Mrs. Hu-Greig's Classroom Edit display name

Past projects 44

• Alternative Seating Options: Student-Centered Classroom Redesign!

  Funded Feb 3, 2019

  Once again my students and I would like to thank each and every one of the amazing donors who donated to our alternative seating project!

  These different alternative seating options have made a huge, amazing impact on my students. These alternative seating options such as the big orangy beanbag, rocking chair, "To go" chairs, the bungy dish chairs made our classroom more homey and welcoming.

  It was great seeing the students test out each item and figure out what seating they liked best. Some students prefer the soft comfy beanbag, some the rocking chair and others preferred the bouncy dish chairs. The "take to go" and wobble chairs are also popular items during our reading time.

  The children love coming in to class and be able to go to their favorite spot to read, to do their work and or to relax. Building in freedom of choice has definitely made my students more self reliant and has increased the productivity during our independent work time.

  Initially I was worried that my students might fight over these alternative seating but I'm pleasantly surprised to see them making good choices and taking turns. My students even suggested that I should sit on the rocking chair or the beanbag chair to take a cat nap if I'm tired! And they promised they would do their work while I rest! LOL!

  Thank you so much for helping me give my students the power to choose!!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Hu-Greig

• Power My Learning: Meaningful Family Engagement

  Funded Nov 21, 2018

  Much thanks for helping to make this possible for my students and their families. I've been assigning the Family Playlists to my students and their families. We've used this as part of our homework and class learning for my students to review the lessons taught in class.

  Since implementing this program, I've gotten very positive feedback from the parents who have been using this. I started by providing my parents with demonstration sessions to show them how to use this program during my prep periods and our Family Fridays.

  The program is very user friendly for all involved. There are also a lot of playlists on the Power My Learning site on various subjects for different grade levels for me to choose from to assign them to my students.

  I also like the fact my students can use their Google Classroom login to access this site. This is a big plus especially if you have children who find it hard to remember so many usernames and passwords for the various learning sites. Additionally, I've found the set up very easy with the wonderful, knowledgeable, helpful 1 to 1 technical online and phone support from the Power My Learning team.

  Most of my families have smart phones and iPads at home and they can use their mobile devices to access this program. They will get an alert each time I assign a playlist and or feedback. My parents love the fact that the content can be translated into their native language. So for my Mandarin speaking parents who don't understand it in English, they can simply click to translate the site and content into Mandarin and be involved in their child's learning.

  I would recommend this to any teachers who wish to engage their families to help transform their students' learning.

  Thanks so much once again for helping to fund this!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Hu-Greig

  This classroom project was brought to life by Morgridge Family Foundation and 5 other donors.

• The Wonder Pets: Dot and Dash

  Funded Sep 3, 2018

  Thanks once again for your generosity and help in getting this Dash and Dot project fully funded! My students were really excited when they received these robots. They named two of their robots Robo and Isabelle.

  Now, my students have access to these Dot and Dash Wonder robot kits to learn about coding, programming and robotics.

  We used these robots during our Computer Science lessons (twice a week for 45 minutes each), as well as for our Fun Friday choice time activities. We also have a really wonderful and supportive parent coming in every Wednesday to help us with our Computer Science Coding/Robotics Club. My students get to use these robots during our club time.

  They also work collaboratively on these Dot and Dash projects to program these robots to do things such as having the robot compose and play a tune. It's truly wonderful that students can pick from a variety of choices and decide on different apps to use to program these little bots such as Xylo, Path, Go, Blockly and Wonder. And it is really amazing to watch how they problem solve on their own and having fun in the process.

  The best part of it all, was that Dash and Dot are now our class digital pets. One student will get to take the Dash robot home every Friday and keep it over the weekend to show their parents how to program the robot.

  Again, thanks so much for making this possible for my students!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Hu-Greig

  This classroom project was brought to life by Craig Newmark Philanthropies and 8 other donors.

