Elementary School Grants 2017-2018
Deborah Rosenman Barnard Elementary Classroom Mini-economy
The classroom mini-economy in the fourth grade at Barnard Elementary will encourage students to learn important economic concepts while living the real-life experiences of a mini-economy. Students will fill out job applications to get hired for classroom jobs. They will earn daily pay which is paid out every two weeks by a paycheck that is endorsed and taken to the classroom bank. At the same time, there will be opportunities for earning bonus bucks for responsible behavior and positive actions. The I.O.U Collector also will collect fines which are given out as natural consequences for such things as not following classroom rules or incomplete assignments. Student motivation will increase as they see that earning money provides more buying power at the store. When the class store opens every two weeks on bank day students will choose among a wide variety of items which include: school supplies, toys, stuffed animals, books, holiday and gift items, etc. That is when the economic concepts of scarcity, surplus, opportunity cost will be learned while economic decisions are made.
Sarah Redden Bemis Elementary Gym Timer
By getting a timer students will be able to see how much longer they have to jog or play in a game, help them know how to better pace themselves and help them keep going because they can think to them self that they can finish in the time remaining. All the Bemis students jog in the gym on a regular basis. Sometimes it is only a few minutes but it goes up to 20 minutes. In March, the students participate in something called the Shamrock Shuffle which is a fun way to do the 20 minute jog. A timer will be used for other things throughout the year like timing how long we play a game or when students should switch what they are doing.
Heidi Apol Bemis Elementary Be Flexible with Offi Tiki Stools
A bright and colorful addition of Offi Tiki stools will allow students to interact in many different ways in the media center. The library media center should be as flexible as possible in order to meet student needs. In addition, the library media center should be a comfortable place for students and staff. The Offi Tiki Stools are colorful, lightweight and multipurpose. They will be used by students when they are browsing the shelves for books. Small groups of students will use a stool as a worktable in a corner of the media center. Stools will be gathered together in the story pit and used by a group of students for a book discussion.
Angelika Gladage Bemis Elementary Learn About the World Books
By providing our kindergarten readers with higher leveled non-fiction books within a guided reading group, we will provide our students with new and better tools to explore the non-fiction world-or as Lucy Calkins refers to them as the Learning About The World books. The district has done an outstanding job of choosing the Lucy Calkins reading curriculum. As a result, our students are reading higher than ever. Students are more engaged and connected to the lessons. The higher our students are reading, the less quality high-leveled books we have. Also, Bemis has a large ELL population. These students are able to read at higher levels, however, their vocabulary and understanding of nonfiction text are areas that need to be addressed. These are areas that can be targeted before the 3rd grade MSTEP and inadvertently increase science scores. This can be done through quality leveled nonfiction readers, particularly levels E, F & G.
Amy Bauman Bemis Elementary Dynamic Lighting
Dynamic lighting will improved students’ mood, focus, motivation, concentration, and reading performance. Research found light quality varies substantially in a classroom leading to questions of which artificial light characteristics facilitate maximum learning. Some of the lighting will mimic natural lighting or a different color but all are specific for specific task. Different learning situations will need different lighting. Many adults and children suffer from headaches and migraines because of fluorescent lighting. The lighting covers, light strings, and lamps will offer different light choices for the different learning opportunities. Finally, the lighting choices will allow students to improve their learning while feeling comfortable in the classroom.
Jennifer LaTarte Bemis Elementary Super Readers
Bemis kindergarten students will have an ample supply of leveled books for students that are reading at levels E,F, and G of the Lucy Calkins Writing Curriculum. Troy School District Elementary teachers have been immersed in the Lucy Calkins Reading Curriculum for a few years now and are beginning to explore the Reading Workshop component now. After 3 years of using the Lucy Calkins Reading Units of Study, more students are reading at higher level earlier. There are not enough books to support the faster pace of literacy acquisition. Lucy Calkins suggests that each child has 8-10 books at their level in their book box for independent reading time as well as small group instruction. These books should be swapped out regularly. The literacy library is incomplete so funds will be used to acquire additional reading materials.
Katie Hosbach Bemis Elementary Inspiration Nook
The ”Inspiration Nook” will provide students with access to visual examples and information to use as inspiration for their art projects. Inspiration can come from many different experiences when students are actualizing ideas for their artwork. Quite often, students are inspired by subjects they are learning about in their classrooms. “Inspiration Nook” will be a non-fiction library in a designated space of the art room with books that have pictures and information of curricular units so students can have a source of inspiration or use them as reference for more accurate details as they are working. These materials will create stronger cross curricular connections by extending and deepen their learning and thinking to the units that are exploring in their classrooms.
Eric Dennis Bemis Elementary Launching Robotic and STEM Program
Student interest in robotics will be raised at Bemis Elementary. All students will understand the objectives of STEM, make connections to their lives, improve speaking and presenting in front of a group, improve problem solving ability, improve coding abilities, and improve ability to work in teams to accomplish a common goal. The program is run collaboratively with parent, teacher and administration leadership. One meeting a week, a rotation of parents work with the students to guide them in building the robots, programming, and problem solving through clear objectives provided by the VEX robotics program. The second meeting a week after school, as the teacher leader , who will provide an inquiry based STEM program. In a rotation, students will have the opportunity to be team leader. As team leader, the student assumes a leadership opportunity to guide students in the learning objectives. At the end of each session, the team leader presents the progress and reflection to the entire group including parents. The intention is to grow the program providing opportunities to all students interested in the upcoming years. The materials requested will be stored at the school for future use by teams.
Jennifer Erff Costello Elementary Links
Cardinal Links will create a successful learning environment for their peers who all have different backgrounds and circumstances (for example, autism, ADHD, ADD, FASD, learning disabled, and general education students). Cardinal Links are hardworking volunteers who are dedicated to creating a difference at Costello Elementary by using high-level critical thinking and problem solving skills that they have developed through working within a peer support program. Students with disabilities learn age appropriate behaviors through observing peer models, they practice skills in natural contexts, and have more consistent access to the general education curriculum. This year alone we will reach over 50 students with the Links program.
Wendy Gustin Costello Elementary Learning to Code with Dash and Dot Robots
We will purchase a Dash and Dot Robotics Classroom Kit for use by all students at Costello Elementary. Dash and Dot are small robots that help kids learn about simple code language and deductive reasoning. Students may also use customized block-based programming through coding apps using Blockly, which is based on Google’s Blockly visual programming editor. Dash and Dot also have free apps that may be downloaded to student iPads for additional programming challenges. Dash and Dot robots teach code writing in a different way. There are many apps out there that teach code writing, but Dash and Dot robots are tactile and some children need this three-dimensional approach. When students can see the application of the code, apply the code to these robots and see how it works, coding can make much more sense. This kit would be used in the library media center, but would also be available for checkout by teachers to use in their own classroom.
