{"monthlySchoolDonationEnabled":true,"callToActionDisplayName":"Deer Run Elementary School","outOfStateSupporters":33.8,"allowSchoolLevelGiving":true,"hasFundedProjects":true,"projectGratitudeData":[{"teacherId":3727058,"projectId":10432539,"letterContent":"Thank you so much for your incredible support of our kindergarten classroom! Your generosity in funding our project—providing wooden blocks, magnetic blocks, sentence strips, 100th Day of School celebrations (banner, door cover, and glasses), birthday bracelets, \"get moving\" activity sticks, and laminating sheets—has made our learning environment brighter, more engaging, and deeply enriching.\r\n\r\nHere is how your kindness is impacting our classroom community every single day:\r\n\r\nWooden Blocks & Magnetic Blocks: Construction play is vital for our early STEM learning. These building sets allow our students to explore spatial reasoning, balance, geometry, and engineering concepts while learning to collaborate and problem-solve together.\r\n\r\nSentence Strips & Laminating Sheets: Sentence strips give our emerging readers a clear, hands-on space to practice handwriting and sentence structure. Thanks to the laminating sheets, we can protect these resources—and student artwork—making learning tools durable enough to be reused all year long.\r\n\r\n100th Day Celebrations & Birthday Bracelets: Celebrating milestone moments builds a sense of belonging and community. The special birthday bracelets make our students feel cherished on their big day, while the 100th Day banner, door cover, and glasses turn a major math milestone into an unforgettable, joy-filled celebration.\r\n\r\n\"Get Moving\" Sticks: Early learners thrive when movement is integrated into their routine. These brain-break sticks give us fun, quick movement activities that help students release extra energy, reset, and stay focused throughout the school day.\r\n\r\nYour thoughtful investment equips our students with essential learning tools, builds strong foundational skills, and creates special memories that make school a happy place to learn and grow. Thank you for making a lasting difference in our classroom!","fullyFundedDate":1788447235179,"projectUrl":"project/tracking-time-motion/10432539/","projectTitle":"Tracking Time & Motion:","teacherDisplayName":"Mrs. Ragaini","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://cdn.donorschoose.net/images/placeholder-avatars/272/teacher-placeholder-10_272.png?auto=webp","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/3727058"},{"teacherId":3727058,"projectId":10429441,"letterContent":"Thank you so much for bringing foundational reading and math tools into our kindergarten classroom! Your incredible support for our project—providing tap and write numbers, pocket chart word building, magnetic sound box mats and chips, EZ read sound box mats, and tap and track tactile sight words—has opened up a world of multi-sensory learning for our young scholars.\r\n\r\nHere is how your generosity is directly impacting our students every day:\r\n\r\nTap and Write Numbers & Tap and Track Tactile Sight Words: Kindergarteners learn best when they can feel the shapes of letters and numbers. These tactile cards let our students physically trace and tap out letter paths and sight words, cementing proper formation and word recognition through muscle memory.\r\n\r\nMagnetic Sound Box Mats & Chips & EZ Read Sound Box Mats: These manipulative mats make the abstract concept of phonemic awareness tangible. Students love pulling down the magnetic chips to segment individual sounds in words, directly building the decoding skills they need to become fluent readers.\r\n\r\nPocket Chart Word Building: This versatile tool turns reading into a collaborative, hands-on activity. Our students take pride in manipulating letter cards to build, swap, and decode simple words right in front of their peers during small-group phonics instruction.\r\n\r\nYour kindness equips our students with the high-impact, interactive resources they need to master early literacy and math fundamentals with joy and confidence. Thank you for making a lasting investment in our learners!","fullyFundedDate":1788447233467,"projectUrl":"project/mapping-sounds-numbers-hands-on-stem/10429441/","projectTitle":"Mapping Sounds & Numbers: Hands-On STEM in Kindergarten","teacherDisplayName":"Mrs. Ragaini","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://cdn.donorschoose.net/images/placeholder-avatars/272/teacher-placeholder-10_272.png?auto=webp","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/3727058"},{"teacherId":8924188,"projectId":10431388,"letterContent":"Thank you so much for bringing imagination, creativity, and hands-on discovery to our pre-K classroom! Your support in providing transparent blocks for our light table, dress-up clothes, and slime buckets has created an environment full of excitement and rich learning opportunities.\r\n\r\nHere is how your generosity is transforming our days:\r\n\r\nTransparent Blocks for the Light Table: These colorful, see-through blocks turn basic spatial building into a dazzling science lesson. Our young learners are fascinated by how light filters through different colors, allowing them to experiment with color mixing, pattern building, and geometry in a visually captivating way.