It's just logical - I grow a mustache, kids learn!
I'm focusing my efforts this year to aid special needs students in Chicago Public Schools. Please consider donating. Every penny helps!
Thank you so much for your generous donations. The new learning toys are a wonderful addition to my classroom. The children are very thrilled to "play" with new toys and they don't even realize they are learning.
All the toys are new and exciting for the kids. They are very creative in how they play with them. For example, the children like to dump out the contents of the color and shape sorting boxes and work together to put all the pieces back in the correct boxes. Its a good way for the children to work together and increase their social skills. For my younger children, the daisy pegboard with large pegs is great for their little hands to work on fine motor skills. They also like to pretend its a birthday cake with candles to blow out on the top. It is very cute to see!
Thank you so much for your kindness. I will always remember it when I see the toys and especially with I see the smiling faces of the children when they are playing with the toys.
My children and I cannot begin to express our gratitude for your generous donations. It takes wonderful people to give to someone you do not know. These kids are now benefiting from this and I hope they will learn to give just as you have.
Thank you for the comprehension centers. Since I have started using them, the kids have begun to use strategies that help them understand what they are reading. One of their favorite activities is the sequencing center. They get to read stories and put the events in order as they happen. They are also learning the relationship between cause and effect. This skill is also helping them get a better understanding of the stories.
Thank you also for the vocabulary centers. The kids basically think they are just fun games, so they don't even realize that they are learning. They love the analogy maze and the prefix/suffix game. We haven't used them all yet, but are excited to continue using them. I can't thank you enough! ”
Thank you very much for donating money to my classroom! The literacy materials arrived a few months ago and they are wonderful. There are hands-on activities for just about every skill related to reading and writing- letter sounds, phonics, word work, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. The students love the activities- they ask to use the materials that you donated on a daily basis. At the beginning of the year, my students did not love to read. Their attitudes about reading have really shifted throughout the year, and these materials have helped to show them that reading is fun.
You have also helped teach my students an important lesson about philanthropy. Your donation sparked several conversations about why it is important to help other people, and how we can help other people and our community. The students in my class have since designed posters for the school and community about recycling, organized a food drive, and wrote letters to soldiers in Afghanistan. Thank you for setting such a good example for my students.
I want to thank you very sincerely for the gift of maps you have given my students. The children are enjoying having maps in the room and can frequently be found surveying the maps, locating places they had never known, and finding familiar sounding places. It is such a rich instructional tool to have available in the class. The maps serve to broaden the world for my students and give them a better understanding of how wide the world really is.
My special needs students usually learn better when they have a visual presentation. Although one can use the internet to pull up a map, there is nothing quite like a large, wall map to illustrate a point. It also gives the kids a chance to get out of their seats and move around, something that is always beneficial for kids with lots of energy. We are learning so much this year having the maps in the room. We have referred to the maps to find places in the news such as Libya, Japan, and Afghanistan. We have also referred to the maps to find Copenhagen, Denmark, the setting of our novel, Number the Stars. Maps serve to pique the curiosity of my young adventurers, and I hear such comments as "I wonder what it's like in Mozambique," or "We know a teacher from Punta Arenas, Chile."
Your generosity in giving to this proposal is greatly appreciated. Your use of the DonorsChoose website, demonstrates an interest in education, and an appreciation that education requires the support of all if we are to be truly successful. Thank you again.”
Wow! What a difference a box of cards can make. My students were becoming frustrated when other were not understanding them. Now,thanks to your help, my students' speech intelligibility is continuing to improve every week.
My students are motivated and and excited to work with the cards. They see that they are successful at naming the cards at their level and they hear their speech improve. They enjoy practicing using the Kaufman Praxis cards.