Tonia Romanchek Hamilton Elementary Celebrating Diversity Welcome Center
By having a multicultural “Welcome Center”, all of our 534 students will have the opportunity to learn about various cultures and about respecting and appreciating those who are different from themselves. We have many students who come to us from around the world. Although Hamilton is already a very accepting and welcoming place, will build on that feeling by creating a “Welcome Center” in our front lobby that will have the words hello and goodbye in various languages that represent our families' heritage. We will also include other quotes on our walls that would encourage the growth mindset as soon as you walk into our building. Another aspect of our Celebrating Diversity proposal will be creating a rock garden where every family at Hamilton would be asked to paint a rock and add it to our garden in the designated area in front of our school.
Kyle Rogers Hamilton Elementary Coding with Pop Culture
A series of coding manipulatives and lessons to will bring coding into our classrooms. Several fabulous new products have recently hit the market that aim to bring coding skills to younger children. One of these new products is the Lego Boost. This new set allows students to develop multiple Lego sets that they can then code using digital software. Lego also has built in challenges that they are constantly updating. Another manufacturer that produces coding systems is Sphero. One great thing about Sphero is that their Droids are pop culture driven. Students can code and solve many challenges using characters from their favorite Star Wars and Pixar films. Sphero also has an application that is constantly adding new grade level appropriate challenges with varying skill levels. Sphero also has a Coding Thursday Challenge that updates weekly where students can compete against one another.
Suzanne Miller Hamilton Elementary Coding with Pop Culture
A series of coding manipulatives and lessons to will bring coding into our classrooms. Several fabulous new products have recently hit the market that aim to bring coding skills to younger children. One of these new products is the Lego Boost. This new set allows students to develop multiple Lego sets that they can then code using digital software. Lego also has built in challenges that they are constantly updating. Another manufacturer that produces coding systems is Sphero. One great thing about Sphero is that their Droids are pop culture driven. Students can code and solve many challenges using characters from their favorite Star Wars and Pixar films. Sphero also has an application that is constantly adding new grade level appropriate challenges with varying skill levels. Sphero also has a Coding Thursday Challenge that updates weekly where students can compete against one another.
Suzanne Siegel Hamilton Elementary Science Guided Reading Books for Elem Readers
Funds for this project will purchase cutting edge science reading materials that present difficult science concepts in a fun and engaging way that will appeal to ALL learners. These award winning books are based on the delivery of the scientific information. In one series of books, for example, each vignette uses a monster and cool comic book style illustrations to show the how's and why's of science. The books have accessible text, photo diagrams, and high-impact images, all readers, including reluctant, will blaze through these books from cover to cover in no time flat.
Sarah Kijek Hill Elementary “Pop up Pods”
The project goal is to empower students to create meaningful reflections of their learning. Differentiating instruction is extremely valuable for each and every child in the classroom and the “Pop Up Pods” give us that opportunity. The “Pop Up Pods” can act as a “recording studio” for our students to reduce background noise and eliminate distractions of others performing their tasks. The lime green pod could also act as a green screen. The pods collapse into small packages that can be easily stored in classrooms or kept in the storage room for whole building access. The majority of our classrooms use SeeSaw or Schoology. These are open to parents so they can have a “peek” into our everyday projects in the classroom. The “Pop Up Pods” will enhance that experience by allowing our students to record original videos set in the setting of their stories, express themselves in recordings without background noise and provide a clean environment for them to work in. The pods can also be used for the video announcements that are created by the school broadcast team.
Heidi Apol Hill Elementary Media Center Makerspace
Hill School students will have the opportunity to focus on creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration through the use of a makerspace. Our maker space will be located in the media center where students can learn and use new technologies as well as play with regular household items to create new things. By having the maker space in the media center, students will be collaborating across grade levels on a wide variety of projects. Grant funds will be split between the purchase of ozobots and materials for creating.
Pam Mulligan Hill Elementary Connecting with Characters
Third grade students will develop a love of reading by providing books they connect to. They will have the opportunity to choose between print and digital texts students will have the opportunity to connect with a character across several texts within the Lucy Calkins reading units of study. By offering both traditional and digital book choices, learning will be individualized towards student needs. Ebooks will give students the opportunity to highlight and write notes, as well as provide a built in dictionary within the text. These features will help to build student comprehension and vocabulary. This will give students a rich classroom library filled with interesting books, and empower them to make choices about what they read.
Melody Hartley Hill Elementary Digital Lending Library
Hill students will have the use of a digital listening library that will help bring literature to life for the students and help them gain a lifelong love of reading. We will convert all of the old cassettes to the MP3 format so that we can continue to use the cherished classics texts that have been helping children learn to read for years. With the use of MP3 Players and actual books, the students could follow along tracking the print as the stories are read to them. This will increase their exposure to print helping to build their knowledge of high frequency words, build up their vocabulary, and help them read texts that would normally be too difficult for them to read on their own. Of course throughout the day, we read with our students in large groups, small groups, and sometimes even one on one.
Kaitlyn Palma Leonard Elementary Breakout Leonard
Breakout EDU will provide all Leonard Elementary School staff with tools to promote critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and communication among students and staff. Breakout EDU cultivates these skills with a series of games where players solve curriculum based puzzles in order to open a locked box. With every unsuccessful attempt to open a lock the students work together to problem solve and try again. According to Ron Rich in Creating Culture of Thinking (2015), he states a quality education is "a rich portrait of the student as an engaged and active thinker able to communicate, innovate, collaborate, and problem-solve". Using Breakout EDU we will create rich, engaging, opportunities for all students to develop these critical skills. These kits can be used year after year.
Nadeen M Brown Leonard Elementary Lighting Environment
The project funds will be used to enhance most of the lighting in my first grade classroom from the regular fluorescent lighting to a calmer effect with the fluorescent light covers. In Creating Cultures by Ron Ritchart, he discusses the importance of having an environmentally rich classroom. Research indicates that fluorescent lights can increase headaches in children and have an impact with children with autism. I have a student who is in my classroom who has autism and several students who have been diagnosis with ADHD. I am certain these light panels will help students be successful in their academic achievement.
Lauri Bussel Martel Elementary Time Management and Assessment
The PE timer clocks will be replaced with digital clocks. The clocks which are used daily for 1,300+ students to manage our lesson time, student assessments and time Physical activities and games. To use the bold and large digital clocks to effectively assess students, manage lesson time and use for games and activities which will be viewable for students. Four out of five of our fitness tests are timed tests. Students are highly motivated when they can see the timer during their test!
