Tomato Nation Spring Contest 2013: May I Have This Dance?

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We have been using the Time Magazines since they arrived in September! We love the content of each magazine. They have been very valuable resources for myself and my students. They have allowed me to incorporate science, social studies, current events, and other non-fiction information into my classroom in a way that is interesting and fun for my students.

Thank you for the generous donations. Without the donations, we would have been unable to get the resources we need for our classroom. Thank you for making a positive impact on the lives of students in Indianapolis, Indiana.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Kessler

Thank you so much for your donation. I planned on starting in January with the money program, however, mother nature won and we missed several days of school. Now that school has settled back into "normalcy" we have gotten the money kit out. I can not tell you enough words the excitement the kids had when they saw the activities they were going to get to do to learn about money. The hands on activities have helped them to associate money with real life activities. Again I appreciate all of your donations to my project ,I could not have done it without you.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Keefe

All of the students at our school study music. We have guitar, winds, piano, voice, and percussion classes. Having the instruments to serve our kids can be one of the largest stumbling blocks we encounter at the public school settings. The students love playing the pianos. They beg for opportunities to play the pianos and rejoice in the splendor of rhythm, melody, and harmony when allowed to partake. The kids are learning how to read and write music as well. Having instruments that are functional with batteries like these is inspirational for our students because they get to practice music and develop on this instrument. They were excited and said it was like Christmas when the boxes arrived. We play the instruments at our concerts and in class to practice.”

With gratitude,

Mr. Thompson

My first grade students are so excited to have these nooks in the classroom. I have many strong readers and to have the technology to help support in their reading is extremely powerful. Many of them partner read, so my stronger readers are in the middle reading to their peers. This way everyone gets the benefit of this great technology.

My readers that need more support are now working even harder so they can read on the nook all by themselves. The look in their eyes is priceless when they are holding the nooks and reading their favorite stories.

I can't thank you enough for your generosity. It's people like you that make my job great!”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Sumner

We recieved our easel and it has been so useful in teaching all day long. The easel has so many compartments where you can organize and store books and material with easy access. It has been one of the most useful tools in teaching group for carpet time as it allows for flexibilty and is large enough for the whole classroom to see. The children love to use the easel for their work stations within our rotations for Daily 5, which is one of our english language components we use. It allows them to be hands on with material and write on the white erase board. The backside also allows for another station for word work. The students absolutely benifit from this resource and boost their hands on and visual learning during groups and individual times. It is a wonderful thing to have for teaching and the classroom. I can not say enough about the children and other teachers in class loving and using the easel. We have many students who want to be 'like the teacher' and the easel offers a great oppourtunity for the students to access their creative juices.”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Foster

Thank you again for providing the funding for the liquid containers. They have helped to change the water consumption habits of my students, as they provide the means for students to obtain free and healthy drinking water throughout the school day. In using the containers, students are able to avoid the dangers that bottle water presents to both the environment and the health of the students. The presence of the containers has resulted in students asking more questions about why municipal tap water is healthier for them than bottled water. This conversation has resulted in students having a more informed understanding of how bottled and tap water is regulated by the government.

My school has a comprehensive environmental program that encourages students to become stewards of their environment and activists within their community. We appreciate the dangers that bottled water presents to the health of our students. Additionally, we recognize the negative environmental impact of the 49 million water bottles consumed in this country every day. Being able to offer students an alternative to bottled water has been helpful in terms of encouraging them to change the way they view and consume fresh water.

Although we requested the liquid containers in order to provide water for students to consume throughout the school day, they have also served another purpose. Last October, the containers proved useful in raising money for Alex's Lemonade Stand. Our student government organization has raised several hundred dollars selling lemonade out of the liquid containers. Were it not for the containers, this philanthropic venture may not have come to fruition.

Thank you again for your donation to our school. We would not be able to provide anything extra for our students were it not for the generosity of people like you. Thank you again.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Thompson

Thank you immensely for your donation to my classroom and my students. As this is the first year our school has had a bilingual program in 2nd grade, the new Spanish books we received are invaluable. As you can imagine, resources are currently scarce in public schools and without your help my students would have very few choices for Spanish books during independent reading.

The students use our new books on a daily basis. It is now possible for each student to choose 5 independent Spanish books a week as well as 1 book to take home and share with their families. My students feel so much excitement each week when it's their turn to choose new books because they now have an abundance of high-quality literature at their finger tips.

Your donation is helping to build a generation of bilingual and biliterate students. My students and I cannot thank you enough for supporting this project.

In gratitude,

Ms. R”

With gratitude,

Ms. Rector

Thank you so much for your amazing contributions to Bonneville's music room! After a back order wait we have finally received the Orff instrument stands! This generous donation of 8 stands is the beginning of getting ALL of our Orff instruments on stands! We are beyond excited for these stands for a few reasons!

Students standing at the Orff instruments provides them with much better posture and the ability to hold their mallets better and more securely when they are standing.

At our performances in the cafetorium, the Orff instruments have to be put on the floor and then only the first 2 rows of audience can actually see the children performing! Putting them all on stands allows the entire room to enjoy the musical experience and makes the students so much more proud to play!

Finally our music room is on the other side of campus from the cafetorium. These stands provide a faster and safer way to get the instruments from one side of campus to the other.

As you can see these stands are a huge asset to our music program and we thank you for helping us begin our stand co”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Miller

First of all, I want to thank you again for this amazing gift of kindness and support!!! My class and I are so touched that you believe in us!

Now, let me tell you -- when the Rekenreks arrived, I first took out the large, teacher demonstration Rekenrek. It is pretty big and very impressive! My students LOVED it from the moment they saw it! We used it to show numbers, talk about our math thinking, and to show different ways of solving the same problem. ALL of my students wanted to use it and they all got a turn. But of course, at this point, they thought that this was the only Rekenrek they had to use. So, as you can imagine, they LOST THEIR MINDS when they found out that they had a whole class set of mini Rekenreks that they could use whenever they liked!!! I wish you could have been here when I brought out the mini Rekenreks -- you would have thought it was all of their birthdays at the same time! They were THRILLED!!!!!

Of course from my teacher point of view, I am just thrilled that they are LEARNING! They have used the Rekenreks for addition and we will be using them soon for subtraction. Currently we are working on place value, and we just used the Rekenreks this morning to show 2-digit numbers.

As you can see, your gift is being used in MANY ways! I am so grateful to you for these amazing resources. THANK YOU!!!”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Kelly