{"monthlySchoolDonationEnabled":false,"callToActionDisplayName":"Pilsen Community Academy","outOfStateSupporters":36.0,"allowSchoolLevelGiving":true,"hasFundedProjects":true,"projectGratitudeData":[{"teacherId":9050432,"projectId":9300815,"letterContent":"My position at Pilsen was eliminated in July due to budget cuts. Sadly, I was not able to have the Decoden club for my students there. However, the middle school students I currently work with celebrate progress reports and report cards every few weeks with a \"Fun Friday.\" For Fun Friday, the students suggest activities they would like to do. Some of those include a: game room, recess, basketball, karaoke, quiet room, and other activities. Decoden room was one of the offerings during the last couple of Fun Fridays and it was hands down the most popular activity! Students ranked what activity they would like to do. So many students chose Decoden, that we had to turn them away. No worries though, thanks to your generosity we have enough supplies for a Decoden room for every Fun Friday.\r\n\r\nMy new school is on the South Side of Chicago and is a selective enrollment school for gifted students. More than a third of my students come from lower income households. Decoden is an expensive craft. It brought such joy to my students when I told them they were allowed to pick any projects to decorte. \"Do we get to keep these?!\" Clipboard? Key chain? Hair clip? Pencil box? And on top of that there were so many fun Decoden charms that the students were able to personalize their creations to showcase their interests and personalities. My students are extremely bright and creative. Our curriculum is one to two years above grade level. So these kids have a lot of classwork and homework every day. It feels great to celebrate their efforts during these Fun Fridays, by having our Decoden room available as a reward. This is not an activity our CPS budget would be able to fund without your generosity!\r\n\r\nHaving Fun Friday, offering Decoden projects, and prioritizing down time for the students, is essential for these kids' social emotional well being. You would not believe how stressed out kids can get at such a young age. Students can break down in tears from exhaustion, due to frustration, and from anxiety. When we do Decoden we play music, talk, laugh...there are no worries. Their biggest concern is what color of fake frosting to select for their project. \r\n\r\n\r\nWhere does your donation go? Well, the clip boards will be used in our ELA classes. Students have flexible seating options, and often need a hard surface to write on. The pencil boxes organize their supplies. Pencils, markers, pens, fidgets, and countless other materials are housed in these treasure boxes from our Decoden sessions. I see the key chains hanging from their backpacks; students used the beads, spelling out their names, and identifying their bags. We have used the dry erase boards to record examples of figurative language in our texts, keep score in games we play for review, and to break down multisyllabic words. So thank you to Ripple for their generous support as well! Without their matching donation, we would not have been able to afford so many useful and high quality materials to support our learning in the classroom. \r\n\r\nThank you so much for you generosity and support. My students and I appreciate you so much!","fullyFundedDate":1746787308987,"projectUrl":"project/the-students-love-decoden-at-pilsen-comm/9300815/","projectTitle":"The Students Love Decoden at Pilsen Community Academy!","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Halvorsen","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp9050432_orig.jpg?crop=528,528,x0,y0&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1693504511552","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/9050432"},{"teacherId":9050432,"projectId":9074914,"letterContent":"The Decoden Club has been a great success. The students looked forward to coming to the club every Monday. Many of them mentioned it helped them to get up Monday mornings knowing that they had Decoden club at the end of the day. The students really bonded with one another. It was amazing watching some of them come out of their shells in the weeks we've been together. \r\n\r\nThe students were so excited when they saw the adorable, fun, decoden charms. I had organizer boxes for each of them to hand select charms for their projects. They picked out special charms they could use that day, or save for another day. The students were very intentional about their color schemes and the designs of their projects.\r\n\r\nEach week, I created a Google Slides presentation showing them new piping techniques for the fake frosting you contributed. We looked at samples of other projects that had already been created. Students learned where to purchase inexpensive supplies if they wanted to continue this hobby at home. Many of the students created items as birthday and holiday gifts for friends and families.