A+ for Mexico Education, Inc.
Grants 2023-2024 School Year
35 Grant applications received
32 Grants recommended for approval were either fully or partially funded
Total amount recommended for approval: $ 25,565.59
Decodable Readers in First Grade
Hawthorne Elementary – Alexandra Stuckenschneider, Jessica Brown, Emily Dodd, Samantha Hobbs
Grade: 1 $1,339.20
The use of the Heggerty curriculum of decodable readers will help students build their reading stamina and take what they already know and what they are doing as a whole class daily and apply it to text in small groups and independently.
Sensory Space
Hawthorne Elementary – Kelsey Stephens, Kate Blessing, Jennifer Jones, Amber Hawkins
Special Education Team Grades 1-5 $ 807.04
Sensory Space is a routine system used to address students who struggle with emotional regulation. The materials and tools purchased will support the development of a Sensory Space that will be a safe environment for students to calm, regulate, and optimize learning and participation in the school environment.
BrainPOP Makes the Brain Rock!
Mexico Middle School – Alexis Thoenen
8th Grade Science $ 330.00
BrainPOP is a tool used to engage students by providing access to hundreds of animated educational science videos that break down tough concepts in a way that makes sense for students of all ages.
Early Vocabulary in Literacy
Eugene Field Elementary – Whitney Lewis
Speech-Language $ 329.76
Vocabulary rich books will be used to target receptive and expressive vocabulary in literacy by making it fun to learn while having engaging stories. The students are more likely to carry over those vocabulary words into their everyday lives by making connections to text and speech.
Interactive Decodable Text Sets
Hawthorne Elementary – Kaylee Hutcheson
Grade: 2 $ 450.00
The text sets help students master essential literacy skills such as blending, vocabulary, comprehension, phonics, and fluency. The lessons are interactive, intentional, simple, and structured to provide enough information and guidance that can be modified to meet student’s needs.
Speech and Language Card Connection
Eugene Field Elementary – Whitney Lewis
Speech-Language $ 339.79
The grant will provide speech and language therapy intervention card sets with real-life pictures for speech-articulation and/or to aid in understanding and expanding language.
In Kahoots
Mexico Middle School – Stacey Ellison
7th Grade ELA/Reading Intervention $ 156.00
The interactive customizable learning program is used by teachers to create content that is ready for entire classes or for individual assignments to help with enrichment activities, remediation needs or formative assignments for students.
Let’s Get Reading
Mexico Middle School – Julie Duncan
7th Grade ELA $ 2,122.56
Graphic novels are an eye-catching engaging way to grab the attention of students. It takes substance to hold their attention and the grant will provide challenging stories for reluctant readers. Once the students are excited, their excitement spreads and they start to recommend the graphic novels to their peers.
Generation Genius Curriculum
Mexico Middle School – Michelle Lopez
Special Services $ 299.00
Generation Genius is a K-8 teaching resource that brings school science standards to life. The videos are produced in partnership with the National Science Teaching Association. The resource will provide access to hundreds of relevant and engaging educational videos, as well as access to 5E model lesson plans, leveled informational texts, discussion questions and quizzes for assessments.
Prepping for the Future
Hart Career Center – Kendra Smith
Agriculture Instructor $ 207.00
Not all students have a plan for their life after high school. The use of the scenario cards will be utilized to help students explore careers while working through real life work place scenarios. The cards provide prompting questions for the instructor so that the classroom discussions are very beneficial to students and hopefully bridge that gap between school and career choices.
Dramatic Play in Kindergarten
McMillan Early Learning Center – Kristin Jenkins
Grade: K $ 478.87
The grant will provide dramatic play materials to make learning in kindergarten more engaging while developing a child’s brain through writing, math, reading and even science. Incorporating play will help foster creativity, trigger the imagination and problem solving to help them prepare for real world experiences.
Enhancing Communication Abilities for Non-verbal Students
Hawthorne Elementary – Amer Hawkins, Kelsey Stephens
Grades: K-5 $ 900.00
The communication board is designed so that non-verbal students can facilitate effective communication between their peers, teachers and support staff. It will help with a large range of core vocabulary words, symbols and pictures, enabling students to express their needs and feelings by utilizing the board. It will help with fostering effective social connections and reduce the feeling of isolation and frustration.
Dramatic Preschool Play
McMillan Early Learning Center – Janet Tate
Grade: Pre-K $ 290.00
Dramatic play for young children manipulatives builds peer relationships, engages children, builds creativity, and develops problem solving skills. They will be used during Early Language and Literacy Curriculum (ELLC) based lessons and centers as a way for students to retell and act out stories they have learned.
Hand2Mind Reading Manipulatives and Interactive Decodable Readers
Eugene Field Elementary – Haley Schafer
Grade: 1 $ 1,047.97
The grant will provide reading small group manipulatives and decodable text for students. These manipulatives include phoneme chips and wants, reading rods, erasable Elkonin boxes, and many more science of reading supported materials. The decodable texts match the phonics scope and sequence being instructed in the classroom.
Building Executive Functioning Skills for Success
St. Brendan School – Thresa Farnell
Grade: 5 $ 1,383.83
Funding for this grant will be used to purchase books for students to connect with and materials for students to practice various executive functioning skills to build their cognitive flexibility, working memory, and organization. By building on these skills, students will achieve greater success in all subject areas each year they are in school.