• Multi D.I.Y Robotic Kits for Young Potential Engineers

  Funded May 29, 2018

  Many thanks for your kind donation for the D.I.Y. robotics kits. My students enjoyed these D.I.Y. kits, making and programming their own robots.

  We just started our Computer Science curriculum in class about a month ago. These D.I.Y. robotics kits came in handy for my children to try out. They love Wednesdays as it's Wonderful Wednesdays when we usually have our Computer Science time.

  You should see their excited faces! Students are grouped for station rotations each week. Stations include D.I.Y. Robotics, Dash and Dot, Coding on Chromebooks and iPads using Scratch and Scratch Jr.

  Thanks also to a wonderful parent who volunteers and helps out every Wednesdays when we do Computer Science.

  Without your help, this would not have been possible! My students had a lot of fun putting these robots together and in the process, they learned to persist and work as a team.

  Thanks again for your generosity.

  We will continue to use these robotic kits during our Computer Science periods. I am also thinking of having my students show and teach their friends in other classes how to program and make these D.I.Y. robots.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Hu-Greig

• Can I Have a Pencil or Pen Please?

  Funded Aug 22, 2018

  On behalf of all my students, thank you so much for your generosity in helping to fund this project.

  We received the supplies and my students are using the #2 pencils, glue sticks, tapes, Crayola markers for writing, drawing and class art projects. They were especially overjoyed when they received the big box of Crayola colored markers! Yup, they love to create and draw!

  As for the small marble notebooks that we received, students are using these as their password notebook for website accounts for our Computer Science and technology lessons. They know to keep their password book safe, as well as where to find their username and password to gain account access to educational websites (such as Google Classroom, Scratch, Play Code Monkey) that we frequently visit.

  Blank index cards and post-its were constantly being used as exit ticket cards and for our Stop and Think journaling activities during our literacy lessons. In fact, students used part of the index cards we received to make drawings of their robots for our Computer Science class.

  Once again, a big thank you for these supplies!

  You're simply the best!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Hu-Greig

  This classroom project was brought to life by News Corp and 7 other donors.

• The Chessmates Rook & Roll

  Funded Jul 12, 2018

  Thanks so much for funding this chess project. My students really enjoy having chess as one of our class activities. We were so thrilled when the chess sets came in, and as you can see from the uploaded pictures, children are really engaged during chess time!

  We have chess at least once a week at the end of our school day where I will demonstrate using the demo chess set to teach the class how the various chess pieces move. (The chess demonstration kit is great!)

  I started off with just having students play a game of pawns. Then I added another different chess piece and how that piece moves for each subsequent lesson. After each lesson demonstration, students get to choose their partners to play chess with.

  When I call "Chess position", all students will have to stop playing and listen for further instructions. It's really moving to watch how they follow directions each time I called "Chess position". There are 2 very responsible chess monitors who help with giving out, collecting and storing the chess sets and chess boards.

  Our school just started a 3rd to 5th grade schoolwide enrichment clubs this week (a 45 min period once a week every Thursdays). So I get to use these chess resources for my Chess Enrichment Club with students from other classes. This is great as more students get to learn how to play chess.

  I'm planning to have students from my chess club and from my class be "chess tutors" to teach parents, teachers and other students in the school who might be interested in learning how to play chess.

  Once again, thanks for helping to fund this project. Without your help and generosity, this will not be possible!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Hu-Greig

• Money Matters!

  Funded Mar 31, 2018

  Thank you for the money books and board games!

  My students enjoy reading the books and playing with the board games such as Pay Day and Game of Life. My students shared their thoughts (Stop, Think & Jot) with one another after reading the money books. And we have "Get Rich" reading sessions with these money books.

  When I first used these books and told the class we were going to have a "Get Rich" session, it was so rewarding to hear one of my students say excitedly, "I know what Ms. Hu meant! We can get rich by reading!" The children simply loved these books and "Get Rich" sessions!

