Past projects 99
Using Our Small Motor Muscles in LARGE Ways!
Funded Jul 27, 2017Thank you for your donation of games to help build fine motor skills and beginning board games. Board games can teach important social skills, such as communicating verbally, sharing, waiting, taking turns, and enjoying interaction with others. Board games can foster the ability to focus, and lengthen their attention span by encouraging the completion of an exciting, enjoyable game. Even simple board games like one of the games we received, Chutes and Ladders, offer meta-messages and life skills: Your luck can change in an instant — for the better or for the worse. The message inherent in board games is: Never give up. Just when you feel despondent, you might hit the jackpot and ascend up high, if you stay in the game for just a few more moves.
Board games have distinct boundaries. Living in a complex society, children need clear limits to feel safe. By circumscribing the playing field — much as tennis courts and football fields will do later — board games can help the children weave their wild and erratic side into a more organized, mature, and socially acceptable personality. After all, staying within the boundaries (not intruding on others' space, for example) is crucial to leading a successful social and academic life.
Thank you for these games and for giving me the opportunity to help my students with the above skills. We appreciate it and you!”
With gratitude,
Ms. S. Donnarumma
This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and 2 other donors.Relaxing With a Book in our Cozy Listening Center Nook!
Funded Jul 24, 2017Thank you so much for your generous donations. My students love going to the listening center and relaxing in our new cozy area. The children take great pleasure in listening to stories and following along as the narrator reads.
Hearing a book read on CD helps them see how the words on the page can come alive in a fluid, expressive way. It helps the children focus on the sounds of words read without interruption and provides a model of fluent reading. Audio books also gives the children an important introduction to listening — a skill that they must master in order to learn to read.
Many books on CD have interesting sound effects, music, and multiple narrators that are especially motivating and fun for young children. Narrators on CD tend to embellish their storytelling with silly voices and dramatic enhancements. They emphasize reading as a source of pleasure rather than a skill, and make children eager to learn how to read. Beyond their sheer enjoyment of audio books, children also develop a sense of narrative structure and understanding of language. Stories on CD help them to grasp the rich and various ways in which language distills and conveys meaning. In addition, exposing children to a range of narrators and their different styles of reading will deepen their grasp of the reading process.
I have set up our new listening center so that 2-4 children can listen to the same book at the same time. This can provide a wonderful opportunity for children to hear their favorite books read aloud again and again. The more they listen, the greater the likelihood that they will learn new vocabulary words. And, when listening with a special friend, the opportunities for playing creatively and acting out parts of the story are endless.
Thank you again.”
With gratitude,
Ms. S. Donnarumma
This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and one other donor.Little Learners Loving Literacy!
Funded May 20, 2017Words cannot describe how thankful I am to you for your donation. My students were so excited when these materials arrived to our classroom. As soon as we started choice time, all of the children wanted to go to either the Writing center to explore with the Magnetic Letter Builders, or to the Listening center to hear the Dr. Seuss books read to them. Some students came to my para and I with the Read and Retell books and props wanting to hear the stories read and interact with the props. I love seeing my little Pre-K learners this excited about learning! With your donation, I am now able to instill a love for literacy in my little learners. Again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.”
With gratitude,
Ms. S. Donnarumma
This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and 3 other donors.Marvelous Mathematicians in the Making!
Funded May 3, 2017Thank you so much for your generous donations to my project, "Marvelous Mathematicians in the Making." Because of your generosity, my Pre-K class received Math games that I can use with them to practice making and extending patterns, counting and recognizing numbers, measurement, and shape identification.
When these materials arrived in our classroom, the children were thrilled! They started jumping up and down, excitedly waiting for me to open the box. When I did, and showed them the materials, their faces were priceless. EVERY child wanted to go into the math center and work with their "new toys." I loved seeing how excited they were getting to learn these important math skills through play.
I look forward to continuing to work with my students on building and strengthening their math skills. Thank you again!”
With gratitude,
Ms. S. Donnarumma
This classroom project was brought to life by PNC Grow Up Great® and 6 other donors.Helping Little Ones Develop a Large Love for Reading
Funded Aug 4, 2016Thank you so much for your generous donations. Because of your thoughtfulness, my little learners now have exposure to different read along books. They also have a student CD player to listen to stories being read to them. My children love going to the Reading center and the Listening center. They enjoy hearing these stories over and over again. In addition to a love for reading and books, my students are learning beginning concept of print skills such as how to handle a book correctly, identifying the front and back cover of a book, identifying the role of the author and illustrator in a story, differentiating between pictures and words, building language by stating what they see occurring in the pictures on each page, building inference skills, making predictions, etc. I can't thank you enough for helping me develop a love for reading in my students.”
With gratitude,
Ms. S. Donnarumma
Planting The Seed For a LOVE to Read!
Funded Jan 3, 2017Thank you so much for your generous donations. With your donations, my students now have books that they can look through, try to "read," and/or have read to them. They are learning key skills that will help them as they continue on their journey as readers. From your generous donation, the children can practice skills such as holding a book correctly, using the pictures to tell a story, identifying letters and words, and using the pictures to build oral language skills. This will get them on their way to becoming young readers motivated and interested in books and learning. I thank you, and my students thank you for your generosity and support.”
With gratitude,
Ms. S. Donnarumma