Grants Awarded for the 2011-12 School Year

1.   VIVA SALSA! – A Celebration of the Music, Movement and Culture of the Caribbean

Nancy Rote, Hanscom K-8 Librarian
With 13 collaborators

This project involves a morning assembly for grades K-8 where they will have an interactive introduction to the music of Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.  This will be followed by a lunch Fiesta with foods such as Jamaican jerk chicken and Cubano yellow rice.  In addition, there will be Latin dance lessons for older students during their regular wellness classes that week. It is a co-curricular grant that supports the FLES, Spanish, arts, wellness, and other programs.

 

2.  Dancing with Robots

Terry Green, Science Enrichment, Lincoln/Hanscom
Melissa Nordstrom, Lincoln School Wellness Teacher
Ryan Cassidy, Lincoln School Wellness Teacher
Stacey Clarkin, Hanscom Primary Wellness Teacher

This curriculum initiative is a collaboration between the Lego Robotics Program in the science enrichment class and the Wellness classes in Grade 3.  Students will plan, practice and implement a dance routine on the GeoMats in Wellness class, and then carry their moves into science class by building and programming their Lego robots to do the same moves.

 

3.  States of Matter, Grade 1 Science

Carol Mahn, Hanscom Primary School Classroom Teacher
Mary Ann Sullivan, Classroom Teacher
Tiffany Shaw, Classroom Teacher
Terry Green, Science Enrichment Teacher                       

This curriculum enrichment initiative provides two days of summer work for classroom teachers in Grade One, working with the science enrichment teacher to review, reflect on and revise the Solids and Liquids science unit.

The work will align with the Lincoln Public School Learning Standards and the Massachusetts Science Curriculum Frameworks. This grant will be jointly funded by LSF and the School District, which will also contribute $1,040.

 

4.   Bridging the Culture Gap: Creating Relationships that Respond to Differences

Claudia FoxTree, Special Education Teacher, Lincoln/Hanscom 5-8Janice Fairchild, Hanscom Middle School, Social Studies Teacher

This grant will fund a conference in January 2012 for Hanscom and Lincoln middle school students and teachers.  The focus of the conference, which will include a keynote speaker and 2 workshops, will be on the opportunities and responsibilities of building a respectful school culture.  It will support diversity initiatives, anti-bullying state mandates, and the DDMS social contract.  The conference will be modeled on the highly successful Service Learning Conference that the applicants conceived and implemented several years ago. 

 

5.  Singing Our Way Through the Alphabet: Connecting Curriculum, Technology, Music, Fun and Kindergarten Families

Blake Siskavich, Lincoln Kindergarten Teacher
Becky Eston Salemi, Lincoln Kindergarten Teacher
Rachel Scheff, Lincoln Kindergarten Teacher           

This curriculum enrichment initiative will enable the Kindergarten team to update and record the New Phonics songs they have created and compiled over the past few years. The songs will be available for listening and downloading on the school website.  Each child will receive a CD to celebrate learning the alphabet.  The completed project will be shared with Hanscom teachers as well.

 

6.  Enhancing Writing Instruction in Grades K-4 with Mentor Texts

Gwen Blumberg, Lincoln School Literacy Specialist
Jennifer Cummings, Lincoln School 2nd Grade Teacher
Cathlin O’Reilly, Lincoln School 3rd Grade Teacher
Liz Paige, Hanscom Literacy Specialist
Judy Merra, Hanscom English Language Arts Specialist

This curriculum initiative and professional development proposal will create an in-house library of mentor texts for use by teachers at the Lincoln Smith School and Hanscom Primary School.  The grant will expand the already-begun district writing initiative, and allow teachers to have texts on hand in the classroom that focus on various writing traits and conventions that students need to learn.  The proposal includes the books -- as well as the materials to store a library collection (to be housed in the Lincoln School and Hanscom Primary School Literacy Centers) -- that provide writing examples of this complete range of writing traits.  Additionally, the proposal includes an already-researched database list of the mentor texts themselves (e.g. the proposers are not asking LSF to fund teacher stipend hours to prepare this first stage of the project -- they have already performed this task on their own initiative).  Ultimately, the proposal team believes that possession and use of the proposed mentor text collection will substantially enhance teachers' abilities to provide improved writing instruction to students.

 

7.  Considering Electronic Books: Access, Format Types, and Reading Devices

Alice Sajdera, Lincoln Library Media Specialist
Nancy Rote, Hanscom Library Media Specialist

This professional development proposal funds the purchase of two Kindle e-reading devices and a collection of e-books for each device, to be shared between the Lincoln and Hanscom campuses.  The purchases in this grant will assist the district in assessing how to make electronic materials available to students, since increasing amounts of materials are published electronically.

 

8.  Easel Painting: Open-Ended Art Experiences for Pre-Schoolers

Donna Lubin, Hanscom Primary Art Specialist           

This new curriculum initiative will fund the purchase of equipment and materials that would enhance the art education experience of the preschoolers attending Hanscom Primary Preschool.  The requested purchases include easels, aprons, CD's for listening enjoyment, and read-aloud books for educational reinforcement.

 

9.  A Sound Investment: A Top-to-Bottom Enhancement for the HMS Music Department

Howard L. Worona, Hanscom Middle School Music Teacher
Elizabeth Clancy, Hanscom 4th grade teacher

This curriculum enhancement initiative includes purchase of two timpani drums and one or two piccolos, to be used by student musicians in the Hanscom Middle School Orchestra.  The collaborators on this proposal note that use of the timpani drums could also support a portion of the 4th grade science curriculum that focuses on sound.

 

10.  Grade 3: The Science of Magnets

Julie Johnson, Hanscom Primary School 3rd Grade Teacher
Ariel Nierenberg, Hanscom Primary School 3rd Grade Teacher
Rose Vignola, Hanscom Primary School 3rd Grade Teacher
Terry Green, Science Enrichment Teacher

This new curriculum initiative will modify and enrich the existing third grade science unit on magnets at the Hanscom Primary School.  The grant supports teacher stipends, additional non-fiction literature, and supplemental support materials for teachers.  This grant will be jointly funded by the LSF and the School District, which will also contribute $1,090.

 

11.  Bringing Primary School Music into the 21st Century

Pam Anzaldi, Hanscom Primary School PreK-Grade 3 Music Specialist
Lisah Rhodes, Hanscom Primary School Technology Specialist

This new curriculum initiative provides two new music software packages (5 of each) for the Hanscom Primary School Technology Lab.  The software allows students to both create and explore music concepts. The intent of the project is to allow students in Grades 1-3 to enrich their music and technology learning experiences.

 

12.  Puppet Grant

Colleen Pearce, Lincoln School Art Teacher
Debbie Carpenito, Lincoln 2nd Grade Teacher
Cheri Wing Jones, Lincoln 2nd Grade Teacher
Jen Mastrullo, Lincoln 2nd Grade Teacher
Jennifer Cummings, Lincoln 2nd Grade Teacher

This curriculum enrichment project seeks to revitalize the tradition of the 2nd grade puppet shows.  The applicants will rewrite the plays to incorporate continent study, weave in an anti-bullying theme, and produce new scripts and a bibliography of regional folk tales to be used in subsequent years.