Sunday, February 17, 2013

Three!

Thank you to the families who supported the last DonorsChoose project!

     We had another project filled by DonorsChoose this week.  It was a double match Friends and Family week, meaning that all donations that were given to the project were matched by the DonorsChoose Board of Directors as long as donors used the code word that I sent home to families.   I wrote for another iPad.   The project was filled in five days!  We should have our iPad in one or two weeks.

    We brainstormed a list of chores that students could do at home and parents gave an "allowance" of their choice for these chores.  Students proudly brought their donations in all week.  Snow shoveling was especially popular.   I made a visual display of our progress and we colored the visual display in every day.  Donations collected ranged anywhere from $1.00 to $41.00, but all donations were added together daily so there was no feel of competition among the first graders, and no one knew who gave more or less.  It was a wonderful lesson on working together towards a common goal.

    This was our third iPad earned through grant writing this school year; the first was earned through another DonorsChoose grant and the second was awarded a couple of weeks ago by the Regional School Unit One Educational Foundation.   Thank you to the Selection Committee for choosing to award us an iPad!  My first graders are learning not only academic skills, but also how to integrate technology into their school lives.