Ethan's Bar Mitzvah Project

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Thank you all so much for all of the supplies you have enhanced our classroom with. The Weekly Reader are a huge hit with all the students and they love to read about all the new cultures, animals and different nonfiction topics. The magnetic hooks have helped to organize our math word wall and allow students to find a vocabulary word by unit. The bathroom passes have come in handy because we were consistently lost all of our old passes.

My class thanks you very much for all your generosity. ”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Dammacco

Let me begin by begging your forgiveness. I have written this letter and submitted it several times in January believing that it went through. For some reason the "Board Of Education " computers failed in delivering and notifying me of the non delivery. I want to sincerely thank you all so very much for all that you have done. Name tags were created, work was displayed and mounted and just fabulous work was achieved with the materials awarded us by you. You make all the difference in the lives of these children. The cards made were made with the materials purchased by you. Words cannot express the amount of gratitude that i feel. These children ( I affectionately call my Thundercats) mean the world to me and I just love knowing that someone out there cares about securing a future for them too. Again please forgive the mishap on my response and accept both my apology and sincerest thankfulness.

I look forward to seeing you in the near future and enlisting your support again.

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With gratitude,

Ms. CARMONA

Your wonderful gifts have begun to arrive and we are so very excited! We have already put up two bulletin boards displaying the achievement of our special students. Thank you so much for your generosity and support for our proposal. It has helped us get the new school year off to a great start. The budget cuts are proving to be very difficult this year for students and for staff. Teachers used to receive about one hundred dollars to purchase basic school supplies and that was eliminated from the budget for this school year. Your support for our special students has helped us tremendously. We love to showcase the work of our students and you have helped us do this with style. Know that we will think of you all year long as we put up pictures of our kids in action and create new bulletin boards. You have a very special place in our hearts. Thanks for becoming our partners in the education of our children. We salute your generosity and think that you rock!”

With gratitude,

Ms. Sanders

Thanks to your generosity, we did it! Of my sixteen male students, fifteen are now completely hooked on reading, and the sixteenth child is starting to show signs of caving in and joining the club of bibliophiles. Having tons of exciting, relevant, new books really made all the difference in helping my boys become passionate readers. Sure, I reeled the students in with gross-out books, sports stories, and dragon-filled fantasy, but by now, the vast majority of my boys are reading in a much wider range of genres. You wouldn't believe it - I now have to peel their books out of some of my students' hands when I need them to pay attention to a lesson. They are literally "sneak-reading" their books under their tables, and over half of my students now bring books with them to lunch so that they can read while they eat. I am honestly shocked ... I had high hopes for my students, but I never thought that they would all go reading-crazy to this extent!

My students have been tracking the number of pages they read each month, and at the end of January, the total page count topped 100,000! We had a read-a-thon party (five hours of reading in pajamas, sustained by cake and hot cocoa), to celebrate this reading milestone. Check out the photos ... two are from our reading party. The rest hopefully capture some of the overwhelming excitement about reading. You really made this possible, and I can't thank you enough. I do not feel that I am exaggerating when I say that you have truly changed my boys' lives. (And not to worry, I'll keep chipping away at that sixteenth boy!)”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Zimmerman

Thanks to all of you, our classroom has a beautiful reading area. The new bookshelf is so sturdy and functional. I am able to sort and store the books by theme. The literacy games are so much fun! We play them regularly and the children love them. The children are also enjoying the music/book CD''s of familiar songs. Teaching in early childhood classes these days can be very challenging for students and teachers because of so much required testing. Having beautiful materials and fun games to play to enhance our learning....makes everything better!! Thank you so very much!! ”

With gratitude,

Ms. K

New books! Did Ms. K say we got new books?!?! I wish you could have seen my students' faces as I unveiled the fiction and nonfiction book sets your donation brought into my classroom.

These paperback library sets were put to use immediately. Every week each of my students takes seven books from the classroom library to read at home throughout the week. After introducing these new books into the library, my students took extra care when selecting book-box books—there were so many exciting and new choices! Many of our old library books had been put through the wringer. Through typical wear-and-tear caused by classes full of second graders bringing 125+ books to and from school every week for nine years, many of our books had torn covers, missing pages, etc. When we could, we salvaged books with "book surgery". The result was a library that definitely looked a little rough around the edges and wasn't very inviting to the average seven year old.

My second graders are becoming more and more fluent readers with each passing day. In order to maintain their motivation to read, they need a wide selection of high interest books at their fingertips. Your donation has made this possible. As a teacher, one of the most rewarding classroom moments is witnessing students getting excited about reading. Since the introduction of these books into the classroom, I have witnessed this moment many times.

Your help has ensured that my second grade students receive a high-quality education throughout the year, one that is full of excellent literature everyday. Thank you again for providing the class with these incredible new books. My current group of second graders' quality of education (not to mention many future groups!) has undoubtedly been improved by your kindness. ”

With gratitude,

Ms. Konarski

I am so deeply grateful for the generous donations you have made to my project. Thanks to you, we were able to create several Learning Centers in our classroom. Students are so engaged in these centers, and learn so much at the same time! They especially love the puzzles and games--I've never seen them work together with such enthusiasm. The pillows are also a big hit, as they make independent reading time much more comfortable and cozy.

My students' different strengths really shine when they have the opportunity to choose their own activities. Learning Centers enable them to feel empowered and in control of their own education. Thank you for bringing such joy to our classroom!”

With gratitude,

Ms. Fein

I want to take this time to personally thank you for your generosity and kindness. I am so grateful that you donated toward my project, and my students are so grateful as well.

Your donations toward our classroom drum set will really make a difference for my students. They will be able to explore this new instrument and use it for future school performances. The addition of our new drum set is going to sound great in our school band!

Once again, I want to thank you for your kind donation and for all that you have done and continue to do in the interest in children and music education.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Danielle