{"monthlySchoolDonationEnabled":true,"callToActionDisplayName":"Yorkwood Elementary School 219","outOfStateSupporters":40.0,"allowSchoolLevelGiving":true,"hasFundedProjects":true,"projectGratitudeData":[{"teacherId":3717482,"projectId":9931487,"letterContent":"Thank you so much for your generosity. My Pre-K and K students are LOVING these puppets! The puppets for \"Had a Little Rooster\" are an enormous hit with the PK/K self-contained class for our children with special needs/Autism. \r\n\r\nWe have noticed increased participation and expressive language! One student brings the Feierabend SongTale books to me (in order) every class. I'm just now beginning to introduce the puppets for Kitty Alone, because we must do the other 3 SongTales first!\r\n\r\nOur Gen Ed PK/K students are developing their singing voices, and know 5 of the SongTales by heart: \"The Other Day I Met a Bear,\" \"Had a Little Rooster,\" \"The Crabfish,\" \"Kitty Alone,\" and they are beginning to learn \"Old Joe Clark.\"\r\n\r\nThese puppets are so engaging and have given my kiddos the opportunity to lead the storytelling themselves -- I can't thank you enough!","fullyFundedDate":1771248885389,"projectUrl":"project/center-stage-empowering-young-storytell/9931487/","projectTitle":"Center Stage: Empowering Young Storytellers Through Puppets & Music","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Shade","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp3717482_orig.jpg?crop=957,957,x0,y114&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1736539070443","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/ms-shade"},{"teacherId":3717482,"projectId":9935765,"letterContent":"Thank you so much -- the children LOVE singing the songs and acting them out with the puppets! They ask for these classic SongTales over and over again. \"The Other Day I Met a Bear\" - their favorite part is when the fox jumps into the air, misses the branch, then catches it on the way back down. One student plays the tree, and they all have so much fun performing the actions in the story.\r\n\r\n\"The Crabfish\" is another SongTale hit. My students are able to sing the entire song by memory - with good pitch, in their singing voices. They helped stage the performance on this day, making sure that the wife was lying down sick and the husband checking to see what's wrong. Of course, everyone's favorite part is when the crabfish jumps up and bites the wife by the nose!\r\n\r\nThank you so much for these puppets that have increased my students' engagement and joy in singing and telling stories through song and dramatic play! I am so grateful to you all.","fullyFundedDate":1767193692350,"projectUrl":"project/center-stage-again-confident-storytelli/9935765/","projectTitle":"Center Stage Again! Confident Storytelling Through Songtales & Puppets","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Shade","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp3717482_orig.jpg?crop=957,957,x0,y114&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1736539070443","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/ms-shade"},{"teacherId":3717482,"projectId":9928172,"letterContent":"Thank you so much for funding this music project. My pre-K/K students are having so much fun performing Songtales using puppets! The puppet characters are spread across several projects, and we now have enough for 2 of our Songtales: I Had a Little Rooster - the dog is adorable! - and The Other Day I Met a Bear. The children all want to take a turn telling the story, singing the song and performing the parts with the puppets. Even my non-verbal students are fully participating, animating the animal puppet to perform its part to the best of their ability, and the children are singing with more enthusiasm than ever!\r\n\r\nThe temple blocks are also a big hit! One favorite activity: the children set a tempo for movement and play a signal for everyone to freeze. Then they play a different tempo and the students match it with new movements. Some students show a real talent for percussion with the rhythmic patterns they create. The temple blocks are a great prelude to the xylophones they will begin playing in 1st grade.\r\n\r\nThank you so much for supporting my young scholars!","fullyFundedDate":1764598898741,"projectUrl":"project/beat-story-action-music-puppets-for/9928172/","projectTitle":"Beat, Story, Action! Music & Puppets for Pre-K Creators","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Shade","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp3717482_orig.jpg?crop=957,957,x0,y114&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1736539070443","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/ms-shade"},{"teacherId":10196943,"projectId":9633924,"letterContent":"Dear Wonderful Donors,\r\nThank you for supporting our project, \"An iPad for 4th Grade Learning Adventures.\" Because of your generosity, our classroom has gained a powerful tool that enhances learning in meaningful ways. In school, technology is not just for entertainment—it is used to deepen understanding and build essential skills. With the iPad, students are practicing reading and math through interactive apps that adjust to their individual levels, allowing them to work at their own pace while receiving immediate feedback. This helps them build confidence and master skills more effectively.\r\nThe most exciting part for my 4th graders is the opportunity to explore and create. They love researching science and social studies topics for projects and then turning their learning into digital presentations, videos, and creative designs. The iPad has transformed traditional assignments into engaging, hands-on experiences that encourage critical thinking and problem-solving. Lessons feel more dynamic, and students are eager to participate.