Donor's Choose Gift Card Giveaway!

I used a random number generator to select the two projects submitted that will receive a $25 gift card to Donor's Choose:

The first winner is...... Allison for one of her projects listed here
The second winner is ..... Mariam for "Glam up our Nook - Now we Need Books"

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!  I have emailed both of you the gift card codes to the e-mail address you listed in your comment.  I hope that it helps get you closer to your goal!

And I have more exciting news ......I really loved reading about the projects people took the time to submit, so I randomly selected 5 additional projects to which I will personally donate $10 each. I decided each person could only win once so more projects could be highlighted.  I just made these donations directly at Donor's Choose.  Those winners are:

1) Jennifer for "Literacy learning at our level"
"I am requesting hands on literacy based materials including alphabet manipulatives, "hot dot" activities, and skill based puzzles. These materials will make it so that my literacy centers will be accessible to my struggling learners as well as my stronger students."

2) Helen for "The King School Series for serious first grade readers" 
"While some classrooms receive parental donations, this is not the case with most high poverty neighborhoods. The public library is over a mile away, which is far for families without a car. My students need more reading practice! These 22 new and carefully selected book titles will definitely help my first graders develop of love of reading at a young age."

3) Mrs. M for "Never enough books! Part 2 - Character Building"
"I have a fairly large classroom library (mostly purchased with my own money) but I always find that I am lacking books on certain subjects, such as character education, manners, and accepting others' differences. So, I am requesting 7 different book sets to help fill these gaps in my classroom library."

This project was fully funded by the time I got to it!  So I donated to one of the teacher's other projects: "Never enough books! Part 4 - All about where we live".

4) Liz for "Challenging Students Everywhere 2"
"Gifted students need to be challenged, not only in the classroom, but also at recess. The variety this playground equipment presents will give them a lot of choices, allow them to be creative with their activities, and help keep them physically active."

5) Jerri Ann for "Elmo makes a huge difference"
"My students attend a Title I school, grades K-8 and are much like fourth grade students nationwide, curious, anxious and excited about learning. The students have the ability to work in small groups but currently the logistics behind providing them with proper equipment is difficult without wasting a great deal of time. I would like to have an ELMO in my classroom so that we could easily move about, work as a class or move the ELMO quickly and without wasted time so that we can work in small groups in various places in the room."

If anyone is reading this wondering how to use a gift card to donor's choose or want to try out the organization with a small donation, it is super easy.  Just go to www.donorschoose.org and search for a project either in your area or in a subject that interests you OR if you see a project that sounds interesting in this post, just click on any of the links and it will take you directly to that project with more information and an opportunity to donate.  When the project is fully funded you will receive a thank you note from the teacher showing how you helped make a difference.

Thank you to everyone who came to my blog and took the time to enter, I hope this helped spread the word about Donor's Choose and will get some projects closer to being funded and into classrooms!