Foundation for Allen Schools

Foundation For Allen Schools Funded Classroom Grants at

Boon Elementary

2021-2023 Classroom Grants

Kodaly Training for Elementary Music Teachers

This grant under Fine Arts Curriculum was awarded to Jeff Turner and will benefit 10,000 students across all AISD Elementary Schools.

Two Allen ISD elementary music teachers will attended 3 weeks of intensive Kodaly training at SMU. The strategies, techniques, and resources from this training will be an incredible asset to the teacher to better deliver the elementary music curriculum and will be shared with all our our elementary educators across AISD.

ALLen Reads 2022

This grant under Library / Makerspace Curriculum was awarded to Kelly Clewell and will benefit 20,000 students across AISD and benefits every campus in Allen. 

ALLen Reads encourages the entire Allen community to read the same book or the grade-level appropriate companion book. The grant provides copies of the selected books to all campuses in Allen ISD, and the students have access to community events related to the books, such as author and illustrator speakers, writing presentations, and musical performances.

Math by the Book

This grant under Math - Elementary Curriculum was awarded to Michelle Stewart and Katie Snider and will benefit 2,898 students in Kindergarten and 1^st grade at EVERY Allen ISD elementary campus.

This grant will provide read aloud sets of books that link literary and math skills.   We know many students love stories but may have a fear of math or even math anxiety.  Students are able to connect concepts to context providing an increased level of engagement and retention. Stories bring math to life!   House Bill 3 puts a focus on early literacy and math skills. This resource would be helpful in integrating math and literacy in the early grade levels. An integrated experience creates deeper learning connections for students. Science and Social Studies have already embedded read alouds for K- 3 curriculum documents and this grant will support integration in math as well.

BRAINball

This grant under Physical Education Curriculum was awarded to Geoben Johnson and Katie Snider and will benefit 16,500 students across Allen ISD in grades K – 9^th.

BRAINball is an innovative and unique physical education learning system that merges physical activity and academic learning through play. In addition to the physical benefits, significant improvement will be seen in gross and fine motor skills, cooperative and cognitive learning.  Brainball has proven to produce positive changes in letter recognition,  students read better, improve mathematical skills, movement and writing skills. Research also shows positive changes in graphomotor skills, eye-hand coordination, and temporal-spatial orientation improvement when used on a consistent basis. The Brainball set includes 100 premade games/activities for K-6 that can be adapted for grades 7-9. Training will be provided to allow easy integration into district curriculum and to academic classroom teachers that want to use it for enhancing learning in their class. The brainball set is appropriate for Kindergarten through High School and can be adapted for students with special needs and learning deficits.

I Can See Clearly Now!

This grant under Special Education Curriculum was awarded to Patricia Reyna, Sherri Idbeis, Karen McCrary and Colleen Dunphy and will benefit 45 students across Allen ISD who have a visual impairment.

Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments serve students throughout the district and provide consult and direct instruction for teachers and students with blindness or visual impairments. An iPad Pro is a tool that makes accessing learning material possible for students that struggle with seeing on a regular iPad screen. An iPad Pro also serves as an evaluation tool for TSVI's and our Orientation and Mobility instructor in the district.

ByrdseedTV

This grant under Advanced Academics - AP/IB/GT Curriculum was awarded to Kari Lockhart and will benefit 1,474 students that are in our GT programs in years K-6.

ByrdseedTV provides gifted and talented teachers and learners with resources that foster deep and complex learning. Activities from Byrdseed are designed and used by a teacher of gifted students, and facilitate critical and creative thinking, inductive and deductive thinking skills, as well as encourage creative individual investigations.

2021-2022 Classroom Grants

4th Grade Circuits

This grant under Science/STEAM Curriculum was awarded to Teri Stepanic and will benefit 100 students.

Students learn all about circuits with hands-on experiences and extend their thinking through problem solving with circuit mazes.

Boon Does SCIENCE!

This grant under Science/STEAM Curriculum was awarded to Teri Stepanic and will benefit 750 students.

At Boon, we DO science! Our students will have many opportunities to learn science through inquiry with hands-on science labs.

From Problem Solving to Problem Posing

This grant under Math Curriculum was awarded to Brenda Fee and will benefit 160 students at both Boon and Olson.

Problem Solving to Problem Posing This grant introduces the instructional method of problem posing to high-level mathematics students in grades 2-6. Problem posing refers to instruction where students generate their own problems or questions based on a given situation. The goal is to help students independently solve problems in novel ways and pose new mathematical questions of interest to investigate.

DT - Leveled Readers

This grant under English Language Arts (Elementary) & Dyslexia Curriculum awarded to Ella Jones along with Jill Jaska, Susie Barlow, Deb Scott, Carli Burke, Dena Goddard, Amber Arnold, Candice Frazier, Janice Harrop, Maria Burnes, Julieta Henderson, Angela Lunde, Shia Valdovino, Janell Cook, Tami Everett.  The grant will benefit 900 students at the following campuses: Anderson, Bolin, Boyd, Chandler, Cheatham, Evans, Green Kerr, Lindsey and Ford Middle School.

Connected texts are decodable books that use predictable words and word patterns through engaging stories. The Dyslexia Therapist can use these books, in combination with other materials, to address the student?s fluency and comprehension skills. The Allen ISD Dyslexia Department wants to enhance its program by giving its students the opportunity to read these books so they can become stronger readers.