\r\nI've seen particular growth in students who sometimes struggle to stay focused during paper-and-pencil tasks. The interactive features of the iPad capture their attention and motivate them to persevere. Some of my more reserved students have blossomed when given the chance to express their ideas digitally. Your support has made learning more accessible, engaging, and empowering for every child in our classroom. Thank you for investing in their curiosity and future!","fullyFundedDate":1764782885418,"projectUrl":"project/an-ipad-for-4th-grade-learning-adventure/9633924/","projectTitle":"An iPad for 4th Grade Learning Adventures","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Casia","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://cdn.donorschoose.net/images/placeholder-avatars/272/teacher-placeholder-2_272.png?auto=webp","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/10196943"},{"teacherId":3717482,"projectId":9497663,"letterContent":"Thank you so much - these dry-erase boards and markers are a game changer! Children are much more engaged in writing when it's colorful markers on dry erase boards than when working with pencil and paper. My students pass out them out quickly - the routine doesn't take much time out of valuable instruction time. They are getting the chance to write and read sounds using melodic direction, Solfa and traditional staff lines. \r\nKindergarten writes the vocal lines they hear. Then they read aloud (singing) the lines they wrote. They also compose vocal lines themselves and read aloud (sing) their compositions. \r\nThe staff lines have allowed students to practice writing, reading and composing skips and steps and specific Solfa phrases, for example: So Mi So Mi So and So La So Mi. \r\nThe middle grade students practice their aural skills by writing phrases with more notes, such as So Mi Do Re Do and La So Mi So Mi Re Do Do'. They will soon be writing time signatures, rhythmic notation and measure bar lines.","fullyFundedDate":1760693544986,"projectUrl":"project/small-supplies-big-impact-building-mus/9497663/","projectTitle":"Small Supplies, Big Impact: Building Musical Minds","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Shade","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp3717482_orig.jpg?crop=957,957,x0,y114&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1736539070443","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/ms-shade"},{"teacherId":3717482,"projectId":8986967,"letterContent":"These scarves and drums have been transformational for my students! They aren't just tools—they've become invitations for children to create, collaborate, and express themselves through music and movement. I've seen my students' faces light up with joy as they sing, move, and add their own drum parts, building performances together in ways that honor every child's ideas and abilities.\r\n\r\nSecond-grade students chose scarf colors to bring a Native American folk song about the sun and ocean to life, while kindergarten students used movement and color to show falling snow through winter songs, including \"Little Snowflake / Copo de Nieve /Yuki Yuki\" sung in English, Spanish, and Japanese. \r\n\r\nIn chorus, a core group of students are working collaboratively to design movement and rhythm for \"Earth Round.\" The photos show them representing the earth turning at night through circling movement and a nighttime color palette. They are now preparing to teach this composition to the full chorus, layering movement, rhythm, and color so that the three overlapping entrances of the round visually mirror the earth's turning—transitioning from night, to day, and back to night again.\r\n\r\nBecause of you, my students are not just learning music—they are experiencing what it feels like to be creators, collaborators, and artists! Thank you for giving them the tools that make this kind of expressive, joyful, meaningful learning possible.","fullyFundedDate":1742930960249,"projectUrl":"project/black-history-month-drum-chant-sing-a/8986967/","projectTitle":"Black History Month: Drum, Chant, Sing and Dance!","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Shade","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp3717482_orig.jpg?crop=957,957,x0,y114&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1736539070443","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/ms-shade"},{"teacherId":3717482,"projectId":9213736,"letterContent":"Thank you so much for your gift to my students! The frame drums are FANTASTIC. Every class, from Pre-K through 5th grade has used the frame drums, starting with a circle passing game on the beat: Students made up the lyrics to the tune of the Guatemalan song, \"Vamos a la Mar.\" They sing: \"Let's all pass the drum, tum-tum /Then pass it to a friend, tum-tum / Pass it to another, tum-tum / Then pass the drum again, tum-tum.\" Pre-K can pass up to 3 drums at once, 1st can pass 6 at once, 2nd can keep passing the drums with every other student having a drum, and 4th and 5th are able to consistently pass with every child in the circle passing and receiving a drum at the same time while singing. It's a great accomplishment! \r\n\r\nStudents have also used these drums with layered texts in \"From Wibbleton to Wabbleton,\" and created movement pieces with rain-colored scarves and drums using the American folksong: \r\n\r\nI don't care if the rain comes down, I'm gonna dance all day,\r\nI don't care if the rain comes down, I'm gonna dance all day,\r\nHey hey, carry me away, I'm gonna dance all day,\r\nHey hey, carry me away, I'm gonna dance all day\r\n\r\nMuch fun and lots of music learning and creating - thank you!","fullyFundedDate":1744980010111,"projectUrl":"project/feel-it-read-it-clap-it-sing-it-tap/9213736/","projectTitle":"Feel It! Read It, Clap It, Sing It, Tap It!","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Shade","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp3717482_orig.jpg?crop=957,957,x0,y114&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1736539070443","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/ms-shade"},{"teacherId":3717482,"projectId":8991671,"letterContent":"Thank you for giving us these books and accompanying materials. Students had so much fun learning rhythmic games from \"Step it Down,\" and exploring movement choices and accompanying the sequences with the talking drum, frame drums and xylophones. \r\n\r\nMy students have enjoyed learning about Ella Fitzgerald and listening to her music - a couple of favorites are , \"A Tisket, a Tasket\" and her version of \"Jingle Bells\" from \"A Swinging Christmas.