Past projects 6
Preschool Talk
Funded Sep 13, 2023The preschool toys are a huge hit! The novel toys have them motivated to engage with other students and use their voices to communicate with others. Our preschoolers are delayed in one or more areas of development: communication, cognition, motor, play, and social skills. When a little person that young is not typically developing in any of those areas, they need more motivation than their typical developing peers to learn. Your extremely generous donation helped buy so many toys that I have been able to introduce a new one each week. They are learning to take turns, not grab from others, ask for what they want, make comments, and interact with their peers in fun ways. They are hooked on participating because they love the toys so much!
In the coming school months, these materials and toys are going to help them continue up the hierarchy of play and communicating. You'll see pictures of our students wearing the animal hats, using them as the real object in play, and making their animal sounds. Some of the students didn't even need a model of what they could do with them. They started going up to other students making their animal sounds, going to the mirror to help each other adjust their hats, and giggling the entire time. Now that is just the hats! We are so grateful. We send our heartfelt thank you for your generosity!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cavallo Hart
This classroom project was brought to life by Panda Cares.Organization and Focus Tools
Funded Aug 3, 2023The organizational file folders and fidgets have been a great help in helping our students. They can keep their papers organized with less fuss. All they have to do is open the flap, find the subject's section, and slide their paper in there. Usually, papers get crammed in their binder because they are in a hurry or don't want to take the time to put it in their binder the correct way. The fidgets have been a great hit! They are using them to keep their hands/fingers busy without distracting others. Their focus on listening has improved. Students checked in on a weekly basis, and they all say that having the fidget "frees" up their mind to listen.
When the students saw the novel folders and fun fidgets, they were excited to pick what they wanted. They put them to use right away. We all thank you for funding this project! It has helped the students this year and for the years to come!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cavallo Hart
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 3 other donors.Fairy Tales and Fables
Funded Jul 26, 2023The puppets and books have been a great help in engaging students while they work on their story telling skills. They are learning about story structures in a fun, memorable way. They come back asking to use the puppets. So, I have them make up their own story with puppets from popular tales. It has been very effective because they are hooked!
We all thank you for funding this project! It has helped the students this year and for the years to come!
You'll see pictures of one of the students using one of the books. He chose a fable, and he is using picture cards to help him talk about the structure of the fable. He commented on how "cool" the story was because he never heard a story like it. Your contributions have made a tremendous impact, and we are grateful. Thank you, again, for choosing to support this project.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cavallo Hart
This classroom project was brought to life by VanTrust Real Estate and 2 other donors.Understanding the Passing of Time
Funded May 27, 2023The tools you helped me get to teach our students the concepts of time and calendars are making a great impact. They are enjoying learning concepts that are hard for them to grasp, and when you can make learning something difficult fun, their comprehension and retention improve.
I have students from grades K to 8. Many of the students using these materials are 3rd, 5th, and 6th graders. They are older and learning concepts that are usually acquired by age 5. So you can see based on that alone the importance of learning these concepts are and how difficult it can be.
You'll see pictues of how the children are using their personal calendars, and the calendars on the bulletin board show some of the concepts they are learning. Your contributions have made a tremendous impact, and we are grateful. Thank you, again, for choosing to support this project.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cavallo Hart
This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Supporter and 3 other donors.Language and Literacy Explosion!
Funded Oct 10, 2022Your generous donations have helped our students work on language development in new ways. It has challenged them to work on skills hard for them in fun and exciting ways. They see the felt boards, and they are excited to create stories. It exposes them to words that we commonly use that they may not because of limited life experiences.
The novel board games, the mystery box, sequencing cards, and story picture cards have opened up a new world to all of our students. They are exposed to and use language associated with fairy tales and fables. They are attracted to the fantasy elements in them, and they ask to use them again when they come back!
Thank you again for helping us build our therapy supplies for our K-8 students. They will be used year after year.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cavallo Hart
This classroom project was brought to life by The Arizona Department of Education and one other donor.Therapy Robots!
Funded Oct 13, 2018I write with great gratitude and appreciation for all of you who donated to the Therapy Robots project. This idea of incorporating robotics into speech and language therapy has evolved from years from working with students in low socioeconomic communities and reflecting on what made my elementary school years memorable. Early on in elementary school, I was exposed to computer programing. The excitement of using new technology and how to control it made a huge impact in my life. It has become a part of who I am and shaped my interests.
Students know how to pick up a smart phone or turn on a laptop and use it better than I can sometimes, but do they don't know the excitement of programing a computer or robot to do something for them? There lies an opportunity to turn students on to learning an invaluable skill while working on communication skills they need in life. Since we need language and communication skills in everything we do in life, incorporating communication skills they needed to learn while learning about robotics and programming went hand-in-hand.
When first presented with the idea of robotics, student engagement improved greatly. So many of them enjoyed working in teams communicating with each other on how to assemble the robot. They worked together to learn programming concepts used in controlling the robots in "offline" group activities and helped each other understand errors or debugging their programs. In the pictures I shared, you see some students doing this with the papers on the floor and plastic cups in front of them. Assignments involved writing programs in which another student acted as the robot. You also see students working on assembling the robot we received through your generous donations. Students were and still are excited to come to the room and work with the robot in new assignments. It's an exciting opportunity they don't have elsewhere.
Many students are on their way to high school and have expressed their desire to go to a school with a robotics club or program tracks on computer science. Others are excited to do this again next school year. This project that has been made possible by all of you has helped students learn a bit about a career path while helping them develop their communication skills. They thank all of you, and from the bottom of my heart, thank you for your generosity!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Cavallo Hart