New Donors Choose Project

I am always so excited and full of anticipation when a new Donors Choose project gets posted.  I co-wrote a project with one of my kindergarten co-teachers for a listening center that we got funded very quickly and then my other kindergarten co-teacher asked to co-write a similar project with me.  So here is: Listen Up!  A Listening Center for All Students.  I hope this one gets funded quickly because we are  giving the kids a little preview of Daily 5 (before they start it for real in first grade) and a listening center will really help that along.  I am (of course, as any true Donors Choose addict would be) thinking of what future project I could write.  I am thinking of writing a project for a bunch of iPod touches so the kids can access edmoto during Daily 5 time to practice technology literacy.  Thoughts?

What is your favorite Donors Choose project that you've had funded?

Adie

Five for Friday for 4/26

I really look forward to joining up with Five for Friday every week now, it's such a nice way to process all of the wild and crazy things that happened to me during the week!  Thanks Doodle Bug Teaching for giving me this fun opportunity!

1. I SUBMITTED MY NATIONAL BOARD PORTFOLIO!!!!!!!!!  I know that the weekly updates have maybe not been the most fascinating part of my blog posts, but it has been very motivating to me to post for all of you to see where I'm at.  So the portfolio is 100% submitted.  I have my 3-hour test on May 24th so I've just got some studying left for that...

2. The great divvy!  How do you all figure out how to send students up to the next grade?  We just sat as the kindergarten team and hashed out our first draft of the class make ups for next year.  It is such a delicate balance of students' academic abilities, behavior challenges, students with IEPs, students who need high levels of intervention, English Language Learners, boys and girls, making sure everyone has a friend with them.  We all just sat in front of a Google Doc and moved kids names around until we felt like the lists were as balanced as possible.  Since I will be going up to first grade (in 2 of the classes), it was fun to see what my new classes will look like.  I'm always curious though, how you make your lists!  Please comment and share.

3. Sunshine!  You can take the girl out of New England, but you can't take the New England out of the girl!  I am so used to brutally cold winters and unbearably sweaty summers and that makes me most appreciative of the LA sunshine.  My sister and I went swimming last weekend and I definitely plan on doing the same this weekend.  We have this perfect, beautiful sunshine with no clouds that just warms you from the inside and makes you feel so cozy.

4. On that note...I spent a lot of time planting this week.  I have a mixture of flowers, herbs, and filler plants.  You can see a lot of basil, mint, rosemary, parsley, and thyme (my favorite fresh spices to use).  I'm also trying to grow tomatoes again (this is a yearly fight with the sun on my patio that I usually lose).  Then I just have some perky flowers that make me smile when I get home.  Everyday, I come home, cuddle with my little Harper in an oversized armchair staring at this beautiful scene.  I have had a black thumb my whole life so to be fairly productive in my garden now is a big accomplishment.  (Maybe that's because I used to garden in New England and now I'm doing it in LA...maybe?)

5. My coteacher and I posted a new Donors Choose project - it is very similar to one that I posted in conjunction with a different coteacher earlier in the year, but I'm still excited.  It's a listening center for my other kindergarten classroom and now that I wrote it up, I cannot wait to get these new books and all of the technology to back it up.  I'll link it up after it gets approved in case you're interested in donating :)

Have a great last week of April!!!!

Adie

Listening Center and Some Thank You Notes!

Who doesn’t love Donors Choose?  My coteachers and I have enjoyed many wonderful classroom resources funded by the generosity of Donors Choose donors.  We have a very active parent community, but not everyone can donate lots of money so this website is a great way for us to rally together a lot of parents who can only donate a small amount of money and together they can fund the project.  We’ve also gotten lots of money from generous donors we don’t know whose care for my students is so appreciated and I wish they could see how much the kids LOVE what they have given us.

Most recently, my coteacher and I had a Donors Choose gift card burning a hole in our pockets so we posted a listening center project with a iPod, listening library, headphone splitter, and classroom set of headphones.  We had a few donors who we appreciate, but one extremely generous donor paid for more than half of the project and so my dear little kindergarteners were writing her thank you notes to show their appreciation.

You can see that even this task was differentiated (because we don’t really have any assignments that aren’t differentiated!).  Some notes had pre-written sentence starters to reduce writing demands and some were blank to offer more creativity in the students’ responses. We also provided a variety of art materials (stickers, dot markers, crayons, etc.) so that students could all create a beautiful card even if they don't feel strong in their drawing abilities.

Among all of the many state and common core standards, in the middle of our reading curriculum and math curriculum, between preparing for the carnival and preparing for student led conferences - it was so wonderful to take some time out to teach the kids to be grateful when other people do wonderful things for us.  The kids couldn't believe that this woman named "Deborah" would care so much about them as to buy all of these great supplies.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Adie