Winnetka Public Schools Foundation
Teacher Initiative Grants Awarded Spring 2008
Crow Island
Reading for Fun With Sounds and Sight Words
This grant will continue adding to the “A Friend’s Adventure” book series by creating practice books for particular sound and sight words that build upon the reading curriculum. Books will allow children to use themselves as characters in the stories, as well as color the illustrations as they wish. The goal will be for children to identify with and play an active role in reading books.
Math Problem Modification and Creation to Meet the Needs of Diverse Learners Part II
This grant will be used to expand the modification of Exemplars Math problems for 3rd and 4th grade students. This work will be combined with previous work to create a working file of Exemplar problems that all district upper elementary teachers can use
New Lunch Program
The goal of this grant is to create a lunch program that is as developmentally based and child centered as the rest of a student’s day. For some students, the lunch hour can be a difficult portion of the school day. Social issues tend to carry over into the remainder of their day. Hopefully, a new approach to how the lunch hour is structured will better meet the needs of all children.
Leveled Reading Library
The work of this grant is to create a more user-friendly, leveled library for students and teachers alike using set books recently purchased with Illinois Textbook Loan and WPS Foundation funds.
Greeley
Puppet Theatre
This project will allow students to work on reading, storytelling, creative drama, and written expression skills while exploring and using puppets to act out plays. Students can focus on the elements of the story to create costumes, props, and sets for their final performance. The plays could be provided by teachers or groups of students working together and can be presented to peers in settings that may include live or recorded performances.
Sensory Gym
The sensory gym will be used to assist the growing number of students with sensory processing disorders, a sensory diet (a plan of activities that support their ability to function within the school setting) will be created using equipment to supplement and enhance the KW program. This will enable these special students to focus better in the classroom. Types of equipment include a trampoline, swing support, special types of balls, etc.
Writer’s Workshop Mini-lessons
This project will create mini-lessons that are developmentally appropriate and are reflective of the first grade child’s various levels of writing. The lessons are based upon the work of Ralph Fletcher and Lucy Calkins and will be shared with first grade teachers across the district.
Rebuilding the Reading Curriculum – Part II
This grant will be combined with the grant awarded last year to create a reading curriculum that will not only strengthen student skills, but also enrich their love of learning and reading through genre, authors, and unit studies. Meeting with an expert in the reading field, a deeper understanding of how books are chosen and leveled will be utilized to create lesson plans and book lists that are developmentally appropriate as well as leveled to meet the needs of all children. Much of the funding will be used to purchase books to support this work.
Hubbard Woods
Marcy Cook Math Cards
K-4 Math Cards will be purchased to enrich math curriculum at Hubbard Woods. The cards cover a variety of strands with an emphasis on operations, place value, measurement and number sense. Ms. Cook is a nationally recognized mathematics specialist. Several staff attended a Marcy Cook conference and began an initial pilot of her materials last year. This project will build on that initial experience.
Data Management System
Numerous types of student data and information are collected and stored in different software programs. This project would combine the data from various sources and store it in one database the district currently uses. This will allow staff to document and track student progress more efficiently.
Strengthening Comprehension Strategies in Primary Grades Part II
Building on research and practical observation from a previous grant, work will be continued to refine the framework and activities that will best fit current and future second grade students and allow them greater success with reading comprehension. This work will be shared with second grade teachers throughout the district.
Hubbard Woods/Crow Island
Xplorer SensorScience System
Students enjoy using science tools to explore their world. This system will be used to help students collect, graph, and draw conclusions from data obtained in science class in meaningful and fun ways. The funds will allow a class set of Dataloggers to be purchased.
Skokie
The Patch
This equipment is specifically designed to enhance and compliment student well-being and muscular strength. It will bring a fun fitness component to the Skokie KW curriculum, while improving students’ cardiovascular and muscular systems, increasing flexibility and helping to achieve the goal of complete well-being for children.
Printing Press
Funds will be used to purchase a small printing press to enhance the 5th and 6th grade art curriculum and to share new and innovative techniques. Students can explore mono-printing, a painterly technique on plexi-glass; cardboard printing, a low relief type plate created by cutting and pasting different levels of cardboard; and embossed printing, which is a white-on-white raised relief print.
Sensory Integration Through Crafts
The purpose of this project is to help 5th grade special education students develop their fine motor skills, sensory integration, as well as social skills through craft projects such as, macramé, soap carvings, origami, and clay modeling.
Exploring Energy With Toys
Using toys all children are familiar with, students will learn how they work, how energy is transferred in the toys, write an energy chain, and learn the terms of the concepts discovered while connecting science to the world outside their classroom.
Service Learning Bookshelf
This project will provide a rich resource for 5th grade students through picture books that will motivate and inspire them to act on service projects. Types of service learning will focus on environment, community, youth, elders, homeless, and health/disabilities.
Readers Unite!
Teachers will read, summarize, and sort numerous set books to determine the appropriate reading level, and to note specific elements or writer’s craft that can be illustrated through reading the selection. An overview for each novel will be written that highlights reading strategies as well as reading and writing connections that can be effectively practiced. The protagonist and antagonist of each book will be noted to allow teachers to make selections that provide gender balance.
Duplicating Equipment for Band – Part II
Funds will be used to purchase the remaining equipment from a grant previously awarded. Music will be duplicated for beginning band students to use to practice at home. Also, rehearsals and concerts will be recorded and shared with the students for analyzing skills as well as tracking growth.
Washburne
Bringing Technology to Self-Portrait Project
This is a well-received, traditional 8th grade art project that has become more difficult to produce due to outdated technology. Using newer technology such as a high quality digital cameras and projectors to store digital images, the project can continue.
To Life!
Bringing the story of a Holocaust survivor to life, 8th grade students through their study of World War II will read Sevek and the Holocaust: The Boy Who Refused to Die. The main character of the novel, Sidney Finkel, who lives in our area, will visit students and speak first-hand about his experiences. Social Studies and Language Arts staff will work together to incorporate this program into the curriculum. Funds will be used to purchase 2 class sets of this title.
Promethean Boards
The Math Department Chair previously received a grant for the purchase of one Board. This grant will allow for the purchase of additional Boards for other math teachers. Washburne will then purchase a couple more Boards. The goal is to have an interactive white board in each math classroom. With the use of such boards, students are more engaged during class and ask more questions, since referring to previous drawings/problems are easily retrieved. Students who are not in attendance can easily view the class work that was missed.
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