Mrs. Macke's Classroom Edit display name

Current requests

Past projects 65

• Creating with Color

  Funded Mar 19, 2025

  I am so grateful to each of you for your generous support of my elementary music students. With these clipboards, markers, dry erase pouches and dry erase markers, my students will be able to write and create much easier in my deskless classroom. After spring break, we will be continuing our units based around the children's books "Dragon Stew" and "Have You Seen My Hat". Our next steps are composing using words from the text and adding pitches and sound effects as they create. Having these materials will make this process so much easier for my students. Thank you for your financial support and making these materials possible. I appreciate you!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Macke

• Sing and Play Through Stories

  Funded Dec 21, 2024

  Children's books are incredible. They take you to far away places, unleash your imagination and draw you into the pictures and story. In my music classroom, it is one of my absolute favorite activities to take a book and build an engaging lesson through added song, creative movement, student composition or improvisation or dance.

  This project brought so many new books into my elementary music classroom. My second and third graders will be using Jon Klassen's "That's Not My Hat" books to explore triple meter, adding song and sound effects to a story, student created music using drums and xylophones and retelling the story of "Where's My Hat". My K-1 students are enjoying books like "I'm Going on a Bear Hunt" to use music to tell a story and to move our bodies safely to add movement to a story. My 4-5 students are adding recorder into their story books in addition to xylophones and unpitched percussion.

  It's so exciting to see the magic of these books come to life. Your generosity made that possible. I am so deeply grateful, thank you!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Macke

  This classroom project was brought to life by The Mo & Cher Willems Foundation and 18 other donors.

• Sticker Store

  Funded Dec 4, 2024

  Thank you for your generous support of a sticker store for student incentives in my music classroom. This project purchased a huge assortment of stickers. Sports, animals, movie and cartoon characters, food, positive affirmations and music were some of the many different types of stickers I was able to provide my students.

  A sticker is a simple, yet huge way to recognize and reward students for making positive choices. For my youngest students, they receive immediate positive reinforcement for making a good choice. My oldest students love to organize and put out the new stickers each week and are always thinking of what they can do that's extra to earn a sticker. It's such a simple thing, yet makes a huge impact on my students. Thank you for your support in making these incentives available to my kids.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Macke

  This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and one other donor.

• Moving to the Music

  Funded Oct 15, 2024

  Thank you for providing my students with materials for kinesthetic learning in our music classroom. This project provided my students with rubber playground balls, cups and agility rings.

  The rubber balls have been used to explore tempo and how it changes. We also used them with dynamics while learning "In the Hall of the Mountain King". As the tempo and dynamic level increased, so did our bouncing! We had so many laughs together.

  The cups are being used for passing circle game. We just finished studying The Nutcracker, and my older students used the cups to drum and pass to The Nutcracker March. This also reinforced steady beat and the importance of cooperation in group activities.

  The agility rings are being used for a jumping grid, to use our whole body to feel the beat. There are so many possibilities to continue adding extensions as they master the patterns.

  Thank you for making this project possible. Hands on learning is the best for my students, and we are having a blast with the activities these materials made possible. Thank you.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Macke

• Mallet Madness

  Funded Sep 30, 2024

  Mallets are essential to playing xylophones and metallophones. They are how we create sound, reinforce steady beat, explore pitches, make connections between vocabulary and visual and perform on instruments. This project replaced broken, unusable mallets with new, quality, Orff sized mallets for my elementary music students.

  These mallets are used in all music classes, grades K-5. They are high quality, make our instruments sound incredible and make music class more fun by having the right equipments.

  I was able to provide my students with soft, medium and hard rubber and yarn wrapped mallets for all of our xylophones and metallophones. That wouldn't have been possible without this project.

  Thank you for providing these essentials to my students. I appreciate the generosity of the donors that make this project possible.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Macke

• Calming Corner

  Funded Sep 19, 2024

  I would like to thank you for supplying my elementary music students with a calming corner for our music classroom. In this corner, they have a quiet and welcoming space to refocus. This project provided my students with a soft rug, a rainbow basket for supplies, a weighted sloth for cuddles and sensory support, silent fidgets and manipulatives to work with and sand timers to manage usage. There is also noise canceling headphones to help with sensory overload and help make the calming time more productive for a struggling student.

  I have been working with my inclusion classes to visit the music room in small groups to talk about how we are using the calming corner, and that these are tools and not toys to help them participate in music class.

  As needed, students can take a quick break or use one of the items to help them regain focus and composure. It was used today for a student whose finger was stepped on, she hugged and cuddled the sloth until she was ready to participate again.

  Thank you for providing my students with tools to support their social emotional health and to help them participate in music class. I'm already seeing a big difference and I appreciate that you have made that possible for my students. Thank you for your donations!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Macke

  This classroom project was brought to life by The Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation and 8 other donors.

• Welcome to Elementary Music

  Funded Aug 19, 2024

  I am deeply grateful for your support of my project Welcome to Elementary. It has been a new adventure to set up an elementary music classroom, but thanks to your donations towards the Teachers Pay Teachers gift cards, I have been able to decorate and organize my classroom with colorful and engaging decor.

  Each of my instrument bins are now organized, which helps my students find what they need, and return it to the correct area after. I have been able to purchase fun songs and games. My students are currently singing Apple Tree and learning the game and how to play it on xylophones. The premade slides have helped their learning tremendously.

  For National Hispanic Heritage month, I have purchased song, game and dance resources. I also decorated outside my classroom with a Spanish banner in celebration of National Hispanic Heritage month.

  I am grateful for access to these colorful, engaging and fun resources to use with my students. Thank you for supporting this project!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Macke

  This classroom project was brought to life by The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation and 4 other donors.

• Build a Better Team

  Funded May 16, 2024

  As we wind up the school year, the games and materials for team building and collaborative play are already in use. My students have had a blast playing Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza; with each round they play their laughter fills the room. Throw, Throw Burrito is a huge hit - but what middle schooler wouldn't love a giant 3-foot burrito that they get to throw? In addition to the actual rules of the game, the band kids have created their own game which I honestly can not explain the rules of. However, they absolutely love it and that's probably the most important part.

  I have no doubt these materials will benefit many music students in the years to come. Thank you for supporting my students.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Macke

  This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 8 other donors.