Past projects 11
School Supplies For A Successful Year!
Funded Aug 16, 2023Thank you, thank you, thank you for supplying my students with their basic classroom supplies. Because of you, students have what they need to be successful with school. Each student is equipped with two notebooks, a folder for homework, and pencil pouch that stores two highlighters, an eraser, colored pencils, sticky notes, and pens for editing.
Having basic supplies allows students to complete their work, take notes, and organize their learning. Students are especially proud of their notebooks, which act as a showcase of their learning throughout the year. I especially love that these notebooks are durable and will last the entire year.
Thank you again for supporting my students and my life's work.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cassidy
This classroom project was brought to life by The SONIC Foundation and 11 other donors.School Supplies For A Successful School Year!
Funded Aug 12, 2022Thank you so much for your generous donations. Because of donors like you, my students have had the supplies they need to learn and be successful from the very start of the school year.
Students are so appreciative and proud of their materials, especially their pencil pouch. These pouches hold the "fun" supplies of school: colored pencils, crayons, glue sticks, and fine point pens.
One of my students wanted to share his appreciation too. He writes:
Dear Amazing people,
Thank you guys for all of the school supplies you have gifted us with by donating with your own money out of your own pocket. Thank you for our pencil pouches, planners, notebooks, folders and all of the other school materials you have given us. You guys are amazing!
~ An appreciative students”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cassidy
This classroom project was brought to life by Bill Gates and 16 other donors.Games Galore!
Funded Jan 18, 2022My students are loving their new board games! Thank you. In fact, I just had a student ask if she could "buy" the last game board, an extra, with 20 PAWS passes that she has earned and collected over the course of the year for being engaged and responsible. I was more than happy to make that trade with her.
When students first saw the board games they were so excited. One of my fondest memories of the year was when I taught the class to play each game. Most of my students had never played Scrabble! It is my hope that my students will choose to turn to physical games with family and friends over electronic devices.
Again, thank you for showing up to support my students and my classroom. Time and time again this community has provided opportunities for my kids and we thank you.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cassidy
This classroom project was brought to life by Panda Cares and 9 other donors.School Supplies For A Stellar School Year!
Funded Aug 26, 2021While this was not my first DonorsChoose project, this one has been the most beneficial! I cannot express our appreciation and gratitude enough. Having all students equipped with solid supplies from the start of school has allowed us to get to straight to work.
The mental impact has been huge. Students are thrilled to have quality supplies and everything they need to focus on learning . This has never happened before where we could just take off running. Plus, for many of my kids, getting new anything is a novelty. They feel loved and supported as they work through getting back in the classroom.
The last time these kids have had a regular school year, they were in third grade. As sixth graders, we are working hard to learn organization, note taking, and work habits. These school supplies support this mission. And let me tell you, the pencil pouch is a huge hit. It holds highlighters, colored pencils markers, pencils, a sharpener, and glue! It is a tool kit they love.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cassidy
This classroom project was brought to life by Bill Gates and 17 other donors.Diverse Books!
Funded Apr 29, 2021A hearty thank you for supplying our class with a broad selection of books! You have added immense value to our daily school lives. You see, we settle in each day with silent reading. This quiet time lets kids quiet their brain, relax, and gear up for the day. For many, this is the best part of the day because many of my kids want to read but, they don't have access to books or a quiet space.
Our new books are flying off the shelves! These readers are so excited to see new books. One student thanked me for the variety of diverse books. Her words," I am so happy to see girls like me in what I am reading." Your donation did that, thank you.
My favorite part of the week is on Fridays where I choose the first chapter of a book to highlight and read. We call this First Chapter Fridays or FCF. Your donation has allowed me to engage all my readers because I have books students can identify with.
Thank you for supporting my forever mission: to have students fall in love with reading.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cassidy
Flexible Seating Options for Middle School Learners
Funded Sep 18, 2018What a difference! Flexible seating has created a positive change in the classroom. Kiddos are no longer tapping and creating distracting background noise. Instead, those with energy to burn can wobble or gently bounce while working without distracting others. The standby desk has allowed my students that prefer to stand the opportunity to work while being comfortable. Productivity has increased and the time spend managing behaviors has decreased.
In the words of one kiddo, " ... sometimes I can get fidgety and now that I get to bounce around it helps me to pay attention."
Besides the physical gift of the seating options, my classes were so thankful for the generosity from the community. They could not believe that people would invest money in strangers. These acts of kindness will not be forgotten amongst these kids. One star student wrote, "I still can not believe you would invest money for kids you did not know."
