Walton Education Foundation

I would like to help my students achieve a meeting or exceeding expectations score in Mathematics and Print Knowledge on the third assessment in Bright Beginnings, the Florida VPK Assessment and support them as they become learners, ready to start kindergarten in the fall. I want my students to become motivated, engaged and self directed, while taking ownership of their learning to become life-long learners. When students self-select activities that interest them, they are more inclined to work harder, go further and achieve more as they acquire new skills in the process.

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Boxes of Curiosity

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School:
Bay School 
Subject:
STEM Education 
Teacher:
Amy Simpson 
Students Impacted:
16 
Grade:
Pre-K 
Date:
September 25, 2021

Investor

Thank you to the following investor for funding this grant.

 

The Alys Foundation - $996.04

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Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 14

After preparing individual task boxes, my students were able to self-select activities to help enhance the learning that happens within my classroom.  The activities included upper and lowercase letter matching, number order and fine motor tasks to name a few.  The activities were engaging and helped both my lower level students as well as challenging  my advanced students.  Even though the activities were prepared to be used individually, I was able to pair up students and this also helped them learn how to work together to complete a given task. Because the activities were "fun", the students looked forward to working out of the activity boxes and would work harder on other tasks to be awarded time for these activities. I also used these activities in small groups when presenting new information or when working with struggling learners.  If it looks like fun, the students are more willing to join in and try a little harder. To quote Mr. Fred Rogers: "Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood." I want my students leaving my classroom with a Love for Learning, because when they enjoy learning I feel can learn anything.  When comparing the first and third Bright Beginning Assessments that all VPK students are administered, I was able to show growth in both Math and Print Knowledge for all of my 14 students.

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Self Selecting Activities

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Fine Motor Activities

 

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Sorting

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Teamwork

 

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Learning about Letters

 

Original Grant Overview

Goal

I would like to help my students achieve a meeting or exceeding expectations score in Mathematics and Print Knowledge on the third assessment in Bright Beginnings, the Florida VPK Assessment and support them as they become learners, ready to start kindergarten in the fall. I want my students to become motivated, engaged and self directed, while taking ownership of their learning to become life-long learners. When students self-select activities that interest them, they are more inclined to work harder, go further and achieve more as they acquire new skills in the process.  

 

What will be done with my students

Young children are naturally curious about the
world around them. I will provide engaging, age appropriate experiences related to Math and Language/Literacy to help
my students develop important skills for future
success in school and in life. The Math skills include number sense, numbers and operations, patterns, geometry, spatial relations, measurement and data. Language and Literacy skills include emergent reading and phonological awareness and emergent writing.
I will prepare individual activities and task cards that target these skills for students to self-select at different times throughout the school day. The teacher will introduce and explain the activities and will monitor students success and or frustration and make changes as needed. The activities will be adjusted as needed to insure success, changed according to seasons, and enhanced to challenge the students.  

 

Benefits to my students

Because children have a natural drive to play, explore, and engineer whenever possible, meaningful work should be hands-on, engaging, and open ended. By self-selecting activities, students will be more inclined to challenge themselves without even realizing it.
Of my 15 VPK students, 13 scored a below expectations score on the Mathematics portion of the first Florida VPK assessment. 11 students scored a below expectations score on the Print Knowledge portion of the first Florida VPK assessment. I hope to have all of my students score at least a meeting expectations in both Mathematics and Print Knowledge portions on the 3rd VPK assessment after working with self-selected activity boxes.  

 

Budget Narrative

I will prepare individual activities using the 12x12 cases and include the: Alphabet Letters Kit 234 Pcs, Educational Insights Hot Dots Jr. Beginning Phonics Flash Card Set, Lewo Wooden Letter Number Sorter Puzzle, Magnetic Letters Numbers, Spelling Game for Learning Objects, Alphabet Matching & Fine Motor Skills Toy, Alphabet Acorns Activity Set, Wooden Letter and Number Construction, Number Pops, Math Games, Wooden Reading Blocks Short Vowel Rods Spelling Games, Shape Pattern Block Tangram Brain Teaser, Mini Motor Math Activity Set, Math Manipulatives-Color Sorting and Stacking Stones, Array Block Geo Board, Dinosaur Math Counters Color Sorting and Counting Activity Set, STEM-Math Manipulatives Early Math Skills, Balance Counting Math Games, Math Cubes Manipulatives with Activity Cards, Wood Tiles along with activity cards. The Double Sided Magnetic Whiteboard Chart Stand with 2 Storage Bins will be used as a way of tracking students' use of activity boxes. 

 

Items

# Item Cost
1 Alphabet Letters Kit 234 Pcs-3 sets $71.97
2 Educational Insights Hot Dots Jr. Beginning Phonics Flash Card Set-3 sets $52.62
3 Lewo Wooden Letter Number Sorter Puzzle $9.95
4 Magnetic Letters Numbers-3 sets $32.97
5 Spelling Game for Learning Objects $15.99
6 Alphabet Acorns Activity Set $17.39
7 Alphabet Matching & Fine Motor Skills Toy $24.99
8 Wooden Letter and Number Construction-3 sets Activity Set $38.97
9 Number Pops, Math Games $23.80
10 Wooden Reading Blocks Short Vowel Rods Spelling Games-2 sets $37.98
11 Shape Pattern Block Tangram Brain Teaser-3 sets $26.97
12 Mini Motor Math Activity Set-2 sets $37.58
13 Math Manipulatives-Color Sorting and Stacking Stones $34.99
14 Array Block Geo Board-3 sets $42.87
15 Dinosaur Math Counters Color Sorting and Counting Activity Set-2 sets $25.98
16 STEM-Math Manipulatives Early Math Skills-2 sets $37.98
17 Balance Counting Math Games-2 sets $35.98
18 Math Cubes Manipulatives with Activity Cards-3 sets $53.97
19 Double Sided Magnetic Whiteboard Chart Stand with 2 Storage Bins $212.92
20 Michaels-12 pack 12x12 case-3 packages $134.28
21 Michaels-Wood Tiles 6 pack $25.89
  Total: $996.04

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Special Thanks to Our Presenting Partners

CHELCO

The Alys Foundation

St. Joe Community Foundation

Florida Power & Light

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