Jennifer Bell Morse Elementary Manipulatives Help Us Learn and Grow
Students receiving Special Education support through our resource room program need opportunities to learn and practice in a variety of different ways. The literacy and math manipulatives will target the academic needs of our students with special needs. I plan to share the manipulatives with classroom teachers so that they may use them to support students within their classrooms. Morse Elementary is a Title I School with nearly 500 students in grades pre-K through five. Demographically the students at Morse are some of the most diverse in the district with 60% speaking a language other than English. It is especially important to support this population with manipulatives so that students have ways to access the curriculum beyond language-based methods.
Lauren Cooper Morse Elementary Capturing Moments
A Canon Rebel T6i will be used to captures images of the real moments in our everyday life to teach and encourage communication with outstanding clarity and tonal range. The camera will be used to communicate with our community, teach non-verbal and non-English speaking learners, use technology in a new way and express their learning in exciting ways. Students will be able to take a leadership role in an around our classroom by using the camera as well as the teacher
Mark Sackett Morse Elementary Morse Summer Nights
During the summer of 2018 the Morse community will continue “school” one night a week all summer long. This innovative program draws crowds of over one hundred children and their families each Wednesday night. The “Morse Summer Nights” program goals will provide access to a free lending library of high interest books for students at all reading levels, provide food (both perishable and non perishable) to our students and their families and provide FREE family fun that educates and empowers both our students and their families. During the summer of 2016 our community activities included healthy cooking nights, a kids only garage sale, a community sit down dinner, a movie night and water fun nights, to name a few.
Grace Lynch Morse Elementary Expanding Vocabulary, Executive Functioning
Speech-Language students learning and performance in oral and written language will increase through the use of the Expanding Expressions Tool (EET). The Expanding Expressions Tool (EET) is a multi-sensory tool that benefits students whose performance is negatively impacted by vocabulary weaknesses. An analog clock designed by an expert of executive functioning would be used to teach students about the passage of time. This encourages students to manage their time and engage in goal directed behavior. Lastly, materials from the Social Thinking curriculum would be utilized by the speech-language pathologist and social worker to provide social skills intervention to students.
Allison Greene Morse Elementary Morse Community Garden
The project will focus on making the Morse Community Garden sustainable. Morse School staff and students have created an edible outdoor garden and classroom. This garden provides learning opportunities for our students and our community, as well as provide them with fresh fruits and vegetables As one of the larger schools in the Troy School District, Morse has nearly 500 students in grades Pre-K through five. Demographically the students at Morse are some of the most diverse in the district with 60% speaking a language other than English at home and nearly 40% living at or below the federal poverty level. As a result of our school's demographics, our families are benefiting from this project.
Alexandria Oleksienko Morse Elementary Interactive Inquiry Science
Through the use of Mystery Science, students participate in hands-on inquiry science experiments that allow them to experience first hand science concepts. The program helps teachers supplement the curriculum by offering projects, experiments, activities, and videos that add to our current curriculum. Mystery Science reaches every grade level in the building, offering several different disciplines in science at each grade level. The grant money will help us to supply a closet of items such as dixie cups, play sand, food coloring, vinegar, school glue, straws, toothpicks, etc...
Karen Bush Schroeder Elementary The “Keys” To Activate Learning
Using the Breakout EDU game students will work in groups to use teamwork and critical thinking to solve a series of challenging puzzles in order to break into a lock box that holds a hidden surprise in the end. Each lock box has six locks attached to it. As students work together to solve the clues one at a time they figure out the code or find the key to unlock one of the locks. Once all six codes have been cracked and they break into the box, a fun surprise awaits all their hard work, We will use a series of teacher created challenging puzzles that are connected to the curriculum. These kits can be used over and over again in all grades at every level They transfer the ownership of learning from the teacher to the student, making it easy to observe how learners approach problem solving and apply their knowledge. In addition to the content knowledge needed to succeed in a specific game, they require critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and communication. Every unsuccessful attempt to open a lock forces the students to try again.
Dana Calvrid Schroeder Elementary Flexible Spaces
Through creating a developed learning space students will be encouraged to learn where they learn best and to have the opportunity for constant collaboration. By purchasing Hokki stools, jellyfish seating, and bouncy bands students will have flexible seating options that will stimulate their sense of touch and be helpful for students with ADHD, ADD, and ASD. Students are continually working around the room, in our LGI, or throughout the school. Having flexible seating options for within the classroom will facilitate this activity.
Dana Calvrid Schroeder Elementary Outdoor Classroom
There are endless proven benefits from having students learn and work in an outdoor learning environment. Research has shown that students have better health, decreased stress levels, increased motivation, better attitudes towards all learning and it enhances communication skills! Using grant funds this project will create an outdoor classroom. This would be a place where all students would have the opportunity to learn from their teacher and peers in an atmosphere outside of the four cement walls. An outdoor classroom would allow students to have a concern for the natural environment around them and would give students the opportunity to apply new knowledge and skills that were once acquired in the classroom to real-life situations that would be beyond the classroom walls.
Jason Cichowicz Schroeder Elementary Heart Dissection
Boulan Park Middle School students will lead the Schroeder fifth graders in a dissection of an actual veal heart in January 2018. There will be roughly twenty-four groups of students. Each group will have their own heart. The groups will be comprised of about five or six elementary students and multiple sixth grade leaders. Using a set of directions to guide the exploration, the students will be asked to discover the various components of the veal heart through the dissection. Comparisons will be made between the veal heart being dissected and a human heart. Using this comparison, the students will be able to relate this understanding to how the human heart works in the body. The sixth graders will be in charge of leading the groups through the discovery process and assisting with the dissection. A variety of Visible Thinking routines will be used throughout this activity to push student thinking and to keep a record of the learning taking place. In addition, students will take pictures on their iPads of the various stages of the dissection. These pictures will be used to assist students in creating a culminating photo diary of the dissection. These diaries will be shared at home with their families. Finally, if possible, we plan to either have a cardiologist speak with the students about the heart and circulatory system after the dissection.
Lindsay Keegan Schroeder Elementary Think Outside-No Box Required
The project will create an outdoor learning environment for students. This will be a student-led project that emerges from our science unit on Environments. We will begin by studying the environments of the world, but then focus on our school environment as well. Through this journey, students will be asked to reflect on the learning spaces that we have in our school. This will be an area where students from any grade level in the school can learn and collaborate for years to come!
Lindsay Keegan Schroeder Elementary Historical Fiction Book Club
This year the TSD has adopted a new reading curriculum that has a unit entitled Historical Fiction Book Clubs. Funds will be used to buy historical fiction books so that students can grow as readers. During this unit, students will benefit from being in a book club with their peers by talking and analyzing texts together. They will analyze characters and themes within their book club, improving their comprehension.
