THIS WEEK’S MAIN PROJECT
Resources: a pair of binoculars and 30 field guides
School Poverty Level: Highest
Location: Coker-Wimberly Elementary School, Battleboro, NC
Total: $620.71
Still Needed: $620.71 $238.94
Expires: Jan 16, 2016
Teacher’s Comments from Mrs. Jones:
My Students: Our day starts with our motto: Think, Dream, Believe, Achieve. Many students have little experience discovering our world. This book will help them be excited and interested in reading nonfiction books through discovery of birds.
My students live in a poverty stricken area often without the necessities at home and for school.
Some are even homeless. Even though their circumstances are not the ideal, they set goals for themselves to change their lives. They are very spirited and excited about creating projects. Our school is a small rural school. We really focus on building up our students' moral and encouraging them by announcing each morning, "Remember you are somebody. You were somebody when you arrived and you will be somebody when you leave. You have places to go, people to impress, and things to do."
My Project: My students need a pair of binoculars and 30 field guides to recognize the birds in our community, discover what they eat, and where they nest. Student will learn about the birds in our neighborhood and use this knowledge to become involved in protecting the birds project. These guides will help students keep a log of the birds they see which they can graph to discover which birds are seen most often and which are hard to find. Students will then share this information with the Wildlife Refuge organization. Student will learn scientific names for birds. The books will also help them discover habitats and the type of food the birds need. Students will learn to love nonfiction books!
This project will help the students work on team building skills.
These skills will help the children take more responsibility for their learning. The children will grow a love for STEM projects and learn to love birdwatching so they can travel to different places all over the world. It will help them get excited about a career in science. The classroom will be filled with knowledge seeking children who will become our scientists.
DONATE HERE
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
We'd like to be able to assist both small and large projects. Our hope is to present a new relatively modest project each week, and then feature a more ambitious project with a long-term deadline, so we can chip away at it each week when our main project is completed. Since DonorsChoose has something similar to a "rec list", every time we create a flurry of activity on a project, even if the dollar amounts involved aren't large, we can push the project up that list so it gets shown to more donors outside Daily Kos. In that way, we can help finish projects that may be beyond our means when only our own dollars are considered.
LAST WEEK’S PROJECT
Resources Needed: math tool boxes, containing mathematical manipulatives to include connecting cubes, double sided counters, dice, pattern blocks, coins, and playing cards
School Poverty Level: Highest
Location: Fairmount Elementary School, Independence,MO
Total Cost: $1,295.05
Still Needed: $851.56 Completed!
Expires: Mar 16, 2016
Teacher's Comments from Ms. Skluzacek:
My Students: In our classrooms we use the Workshop model of teaching not only in Reading and Writing, but also in Math. Our students need tool boxes for purposeful and efficient independent daily practice. "The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics." -Paul Halmos
Our students are eager to learn each day! They thrive off of hands-on experiences and the use of manipulatives.
We are a Title 1 school with 95% of our 400 students receiving free/reduced price lunch. Our students come from families facing economic hardships and the majority cannot afford pre-school where children start developing early math concepts. Our school is an amazing team of educators who embrace each student where they are at and create goals and high expectations to get them where they need to be!
My Project: Math Tool Boxes will enable each child in our classroom to access math manipulative's quickly through out the day and increase math instruction by eliminating the need for teachers to pass out supplies. Math Tool Boxes would be built throughout the year as we introduce new math concepts and manipulatives. Each box would contain: counting/sorting bears, connecting cubes, double sided counters, dominoes, pattern blocks, coins, deck of cards, place value blocks, ten frame, dice, number line, addition/subtraction bead bracelets. Students will use their tool boxes during whole group learning, independent practice, small group learning and during center/station learning. Math Tool Boxes will enable students to take charge of their own mathematical learning by having fast and immediate access to the manipulatives "tools" they need to explore and learn!
Donations to our project will help us to provide continuity to our four Kindergarten classrooms and ensure that each student receives the same opportunities to learn and explore mathematical concepts in the same way.
Our students thrive from learning through play and hands on manipulatives. "Math is like ice cream, with more flavors than you can imagine-and if all your children ever do is textbook math, that's like feeding them broccoli-flavored ice cream." - Denise Gaskins
COMPLETED
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
HOUSEKEEPING
The long term project, Staying Grounded: An Earth Science Study, was completed. Middle school students in Augusta, GA will have the materials that they need for their earth science labs. You can see the teacher's thank-you note at the link. Many thanks to all contributors!
See our list of successfully funded projects. We're up to 490! We are rapidly approaching the '500 projects' completed milestone. Due to the upcoming holiday season and our busy schedules, we will not be able to celebrate the occasion until after the holidays regardless of when we reach the milestone.
When projects are not fully funded by their expiration date, donors are contacted by DonorsChoose and asked to choose another project to which to redirect their donations. Occasionally, a fully funded project is called off for some reason internal to the school/teacher, and funding is returned. We have no way of knowing why, but DonorsChoose handles those donations in the same way as for expired projects.
How is the poverty level defined at DonorsChoose.org?
Poverty level refers to the percentage of students at a given school who qualify for free and reduced lunch, which is considered a measure of economic need. To be deemed eligible for free lunch, a student's family income must be within 130% of the poverty line (a max of $29,055 for a family of four). For reduced lunch, the family income must be within 185% of the poverty level (a max of $41,348 for a family of four). Schools with 10%-39% of students receiving free/reduced lunch are denoted as "moderate poverty" while schools with more than 40% of students receiving free/reduced lunch are denoted as "high poverty". For projects submitted from a school where free lunch rate data is unavailable or unreliable, "Poverty Data Unavailable" will appear.
More information: DonorsChoose.org, DonorsChoose.org, DonorsChoose.org DonorsChoose.org
We are in no way affiliated with DonorsChoose.org, or any of the classroom projects presented for funding.
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