Curricular Area: Social Studies, English Language Arts
Grant Focus: Experiences Schools: Whitson
This grant provides funding to build on a program already implemented at Whitson Elementary that introduces students to local history fro the perspective of the local tribal culture through hands-on projects, writing activities, reader’s theater, historical text analysis, and visits from tribal members.
Curricular Area: STEM
Grant Focus: Equipment Schools: Whitson
This grant provides materials for the 4th Grade classes at Whitson Elementary. These STEM tubs will provide hands-on, creative resources for teachers to inspire students to engage with and learn math in nontraditional ways.
Curricular Area: English Language Arts
Grant Focus: Equipment
Schools: Whitson Elementary
Updating Whitson Elementary Schools Instructional Book Room with new books that are aligned to research based practices from the Science of Reading. These new books will be used in addition to the materials in K-4 English Language Arts (ELA) Core Curricula to help teachers differentiate instruction to meet the needs and skill levels of their students.
Curricular Area: Across Subjects
Grant Focus: Professional Development
Schools: District-wide
When our schools experienced a significant financial crisis this year, resulting in devastating budget shortages, staffing reductions, and program cuts, we promptly responded by awarding a grant totaling $87,325. In partnership with our new superintendent, Rich Polkinghorn, we will be allocating those funds to address the specific needs of our schools.
Curricular Area: Across Subjects, Social Emotional Learning
Grant Focus: Equipment
Schools: WPSIS, Whitson Elementary
Items Purchased: Sensory Tools including wobble stools, wiggle cushions, noise cancelling headphones, and weighted lap pads, among others.
This grant provides tools that will help students with their emotional regulation, improve attention and focus, and help teachers promote different learning styles.
Curricular Area: Across Subjects
Grant Focus: Professional Development
Schools: District-wide
Items Purchased: enrollment in the “Managing Children’s Collections from Acquisition to Weeding” course
This is a project that invests in the White Salmon Valley School District librarians, through professional development. The goal of this project is to improve the school libraries in our district by equipping the librarians with the necessary library management skills to revitalize our libraries.
Curricular Area: Arts, Engineering
Grant Focus: Equipment
Schools: Whitson Elementary School
Items Purchased: Equipment to build and paint 10 picnic tables for outdoor education.
For this grant, we are proposing to create a community based project to build picnic tables for Whitson. The goal of this project is to help students recognize STEAM as a human endeavor as well as build a foundation of connection with our students and the larger community that we live in through science, engineering, and art.
Curricular Area: Across Subjects
Grant Focus: Technology; COVID Support
Schools: District-wide
Items Purchased: GimKit license
The Columbia High School Technology Team recommended a GimKit license district-wide to provide educators with better tools for distance learning during COVID.
2020 COVID Response Grant
Curricular Area: Across Subjects
Grant Focus: Technology; COVID Support
Schools: District-wide
Items Purchased: PearDeck license
The Columbia High School Technology Team recommended a PearDeck license district-wide to provide educators with better tools for distance learning during COVID.
2020 COVID Response Grant
Curricular Area: Career & Technical Education
Grant Focus: Equipment
Schools: Henkle Middle School
Items Purchased: Sewing machines
Curricular Area: Across Subjects
Grant Focus: Equipment, COVID Response
Schools: Whitson Elementary School
Items Purchased: Individual educational play kits
2020 COVID Response Grant
Teachers used this grant to purchase durable products and supplies to create individual kits for 2nd grade students so they could play independently while still social distancing. The products selected have long term benefit as well.
Curricular Area: Across Subjects
Grant Focus: Equipment, COVID Response
Schools: Whitson Elementary School
Items Purchased: Individual educational play kits
Teachers used this grant to purchase durable products and supplies to create individual kits for 2nd grade students so they could play independently while still social distancing. The products selected have long term benefit as well.
2020 COVID Response Grant
Curricular Area: Across Subjects; Crisis Support
Grant Focus: Equipment, Technology; COVID Support
Schools: District-wide
Items Purchased: Chromebooks and hot spots
Forty Chromebooks and 5 hot spots were purchased for the schools to enable distance learning for all students during the COVID crisis.
2020 COVID Response Grant
Curricular Area: Across Subjects; Crisis Support
Grant Focus: Equipment; COVID Support
Schools: Whitson Elementary School
Items Purchased: Lap desks and storage racks
This purchase will enable Kindergarten teachers to more easily social distance students in the classroom.
2020 COVID Response Grant
Curricular Area: Social Emotional Learning
Grant Focus: Books
Schools: Whitson Elementary School, Wallace & Priscilla Stevenson Intermediate School
Items Purchased: Books
Curricular Area: Across Subjects, STEM
Grant Focus: Professional Development
Schools: Whitson Elementary
Items Purchased: Coaching on the use of technology in the classroom
The focus of this grant is to provide teachers with the training needed to implement and integrate technology, using Chromebooks, in the classroom in all content areas.
Curricular Area: Across Subjects, Social Studies (World Languages)
Grant Focus: Equipment
Schools: Whitson Elementary
Items Purchased: Chromebooks
These Chromebooks will enable Whitson Elementary to offer a new Digital Spanish class, while continuing a newly combined Library/Computer Science class.
Curricular Area: Across Subjects
Grant Focus: Professional Development
Schools: Whitson Elementary, W&P Stevenson Intermediate, Henkle Middle School, Columbia High School
Items Purchased: Teacher training for Project Based Learning
This grant sends three teams of five teachers consisting of staff members from each of the four schools to a foundational workshop for Project Based Learning.
Curricular Area: STEM
Grant Focus: Equipment
Schools: Whitson Elementary School, Wally & Priscilla Stevenson Intermediate School, Henkle Middle School
Items Purchased: Workshop Sets of littleBits
Using littleBits, students prototype and build endless engineered inventions, exercising their logical and critical thinking skills while learning about electronics.
Curricular Area: Across Subjects
Grant Focus: Professional Development
Schools: Whitson Elementary
Items Purchased: GLAD Training for staff
Curricular Area: STEM
Grant Focus: Equipment
Schools: Whitson Elementary School
Items Purchased: Sphero Robots
Curricular Area: Across Subjects
Grant Focus: Technology
Schools: Whitson Elementary
Items Purchased: iPads; eSpark Software and Services
The aim of this grant was to expand the successful eSpark individualized learning program that the second grade had been piloting for the prior two years, to include every 1st, 2nd and 3rd grader at Whitson Elementary.
Curricular Area: English Language Arts
Grant Focus: Technology
Schools: Whitson Elementary
Items Purchased: 12 Kindle Paperwhites, 12 Kindle Fires, eBook Library
This grant supported a pilot into using eReaders to "encourage voracious consumption of high-quality books" by Whitson students, as well as supporting struggling readers and English language learners with "immersive reading" experiences.
Curricular Area: STEM
Grant Focus: Equipment
Schools: Whitson Elementary School
Items Purchased: MicroEye Digital Microscope
Curricular Area: Across Subjects
Grant Focus: Technology
Schools: Whitson Elementary
Items Purchased: iPads
Curricular Area: Social Emotional Learning
Grant Focus: At-risk Students; Professional Development
Schools: Whitson Elementary
Items Purchased:
Curricular Area: STEM
Grant Focus: Professional Development
Schools: District Wide
Items Purchased: Math Professional Development
