This week, we're helping an Indiana Head Start class to get enough magnetic building tiles to allow the whole class to participate, and a Texas Gulf coast kindergarten to start a vegetable garden. We hope that readers who support quality public school education will help these teachers and students by sharing or supporting our featured projects.
The Inoculation Project is an ongoing, volunteer effort to crowdfund science and math projects for red-state public schools in low-income neighborhoods. As always, our conduit is DonorsChoose.org, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation that facilitates tax-deductible donations to specific, vetted projects in public schools.
This Indiana Head Start teacher needs a bunch more Magna-Tiles building panels to give everyone a chance to build! Donations are being matched today by PNC Grow Up Great®: PNC Grow Up Great®, a bilingual initiative founded in 2004 by The PNC Financial Services Group Inc., helps prepare young children from birth through age five for success in school and life.
MAIN PROJECT
Resources: Magna-Tiles and Magnetic Pattern Block Shape Builders
Economic need: Nearly all students from low‑income households
Location: TRC Anderson Head Start Center, Anderson, Indiana
Total: $250.21 (Matching funds from PNC Grow Up Great®)
Still Needed: $206.68 Completed! Please consider project below.
Teacher’s Comments from Mrs. Davis:
My Students: I teach 20 active and unique 3-5-year-old children. In my classroom, we have unique children who learn by different methods. The children in my class love to explore, investigate, and discover. Our curriculum is focused around hands-on learning and play-based learning to meet the needs of our class.
"Head Start promotes school readiness for children, ages birth to five, in low-income families by offering educational, nutritional, health, social, and other services.
Head Start programs enhance the social and cognitive development of children and actively engage families in their children's learning so that children will be successful in kindergarten."
My Project: My class received a starter set of Magna-Tiles earlier this year. The children love to build with the Magna-Tiles. Unfortunately, there are not enough pieces for the children in my class to finish their projects and artwork. The children in my class constantly have a waiting list for the Magna-Tiles because they all want a turn to play there. With the starter set, the children only have enough Magna-Tiles for one or two students to play in a center.
I am asking for the Magna-Tiles Master Set and Magnetic Pattern Blocks to let the children in my class have enough to build their structures and creations.
My hope is this will eliminate frustration and promote imagination and creativity.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
We started this substantial project last week, and hope to push it along as far as possible while matching funds are available from the Rebuild Texas Fund: The Rebuild Texas Fund is committed to supporting those on the ground doing the hard work of recovering from Hurricane Harvey. The efforts of our teachers, their students, and the community are so appreciated!
LONG-TERM PROJECT
Resources: My students need a raised vegetable bed (4x8), gardening dirt & compost, vegetable fertilizers, and gardening essentials such as a rain water barrel for watering the garden.
Economic need: Nearly all students from low‑income households
Location: Lucian Adams Elementary School, Port Arthur, Texas
Total: $1,594.87 (Matching funds from The Rebuild Texas Fund)
Still Needed: $1,422.22 $1,106.93 ($554 from us)
Teacher’s Comments from Mrs. Morris:
My Students: Our kindergarten class has been impacted by Hurricane Harvey.
I teach kindergarten in Port Arthur, TX.
Before Hurricane Harvey hit our area, I had the opportunity to meet some of my sweet students, but because of the damage caused by flood water, many students have experienced loss of items and home. We are a Title I school, and many of our students are from low-income households.
Please, help us have a successful school year full of learning in a comfortable and clean environment.
Thank you!
My Project: I teach in a Title I low-income and high-poverty school district. My students are faced with several challenges both in and out of the classroom. Through science, my class will be introduced to and learn about life cycles, what plants need to live and grow, and how they can grow their own healthy food at home.
Many of my students, who live in apartments, do not get the opportunity to see vegetables grow or have access each day to vegetables.
My students will learn the life cycle of plants (seed, sprout, plant, flower, vegetable), what a plant needs to live and grow (food, water, air, dirt), where their food comes from (farm or garden), and how they can grow their own food at home.
Through planting our own raised bed vegetable garden, students will be able to watch the life cycle in real time and real life as we plant small seedlings and watch the plants grow and fruit. Students will learn about what a plant needs to live and grow and the parts of a plant and how providing things such as dirt, compost, and fertilizer plants can thrive.
We want the students to acquire a love of the garden and growing food. As the plants grow students will be able to taste the products of their hard work such as tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach, basil, and peppers!!!
Students will also be able to plant a tomato seed in class using the plastic cups and dirt providing through this project! They will be able to watch it grow each day into their very own plant they can take home!
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Our main project last week was completed! Alert readers will notice that this puts us at 699 completed projects, and we usually have some celebration at even-hundred milestones (plus, roll over into a new success-list diary). We’re going to hold off on our 700-projects party until after the election, because everyone has GOTV work to focus on, but we will get around to it in November, honest!
So: we helped Ms. Flynn’s rural Louisiana 5th grade get some owl pellets to dissect, to help in their studies of the food web. The project was What Did You Eat????
She writes: Oh my goodness! I'm so excited!! Thank all of you so much for your wonderful generosity!! Thank you KOS for choosing my project to post! I can't wait to let the kids know so many people are reaching out to help! I know they will be as grateful as me!
Our Dollars at Work
In May, we helped Ms. Quilitzsch’s Michigan class of special needs early-elementary students. They are still working on using language for learning, and needed some hands-on materials to help them with basic math concepts. The project was Little Hands, Big Dreams. (More photos at the link.)
From the moment the packages first arrived in our classroom my students have been excited to explore and learn with the new materials we have received. My students couldn't wait to get the packages open, and were more than willing to help me do just that! It took no time at all, after the packages were opened, for them to start asking to use the new materials.
Most recently, we have been using the Tiggly Math Interactive Learning Games to work on communication, choice making, as well as identifying shapes and counting with 1:1 correspondence. My students are cheering and smiling when they see the animated characters come across the projector screen. They are engaged and willing to participate in my math lessons each day. Since we have begun using these hands on materials I have seen growth in my students' interest and retention of basic shapes.
As we continue to grow and learn about shapes and counting, my hope is that my students will begin utilizing these materials independently. All of these new materials have sparked interest in my students to continue to work on some of the basic math skills they have not yet mastered such as: attribute sorting, measurement, 1:1 correspondence, and shape identification. I cannot express the gratitude that I have for your support in bringing new and exciting materials to my little learners.
Founded in 2009, The Inoculation Project combats the anti-science push in conservative America by funding science and math projects in traditionally red-state classrooms and libraries. Our conduit is DonorsChoose.org, a crowdfunding charity founded in 2000 and highly rated by both Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau.
Every Sunday, we focus on helping to fund two science or math projects in red states, preferably in neighborhood public schools where the overwhelming majority of students come from low-income households. We welcome everyone who supports public school education — no money is required!
Finally, here’s our list of successfully funded projects — our series total is 699! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.org.