Past projects 66
PRE-K LOVES TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS
Funded Sep 29, 2022I can’t thank you enough for funding this project for all of my pre k teachers. We are so excited to be able to get lesson plans and ideas from Teachers Pay Teachers. We plan on having the best pre-k year, and are so excited to add this resource to our curriculum, my colleague teachers will be over the moon to be able to get these rich resources. Pre-k is where our kids really begin to learn and we need so many ways to differentiate our lessons for all the many different learners we have. We greatly appreciate how much you cared and helped us. Our school appreciates you. Thank you so much for all your generosity.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. DeCrescenzo
This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Classroom Supporter and 2 other donors.Arts Integration Project Supplies Needed To Journal Their Experiences
Funded Feb 9, 2017We received our art journals and did an observational drawing lesson using charcoal pencils, and then made another one into an imaginary drawing. The students had never used charcoal pencils before, and they really loved them. A lot of students asked me where they could buy one to use at their homes. My students write in their journals on a weekly basis, unless I have them twice a week. They put in a learning intention, a check list of what I'm asking as my instruction, and it is used to sketch in. We took the art journals on a trip to the zoo to draw the animals. We have now started using the watercolor paints and watercolor paper. We are doing an artist study on Hundertwasser. My students are making watercolor paintings of his version of lollipop flowers. They are coming out beautiful. Pictures will be posted to enjoy. My students and I thank you so much for your love and support!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. DeCrescenzo
This classroom project was brought to life by Stavros Niarchos Foundation and 39 other donors."Please Help An Art Teacher Get An Art Cart"
Funded Feb 9, 2017I am so delighted to get my art cart. I was limited to what projects I would be able to do, as I go up and down four flights of stairs to teach numerous art classes. I have a lot of Integrated Co-Teaching classes, and there are a lot of students in one classroom. I wanted to do a specific project using watercolor paper, water color paints, sharpies and focus on the artist Hundertwasser. We would make our own version of lollipop flowers, using the supplies I just listed. All of these supplies put together would be very heavy to take even from one classroom to another on the same floor. Now that I have this beautiful art cart, I was able to begin my artist study. My students were thrilled to hear they were going to paint. I have no sink or art room, so I needed to bring water and paint brushes as well. I will post pictures so that you can see the art cart and the students proud paintings. Thank you so much for your love and support!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. DeCrescenzo
Please Help Us "Quill" To Get A Honey-Can-Do-All-Purpose Cart
Funded Dec 23, 2016We received our art cart and are now making amazing projects. Now that I'm able to add supplies to a cart instead of having to carry them up and down 4 flights of stairs, we are able to experiment with paint. Here in our pictures are the students learning about the artist Hundertwasser.
They are using watercolor paper, new brushes of different sizes to choose from, and experimenting and blending colors using water color paints. Here are some shots of our brand new cart as well. We love it and we love you as well. Forever grateful!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. DeCrescenzo
This classroom project was brought to life by Quill.com and 3 other donors.Art Books Needed To Learn To Make A Choice Based Curriculum
Funded Mar 13, 2016I want to thank you so much for helping us get the books to learn how to make a choice based curriculum. We follow the Blueprints for Visual Arts and Common Core Standards, and to be able to learn how to make choice based centers is very important as it is very necessary for children to be able to express themselves. These books have all different kinds of lessons in them that hit upon printmaking, painting, drawing and sculpture. I really enjoy connecting it to Literature. Thank you so much for your generous help and kindness.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. DeCrescenzo
This classroom project was brought to life by #BestSchoolDay and one other donor.Empowering Students Through Visual Art and Humanities
Funded May 17, 2016Dear Donors,
My students are so excited to have the five Gelli Plates so that they can to begin to learn how to print. The book is very informative with a lot of ideas. I love to put art into all of our subjects so this will be a great help. I teach after school as the art/literacy teacher for all grades as well, and they will be getting a lot of use out of these plates. I love exploring the students diverse cultures, so the plan is to make projects that define who they are. My students have been practicing their prints using tempera paints and very soon we will try printmaking ink. A very special thank you goes out to Ryan McGuire who without picking us up at the last moment, this project would not have been funded. Thank you very much Ryan McGuire for caring about us.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. DeCrescenzo
Empowering Students Through Art / Printmaking and Literacy
Funded Mar 10, 2016Yesterday we did art through printmaking. My students learned how to use a brayer and they picked colors of paint that they chose. I showed them how to roll the brayer onto the Gelli mold,
and how using a comb would change their design. I let them use a stencil and do their printmaking onto a tag, using both sides. They also attached a string. They made some printmaking on paper as well, and they pasted it onto cards for me to send to you. I'm also sending two tags so that you can see that as well. Thank you cards will be on there way very soon. Thank you so much Lenore Puleo for making this happen. We appreciate BestSchoolDay so much. Arts are so important and now my students know how to do printmaking! Thank you.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. DeCrescenzo
This classroom project was brought to life by #BestSchoolDay and one other donor."Beauty Lies in the Eyes of the Beholder's Camera for Art"
Funded Dec 22, 2015Now that I have a camera in the classroom I can be able to teach my students visual storytelling. Visual storytelling is taking meaningful photos and connecting it to reading with literacy and stories that have the power to touch people. My students are now able to take pictures to connect with other people and learn that each person they meet is very unique, including their classmates, in their ideas and views life differently. Through the photos they are going to take of each other they will make connections of, and see commonalities of each other's lives.
