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    Foundation For Allen Schools Funded Classroom Grants at

    Preston Elementary 

     

     

    2022-2023 Classroom Grants

    Greek Artists on the Rise!

    This grant under Advanced Academics - AP/IB/GT Curriculum was awarded to Karen Abney and will benefit 50 students at Preston Elementary.

    Preston students are leaders!  After an in-depth study of ancient Greece, they will use their artistic skills to design a pottery piece that reflects their morals and values as a reminder to stay true to themselves and what they believe in.

     

    Classroom Calm Down Kits

    This grant under Counseling Curriculum was awarded to Calli Smith and Monica Lemons and will benefit 650 students at Preston Elementary.

    Teaching our students strategies and tools to help monitor and regulate their emotional well-being is more crucial now than ever before. Through the use of Classroom Calm Down Kits, we hope to provide students and teachers with a toolbox of items to help reduce stress and anxiety in the classroom, which will support their overall academic growth.

     

    Solid Foundations!

    This grant under English Language Arts (Elementary) & Dyslexia Curriculum was awarded to Tracy Turner and will benefit 100 students at Preston Elementary.

    This grant provides books and instructional materials appropriate for our 2nd grad readers.  Our K – 1st grad students were provided decodable text by the district from FlyLeaf Publishing and has had good success, we now want to see this success continue in our 2nd grade classess.  Decodable text provides students with the foundational skills they need in order for them to become accurate, fluent, and comprehensive readers.  Decodable text allows every student to feel reading success!

     

    Coding Fun

    This grant under Library / Makerspace Curriculum was awarded to Jennifer Armentrout and will benefit 600 students at Preston Elementary.

    Coding literacy is important for kids today.  Kids working with technology in its basic level, helps them to be prepared for the jobs of the future.  The purchase of the program Code and Go Mouse provides the opportunity for students to creatively code at any age.

     

    Math Small Group Activities

    This grant under Math - Elementary Curriculum was awarded to Jamye Hall, Holly Geissel, Irene Olvera, and Melissa Benitoa and will benefit all  our Kindergarten students at Preston Elementary.

    This grant provides a complete set of Lakeshore Math Instant Learning Centers.  These centers will be used throughout the year with small group activities and will target students with intervention needs and introduce new kindergarten math concepts to support student learning.

     

    Empowered Girls in STEM

    This grant under Science / STEAM Curriculum was awarded to Jamie Qureshi and will benefit 650 students at Preston Elementary.

    Despite making up nearly half of the U.S. workforce overall, women only make  up 27% of the STEM occupations. The "Empower Science" program would encourage girls and minorities to consider a career in STEM in early elementary school through the use of a STEM-centered read aloud books with strong female and minority lead characters.

     

    Empowered Leaders

    This grant under Counseling Curriculum was awarded to Jennifer Armentrout, Jennifer Springgs, Samantha Fields, Meredith Martin, Austin White, Solomn Boatfield, Harold Allen, Dylan Martin, Todd Fornadel and Tara Cassetty and will benefit 300 students at Chandler Elementary, Marion Elementary, Olson Elementary, Preston Elementary, Rountree Elementary, Vaughan Elementary, Curtis Middle School, Ereckson Middle School and Ford Middle School.

    Empowered Leaders takes place in six elementary schools and all three middle schools in Allen ISD who participate in this unique after-school leadership program which focuses on building leaders in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. Students participate in field trip, leadership skills training, and serving through volunteer efforts.

     

    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 attend 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 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 1st 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 – 9th.

    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

    Reaching Readers Through Read Alouds

    This grant under English Language Arts (Elementary) & Dyslexia Curriculum was awarded to Maloree Tennison along with Monica Lemons and will benefit 550 students at Preston.

    Read Alouds are something all students of all ages enjoy. Read Alouds allow students to dive into a great story, build comprehension skills, and have solid literacy discussions with their peers and teachers.

      

    Hands on Learning

    This grant under Science/STEAM Curriculum was awarded to Jamye Hall along with Amy McCullough, and Melissa Benitoa and will benefit 84 students at Preston.

    Hands on Learning is the way of the future and it starts with our kindergarteners. Kindergarten students are reinforcing their learning of various science skills by seeing, doing and having meaningful conversations with peers and teachers. These ready to go activities allow students to take ownership of their learning in science!

     

    Little Scientists

    This grant under Science/STEAM Curriculum was awarded to Catherine Underwood and will benefit 80 students at Preston.

    The Hands On Learning Centers for Science in the first grade classroom will provide students with early exploration possibilities within the science field and still working with our own AllenISD curriculum. By providing hands on learning opportunities throughout the school year, students will gain a positive outlook on Science at an early age.

      

    Windows and Mirrors seeing ourselves in text!

    This grant under English Language Arts (Elementary) & Dyslexia Curriculum was awarded to Tracy Turner and will benefit 1200 students at Preston.

    ALLENISD, we embrace our uniqueness and we celebrate our diversity. We embrace the uniqueness of our students and the backgrounds they so beautifully share with us daily.