Wendy Gustin Schroeder Elementary Learn to Code with Dash and Dot Robots
We will purchase a Dash and Dot Robotics Classroom Kit for use by all students at Costello Elementary. Dash and Dot are small robots that help kids learn about simple code language and deductive reasoning. Students may also use customized block-based programming through coding apps using Blockly, which is based on Google’s Blockly visual programming editor. Dash and Dot also have free apps that may be downloaded to student iPads for additional programming challenges. Dash and Dot robots teach code writing in a different way. There are many apps out there that teach code writing, but Dash and Dot robots are tactile and some children need this three-dimensional approach. When students can see the application of the code, apply the code to these robots and see how it works, coding an make much more sense. This kit would be used in the library media center, but would also be available for checkout by teachers to use in their own classroom.
Karen Bush Schroeder Elementary Third Grade Entrepreneurs Pave the Way to 21st Century
Third grade students will engage in a project based learning experience in which they can apply what they have learned about the history of settlement in the United States to their lives today in a meaningful way. By building moving assembly lines with legos students will be able to step inside Henry Ford's shoes to experience the struggles of creating something new as they problem solve to improve the design through trial and error. While most kids have had the opportunity to build with legos, many students haven't had the opportunity to add robotics to their legos to make them move. This learning curve will push and challenge their thinking. Later in the project students will think like an entrepreneur and design a product that our class could make and sell. Next they will also contribute to the greater good in society by using the profits of what we make on our assembly lines toward the World's Largest Lesson Global Outreach program. They will learn to think beyond the walls of our school and our community and know that they can make a difference in this world.
Jaime Lindstrom Schroeder Elementary Student Selected Seating in the Classroom
The Student Selected Seating Project will provide seating options for all students in my class. My main objective is for every child to be able to choose a learning spot, from many options, that is successful for their learning. All students are different, and allowing options will promote engagement in learning, comfort and more focus. I currently have several special education students, as well as multiple children with ADHD. These flexible options, such as yoga balls and wiggle stools, will aid these students in being comfortable and stimulate brain function.
Heidi Palag Troy Union Elementary Troy Union Eagle Readers
Troy Union will send home summer reading bags with at least 20 books to our struggling readers K-2. Our "Eagle Readers" will select books of interest at the end of the school year, will read these books with their families over vacation, and will return the bag of books in the fall. The bags and books will be used again for summers to come. We will encourage and motivate our students and their families to read for fun over the summer. This will help students maintain reading skills while on summer vacation.
Veronica Recker Troy Union Elementary Troy Union Eagle Readers
Troy Union will send home summer reading bags with at least 20 books to our struggling readers K-2. Our "Eagle Readers" will select books of interest at the end of the school year, will read these books with their families over vacation, and will return the bag of books in the fall. The bags and books will be used again for summers to come. We will encourage and motivate our students and their families to read for fun over the summer. This will help students maintain reading skills while on summer vacation.
Lauren Fragomeni Wass Elementary Catch The Box, Share The Voice
Catch The Box, Share Your Voice is a game changer for amplifying student thinking. The Catchbox is a throwable microphone that can be “thrown” or passed from student to student. This brightly colored foam cube is a highly innovative technology tool that allows students to share their thinking quickly from student to student in a fun and informal way. This decreases student anxiety by allowing students to toss the microphone instead of presenting their thinking at the front of the classroom. This innovative tool will also allow students to take ownership of passing the Catchbox to the next student, instead of being teacher led. Lastly, this tool will significantly affect transition and will allow teachers to maximize their instructional time without the difficulties of passing a microphone to each student. In writing, students share their writing goals, entries, drafts, or published pieces easily with the class. The Catchbox is ready to amplify a student’s voice as soon as it is caught…no on/off switch. Catchbox will be used in Social Studies where the third grade classes pair up for instruction.
Sarah Clos Wass Elementary Creative Lab
Creative Lab will help to develop skills that students will need to be independent critical thinkers, problem solvers and innovators. It will help foster the spirit of experimentation and exploration which is the root of innovative thinking. In its third year the lab encourages students to follow their curiosities, test how materials work, experiment, and explore new ideas. Project funds will go towards art supplies for the program as well as Pictionary Games, and Marble Runner sets.
Caryn Torres Wass Elementary Math Games
These reusable resources will allow children the extra practice of learning basic math concepts, while having fun in small groups. Math games will be used to solidify the concepts taught during our daily lessons. Wass second grade parents are always eager to lead math games during the school year. These materials will provide quick and simple to follow resources for parents to use when guiding a math station (approximately once a month).
Lori Kostrzewa Wass Elementary Building Understanding with Minecraft
Using Minecraft: Education Edition in the classroom will allow all third grade teachers to provide students with engaging learning opportunities across many subject areas that would go far beyond what was previously possible using traditional teaching methods. The program would also allow creation of unique assessment opportunities that provide students with the ability to choose how they demonstrate their understanding. In addition to the numerous academic applications Minecraft: Education Edition provides, our students would gain skills in problem solving, collaboration, and communication through the use of this innovative instructional tool.
Deborah Kellett Wass Elementary Ants in Our Pants and Bats in Our Brain
Wass second graders will increase their knowledge and appreciation of the natural world by participating in a three-part project that will explore the ecosystems from the Great Lakes Region and beyond. First, students will learn to identify insects and focus on the importance of insects to other animals, plants and people as the foundation of the food chain. Second, we will learn how bats use sound waves (echolocation) to navigate in the dark and their important role in the food web in Michigan. We will also learn about bats, their habitats, and their lives. To celebrate the end of the bats unit, we will install a bat house that was one of five purchased through last year’s grant and that was signed and decorated by last year’s students. The third part of the project, is to support this hands-on learning with small sets of informational books on bats and insects to be used in literacy groups to build fluency and comprehension.
Andrea Moon Wattles Elementary African Style Conga Drums for Kids
By purchasing an additional 6 Remo Kids Percussion conga drums we will double these participants who will use the conga drums to imitate rhythms, keep a steady beat, create drumming patterns, share their ideas with classmates. They will learn to work together as a community of musicians which will cause them to use multiple levels of problem solving skills. Wattles school has a population with many non-English speakers. Drumming is a totally international activity that gives are participants equal access to success.
Angela Rota Wattles Elementary Kinesthetic Kids
Wattles students with the opportunity for more physical activity throughout the school day by expanding activities begun in 2016. By acquiring gross motor equipment for use inside the school more students will have the opportunity for more physical activity throughout the school day. This will address the problem that children are not receiving the physical activity their bodies and brains crave and need. This negatively affects children in the classroom as both sides of their brains need physical activity to coordinate and work together.