\r\n\r\nDress-Up Clothes: Dramatic play is essential in pre-K, and these new costumes allow our students' imaginations to soar. By stepping into different roles, they are building vital social-emotional skills, practicing empathy, and developing rich language and storytelling abilities through cooperative play.\r\n\r\nSlime Buckets: Slime is an absolute favorite for sensory exploration! Squishing, stretching, and measuring slime gives our little ones a fun, tactile way to build hand strength, practice emotional self-regulation, and explore early scientific concepts like viscosity and texture.\r\n\r\nYour kindness gives our students a dynamic space where they can explore, create, and grow through meaningful play every single day. Thank you for investing in our classroom and making a lasting impact!","fullyFundedDate":1788447235635,"projectUrl":"project/illuminating-stem-light-matter-and-cr/10431388/","projectTitle":"Illuminating STEM: Light, Matter, and Creative Engineering in Pre-K","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Ashley","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp8924188_orig.jpg?crop=1:1,smart&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1674897207650","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/8924188"},{"teacherId":8924188,"projectId":10426623,"letterContent":"Thank you so much for bringing vibrant, hands-on learning to our pre-K classroom! Your generosity in funding our project for Flarp, kinetic sand, shaving cream, and dry-erase markers has unlocked a world of interactive discovery for our young students.\r\n\r\nHere is how these wonderful materials are making learning come alive:\r\n\r\nFlarp & Kinetic Sand: These tactile sensory favorites are brilliant tools for building fine motor strength, hand-eye coordination, and spatial awareness. Our students love molding, shaping, and exploring the unique textures while practicing sharing and collaborative play.\r\n\r\nShaving Cream: We use shaving cream for exciting, sensory-rich practice! Spread across our activity tables, it provides a messy, memorable canvas where students trace letter shapes, numbers, and early pre-writing patterns with their fingers.\r\n\r\nDry-Erase Markers: Perfect for our small hands, these markers make writing practice fun and stress-free. Our little learners can write, erase, and try again, building confidence as they practice drawing, tracing, and early letter formation.\r\n\r\nYour support gives our pre-K students the freedom to learn through play, curiosity, and multi-sensory exploration every single day. Thank you for investing in our classroom!","fullyFundedDate":1786023273907,"projectUrl":"project/hands-on-science-exploring-textures-ma/10426623/","projectTitle":"Hands-On Science: Exploring Textures, Matter, and Motion","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Ashley","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp8924188_orig.jpg?crop=1:1,smart&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1674897207650","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/8924188"},{"teacherId":8924188,"projectId":10295665,"letterContent":"Dear Donors,\r\n\r\nThank you so much for bringing organization, clarity, and joy to our classroom! Your support of our project for new storage bins has transformed how our pre-K students learn, play, and interact with their environment every single day.\r\n\r\nHere is how your generosity is making a difference:\r\n\r\nFostering Independence: With clear, accessible bins for our toys and learning materials, our little ones can easily choose their own activities and take pride in returning items to their proper homes during clean-up time.\r\n\r\nMaximizing Learning Time: Well-organized materials mean less time spent searching for missing pieces and more time spent building, creating, and discovering.\r\n\r\nCreating a Calm, Welcoming Space: Having a dedicated spot for every toy and manipulative reduces classroom visual noise, helping our young learners stay focused, calm, and ready to engage.\r\n\r\nThank you for believing in our classroom and giving our students a structured, beautiful environment where they can thrive. We are so grateful for your support!","fullyFundedDate":1785259751952,"projectUrl":"project/little-hands-big-planet-eco-friendly-s/10295665/","projectTitle":"Little Hands, Big Planet: Eco-Friendly STEM Stations!","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Ashley","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp8924188_orig.jpg?crop=1:1,smart&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1674897207650","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/8924188"},{"teacherId":8924188,"projectId":10431368,"letterContent":"Dear Donors,\r\n\r\nThank you so much for your incredible generosity! Because of your support, our pre-K classroom is now filled with exciting new tools for learning and discovery through our Sensory Science and Spatial Discovery: Hands-On Pre-K STEM project.\r\n\r\nThe sensory putty and calming, soft, washable books have already made an extraordinary impact on our young learners:\r\n\r\nSensory Putty: Our students are developing crucial fine motor skills and hand strength as they stretch, squeeze, and mold the putty. It serves as a fantastic hands-on tool for early scientific exploration, helping them learn about textures, resistance, and material properties through play.