Michelle King, Kimberly Butler- Watkins, Jennifer Smith, Connie Page, Cindy McGregor, Natalie Wagoner (4 grants)

Me & My World ($985.38) - This is a year long social studies project where students will explore the following themes: This is Me, This is My Family, This is My House, This is My School, This is My City, This is My State, This is My Country, This is My World, and This is My Universe.  A sample of work from each them will be kept in a portfolio for each student and will be used to compile a book titled “Me & My World” at the end of the school year.  All of the themes are reflective of the TEKS objectives for kindergarten social studies.  All of the themes will be taught in accordance with the District’s Scope & Sequence for kindergarten.  The ultimate goal of this project is to increase student achievement in the area of social studies. 

.The Guided Reading Project ($984.27)- The Guided Reading Project is a grade level initiative to secure reading book sets to use during our Guided Reading Instruction.  During the 2007/2008 school year, we have worked hard to set up a Guided Reading Library for our team to share.  We used funds from our principal, the PTA and even Scholastic Bonus Points to purchase some leveled reading sets for our library.  At this point, we are still in need of “phonic” readers that help us introduce and teach simple CVC words, spelling patterns, consonant blends and digraphs, and other decoding strategies.  Please note that these materials are not meant to replace the District adopted Open Court Reading program.  We use the Open Court Reading program as our primary reading program.  Open Court provides predecodable books for each student that introduces and reinforces sight words.  However, we still need a program for teaching phonic skills.  Our team believes strongly that proper early reading instruction should include both sight word recognition and also phonics instruction.

Healthy Happy Me! ($996.38) The “Healthy Happy Me” project is designed to help children learn more about themselves.  They will learn about their bodies (basic anatomy, dental health & five senses), health (nutrition, germs and fitness), safety practices (stranger safety), feelings and emotions (conflict resolution, etc.).  This project is cross curricular and would incorporate science, social studies, health, math, language arts, art and music.

The Teacher Tool Box Resource Library ($459.21) - The Teacher’s Tool Box is a resource library for kindergarten teachers that has grade level specific resource books to assist in lesson planning and instruction.  The books will be used to increase our knowledge of best practices in early childhood instruction, specifically we are interested in learning new strategies for teaching guided reading, phonics instruction and writing instruction.  We are also interested in getting ideas for creating more hands-on learning opportunities in math and science.  The district as a whole is striving to increase student achievement at every level and we would like to do our part by laying a solid academic foundation at the kindergarten level.  We feel these books will serve as valuable resources in helping us to meet our goal of laying a solid foundation and increasing overall student achievement!