This week, we’re helping two Pennsylvania elementary school projects: a fourth grade in Lancaster learning about dinosaurs, and an Erie classroom needing materials for its many English-language learners. We hope that readers who support quality public school education will help by sharing or supporting our featured projects.
The Inoculation Project is an ongoing, volunteer effort to crowdfund science, math, and literacy projects for public schools in low-income neighborhoods. As always, our conduit is DonorsChoose, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation that facilitates tax-deductible donations to specific, vetted projects in public schools.
We have a new project at #2 today, and we have an ambitious project ready to move up here to the #1 slot.
This is our third week on this project, and we’re doing very well! Mr. Aronson wants his Pennsylvania fourth graders to get an immersive dinosaur experience including Lego dinosaur-building sets and dinosaur books.
PROJECT #1
Resources: Help me give my students STEM engagement and reading support connected to a topic they love!
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households.
Location: Wickersham Elementary School, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Total: $467.44
Still Needed: $194.20 $89.79
Project description by Mr. Aronson: I created this project to ask for your help in bringing excitement, learning, and creativity to my classroom. Our school serves a community with limited resources, where students often face challenges accessing the tools they need to fully engage in their education. Through our DonorsChoose project, I aim to provide my students with the opportunity to explore the world of dinosaurs through Lego sets and books, creating an enriching, hands-on learning experience that will inspire both their imagination and their academic growth.
Lego sets have had such a critical impact on my students this year, being used as incentive, but also in making connections from the sets they build to the books and content that they are learning about.
The Lego sets will allow my students to build and create their favorite dinosaurs, fostering critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork skills as they work together to bring their creations to life. These activities will also strengthen their fine motor skills, spatial awareness, and creativity. Paired with the dinosaur-themed books, which will broaden their knowledge of science, history, and storytelling, this project will open new worlds of discovery. For many of these children, a hands-on, engaging learning experience like this is an opportunity they might not otherwise have.
Your generous support will help to make this possible. By contributing to this project, you are directly impacting the lives of young learners in a low-income, urban school setting. You will not only provide materials that will engage students but also build their confidence, curiosity, and love for learning. Thank you for considering this opportunity to make a difference in the lives of children who are eager to learn but lack the resources to fully explore their potential. Together, we can create a classroom where imagination and education thrive.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
The author of the requested Jurassic Jeff series of graphic novels discusses how creating fiction for children differs from his work for adults.
Here’s our new project! Mrs. Mikovich teaches elementary school in Erie, in the far northwest corner of Pennsylvania. She needs materials to help her English language learners.
PROJECT #2
Resources: Help me give my students books and picture cards that will promote their understanding and use of the English language.
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households.
Location: Harding Elementary School, Erie, Pennsylvania
Total: $398.81
Still Needed: $373.81 $299.40
Project description by Mrs. Mikovich: My students come to me from all over the world. They are from Syria, Afghanistan, Congo, Tanzania, Burundi, China, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Bangladesh. Although they are all unique, the thing they all have in common is a strong desire to learn English so they can make new friends, learn math, social studies and science, learn to read and write, and navigate their new surroundings in the United States. Most of my students are so new to our country that they speak no English at all. I begin by teaching them survival words like bathroom and water, and then move on to more complex words and phrases.
Having realistic pictures and books they can relate to will help my students make connections between spoken and written words and the world around them.
I plan to use the picture cards as a way to prompt my students to ask and answer questions using English words and phrases. I have found that using accurate and interesting pictures helps my students to make real connections between the words that I am teaching them and the things we are talking about. Once they have the connection we are able to expand their use of the words. Pictures are a useful tool when teaching the components of language, speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
Picture books with stories my students can relate to also help me to create opportunities for my students to engage with the English language. They can use their English listening skills to understand the story being read to them. They can use their English speaking skills to answer my questions about the story or to ask me questions about what is happening in the book. My more advanced English learners can practice reading in English.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Volumes in the I Spy book series are in this request. It’s easy to see how the intricate and fascinating photos that illustrate them can help with language learning. Here, we see how the photographer creates the illustrations.
Our project #1 from last week was completed in its first week here! Many thanks to our donors, who moved it along from having no donations to being set up for one last person to come along and complete it!
Project #1, Fact Finders Unite: More Nonfiction Books Needed! II: Ms. L. is an Information Literacy Specialist in a Houston elementary school, and she was hoping to add to the library a set of well-regarded National Geographic illustrated reference books meant for young readers.
She writes: Thank you again for donating to “Fact Finders Unite: More Nonfiction Books Needed! II” on DonorsChoose recently. I am so honored to have a wonderful community behind me and my Bulldogs scholars. My scholars continue to be curious so I know they will absolutely adore these books coming to our school library in the next couple of days. I can’t wait to update you soon on the progress! Special shout-out goes to the Daily Kos for featuring my project during the recent weekly blog post and the DonorsChoose community for matching donations for the 25th year anniversary!
| DonorsChoose has developed the designation Equity Focus Schools to describe some schools that submit projects. They meet two criteria: at least 50% of students are Black, Latinx, Native American, Pacific Islander, or multiracial, and at least 50% of students qualify for free or reduced price lunch, the standard measure for school economic need. You can read more at the link about their efforts to address the longstanding inequity in education. |
Founded in 2009, The Inoculation Project seeks to fund science, math, and literacy projects in public school classrooms and libraries. Our conduit is DonorsChoose, 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 projects 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 1160! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.