\r\n\r\nMy favorite thing about the club was that we all learned new things together. For example, we practiced our language skills with one another. Many of my students are multilingual and they practiced their English. I am learning Spanish. So, they taught me Spanish. And together, we learned frosting techniques. The students also learned how to work cooperatively to clean up the materials at the end of each session. It's not easy to clean out those frosting tips! \r\n\r\nThe club was such a success we had other students telling us they wanted to join next year. So it is my pleasure to announce that I wrote another Donor's Choose for the Fall and it has already been fully funded. So we will have Decoden Club 2.0 in Fall of 2025! Thank you so much for you generous donation. You have made such an impact on our Pilsen Pandas!","fullyFundedDate":1738613039167,"projectUrl":"project/have-you-heard-of-decoden/9074914/","projectTitle":"Have You Heard of Decoden?","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Halvorsen","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp9050432_orig.jpg?crop=528,528,x0,y0&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1693504511552","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/9050432"},{"teacherId":1425747,"projectId":8559648,"letterContent":"Thank you so much for supporting our classroom! Your kind donation is helping create an environment of learning and a love for utilizing technology in education! We are so appreciative of your generosity. Our headphones are used during center time as well for our online literacy programs and also during our math centers for our online math programs. The students love using them and it does wonders to create an environment of learning! \r\n\r\nThank you so much for supporting Chicago Public Schools! Overall your kind donations has affected our classroom in the most positive way! Thank you for your contributions!","fullyFundedDate":1728062294152,"projectUrl":"project/ear-resistible-first-graders-in-need-of/8559648/","projectTitle":"Ear-Resistible First Graders in need of headphones!","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Perez","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp1425747_orig.jpg?crop=960,960,x0,y35&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1609615883777","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/1425747"}],"pageName":"schoolpage_5702","usesDonorsChoose":true,"infoPageType":"school","demographicsInfo":{"numStudents":222,"numTeachers":22,"percentFrplEligible":89,"percentAsian":0,"percentBlack":9,"percentWhite":0,"percentIndigenous":0,"percentLatinx":89,"showFreeAndReducedPriceLunchInfo":true,"showDemographicsInfo":true,"sourceTooltipString":"the National Center for Education Statistics","gradesServed":"Pre-K - 8","studentTeacherRatio":"10.1:1","demographicsDataSource":"MDR School","equityFocus":true,"titleOne":true,"metroType":"URBAN","ncesMetroType":"CITY_LARGE"},"inStateSupporters":64.0,"schoolId":5702,"financialInfo":null,"twitterShareText":"Learn more about Pilsen Community Academy on @DonorsChoose:","schoolName":"Pilsen Community Academy","canonicalPageUrl":"schools/illinois/chicago-public-school-district-299/pilsen-community-academy/5702"}
Join the 517 supporters who believe in this school.
About this school
Pilsen Community Academy is
an urban public school
in Chicago, Illinois that is part of Chicago Public School District 299.
It serves 222 students
in grades Pre-K - 8 with a student/teacher ratio of 10.1:1.
Its teachers have had 156 projects funded on DonorsChoose.
Boost support for this school! Share this page with friends, family, alumni, and fellow supporters. Every connection helps teachers get the supplies they need and shows how much your community cares about its students.
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Every donation funds real needs — pencils, books, lab equipment, art supplies, and more — helping students learn and thrive. We ship supplies directly to the school, and you'll see exactly where each dollar goes.
of students receive free or reduced price lunch
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
Source: the National Center for Education Statistics
98%
of students are Black, Latino, Native
American, or Asian
Data about school demographics comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. The numbers in this chart may not add up to 100% because of limitations in the available data.
Pilsen Community Academy Support on DonorsChoose
Last updated Dec 25, 2025
DonorsChoose makes it easy for anyone to help a teacher in need, moving us closer to a nation where students
in every community have the tools and experiences they need for a great education.
Pilsen Community Academy
$80,360
raised using DonorsChoose
156
projects
funded
37
teachers
funded
517
donors
3
projects
for
basic supplies
8
projects for
technology
39
projects for
books
6
projects
for
art supplies
Pilsen Community Academy has received support from
331 individuals from Illinois and
186 individuals out-of-state.