You have given my students the ability to talk and be understood. ”
I can't express how grateful I am for your generous donations. My students come from families that are less fortunate. At our school, we try to expose our students to materials that are exciting and interactive. The materials that you provided will continue to allow our children to improve their phonemic awareness and speech and language skills. Our school is successfully working hard to help our students and parent realize that education is the key to a great future. Your help with this is greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your generous donation. I am truly grateful and full of appreciation. The pillows and bean bags provided each student with their personal seating. This has eliminated previous feelings of isolation when we met in our classroom library. My students are now focused on the activities in the library, not their seating. They are engaged and truly enjoy coming to our library for read aloud, Socratic discussions and weekly family time with the school social worker. The students also use the library for personal reading time and shared reading.
The therapy balls have allowed my students to sit at their desk, release energy and continue to be on task.
Having these items has allowed my students and me to focus on their education. Again thank you. Please know that your generosity has changed my classroom environment for the better.”
Thank you for your generous donations! The materials that you donated have been integrated beautifully into our classroom and complement our social studies curriculum. My students enjoy changing the calendar at the beginning of each month and putting the holidays on the board. Because the holiday books are written at their reading and comprehension level, they are able to explain the purpose of a holiday and identify related symbols. They rifle through our holiday book bin to find upcoming holidays. And if we do not have a book about a holiday, they ask me, "Why not?"
I have derived great pleasure from seeing their eager faces explore books about countries from around the world. They often ask, "Is there a picture of a kid from there? What is that place like? Can we go there?" It is exciting to watch them make connections between their homes and the homes of children from around the world.
The emergence of a world-view and appreciation for other cultures and celebrations has occurred in part because of your generous donations. Thank you for helping my students become excited about the world around them!
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With gratitude,
Ms. Morrison
This classroom project was brought to life by Donor and 6 other donors.
Earlier in the school year, I used grant money to provide books for my students. Picking out books that students will be able to read and will be interested in, is difficult when students have learning disabilities that involve their reading skills. My eighth graders do not want to read about Clifford, and the fantastical tale of The Giver is a task they are not able to tackle alone. The classroom library had become a place to hang out, cool off, lose pencils and flip through whatever magazine a student could find. That was simply not acceptable in this classroom. Consequently, as a class, we went on a search for books that each student could read, understand, and most of all, enjoy. We now have Jerry Spinelli books, bridged versions of the classics, and a graphic novel of The Diary of Anne Frank. When the books came in, the classroom library was restored as a place for enjoyment, not frustration.
Before the book shelf came, books were everywhere. Stacked up, multiple rows, piles on the floor, boxes and on the couch. While it was a mess, having too many books will never be something a teacher should complain about. Upon receiving our new book shelf, the students of my class were very excited. In fact, one of the students asked to stay after school to clean up the library in order to get ready for the new piece of furniture. It has to be a pretty big deal for one of my students to miss basketball practice. After some work, clean-up and organization, the classroom had a new and improved library. Thank you for allowing this dream to become a reality. Honestly and truly, each donation made a difference in the classroom and the emotions of each student. My students feel that they are valued and that there are people out there who care about helping them become better learners. Each of you has played a role in their growth. ”
With gratitude,
Ms. Bober
This classroom project was brought to life by Donor and 2 other donors.
Thank you so much for the graphic organizers and visual learning materials for my classroom. I have used these materials, including graphic organizers and professional development books, literally every day! By now, I can't imagine teaching without them!
My group of third, fourth, and fifth graders used the graphic organizers to organize their research and writing during a unit on newspaper writing. Throughout the unit, they were able to understand articles that they read and organize their thoughts with increasing clarity. And, now that we're using the graphic organizers to take notes about poetry, they're able to organize their thoughts in ways that help them remember information later.
This donation also included professional development books about teaching visual learners reading and writing that I have read and shared with my colleagues. I have incorporated some of the teaching techniques and strategies into my daily instruction and have noticed that my students are more engaged.
Thank you again for your support of my classroom. This donation has had a dramatic impact on the instruction that my students receive every day, so much so that they often ask me how we're going to organize our ideas today! ”
With gratitude,
Ms. Cleaver
This classroom project was brought to life by Donor and 7 other donors.
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