\r\n\r\nCalming, Soft Washable Books: These cozy, tactile books have become a favorite addition to our reading and quiet areas. They offer our little ones a soothing, sensory-rich way to explore spatial concepts, colorful shapes, and early literacy at their own comfortable pace.\r\n\r\nYour kindness gives our students a safe, engaging environment where they can build confidence, regulate their emotions, and develop a lifelong love for STEM discovery. Thank you for making a lasting difference in our classroom!","fullyFundedDate":1788447238692,"projectUrl":"project/sensory-science-and-spatial-discovery-h/10431368/","projectTitle":"Sensory Science and Spatial Discovery: Hands-On Pre-K Stem","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Ashley","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp8924188_orig.jpg?crop=1:1,smart&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1674897207650","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/8924188"},{"teacherId":3534509,"projectId":10433895,"letterContent":"We are beyond excited and deeply grateful! Thank you so much for fully funding our project for Play-Doh, dough tools, stickers, laminating sheets, and alphabet dough mats.\r\n\r\nMy kindergarteners are going to be thrilled when these boxes arrive in our classroom! These hands-on literacy and sensory tools will make an immediate impact on our daily learning:\r\n\r\nAlphabet dough mats & Play-Doh tools: My students will use these to form letters, trace lines, and build fundamental phonics skills through tactile, 3D manipulation.\r\n\r\nLaminating sheets: These will protect our alphabet mats so generations of students can use them daily with dry-erase markers and dough without wear and tear.\r\n\r\nStickers: These will provide fantastic fine-motor practice (peeling and placing) while serving as interactive tools for letter-matching and rewarding student progress.\r\n\r\nThank you for investing in our classroom and giving my young learners a joyful, sensory-rich foundation for reading! We can't wait to share photos and updates as soon as our delivery arrives.","fullyFundedDate":1786023271240,"projectUrl":"project/molding-mindsets/10433895/","projectTitle":"Molding Mindsets","teacherDisplayName":"Mrs. T.","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/272x272/tp3534509_272x272.jpg?width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1490726271944","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/jtripp"},{"teacherId":3534509,"projectId":10347301,"letterContent":"Words cannot express how excited and grateful we are! Thank you so much for your incredible generosity in fully funding our classroom project.\r\n\r\nMy kindergarteners are going to be absolutely thrilled when our new materials arrive! Because of your support, our students will have the hands-on tools they need to stay engaged, build essential skills, and explore new concepts with confidence every single day.\r\n\r\nThank you for believing in our classroom and investing in my young learners. Your kindness makes a world of difference to our school community. We cannot wait to share photos and updates with you as soon as our package arrives and we put our new resources to work!","fullyFundedDate":1785259750809,"projectUrl":"project/sensory-stem-building-mapping-and-mol/10347301/","projectTitle":"Sensory STEM: Building, Mapping, and Molding Our Way to Science","teacherDisplayName":"Mrs. T.","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/272x272/tp3534509_272x272.jpg?width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1490726271944","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/jtripp"},{"teacherId":10237206,"projectId":10168486,"letterContent":"Our package has officially arrived, and we couldn't be more thrilled! Opening the boxes of dry erase supplies, base 10 blocks, dabbers, and soft dot dice felt like opening a box of magic for my kindergarteners.\r\n\r\nThese hands-on math materials are already making learning so exciting and interactive:\r\n\r\nBase 10 blocks are helping my students visually \"see\" and build numbers, turning abstract place value concepts into something concrete they can touch.\r\n\r\nSoft dot dice and dabbers have added incredible energy to our math centers as we practice subitizing, counting, and pattern-making.\r\n\r\nDry erase supplies give my young mathematicians the freedom to sketch out their problem-solving steps and try again with confidence whenever they make a mistake.