The classroom mini-economy in the fourth grade at Barnard Elementary will encourage students to learn important economic concepts while living the real-life experiences of a mini-economy. Students will fill out job applications to get hired for classroom jobs. They will earn daily pay which is paid out every two weeks by a paycheck that is endorsed and taken to the classroom bank. At the same time, there will be opportunities for earning bonus bucks for responsible behavior and positive actions. The I.O.U Collector also will collect fines which are given out as natural consequences for such things as not following classroom rules or incomplete assignments. Student motivation will increase as they see that earning money provides more buying power at the store. When the class store opens every two weeks on bank day students will choose among a wide variety of items which include: school supplies, toys, stuffed animals, books, holiday and gift items, etc. That is when the economic concepts of scarcity, surplus, opportunity cost will be learned while economic decisions are made.
Sarah Redden Bemis Elementary Gym Timer
By getting a timer students will be able to see how much longer they have to jog or play in a game, help them know how to better pace themselves and help them keep going because they can think to them self that they can finish in the time remaining. All the Bemis students jog in the gym on a regular basis. Sometimes it is only a few minutes but it goes up to 20 minutes. In March, the students participate in something called the Shamrock Shuffle which is a fun way to do the 20 minute jog. A timer will be used for other things throughout the year like timing how long we play a game or when students should switch what they are doing.
Heidi Apol Bemis Elementary Be Flexible with Offi Tiki Stools
A bright and colorful addition of Offi Tiki stools will allow students to interact in many different ways in the media center. The library media center should be as flexible as possible in order to meet student needs. In addition, the library media center should be a comfortable place for students and staff. The Offi Tiki Stools are colorful, lightweight and multipurpose. They will be used by students when they are browsing the shelves for books. Small groups of students will use a stool as a worktable in a corner of the media center. Stools will be gathered together in the story pit and used by a group of students for a book discussion.
Angelika Gladage Bemis Elementary Learn About the World Books
By providing our kindergarten readers with higher leveled non-fiction books within a guided reading group, we will provide our students with new and better tools to explore the non-fiction world-or as Lucy Calkins refers to them as the Learning About The World books. The district has done an outstanding job of choosing the Lucy Calkins reading curriculum. As a result, our students are reading higher than ever. Students are more engaged and connected to the lessons. The higher our students are reading, the less quality high-leveled books we have. Also, Bemis has a large ELL population. These students are able to read at higher levels, however, their vocabulary and understanding of nonfiction text are areas that need to be addressed. These are areas that can be targeted before the 3rd grade MSTEP and inadvertently increase science scores. This can be done through quality leveled nonfiction readers, particularly levels E, F & G.
Amy Bauman Bemis Elementary Dynamic Lighting
Dynamic lighting will improved students’ mood, focus, motivation, concentration, and reading performance. Research found light quality varies substantially in a classroom leading to questions of which artificial light characteristics facilitate maximum learning. Some of the lighting will mimic natural lighting or a different color but all are specific for specific task. Different learning situations will need different lighting. Many adults and children suffer from headaches and migraines because of fluorescent lighting. The lighting covers, light strings, and lamps will offer different light choices for the different learning opportunities. Finally, the lighting choices will allow students to improve their learning while feeling comfortable in the classroom.
Jennifer LaTarte Bemis Elementary Super Readers
Bemis kindergarten students will have an ample supply of leveled books for students that are reading at levels E,F, and G of the Lucy Calkins Writing Curriculum. Troy School District Elementary teachers have been immersed in the Lucy Calkins Reading Curriculum for a few years now and are beginning to explore the Reading Workshop component now. After 3 years of using the Lucy Calkins Reading Units of Study, more students are reading at higher level earlier. There are not enough books to support the faster pace of literacy acquisition. Lucy Calkins suggests that each child has 8-10 books at their level in their book box for independent reading time as well as small group instruction. These books should be swapped out regularly. The literacy library is incomplete so funds will be used to acquire additional reading materials.
Katie Hosbach Bemis Elementary Inspiration Nook
The ”Inspiration Nook” will provide students with access to visual examples and information to use as inspiration for their art projects. Inspiration can come from many different experiences when students are actualizing ideas for their artwork. Quite often, students are inspired by subjects they are learning about in their classrooms. “Inspiration Nook” will be a non-fiction library in a designated space of the art room with books that have pictures and information of curricular units so students can have a source of inspiration or use them as reference for more accurate details as they are working. These materials will create stronger cross curricular connections by extending and deepen their learning and thinking to the units that are exploring in their classrooms.
Eric Dennis Bemis Elementary Launching Robotic and STEM Program
Student interest in robotics will be raised at Bemis Elementary. All students will understand the objectives of STEM, make connections to their lives, improve speaking and presenting in front of a group, improve problem solving ability, improve coding abilities, and improve ability to work in teams to accomplish a common goal. The program is run collaboratively with parent, teacher and administration leadership. One meeting a week, a rotation of parents work with the students to guide them in building the robots, programming, and problem solving through clear objectives provided by the VEX robotics program. The second meeting a week after school, as the teacher leader , who will provide an inquiry based STEM program. In a rotation, students will have the opportunity to be team leader. As team leader, the student assumes a leadership opportunity to guide students in the learning objectives. At the end of each session, the team leader presents the progress and reflection to the entire group including parents. The intention is to grow the program providing opportunities to all students interested in the upcoming years. The materials requested will be stored at the school for future use by teams.
Jennifer Erff Costello Elementary Links
Cardinal Links will create a successful learning environment for their peers who all have different backgrounds and circumstances (for example, autism, ADHD, ADD, FASD, learning disabled, and general education students). Cardinal Links are hardworking volunteers who are dedicated to creating a difference at Costello Elementary by using high-level critical thinking and problem solving skills that they have developed through working within a peer support program. Students with disabilities learn age appropriate behaviors through observing peer models, they practice skills in natural contexts, and have more consistent access to the general education curriculum. This year alone we will reach over 50 students with the Links program.
Wendy Gustin Costello Elementary Learning to Code with Dash and Dot Robots
We will purchase a Dash and Dot Robotics Classroom Kit for use by all students at Costello Elementary. Dash and Dot are small robots that help kids learn about simple code language and deductive reasoning. Students may also use customized block-based programming through coding apps using Blockly, which is based on Google’s Blockly visual programming editor. Dash and Dot also have free apps that may be downloaded to student iPads for additional programming challenges. Dash and Dot robots teach code writing in a different way. There are many apps out there that teach code writing, but Dash and Dot robots are tactile and some children need this three-dimensional approach. When students can see the application of the code, apply the code to these robots and see how it works, coding can make much more sense. This kit would be used in the library media center, but would also be available for checkout by teachers to use in their own classroom.
