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Once again the generosity of donors have enabled my students to not only learn about making healthy, low cost meals but it enabled them to work together in teams to complete their weekly cooking assignments.

As low income students, they are always amazed at the thought that total strangers would give money to buy the resources they needed to benefit from their Saturday morning cooking program. Not only that, but the induction cook tops performed amazingly and the students were fascinated by the induction technology.

The students learned many new things, from cooking pasta, to peeling fresh vegetables, making rice dishes and starting the day with a good breakfast. Apart from this, they also had fun and that is key to any learning process.

Thanks again on behalf of all of my students.”

With gratitude,

Mr. York

After hearing that our trip had been funded the students were beyond excited. Up until that point, it was just an exciting thought that may not happen. A few weeks before our trip, the train hats came in. We passed them out right then, and the students wore them around the classroom to "get into the conductor spirit"! I cannot tell you how many times I answered the question, "How many more days until we ride the train?".

When we left school that morning, the students were surprised at how far away the station was and what a long bus ride that turned into. However,as we pulled into the drive they forgot how far it was and were all ooohhhss and aahhhss. It was raining, but we were able to ring the bell of an old steam engine, tour an old sleeping car, go through the train museum, and pump hand carts all before actually getting on the Amtrak train. The Amtrak was a little late, but soon began to blow its whistle, and the kids were all screaming with excitement. They rode the train in almost silence, whispering to one another about the features and the speed of the train. (They wanted to be on their best behavior.)

Sharing this experience with the children was one of the greatest times a teacher can have. Many of the students would have never had the opportunity to do this with their families, and they were extremely grateful. The students were able to connect ideas from the classroom about how technology/transportation changes over time and changes our world/culture. I know it will be a memory they will cherish and share for a lifetime. Thank you so much for providing the funds and the encouragement. Our passion for kids and teaching grows through each experience and you have helped make that happen. :)

Katy Lynch”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Lynch

The Kindergarten staff and I here at the Beethoven are so grateful for all of your donations! We can't say thank you enough! The children truly love the different fine motor activities they can now participate in, now that we have the needed materials.

In one classroom, a K2 student asked the teacher if can they use "that yellow box" and other children were saying "where is that yellow box?" which contains a variety of different stencils. The students can pick a stencil with theme they like such as spring, family, airplanes, underwater, etc. This helps motivate them to try their best while tracing, a challenging skill that needed for legible handwriting and drawing shapes. It also helps encourages them to use their imagination, as the children then color in the pictures and write simple sentences about the themes.

The K1 students are absolutely thrilled with the ball and tweezers game! The tweezers in this game encourage use of the tripod fingers and help to strengthen them. The children don't even realize how much work they are doing while they are having fun!! They get to sort the different balls by color which forces them to lift up their upper extremity which promotes strengthening.

The box of tweezers was also a hit! There are endless sorting games that the children participate in using these tweezers. Teachers can easily incorporate a tweezer activity into an academic theme so that they can also work on fine motor skills as well. The tweezers are just the right resistance for little hands and the children have learned about their "stop" and "go" fingers, a necessary skill for developing a mature pencil grasp.

These wonderful fine motor activities are now a part of centers in all 8 kindergarten classrooms at the Beethoven!!

Thank you so much for all of your help! The children are having so much fun with their new fine motor games!”

With gratitude,

Ms. Rymarczyk

Hello! I am beyond words in expressing my gratitude of your support to this project. The children were so thrilled to experience watching a play that showcased one of their favorite authors, Mo Willems. Our students appreciated that ALL of the early childhood classes AND chaperons were able to watch the play thanks to your donations. This gift was not only a very effective extension of what our students learn in the confines of the classroom but also a truly great example of being helpful and community building. My students eyes lit up when I told them that parents and community people paid for ALL of the classrooms to enjoy this event.

Thank you again for your generous contribution and modeling how to be a compassionate member of our community!”

With gratitude,

Ms. Guerrero

Thank you so much for your generous donation to Donors Choose. Through your charitable gift, we were able to purchase nineteen ActivExpression2s and accessories for use in our classroom. In a world where interactive devices are needed for fast-paced student engagement and assessment, the ability to interact with student thinking and processing this way is vital. The students are loving being able to enter their responses and collaborate with the other students and me as to their accuracy. Their critical thinking skills are increasing rapidly, as are their speed and accuracy.

Thank you also for the telescope and accessories. We are very much looking forward to using it as a school-wide tool for increasing enthusiasm for everything beyond our planet. We have hopes for starting an astronomy club and partnering with our local astronomy club to make this dream a reality. Thank you so much for your generous gift.

Sincerely yours,

Dr. Thomas Wright

Dr. Thomas Wright”

With gratitude,

Mr. Wright

Thank you all so much for your donations! With your help, I was finally able to make a four year goal of mine a reality: bringing back the Bunsen burner. Before I started working at this school, I couldn't imagine a chemistry classroom without a bunsen burner, so it was a huge shock to me when I walked into my classroom for the first time that there wasn't even the infrastructure needed for burners. Since then, any time I have needed to use flame, I have either had to make do with extremely low temperature candle or lighter flames, or incredibly dangerous liquid fuel sources.

Because of your donations, my students were able to perform some of the most fundamental chemistry labs for the first time. We did flame tests, decomposed hydrogen peroxide, tested for hydrogen and oxygen gases and determined the empirical formula of a metal oxide. I could not have done these experiments without your help!”

With gratitude,

Mr. England

From the time I received the materials the students have been eager to get their hands on them. We have recently started building our sets and will begin filming shortly. It's exciting to see them working together, planning, and carrying out their stories. Thank you again for your donations! Feel free to email me or follow me on Twitter: @meinekep. I will hopefully be posting some of our videos on YouTube in the near future. My username is meinekep. Check back for more projects in the near future.”

With gratitude,

Mr. M

Your donation to this project is an inspiration for everyone. The students are super excited to work with the new materials and began right away. During classroom demonstrations, the equipment is used in a variety of ways by the students in order to help grasp the film concepts being taught. After school, the equipment has been checked out and brought home in order to enhance their films. During an awards night her at school for this class and the films produced, the equipment was the main camera during the show and the footage is now being edited in order to publish it on a local television station. Having these resources will help the discussions and demonstration in class which will help tremendously with my teaching as well the students learning.”

With gratitude,

Mr. Petersen