\r\n\r\nSeeing their eyes light up as they dive into these hands-on STEM and math activities is all thanks to your generosity. Thank you for giving my students the tools they need to grow into confident, curious thinkers!","fullyFundedDate":1785193148201,"projectUrl":"project/hands-on-learning/10168486/","projectTitle":"Hands On Learning","teacherDisplayName":"Mr. Pukos","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://cdn.donorschoose.net/images/placeholder-avatars/272/teacher-placeholder-4_272.png?auto=webp","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/10237206"},{"teacherId":3727058,"projectId":10336813,"letterContent":"Thank you so much for bringing \"Sensory and Writing Essentials for Kindergarten Tinkers\" to life in our classroom! When the boxes first arrived, my kindergarteners were bursting with excitement. Their eyes lit up as we opened each package together, and they couldn't wait to dive into the new tactile writing materials and sensory resources. Having these tools available immediately transformed our daily center time into an engaging, hands-on learning environment. They especially loved seeing the giant box of play-doh. \r\n\r\nWe are currently using these sensory writing essentials during our daily literacy and numeracy blocks. For instance, during our center rotations, students use the tactile tools to trace letter forms while engaging their senses, which helps reinforce phonics concepts and motor control. One memorable moment was watching a student who previously struggled with traditional pencil-and-paper letter tracing confidently practice writing their letters and numbers using our new sensory tools—their face lit up with pride as they realized they could do it independently!\r\n\r\nMoving forward, our next steps involve using these tools to build independent skills. As we move into word writing, students will use these sensory essentials to practice letter formation, construct words, and express their creative ideas in writing. Your generosity provided the exact stepping stones my young tinkers needed to develop confidence in their early writing journey.\r\n\r\nWith gratitude,","fullyFundedDate":1785259752710,"projectUrl":"project/sensory-and-writing-essentials-for-kinde/10336813/","projectTitle":"Sensory and Writing Essentials for Kindergarten Tinkers","teacherDisplayName":"Mrs. Ragaini","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://cdn.donorschoose.net/images/placeholder-avatars/272/teacher-placeholder-10_272.png?auto=webp","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/3727058"},{"teacherId":159183,"projectId":10346302,"letterContent":"Thank you so much for your generosity in funding our project for a dry erase whiteboard!\r\n\r\nHaving a fresh, dedicated whiteboard is such an essential part of our daily classroom environment. It gives my students a clear, interactive space to gather around, work through math problems step-by-step, share brainstorms, and practice phonics and reading strategies. Being able to quickly write, draw, and wipe away ideas allows my students to take risks in their learning without the fear of making a mistake—building their confidence every single day.\r\n\r\nYour support provides a daily foundation for collaboration, active participation, and creative thinking in our classroom. Thank you for investing in my students and their learning journey!","fullyFundedDate":1783526102259,"projectUrl":"project/collaborative-climate-champions-hands-o/10346302/","projectTitle":"Collaborative Climate Champions: Hands-On STEM Learning","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Santoro","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/272x272/tp159183_272x272.jpg?width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1457646965807","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/asantoro"},{"teacherId":159183,"projectId":10290019,"letterContent":"Thank you so much for your generosity in funding our project, \"Fall in Love with Subtraction Cards and Magnetic Number Line\"!\r\n\r\nSubtraction can often be a tricky concept for young learners, but having hands-on, visual materials changes everything. The interactive subtraction cards turn math practice into an engaging, approachable activity that builds confidence step by step. Paired with the large magnetic number line, my students can now physically track jumps backward, visualize the difference between values, and connect counting to actual math operations right on the board.\r\n\r\nYour support transforms math into an exciting, accessible, and enjoyable subject for our classroom. Thank you for helping my students \"fall in love\" with learning and problem-solving!","fullyFundedDate":1783526100058,"projectUrl":"project/falling-in-love-with-numbers-k-2-math-m/10290019/","projectTitle":"Falling in Love With Numbers: K-2 Math Mastery","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Santoro","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/272x272/tp159183_272x272.jpg?width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1457646965807","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/asantoro"}],"pageName":"schoolpage_43947","usesDonorsChoose":true,"infoPageType":"school","demographicsInfo":{"numStudents":228,"numTeachers":24,"percentFrplEligible":78,"percentAsian":3,"percentBlack":6,"percentWhite":43,"percentIndigenous":0,"percentLatinx":40,"showFreeAndReducedPriceLunchInfo":true,"showDemographicsInfo":true,"sourceTooltipString":"the National Center for Education Statistics","percentHawaiianImputed":0,"percentMultiracialImputed":6,"gradesServed":"Pre-K - 2","studentTeacherRatio":"9.5:1","demographicsDataSource":"MDR School","equityFocus":true,"titleOne":true,"metroType":"URBAN","ncesMetroType":"SUBURB_LARGE"},"inStateSupporters":66.2,"schoolId":43947,"financialInfo":null,"twitterShareText":"Learn more about Deer Run Elementary School on @DonorsChoose:","schoolName":"Deer Run Elementary School","canonicalPageUrl":"schools/connecticut/east-haven-school-district/deer-run-elementary-school/43947"}