ALESSANDRA FERRARA
2017 RECIPIENT FUND A TEACHER STIPEND
Dear Alpha Beta Foundation,
Thank you again for your generous stipend to help build my classroom into the engaging environment it is now. I was able to purchase leveled readers for the classroom library. These leveled readers include popular characters that my students enjoy. The books include such characters as Curious George, Splat the Cat, Clifford, The Berenstain Bears, Amelia Bedilia, Danny the Dinosaur, Disney Characters, Biscuit, and Little Critters. My students also have the choice to read to a “book buddy” that is kept in the library. I also was able to purchase book buddies, which are stuffed animals. I have five stuffed animals in the library at the moment. These stuffed animals include Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, a crocodile, a snowman, and a fox.
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I was also able to purchase books for the listening center along with the CD that will read the book to my students. The listening center books and CDs include Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats, Henny Penny by Paul Galdone, and Stone Soup by Marcia Brown. My students that struggle with reading independently enjoy the listening center because they can listen to the word as they see it in the book.
The final pieces I was able to purchase with the stipend include the items we use in our morning routine. The classroom calendar, our 101st day of school countdown, our place value chart, our attendance chart, our job chart, and our weather tracker. I assign jobs to the students every week to help out in the classroom. The students learn the days of the week and the months of the year with our calendar. We practice place value when counting how many days we are in school. We have a giant Dalmatian that we add a spot to every day to also count how many days we are in school. In our science curriculum, the students must learn and understand the seasons of the year and the different types of weather. We review these words by using the weather chart every morning.
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Thank you,
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Alessandra Ferra
PS 104 - Brooklyn
The Fort Hamilton School