They will also now be able to use their photos to make drawings and paintings, as another way to express themselves. My students need to learn that other children don't always have the same ideas as they do. They need to be exposed to diversity and how others co-exist, and through visual storytelling through photography they will now be able to share their experiences. Thank you so much for helping us get this camera.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. DeCrescenzo
Books that Teach Children to Care about Others in Life
Funded Dec 15, 2015We received the books on respect, kindness, sharing and caring. I've already begun reading to my students in different grades, as well as our afterschool program, where I teach art through literacy. These books were a high need to my school and I'm very grateful to have the materials to engage my students, yet hit upon such important standards to live a kind, and thoughtful life.
My students are asking a lot of questions on manners, kindness and compassion for others. I am connecting the subject through the arts, drawing and painting, for my students to let out their emotions. Through differentiation on this subject, and discussing the books that I've read, they can express with a picture what they find so hard to say verbally sometimes. Thank you so much for helping us.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. DeCrescenzo
Asking So Much For Students With So Little
Funded Oct 2, 2015Dear Donors
A week after receiving my donorschoose grant titled, "Asking So Much For Students With So Little", six large boxes were promptly delivered to my office, filled with the Barton Reading and Spelling Program. It felt like an early Christmas. I could not have been more excited and motivated to rip open each box and look through all the materials. But, unlike the small child I have not gotten bored with my wonderful gift. Since November, I have given three professional Development classes to speech therapists and to the teachers in grades 3-5. I am working directly with 36 students who are being taught using this Orton- Gillingham based program.
Our students lack phonemic awareness skills which is the core separating normal readers from disabled readers. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and identify each sound within a word, as well as the ability to substitute sounds, to delete sounds, and to blend sounds. Ninety-two percent of children who lack phonemic awareness at the beginning of first grade will fail to learn to read—except by memorizing words. Lack of phonemic awareness is the best predictor of children headed for reading difficulty. This wonderful program uses techniques to teach the students to hear sounds and manipulate them to form words, new words, segment sounds and blend them into words. This intervention programs provides systematic and explicit instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, repeated reading opportunities which improves fluency, and direct instruction in vocabulary and reading comprehension strategies that are enhancing our students skills as well as their lives.
Prior to beginning each new lesson box the instructor must watch 5 hours of instruction on how to properly teach each lesson. I continue to watch and rewatch these DVDs and learn something new each time that I benefit from as well as my students.
We began with lesson 1 box one to teach the following 7 skills.
• Phoneme Segmentation: What sounds do you hear in the word hot? What's the last sound in the word map?
• Phoneme Deletion: What word would be left if the /k/ sound were taken away from cat?
• Phoneme Matching: Do pen and pipe start with the same sound?
• Phoneme Counting: How many sounds do you hear in the word cake?
• Phoneme Substitution: What word would you have if you changed the /h/ in hot to /p/?
• Blending: What word would you have if you put these sounds together? /s/ /a/ /t/
• Rhyming: Tell me as many words as you can that rhyme with the word eat.
The students used blank colored tiles to represent the sounds they were hearing and manipulated these tiles to represent a change in a sound or to build a word. The color tiles makes syllable types obvious and it simplifies syllable division. The students used skills they never used before and were upset when the session was over. We are seeing improvements in decoding and encoding skills. We have already seen measurable improvement in most of our students reading levels. Early identification, coupled with comprehensive early reading interventions, can reduce the percentage of children reading below grade level.
It"s been a privilege watching the joy in my students faces as they begin to read for the first time.
How do you thank caring, decent people for changing so many lives for the better? Hopefully the knowledge of the impact your donations have made on so many lives will be thanks enough.
So, thank you for giving so many the opportunity to flourish. You did well!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. DeCrescenzo