  Bingo!

  *big smile*

  We now used the board games as part of our "Choice Time" activity. Students get to play these games whenever they finish their work and or during Fun Friday Choice Time. Pay Day and Game of Life are two favorites. I believe these math board games help my students learn to be graceful losers, improve their Math knowledge as they manipulate the board game pieces, develop their critical thinking and encourage them to be more sociable.

  Thank you once again for your generosity and making learning fun for my students!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Hu-Greig

  This classroom project was brought to life by Charles Schwab Foundation and one other donor.

• Chromebooks to Access Google Classroom

  Funded Mar 27, 2018

  Thanks to all of you for your generosity!

  We now have 6 more Chromebooks to use for our recess Computer Club.

  My second graders come to life with the use of these new technological tools!

  They quickly adopt the new technologies and are applying a broad range of skills to their work, especially when they are accessing Google Classroom. For example, they had learned how to efficiently navigate into their account and then to Google Drive to access their document. They learned how to click and drag on the Google Slides, how to snip and copy an image. The coolest thing is that they now get to turn in their work digitally and get instant feedback.

  My students also get to go on educational sites such as kids.education,com, playcodemonkey.com, nitrotype.com to practice coding, typing and reviewing Math and ELA. Even my most reluctant readers are reading digital texts that I posted on our Google Classroom and are doing Math quizzes online.

  My second graders are becoming capable and effective users of technology!

  I'm truly grateful to you for your support and for providing my students with the tools to learn! Many thanks!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Hu-Greig

  This classroom project was brought to life by Verizon and 4 other donors.

• iPads for New Mobile Literacy Learning

  Funded Mar 27, 2018

  So many thanks for getting my students iPads and providing them the opportunities to be mobile learners!

  The students are having so much fun learning to use these new iPads. I am really blessed to have an app developer from Singapore so kindly providing my class free accounts to use for his apps such as Moo O Plus! I find my students stay more focused when using the iPads.

  They learned how to care for and respect the iPads and the apps. As we are a Google Classroom, my students also learned how to navigate Google Classroom and Safari on these iPads.

  These iPads also helped me a lot with managing student behavior to try to engage some reluctant, oppositional students in learning. These iPads serve as an incentive (and therapeutic tools) for these students to stay calm and more task focused.

  I intend to further use these iPads to do more project based learning for my students in class and also during our Computer Club at recess time.

  I'm truly humbled and grateful for your generosity in making this possible for my students to have fun learning! Thank you so much!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Hu-Greig

  This classroom project was brought to life by Ripple and 10 other donors.

• Mobile Storage Charging Cart for Chromebooks and iPads

  Funded Apr 5, 2018

  We've gotten our ECR4Kids 30 bay locking laptop/tablet charging station cart with keypad lock that you helped us secure! Many thanks to you all for making this possible!

  Mr. Gil, our school custodian is simply AWESOME! He took time off his busy schedule to help us assemble and bring the cart up to our classroom! I'm also really touched with the outpouring of support from so many people in our school community who offered their help to assemble this storage charging cart for me.

  The front door of this cart has programmable easy keypad lock while the back panel is made accessible via lock and key. This keypad made it easy to access, lock and unlock the cart. It has plentiful space for our 10 Chromebooks and 4 iPads that we got (also from generous donors via DonorsChoose). This has certainly made securing and charging the new Chromebooks and iPads so much easier!

  We no longer worry about where and how to charge these equipment. We are now able to use these Chromebooks and iPads on a more regular basis to access Google Classroom, educational sites, as well as use of learning apps such as Moo O Plus.

  Students are so excited and many of them are so eager to help out as cart and equipment monitors. They have become so much more responsible in handling these Chromebooks and iPads as they know if it's not for generous donors out there from DonorsChoose, we would not have these wonderful tools to use for our learning!

  Thank you so much once again!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Hu-Greig

  This classroom project was brought to life by Verizon and 6 other donors.