Tonia Romanchek Hamilton Elementary Celebrating Diversity Welcome Center
By having a multicultural “Welcome Center”, all of our 534 students will have the opportunity to learn about various cultures and about respecting and appreciating those who are different from themselves. We have many students who come to us from around the world. Although Hamilton is already a very accepting and welcoming place, will build on that feeling by creating a “Welcome Center” in our front lobby that will have the words hello and goodbye in various languages that represent our families' heritage. We will also include other quotes on our walls that would encourage the growth mindset as soon as you walk into our building. Another aspect of our Celebrating Diversity proposal will be creating a rock garden where every family at Hamilton would be asked to paint a rock and add it to our garden in the designated area in front of our school.
Kyle Rogers Hamilton Elementary Coding with Pop Culture
A series of coding manipulatives and lessons to will bring coding into our classrooms. Several fabulous new products have recently hit the market that aim to bring coding skills to younger children. One of these new products is the Lego Boost. This new set allows students to develop multiple Lego sets that they can then code using digital software. Lego also has built in challenges that they are constantly updating. Another manufacturer that produces coding systems is Sphero. One great thing about Sphero is that their Droids are pop culture driven. Students can code and solve many challenges using characters from their favorite Star Wars and Pixar films. Sphero also has an application that is constantly adding new grade level appropriate challenges with varying skill levels. Sphero also has a Coding Thursday Challenge that updates weekly where students can compete against one another.
Suzanne Miller Hamilton Elementary Coding with Pop Culture
A series of coding manipulatives and lessons to will bring coding into our classrooms. Several fabulous new products have recently hit the market that aim to bring coding skills to younger children. One of these new products is the Lego Boost. This new set allows students to develop multiple Lego sets that they can then code using digital software. Lego also has built in challenges that they are constantly updating. Another manufacturer that produces coding systems is Sphero. One great thing about Sphero is that their Droids are pop culture driven. Students can code and solve many challenges using characters from their favorite Star Wars and Pixar films. Sphero also has an application that is constantly adding new grade level appropriate challenges with varying skill levels. Sphero also has a Coding Thursday Challenge that updates weekly where students can compete against one another.
Suzanne Siegel Hamilton Elementary Science Guided Reading Books for Elem Readers
Funds for this project will purchase cutting edge science reading materials that present difficult science concepts in a fun and engaging way that will appeal to ALL learners. These award winning books are based on the delivery of the scientific information. In one series of books, for example, each vignette uses a monster and cool comic book style illustrations to show the how's and why's of science. The books have accessible text, photo diagrams, and high-impact images, all readers, including reluctant, will blaze through these books from cover to cover in no time flat.
Sarah Kijek Hill Elementary “Pop up Pods”
The project goal is to empower students to create meaningful reflections of their learning. Differentiating instruction is extremely valuable for each and every child in the classroom and the “Pop Up Pods” give us that opportunity. The “Pop Up Pods” can act as a “recording studio” for our students to reduce background noise and eliminate distractions of others performing their tasks. The lime green pod could also act as a green screen. The pods collapse into small packages that can be easily stored in classrooms or kept in the storage room for whole building access. The majority of our classrooms use SeeSaw or Schoology. These are open to parents so they can have a “peek” into our everyday projects in the classroom. The “Pop Up Pods” will enhance that experience by allowing our students to record original videos set in the setting of their stories, express themselves in recordings without background noise and provide a clean environment for them to work in. The pods can also be used for the video announcements that are created by the school broadcast team.
Heidi Apol Hill Elementary Media Center Makerspace
Hill School students will have the opportunity to focus on creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration through the use of a makerspace. Our maker space will be located in the media center where students can learn and use new technologies as well as play with regular household items to create new things. By having the maker space in the media center, students will be collaborating across grade levels on a wide variety of projects. Grant funds will be split between the purchase of ozobots and materials for creating.
Pam Mulligan Hill Elementary Connecting with Characters
Third grade students will develop a love of reading by providing books they connect to. They will have the opportunity to choose between print and digital texts students will have the opportunity to connect with a character across several texts within the Lucy Calkins reading units of study. By offering both traditional and digital book choices, learning will be individualized towards student needs. Ebooks will give students the opportunity to highlight and write notes, as well as provide a built in dictionary within the text. These features will help to build student comprehension and vocabulary. This will give students a rich classroom library filled with interesting books, and empower them to make choices about what they read.
Melody Hartley Hill Elementary Digital Lending Library
Hill students will have the use of a digital listening library that will help bring literature to life for the students and help them gain a lifelong love of reading. We will convert all of the old cassettes to the MP3 format so that we can continue to use the cherished classics texts that have been helping children learn to read for years. With the use of MP3 Players and actual books, the students could follow along tracking the print as the stories are read to them. This will increase their exposure to print helping to build their knowledge of high frequency words, build up their vocabulary, and help them read texts that would normally be too difficult for them to read on their own. Of course throughout the day, we read with our students in large groups, small groups, and sometimes even one on one.
Kaitlyn Palma Leonard Elementary Breakout Leonard
Breakout EDU will provide all Leonard Elementary School staff with tools to promote critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and communication among students and staff. Breakout EDU cultivates these skills with a series of games where players solve curriculum based puzzles in order to open a locked box. With every unsuccessful attempt to open a lock the students work together to problem solve and try again. According to Ron Rich in Creating Culture of Thinking (2015), he states a quality education is "a rich portrait of the student as an engaged and active thinker able to communicate, innovate, collaborate, and problem-solve". Using Breakout EDU we will create rich, engaging, opportunities for all students to develop these critical skills. These kits can be used year after year.
Nadeen M Brown Leonard Elementary Lighting Environment
The project funds will be used to enhance most of the lighting in my first grade classroom from the regular fluorescent lighting to a calmer effect with the fluorescent light covers. In Creating Cultures by Ron Ritchart, he discusses the importance of having an environmentally rich classroom. Research indicates that fluorescent lights can increase headaches in children and have an impact with children with autism. I have a student who is in my classroom who has autism and several students who have been diagnosis with ADHD. I am certain these light panels will help students be successful in their academic achievement.
Lauri Bussel Martel Elementary Time Management and Assessment
The PE timer clocks will be replaced with digital clocks. The clocks which are used daily for 1,300+ students to manage our lesson time, student assessments and time Physical activities and games. To use the bold and large digital clocks to effectively assess students, manage lesson time and use for games and activities which will be viewable for students. Four out of five of our fitness tests are timed tests. Students are highly motivated when they can see the timer during their test!
