Mrs. Elstner's Classroom Edit display name

Current requests

Past projects 7

• Creation Station in Kindergarten

  Funded Mar 27, 2025

  Our students love creating and making! Our kindergarteners have impressive imaginations and love having opportunities to express themselves using different materials. They continually amaze us with their original ideas! The materials from this project have helped my students explore their creativity and have also exposed them to new tools that they can use for making art.

  When students first saw their new art materials, they lit up with joy. They love "creation station" and "free art Friday" as part of our classroom routines. Having these materials available to our students is certainly a gift. Not only do these materials support their creativity, but they also allow students to strengthen their fine motor skills (essential for becoming writers) through play dough and beading! We use the Flair pens daily for sight word practice, writing and drawing.

  Thank you so much to all of our donors! We cannot wait to continue using these materials in our classroom and creating even more!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Elstner

  This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 13 other donors.

• Create and Play

  Funded Dec 3, 2024

  Thank you for making a difference in our kindergarten classroom! Because of your generosity, our students now have access to exciting games and art supplies that spark creativity, collaboration, and hands-on learning every day.

  With engaging games, our young learners are building important skills like problem-solving, teamwork, and critical thinking—all while having fun! They're learning how to take turns, work together, and think through challenges in ways that feel exciting and natural. These experiences are helping them grow socially and academically, setting a strong foundation for future learning.

  The addition of art supplies has been just as impactful. Our students now have the tools to express themselves through painting, drawing, and crafting, which helps develop fine motor skills, confidence, and creativity. Watching their faces light up as they bring their ideas to life has been truly inspiring.

  Your support has transformed our classroom into a space where curiosity and imagination thrive. Thank you for believing in our students and giving them the resources they need to learn and grow. We appreciate you more than words can say!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Elstner

  This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and one other donor.

• Chair Pockets(ful) of Sunshine

  Funded Aug 12, 2021

  Thank you so much for your generous donations!

  Our students are absolutely thrilled about their new chair pockets! They couldn't wait to load up their new chair pockets! On Fridays, when we clean and organize our materials, our first graders are always so excited because they know they are taking great care of their chair pockets.

  My first graders couldn't believe it when we opened our package and they discovered new chair pockets had arrived! They were over the moon and so grateful for the donations we received that made this possible.

  We cannot wait to continue learning and growing this year! We are so appreciative of your support and for helping to make our classroom a great learning environment for all of our students!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Elstner

  This classroom project was brought to life by Bill Gates and 5 other donors.

• We Need Diverse Books

  Funded Mar 2, 2020

  Thank you for filling our classroom with books that are representative of all our students! It is so important that students see themselves reflected in the literature we read. These books also allow students to get a glimpse into someone else's experiences. We want our students to not only be great readers, but also great people! I believe that in order to fill our world with more kindness, we need to allow students to celebrate the diversity that makes our world beautiful.

  In our classroom, reading happens in many different ways! We LOVE read alouds and reading to a friend or book buddy. We read in small groups and we read on tablets! Our students are constantly engaging in the practice of reading, because we want them to be readers! These books were critical in continuing the important work of growing as readers in the spring when we had to learn remotely. These books served as powerful video recorded read alouds that students could watch over and over again. This year, we are beginning the year remotely, and I can't wait to surprise my students with a video read aloud of Good Night, Wiggly Toes to help calm any first day jitters the night before school starts.

  These books mean so much to our class and will be treasured for many years by many students. We can't thank you enough for brightening our classroom with the gift of special books.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Elstner

  This classroom project was brought to life by A group of anonymous donors and 3 other donors.

• Tough Tablets: Cases For Our Tablets

  Funded Dec 18, 2018

  Thank you so much for your very generous donation! We are so excited about the addition of tablets to our classroom! Your donation has allowed for us to keep these tablets safe so that they will last for many years. These tablets will give my first graders access to a leveled reading library on RAZ Kids, where each child can explore fiction and nonfiction texts at their individual reading level. Each text also includes comprehension questions. This is an invaluable resource to my young readers and their families and we are so excited about being able to access this app in our classroom.

  Technology is essential in providing students with a 21st century education. Our new protected tablets offer students an opportunity to interact with technology and prepare them for lifelong work in the modern world. The faces my students made when they learned we would be adding these tablets to our library of tools were priceless! The cases you provided ensure that these tablets will not be broken or damaged for several years!

  These tablets serve as a vital source of inspiration for students who would otherwise be disengaged or uninterested in hard copy books. The tablets allow all students to engage in reading and learning and excite young learners who just needed a little extra motivation! We are so grateful for your help in making our classroom a place where all students love learning. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Elstner

• Amazing Books Inspire Readers

  Funded Oct 24, 2018

  The wide eyes and squeals of excitement from my students when the new books began arriving were better able to summarize our gratitude than I ever could in this letter. However, I wanted to share with you just how much our class appreciates these wonderful new books!

  We have already started reading one book each week in our classroom. This book is used all week long to explore a comprehension skill, grammar, phonics, and expand students' vocabularies. Just last week, we read one of the most beautiful books, Oskar and the Eight Blessings, a book about a young boy who must leave his family in Germany and move to America to live with his aunt in order to escape the Holocaust. He arrives during Hanukkah and must make a long journey down Broadway alone to find his aunt. Along the way, he is hungry, cold and tired. The people he meets show him that there is in fact goodness in the world as they offer eight different blessings, such as bread, mittens, a helping hand. While our class did learn about making mental images, plural nouns, and blends using this text, they actually learned a much more valuable lesson about kindness.

  The power of great books is limitless. Just like Oskar, our class has experienced the goodness of people. With the gift of inspiring literature, my first graders will not only become better readers and writers, but also better people. I know that through these stories you have gifted to our class, the kiddos in our class will learn to look out for the good in our world, and also pass on this love, kindness, and care to others. Thank you!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Elstner

  This classroom project was brought to life by Chevron Fuel Your School.

• We Love Books!

  Funded Jan 1, 2016

  My students participate daily in different literacy tasks and it is crucial to their development as readers that they have access to books they love! Your generous donations have helped provide my students with a variety of reading materials that have instantly become favorites in our classroom!

  My students read and write daily using the Daily Five framework. These books allow me to model reading strategies, such as predicting, clarifying, questioning, and summarizing, through read-alouds that are exciting to young children. Children also get to read these books independently during their "Read to Self" or "Read to Someone" time. They treasure these new books and turn the pages with love and care!

  These books will have many purposes in our classroom. Some books will be used as mentor texts for our writing, some books will guide us in our mindfulness journey, and some of the books will simply entertain young readers and expose them to literature that makes them love reading. We have already read Dog Breath by Dav Pilkey several times, and each time, the second graders burst into laughter at Hally Tosis' stinky breath. To see young children fully engage with a text and laugh so much is magical. I have been attending a literacy training this year where I have learned many new strategies for teaching reading and writing. I am so excited to use some of the same books our presenter demonstrated reading lessons with to support my students!

  We are so grateful for your support and generosity. These books will touch the hands and minds of many children for years to come. Thank you!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Elstner