vibrant colors! The glue brush-top bottles have also made my students much more independent in their art projects. They no longer have to ask for help getting glue, and are free to independently collage and easily clean-up after themselves.
We also have been able to make play-dough more frequently thanks to your generous donation of the key ingredient, cream of tartar! My students have also loved using the rolling pins, pretending to be chefs and making the most delicious play-dough pizza and cakes. Your gift has certainly fostered their creativity!
As a firm believer in incorporating both music and art into the classroom, your generous donation has helped to make this a reality. Thank you so much for supporting my students!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Maller
Help Pre-K Students Learn to Love Books and Storytelling
Funded Sep 26, 2014The first story-telling kit that I introduced to my students from your generous gift was, "The Jacket I Wear in the Snow." The children sat on the carpet, their eyes wide with excitement, as I pulled out the Velcro pieces to stick to the felt board as I read the book. When I had finished, the first question they asked was, "Can we try?!"
And so the next choice time that we had in our classroom, every single student wanted to tell the story of "The Jacket I Wear in the Snow." I quickly assured the students that you had purchased many story-telling kits for our classroom, and that I would soon introduce the rest of them. Each time I acted out a story with the Velcro pieces while reading a corresponding book, my students sat mesmerized on the carpet, soaking in each story and eager to tell the story themselves.
I am confident that these story-telling kits have improved the comprehension skills of my students. As I see them retelling the stories to themselves or to their friends, they use the kits to organize the sequence of events and to retell the details of the stories. Additionally, these kits have given my students another way to collaborate, as it is actually very difficult to manipulate the pieces and turn the pages of the book at the same time. Often my students will sit in pairs to tell a story, as one turns the pages of the book, one moves around the Velcro pieces, and they collaborate in their story-telling.
Thank you so much for making our story-time more engaging, for strengthening my students' comprehension skills, and for giving my students an exciting way to retell familiar stories. We are so grateful!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Maller
Help Our Pre-K Classroom Get Books for Story-time!
Funded Sep 26, 2014The boxes of books arrived one afternoon, after the children had already gone home. Eager to quickly integrate our new stories into our classroom library, I unloaded the books onto the shelves. The following morning, before I had even had a chance to tell my students that the new books had arrived, they noticed themselves. "What in the world?!" One exclaimed as he picked up one of the new books off of the shelf moments after he had entered the classroom.
Before I knew it, my whole class of students had each picked up one of our new books and were intently flipping through the pages. I encouraged them to at least take off their jackets and hang up their book bags first, but to my excitement so many of them insisted, "Hang on, I'm reading!"
When it came time for story-time that day, when the children sit on the carpet as I read a book aloud to them, I had seventeen children each waving one of our new books in front of my face. "Read this one first! Read this one, please!" The children could not wait to hear the stories read to them. Over the course of the weeks and months that followed, each time they heard one of the new stories, my students sat wide-eyed, intently listening to each exciting and engaging new book. "Read it again!" They would exclaim.
This wonderful donation has dramatically improved story-time in our classroom. Where as previously the children were not very excited about listening to one of our old, torn books, they now look forward to story time each day. The children also spend an incredible amount of time looking through the books on their own, telling the stories out loud to each other.
Thank you so much for giving my students a love of literature! What an incredible gift.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Maller