Creating Fluid Readers
Hawthorne Elementary – Cali Crile, Kaylee Hutcheson, Lauren Merz, Miriam Hyde
Grade: 2 $ 2,000.00
Second grade students are working to become fluent readers and as a part of that process there are those that are able to read lengthy chapter books and also students who are struggling to sound out words. The grant will give those students the opportunity to differentiate their learning. Reading aloud is one of the most important ways to foster children’s emerging language and literacy skills. Students will be able to use individual players and headphones to listen to fluent reading to increase their language skills.
Making 1st- 3rd Grade Brains Pop
Hawthorne Elementary – Stacy Vines
Computer Class $ 2,000.00
BrainPOP Jr will allow students in the first, second, and third grade have access to a web base multi-media resource that will help increase literacy, concepts, math, science and social studies skills through games, videos, and interactive experiences.
Architecture=Academic Achievement
McMillan Early Learning Center – Kayla Hildebrant
Grade: Pre-K $ 410.00
Using manipulatives to build in the construction center students will strengthen math and science concepts while they learn and play with peers. The experience will assist them with academic achievement.
STEM Building
St. Brendan School – Janeen Kilgore
Grade: Middle School Science $ 286.00
STEM is an educational approach that combines the teaching of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics through activities. Learning by doing. STEM encourages children to gather information and make their own inferences and put their knowledge into practice through problem solving activities which improve logical reasoning.
Reliable 3D Printing
Hart Career Center – Philip Long $800.00
3D Printing is the standard for testing and prototyping designs in multiple disciplines. With the purchase of this printer, students in engineering, digital electronics, manufacturing and graphic design will become proficient at designing and printing 3D models to meet a variety of specifications and purposes.
Engineering the Future
McMillan Early Learning Center – Amanda Heflin
Grade: Pre-K $ 300.00
Engineering the Future will give students the tools and opportunities to discover, create, construct and explore the world. This is done by giving them opportunities to problem solve, ask questions, and discover the world around them using STEM activities to foster a lifelog love of learning.
Making 4th and 5th Grade Brains Pop
Hawthorne Elementary – Stacy Vines
Computer Class $ 2,000.00
Students in the 4th and 5th grade will be given the opportunity to access web based multi-media resources that will help increase literacy, math, science and social studies skills in an interactive environment. Students will have access to curriculum-aligned quizzes, videos and activities to improve language and critical thinking skills.
Literature and Hands-on Learning in the Classroom
McMillan Early Learning Center – Keena Johnston
Grade: K $ 204.00
The object is to bring literature and hands-on learning into the classroom. Research shows that students excel when using hands-on learning to inspire multi-tasking through listening, speaking, touching and using the senses to discover their environment.
Building Math Skills
St. Brendan School – Kelly Stanford
Grade: 1 $ 1,364.15
One of the key math skills for primary students is number sense. This is the ability to understand numbers and to reason about them. The grant will provide math manipulatives to help students develop problem-solving skills.
Farm to Table, Courtyard to Cafeteria
St. Brenda School – Michelle Crawford
Grade: K $ 1,100.00
The goal of Farm to Table, Courtyard to Cafeteria is to create opportunities for students to learn about where food comes from and how to nourish plants so that they can nourish our bodies. The grant is more than a trend…it is a foundation for important life skills that student needs to have for a lifelong healthy lifestyle.
Making Math Better
Hawthorne Elementary – Emily Dodd, Alex Stuckenschneider, Jessica Brown, Sammie Hobbs
Grade: 1 $ 870.00
Funding for the grant will be used to purchase hands-on math manipulatives and tools for math interventions. Students who use manipulatives create physical evidence of thinking and reasoning, problem solving, and can make better sense of mathematical ideas.
Making Reading Come Alive
McMillan Early Learning Center -JoAnne Marietta
Grade: K $ 484.00
The grant will provide a listening center using headphones, books, CDs and tapes to encourage appropriate use of books, by establishing a connection between what is being heard and what text is on the page. The use of multiple senses creates a positive learning experience for students who had not found their avenue of learning.
Magnify Fine Motor
St. Brendan School – Cheyenne Yeager
Grade: Early Childhood $ 1,405.48
The goal of Magnify Fine Motor grant is to expand opportunities for students to strengthen and grow their fine motor skills through play and structured activities. Often time the building of fine motor skills are not as developed as gross motor skills. Through specific play building and tasks in the skill centers and activities in the classroom students will have the opportunity to truly focus on strengthening their hand muscles, hand-eye coordination and other fine motor skills.
Learning through STEM Play
McMillan Early Learning Center – Maggie Resa
Grade: Pre-K $ 166.94
STEM play incorporates science, technology, engineering and math concepts in a way that is hands-on and engaging and encourages a child’s natural curiosity which hopefully will lead to lifelong learning. Students will additionally have the opportunity to improve their fine motor skills which will help build their confidence.
Rolling Out Clay
St. Brendan School – Kim Wyman
Grade/Class: Art $ 1,068.0
The use of clay will help develop fine motor skills, mathematical concepts, problem solving and creativity. Students from preschool through 8th grade will use artistic strategies when creating objects that will encourage trial and error giving them the opportunity to feel successful at being an artist.
Accessible Technology for our Youngest Learners
McMillan Early Learning Center – Layne Meyers
Grade: Pre-K $ 260.00
Technology is a major component especially with the youth. The youngest learners are utilizing technology as it is integrated throughout the classroom during whole group lessons. The students will have access to two LeapFrog tablets with preloaded learning games to use in the technology center during center time.
Classroom Loom
St. Brendan School – Kim Wyman
Grade/Class: Art $ 366.00
Students will have the chance to develop textile skills, fine motor skills, problem solving, and mathematical concepts while using a loom and learning a century old skill in a creative way.