\" -- they love to sing \"I'm just crazy about horses!\" \r\n\r\nThe 4th and 5th graders were riveted when learning that Harriet Tubman was called \"Moses\" and making the connections between the Biblical story of the Israelites being led out of slavery by Moses and Harriet Tubman (from Maryland!) serving the same role for enslaved people in our country. My scholars had so many questions and shared their thoughts about what Harriet Tubman did for her people. They listened to Cynthia Erivo sing \"The Goodbye Song,\" and sang it for several weeks. \r\n\r\nThank you for so much for helping me expose my students to more music, more African American heroes and get in touch with their history and childhood chants and games!","fullyFundedDate":1742960227224,"projectUrl":"project/black-history-in-childrens-music-call/8991671/","projectTitle":"Black History in Children's Music: Call, Response, Rhythm and Rhyme!","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Shade","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp3717482_orig.jpg?crop=957,957,x0,y114&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1736539070443","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/ms-shade"},{"teacherId":3717482,"projectId":9213622,"letterContent":"Having a complete classroom set of frame drums has given my students such a wonderful start to their school year!\r\n\r\nI first introduced the frame drum - to each of my classes, K-5th. I showed them how to hold it with their non-dominant hand and how to play with their dominant hand. Students passed the drum around, playing the down-up, down-up, down pattern. \r\n\r\nSince it we begin the year with Hispanic Heritage Month, I taught all my students \"Vamos a la Mar\" (\"Let's Go to the Sea\") from Guatemala. I created lyrics to familiarize them with the melody: \"Pass the drum around, Tum, Tum / Now pass it to a friend, Tum, Tum...\" They loved singing along and taking turns with the drum. \r\n\r\nWhat they didn't expect, was that then we would pass 2 drums at the same time, then 4. And then, a big challenge, keep the circle going with every other person playing and passing the drum. I was able to differentiate this activity by how slow or fast the tempo of song was and putting the students who need more support beside me or another advanced student. Every class was successful, and every class would ask to do the drum circle when they came to class again!\r\n\r\nMy students didn't expect the next step - when EVERYONE got a drum at the same time - they couldn't believe it! They were able to keep the circle going with everyone playing and passing the drum with the song, and they were absolutely THRILLED! That was just the first activity they mastered. So many more to come. Thank you!!","fullyFundedDate":1752586528939,"projectUrl":"project/a-rum-pum-pum-pum-let-the-children-drum/9213622/","projectTitle":"A Rum-Pum-Pum-Pum! Let the Children Drum!","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Shade","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp3717482_orig.jpg?crop=957,957,x0,y114&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1736539070443","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/ms-shade"},{"teacherId":3717482,"projectId":9381071,"letterContent":"My student was absolutely THRILLED when he received his new digital piano! His mother was astounded that generous people believe in her son and are supporting him. I took the piano to their house and helped him set it up. \r\n\r\nHe played for his mother - she had never heard him play before! We had a lovely conversation about his talent, what I hear in his musical improvisations that I believe so strongly in, and how he can continue to work and grow even without having the money for lessons or internet access. \r\n\r\nHe and I played some improv together - it was a wonderful experience for me, and I will forever treasure those moments. \r\n\r\nI'll be following up soon to see how he's getting along, and I hope to be taking an iPad with software to help him with developing his playing skills! That project is LIVE right now, with a 1.5 match! Thank you for all your support.","fullyFundedDate":1752586415521,"projectUrl":"project/let-him-play-keyboard-for-a-young-compo/9381071/","projectTitle":"Let Him Play: Keyboard for a Young Composer (Part 1)","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Shade","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp3717482_orig.jpg?crop=957,957,x0,y114&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1736539070443","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/ms-shade"}],"pageName":"schoolpage_64403","usesDonorsChoose":true,"infoPageType":"school","demographicsInfo":{"numStudents":294,"numTeachers":20,"percentFrplEligible":95,"percentAsian":0,"percentBlack":92,"percentWhite":0,"percentIndigenous":0,"percentLatinx":3,"showFreeAndReducedPriceLunchInfo":true,"showDemographicsInfo":true,"sourceTooltipString":"the National Center for Education Statistics","percentHawaiianImputed":0,"percentMultiracialImputed":2,"gradesServed":"Pre-K - 5","studentTeacherRatio":"14.7:1","demographicsDataSource":"MDR School","equityFocus":true,"titleOne":true,"metroType":"URBAN","ncesMetroType":"CITY_LARGE"},"inStateSupporters":60.0,"schoolId":64403,"financialInfo":null,"twitterShareText":"Learn more about Yorkwood Elementary School 219 on @DonorsChoose:","schoolName":"Yorkwood Elementary School 219","canonicalPageUrl":"schools/maryland/baltimore-city-public-school-district/yorkwood-elementary-school-219/64403"}