We all thank you this amazing gift! As one of my boys wrote, " We would like to thank you for supporting us for new chairs. You must be really nice for donating money too. Thank you for being very generous for us and our teacher."”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cassidy
Walking in Others' Shoes- Exploring Cultures and Events Through Books
Funded Aug 31, 2017My class would like to thank you for your generous donations. In fact, one of my boys wrote the following thank you letter.
I appreciate you guys a lot. I love reading the books that you guys helped us pay off. Also, I love the games that were donated. Thank you so much. Also, I wanted to say thank you because when I don't have my supplies, I could just go to the bins and get some.
Your donations help us so much like when one time I did not have crayons, I just got them from the bin. Also, if someone does not have a book to read, there are a lot to choose from in our classroom library. My teacher has the best classroom library and she is really proud of her books. She believes that reading for fun will help students be better readers.
In all I think if we didn't have you guys, I don't want this classroom would be. Thank you SO much. Because I love reading the books. I hope you keep helping our class. Thank you very much.
As you can see, my students are so very appreciative of your generosity. I, too, "hope you keep helping our class" !”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cassidy
This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Funder and 12 other donors.Books! Books! Books!
Funded Dec 14, 2016My class is overjoyed with our new collection of books. To be honest, my students have never read so voraciously as they have this year. I firmly believe that this is due to the wide variety and new books that have been donated to the class. We owe you a big thank you!
Without a doubt, my students favorite time of the day is silent reading. I can literally hear a collective "Yes!" when I build silent reading time into our day. It is amazing to see 100% of my students focused. I literally can walk around the room and see students completely engrossed in their books and that rarely occurs. Because of their new-found love of reading and continued opportunity to read, my students have made exceptional growth in their Lexile reading scores.
Thank you again for supporting my class in such a meaningful way. I will continue to encourage free-reading because I whole-heartedly believe that when kids love to read, they will read by choice. When they choose to read by choice, we create life-long readers. Thank you for being part of their village and supporting the gift of literacy.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cassidy
Reading to Learn and Reading For Entertainment
Funded Oct 23, 2015Thank you again for your generous donations. As a result of DonorsChoose and these donations, I have been able to teach my students sixth grade reading skills with high interest text. These skills include: summarizing, citing evidence, paraphrasing, tone, mood, supporting an argument, and critical thinking. We have read articles and stories ranging from an adapted Sherlock Holmes's play to clothing production in third world countries to an infographic on dog poop (the boys loved that!) to the benefits and cons of hosting the Olympics. Because of these donations, reading class is never boring and I have a plethora of engaging texts and activities to choose from; No text book adoption can replicate Scope Magazines!
Also, a HUGE thank you for the high interest novels that you have funded. These books are constantly being read by my students and passed around. In fact, I often have students that I do not teach asking to borrow these books. I firmly believe that in order to raise life long readers, you must provide them with the opportunity to read for fun and to read books of their choosing. These books have cemented a love for reading for many of my kids. As a monthly homework assignment, I ask students to track their reading minutes. Students that read a total of 400 minutes a month earn an A on the assignment and it is all trust based. However, I have students that often read 1,000 - 1,500 minutes or more per month outside of school. If that does not demonstrate a love of reading, I don't know what does!
Again, thank you for supporting kids near and far and thank you for supporting me.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cassidy
Books, Books, Books!
Funded Dec 19, 2014Many, many thanks for your generous donation to our classroom. My students have enjoyed these resources more than you know. As a result of your generosity, they have actually been engaged in silent reading rather than fake reading. I know this because they are carrying their books with them to other classes rather than picking a random book off the shelf during reading silent reading time, and then placing the book back on the shelf after silent reading has ended. Students are now reading entire books.
It is so nice to have new, current books for out classroom. Because our library has been closed for testing, students aren't able to access the library throughout the day so their resources are limited. However, it is nice to know that they have a stocked library within my room. These books are being read and reread and passed along to their friends!
When asked about the new books students have a lot to say. One student said," Thank you so much for supporting our school and out classroom. Our classroom library is so much better now. , it used to be empty with nothing now it is filled with good books." Another student referred to my former book selection as "crummy" and I can't blame her!
In closing, Stephanie writes, " You must be a very kind person if you care for kids to have good books to read. I could thank you over and over again but then my letter would be considered bad for repeating the same thing over and over again."
Thank you, thank you from all of us.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cassidy