Many of my students had writing goals listed in their IEPs; however, writing involves more than just paper and pencil. Several of my students required additional support when using writing utensils, so I looked at more functional and independent modes for written expression, which included typing. Students began to explore keyboards, and since this was a new skill being introduced, it was helpful to do so on a familiar device such as an iPad. Having iPads with attached keyboards that were strictly for writing instruction provided students with a more appropriate outlet to express their thoughts when fine motor delays impacted their handwriting ability.
Jump Rope Readers Decodable Books
The Saline Area Schools Foundation has awarded a grant for the acquisition of the Jump Rope Readers series to enhance early literacy development. Recognizing the limitations of the current leveled books, which do not adequately target specific phonological awareness and phonics skills, this grant will enable the purchase of targeted, culturally relevant, and engaging reading materials for young learners.
The Jump Rope Readers series is meticulously designed to introduce beginning readers to new letter-sound correspondences and high-frequency words in a gradual and systematic manner. These books not only support foundational word recognition skills but also offer memorable characters and exciting adventures that align with core curriculum standards in literary fiction.
This investment in foundational reading resources underscores the commitment to ensuring that students develop the essential literacy skills needed to fully engage with future educational innovations at Saline Area Schools.
Sensory Solutions: A Structured Sensory Space
Orton-Gillingham Explicit Phonics Instruction and Remedial Reading Instruction
Orton-Gillingham is an explicit reading and phonics instructional approach that is structured for struggling readers. The approach is combined with multi-sensory teaching strategies paired with systematic, sequential lessons focused on phonics. These lessons are geared towards not only struggling readers but our students with disabilities and students with dyslexia as well. The Orton-Gillingham approach breaks down reading and spelling into smaller skills involving letters and sounds to then build these skills overtime while using sight, touch, hearing, and movement to build on these connections.
Media Whiteboard=Endless Innovative Experiences
I am requesting funding for a large magnetic white board and additional manipulatives for the media center at Harvest. The board will be the home to many experiences in the media center for all of the learners, including makerspace activities, supporting literacy skills and enhancing our ability to engage in all of the four c’s that we focus on throughout the media curriculum. Through the sharing of ideas, collaboration while in the process of completing a task, and critically thinking about the most innovative ways to work through a problem, the learners at Harvest will be allowed to grow and develop in many ways.
Reaching Readers Through Books
“Reaching Readers Through Books” will replace outdated, damaged, and low interest books with new, high interest, and diverse books. These books will be used by the entire third grade (120 students) in support of our Character Studies and book club unit for many years to come. It is important for our readers to not only be engaged in their books, but to also be able to relate to the characters and issues that arise within them. By updating our current book club selection, we will be giving our readers more opportunities to see themselves and the social issues around them within their pages.
Vamos a la granja! Lets go to the farm!
Young Fives students and Kindergarteners will explore Spanish animal sounds and learn about the benefits of speaking two languages. Kids will learn how animals do not make the same noises in Spanish! Books, farm animal toys and magnetic letters will encourage young children to play with new sounds. The availability of the same resources in all three elementary schools will allow for greater alignment of the curriculum across the district. We also will occasionally reuse these same materials with First Grade students for reviewing key vocabulary.
Elementary School Robotics Program
We will be starting a STEM-oriented robotics program to teach elementary school kids about the basics of engineering and technical design. The program will utilize robotics kits, specifically the Lego Boosts Kit, for the students to build over a 6 week period in small teams, each team consisting of 5 elementary school kids as well as a high school kid serving as a mentor. The elementary school students will also participate in programming the robots that they build through a simple drag-and-drop style programming software, therefore allowing the students to learn about the basics of programming as well as the engineering skills they are learning from the building of the robot. The program will last a total of 6 weeks and be available for students from 2nd to 3rd grade after school located in the Harvest building.
Visible Heart-Health in Physical Education
We are requesting funds to purchase large television monitors in order to display critical education materials for our PE classes, as well as our studentsÛª heart rates while they are exercising. This would coincide with our new Polar Heart Rate monitors that the students are wearing during physical education classes. With these monitors, the teachers can display all of the information from each student and entire classes at the same time, similar to the current set up at Pleasant Ridge. The district has put a lot of time and finances into these monitors, and without a way to display the information, we cannot use them to their full capacity as an educational tool.
Winter Outdoor Fitness – Snowshoeing
The purchase of a class set of snowshoes would allow all 3 of our elementary schools to take turns providing an outdoor winter physical education unit for our students. This would expand our curriculum as well as connect with our heart rate monitors and our goal to make connections between lifelong activities and healthy lifestyles.
