Many students’ favorite time of the day includes being read to by someone that cares for them. While our students’ families are very supportive at home, in many cases reading aloud is not something all parents can do. Audio books and portable players will go home with students providing them with a read-aloud experience at home.
Grants - all (all)
Listen Up!
Christine Wiles, Westview Elementary School, $1,000
Go For the Silver!
Trish Long, Olathe South High School, $1,000
Enrollment in this high school sculpture/jewelry program has doubled in one year. District curriculum standards state that students must learn to apply knowledge of the Elements of Art and Principles of Design while creating works in metal. The purchase of a supply of casting silver will help start the casting program at this high school. Students will create a wax ring mold, burn out the wax, melt the silver and mold the ring using the centrifuge caster. After buffing, the student may purchase their ring for the current cost of the silver. If not, the silver is melted down and used by another student.
Trikes for Teachers
Jaimie Swindler, Olathe East High School, $775
Life skills students will use an adaptive adult-sized trike to run errands from the front office to teachers located throughout the high school. In the process of “biking” from one location to another, students learn from searching for specific classroom numbers, identifying teacher’s names, reading stock supply lists, as well as communicating with and delivering supplies to teachers and staff. Students with some level of mobility challenges will benefit especially from this pilot program.
Implementing The Daily 5
Kim Lander, Washington Elementary School, $1,000
The Daily 5 is a series of individualized literacy tasks including reading to self, reading with someone, writing, word work, and listening to reading, while teacher is working with small groups or assisting individual students. Additional equipment will allow more students to participate in the listening portion, refresh supplies in the "word work" area, and add cushions to the "reading to someone" section.
Stability Balls
Tandy Braden, Claire Learning Center, $490
An addition to their small supply of stability balls will help in what has been proven to help students with mental health as well as learning disorders at this specialty school. An increase in on-task behavior as well as academic achievements occur because students are better able to sit still, take notes while releasing energy through appropriate fidgets. The small residual bouncing that comes from sitting on an inflated exercise ball helps students find comfort through the non-traditional seating arrangement supporting the therapeutic needs of these special students.
Historical Clothing Trunk
Joanie Hulse, Walnut Grove Elementary School, $865
A trunk filled with historical clothing such as petticoats, pinafores, bonnets, suspenders, cloaks, straw hats, etc. will be an educational addition to the renovation and restoration of the Walnut Grove one-room school house. Originally built in 1878, the school house will be Olathe Public School’s first historical lab giving a hands-on educational history of early Johnson County education.
Business Basics
Rebecca Reyes, Olathe South High School, $905
Adverteasing, Moneywise, Passport to Culture and Payday are activities and board games that will help enhance student learning in a fun and exciting way with their coursework in marketing, entrepreneurship, advertising, and personal finance.
Orff Instruments
Sarah Gesling, Tomahawk Elementary School, $3,930
Xylophones, Metallophones and Glockenspiels will allow at-risk students to be part of an after-school club learning a challenging repertoire of music that would not otherwise be learned in music class. The new instruments will also allow each of 400 students in the school-day music classes to perform simultaneously as a group, giving each student a full thirty-minute playing experience.
Music Therapy
Lesley Ketchem, Harmony Early Childhood, $985
iPad technology and all of the applications available, will help students who receive music therapy services when most non-traditional methods are not successful and assist them in making academic progress. The adaptability of this technology allows the music therapist to serve all students from pre-K to high school in all academic areas.
Headphones and Calculators
Tandy Braden, Claire Learning Center, $315
Basic needs of graphing calculators and headphones will make the difference to this special learning environment. Headphones help students who struggle to learn in noisy learning environments. TI-84 graphing calculators are not something these students are able to acquire with their own means so the OPSF was able to make a need-connection and find calculators in the district for these students to use.