Jennifer Bell Morse Elementary Manipulatives Help Us Learn and Grow
Students receiving Special Education support through our resource room program need opportunities to learn and practice in a variety of different ways. The literacy and math manipulatives will target the academic needs of our students with special needs. I plan to share the manipulatives with classroom teachers so that they may use them to support students within their classrooms. Morse Elementary is a Title I School with nearly 500 students in grades pre-K through five. Demographically the students at Morse are some of the most diverse in the district with 60% speaking a language other than English. It is especially important to support this population with manipulatives so that students have ways to access the curriculum beyond language-based methods.
Lauren Cooper Morse Elementary Capturing Moments
A Canon Rebel T6i will be used to captures images of the real moments in our everyday life to teach and encourage communication with outstanding clarity and tonal range. The camera will be used to communicate with our community, teach non-verbal and non-English speaking learners, use technology in a new way and express their learning in exciting ways. Students will be able to take a leadership role in an around our classroom by using the camera as well as the teacher
Mark Sackett Morse Elementary Morse Summer Nights
During the summer of 2018 the Morse community will continue “school” one night a week all summer long. This innovative program draws crowds of over one hundred children and their families each Wednesday night. The “Morse Summer Nights” program goals will provide access to a free lending library of high interest books for students at all reading levels, provide food (both perishable and non perishable) to our students and their families and provide FREE family fun that educates and empowers both our students and their families. During the summer of 2016 our community activities included healthy cooking nights, a kids only garage sale, a community sit down dinner, a movie night and water fun nights, to name a few.
Grace Lynch Morse Elementary Expanding Vocabulary, Executive Functioning
Speech-Language students learning and performance in oral and written language will increase through the use of the Expanding Expressions Tool (EET). The Expanding Expressions Tool (EET) is a multi-sensory tool that benefits students whose performance is negatively impacted by vocabulary weaknesses. An analog clock designed by an expert of executive functioning would be used to teach students about the passage of time. This encourages students to manage their time and engage in goal directed behavior. Lastly, materials from the Social Thinking curriculum would be utilized by the speech-language pathologist and social worker to provide social skills intervention to students.
Allison Greene Morse Elementary Morse Community Garden
The project will focus on making the Morse Community Garden sustainable. Morse School staff and students have created an edible outdoor garden and classroom. This garden provides learning opportunities for our students and our community, as well as provide them with fresh fruits and vegetables As one of the larger schools in the Troy School District, Morse has nearly 500 students in grades Pre-K through five. Demographically the students at Morse are some of the most diverse in the district with 60% speaking a language other than English at home and nearly 40% living at or below the federal poverty level. As a result of our school's demographics, our families are benefiting from this project.
Alexandria Oleksienko Morse Elementary Interactive Inquiry Science
Through the use of Mystery Science, students participate in hands-on inquiry science experiments that allow them to experience first hand science concepts. The program helps teachers supplement the curriculum by offering projects, experiments, activities, and videos that add to our current curriculum. Mystery Science reaches every grade level in the building, offering several different disciplines in science at each grade level. The grant money will help us to supply a closet of items such as dixie cups, play sand, food coloring, vinegar, school glue, straws, toothpicks, etc...
Karen Bush Schroeder Elementary The “Keys” To Activate Learning
Using the Breakout EDU game students will work in groups to use teamwork and critical thinking to solve a series of challenging puzzles in order to break into a lock box that holds a hidden surprise in the end. Each lock box has six locks attached to it. As students work together to solve the clues one at a time they figure out the code or find the key to unlock one of the locks. Once all six codes have been cracked and they break into the box, a fun surprise awaits all their hard work, We will use a series of teacher created challenging puzzles that are connected to the curriculum. These kits can be used over and over again in all grades at every level They transfer the ownership of learning from the teacher to the student, making it easy to observe how learners approach problem solving and apply their knowledge. In addition to the content knowledge needed to succeed in a specific game, they require critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and communication. Every unsuccessful attempt to open a lock forces the students to try again.
Dana Calvrid Schroeder Elementary Flexible Spaces
Through creating a developed learning space students will be encouraged to learn where they learn best and to have the opportunity for constant collaboration. By purchasing Hokki stools, jellyfish seating, and bouncy bands students will have flexible seating options that will stimulate their sense of touch and be helpful for students with ADHD, ADD, and ASD. Students are continually working around the room, in our LGI, or throughout the school. Having flexible seating options for within the classroom will facilitate this activity.
Dana Calvrid Schroeder Elementary Outdoor Classroom
There are endless proven benefits from having students learn and work in an outdoor learning environment. Research has shown that students have better health, decreased stress levels, increased motivation, better attitudes towards all learning and it enhances communication skills! Using grant funds this project will create an outdoor classroom. This would be a place where all students would have the opportunity to learn from their teacher and peers in an atmosphere outside of the four cement walls. An outdoor classroom would allow students to have a concern for the natural environment around them and would give students the opportunity to apply new knowledge and skills that were once acquired in the classroom to real-life situations that would be beyond the classroom walls.
Jason Cichowicz Schroeder Elementary Heart Dissection
Boulan Park Middle School students will lead the Schroeder fifth graders in a dissection of an actual veal heart in January 2018. There will be roughly twenty-four groups of students. Each group will have their own heart. The groups will be comprised of about five or six elementary students and multiple sixth grade leaders. Using a set of directions to guide the exploration, the students will be asked to discover the various components of the veal heart through the dissection. Comparisons will be made between the veal heart being dissected and a human heart. Using this comparison, the students will be able to relate this understanding to how the human heart works in the body. The sixth graders will be in charge of leading the groups through the discovery process and assisting with the dissection. A variety of Visible Thinking routines will be used throughout this activity to push student thinking and to keep a record of the learning taking place. In addition, students will take pictures on their iPads of the various stages of the dissection. These pictures will be used to assist students in creating a culminating photo diary of the dissection. These diaries will be shared at home with their families. Finally, if possible, we plan to either have a cardiologist speak with the students about the heart and circulatory system after the dissection.
Lindsay Keegan Schroeder Elementary Think Outside-No Box Required
The project will create an outdoor learning environment for students. This will be a student-led project that emerges from our science unit on Environments. We will begin by studying the environments of the world, but then focus on our school environment as well. Through this journey, students will be asked to reflect on the learning spaces that we have in our school. This will be an area where students from any grade level in the school can learn and collaborate for years to come!
Lindsay Keegan Schroeder Elementary Historical Fiction Book Club
This year the TSD has adopted a new reading curriculum that has a unit entitled Historical Fiction Book Clubs. Funds will be used to buy historical fiction books so that students can grow as readers. During this unit, students will benefit from being in a book club with their peers by talking and analyzing texts together. They will analyze characters and themes within their book club, improving their comprehension.
Wendy Gustin Schroeder Elementary Learn to Code with Dash and Dot Robots
We will purchase a Dash and Dot Robotics Classroom Kit for use by all students at Costello Elementary. Dash and Dot are small robots that help kids learn about simple code language and deductive reasoning. Students may also use customized block-based programming through coding apps using Blockly, which is based on Google’s Blockly visual programming editor. Dash and Dot also have free apps that may be downloaded to student iPads for additional programming challenges. Dash and Dot robots teach code writing in a different way. There are many apps out there that teach code writing, but Dash and Dot robots are tactile and some children need this three-dimensional approach. When students can see the application of the code, apply the code to these robots and see how it works, coding an make much more sense. This kit would be used in the library media center, but would also be available for checkout by teachers to use in their own classroom.
Karen Bush Schroeder Elementary Third Grade Entrepreneurs Pave the Way to 21st Century
Third grade students will engage in a project based learning experience in which they can apply what they have learned about the history of settlement in the United States to their lives today in a meaningful way. By building moving assembly lines with legos students will be able to step inside Henry Ford's shoes to experience the struggles of creating something new as they problem solve to improve the design through trial and error. While most kids have had the opportunity to build with legos, many students haven't had the opportunity to add robotics to their legos to make them move. This learning curve will push and challenge their thinking. Later in the project students will think like an entrepreneur and design a product that our class could make and sell. Next they will also contribute to the greater good in society by using the profits of what we make on our assembly lines toward the World's Largest Lesson Global Outreach program. They will learn to think beyond the walls of our school and our community and know that they can make a difference in this world.
Jaime Lindstrom Schroeder Elementary Student Selected Seating in the Classroom
The Student Selected Seating Project will provide seating options for all students in my class. My main objective is for every child to be able to choose a learning spot, from many options, that is successful for their learning. All students are different, and allowing options will promote engagement in learning, comfort and more focus. I currently have several special education students, as well as multiple children with ADHD. These flexible options, such as yoga balls and wiggle stools, will aid these students in being comfortable and stimulate brain function.
Heidi Palag Troy Union Elementary Troy Union Eagle Readers
Troy Union will send home summer reading bags with at least 20 books to our struggling readers K-2. Our "Eagle Readers" will select books of interest at the end of the school year, will read these books with their families over vacation, and will return the bag of books in the fall. The bags and books will be used again for summers to come. We will encourage and motivate our students and their families to read for fun over the summer. This will help students maintain reading skills while on summer vacation.
Veronica Recker Troy Union Elementary Troy Union Eagle Readers
Troy Union will send home summer reading bags with at least 20 books to our struggling readers K-2. Our "Eagle Readers" will select books of interest at the end of the school year, will read these books with their families over vacation, and will return the bag of books in the fall. The bags and books will be used again for summers to come. We will encourage and motivate our students and their families to read for fun over the summer. This will help students maintain reading skills while on summer vacation.
Lauren Fragomeni Wass Elementary Catch The Box, Share The Voice
Catch The Box, Share Your Voice is a game changer for amplifying student thinking. The Catchbox is a throwable microphone that can be “thrown” or passed from student to student. This brightly colored foam cube is a highly innovative technology tool that allows students to share their thinking quickly from student to student in a fun and informal way. This decreases student anxiety by allowing students to toss the microphone instead of presenting their thinking at the front of the classroom. This innovative tool will also allow students to take ownership of passing the Catchbox to the next student, instead of being teacher led. Lastly, this tool will significantly affect transition and will allow teachers to maximize their instructional time without the difficulties of passing a microphone to each student. In writing, students share their writing goals, entries, drafts, or published pieces easily with the class. The Catchbox is ready to amplify a student’s voice as soon as it is caught…no on/off switch. Catchbox will be used in Social Studies where the third grade classes pair up for instruction.
Sarah Clos Wass Elementary Creative Lab
Creative Lab will help to develop skills that students will need to be independent critical thinkers, problem solvers and innovators. It will help foster the spirit of experimentation and exploration which is the root of innovative thinking. In its third year the lab encourages students to follow their curiosities, test how materials work, experiment, and explore new ideas. Project funds will go towards art supplies for the program as well as Pictionary Games, and Marble Runner sets.
Caryn Torres Wass Elementary Math Games
These reusable resources will allow children the extra practice of learning basic math concepts, while having fun in small groups. Math games will be used to solidify the concepts taught during our daily lessons. Wass second grade parents are always eager to lead math games during the school year. These materials will provide quick and simple to follow resources for parents to use when guiding a math station (approximately once a month).
Lori Kostrzewa Wass Elementary Building Understanding with Minecraft
Using Minecraft: Education Edition in the classroom will allow all third grade teachers to provide students with engaging learning opportunities across many subject areas that would go far beyond what was previously possible using traditional teaching methods. The program would also allow creation of unique assessment opportunities that provide students with the ability to choose how they demonstrate their understanding. In addition to the numerous academic applications Minecraft: Education Edition provides, our students would gain skills in problem solving, collaboration, and communication through the use of this innovative instructional tool.
Deborah Kellett Wass Elementary Ants in Our Pants and Bats in Our Brain
Wass second graders will increase their knowledge and appreciation of the natural world by participating in a three-part project that will explore the ecosystems from the Great Lakes Region and beyond. First, students will learn to identify insects and focus on the importance of insects to other animals, plants and people as the foundation of the food chain. Second, we will learn how bats use sound waves (echolocation) to navigate in the dark and their important role in the food web in Michigan. We will also learn about bats, their habitats, and their lives. To celebrate the end of the bats unit, we will install a bat house that was one of five purchased through last year’s grant and that was signed and decorated by last year’s students. The third part of the project, is to support this hands-on learning with small sets of informational books on bats and insects to be used in literacy groups to build fluency and comprehension.
Andrea Moon Wattles Elementary African Style Conga Drums for Kids
By purchasing an additional 6 Remo Kids Percussion conga drums we will double these participants who will use the conga drums to imitate rhythms, keep a steady beat, create drumming patterns, share their ideas with classmates. They will learn to work together as a community of musicians which will cause them to use multiple levels of problem solving skills. Wattles school has a population with many non-English speakers. Drumming is a totally international activity that gives are participants equal access to success.
Angela Rota Wattles Elementary Kinesthetic Kids
Wattles students with the opportunity for more physical activity throughout the school day by expanding activities begun in 2016. By acquiring gross motor equipment for use inside the school more students will have the opportunity for more physical activity throughout the school day. This will address the problem that children are not receiving the physical activity their bodies and brains crave and need. This negatively affects children in the classroom as both sides of their brains need physical activity to coordinate and work together.