Title: First Grade Follies
Level: Elementary
School: New England Elementary School, West Mifflin Area School District
Contact: Wendy Kennedy, Shelley Scott, Jennifer Berad, MaryJo Beeler

This program finds students learning social studies’ concepts  (US history, US holidays and customs, people and neighborhoods, etc.) through various thematic units of “play based “ literature.  Reading, speaking and listening skills will be reinforced and enhanced as students perform plays and skits related to the social studies lessons.

Title: Tell Me the ABCs
Level: Elementary
School: H. W. Good Elementary School, Yough School District
Contact: Kelly Bergman

This program will assist kindergarten children in learning their letters and sound identification by using literature, manipulatives, songs and home activities.  Working at learning stations, students will use games, tactile letters, storybooks to learn their letters and sounds.  Children will make picture dictionaries and a class “sound” quilt.

Title: Family Rhyme Time
Level: Elementary
School: H. W. Good Elementary School, Yough School District
Contact: Jennifer Bierhals

Family Rhyme Time uses a collection of home activity bags focused on rhyming and first-level phonemic awareness to improve the students’ early literacy skills.  The parent-child exercise will include a book to share and a game for skill practice.  This program intends to strengthen parental involvement in the child education and to build literacy skills.

Title: Music Appreciation of Biography Books
Level: Elementary
School: H. W. Good, Mendon & West Newton Elementary Schools, Yough School District
Contact: Linda Kustra, Cathleen Laird, Nancy Smith, Erin Lyons, Jim Lishego, Deidre Dave, M/M Sever

This grant project focuses on biography books of famous musicians and composers with attached corresponding musical CDs for student, teacher and parent use.  Students will read biography books on famous composers, musicians, and singers to develop an appreciation of music and music history.  They will also listen to the corresponding period music.  The goal of this grant project is to get students reading more biographies, connect history, reading and music and foster music appreciation. 

MIDDLE/INTERMEDIATE LEVEL AWARDS

Title: Bet You Can't Read Just One
Level: Middle/Intermediate
School: Brownsville Middle School, Brownsville Area School District
Contact: Martha Davis, Charmagne Clark, Rhonda Ligett, Lori Rohrer, Diane Sheridan, Jacqueline Wadsworth, Kathy Werry

This grant program will encourage students to increase reading time in school and at home resulting in more interest in reading and improved reading comprehension.  Using series books to get students hooked on familiar characters and highly patterned plots, students will become habitual readers and want to keep reading what they enjoy.  Coupling the books with the Accelerated Reading quizzes, students will improve their comprehension and time spent on reading.  This program will be integrated into the Social Studies and Language Arts Classes.

Title: Listen, Learn and Read
Level: Middle/Intermediate
School: Brownsville Middle School, Brownsville Area School District
Contact: Mary Seelye

This grant project will assist life skills and special needs students to improve their reading time and skills by providing the students with books accompanied by audiotapes.  An incentive program will be initiated to encourage reading with the tapes and complete a designated reading activity such as a travel log, geographical mapping, dramatic acting and character descriptions and drawings. The program is designed to lead low-level reluctant readers to independent reading success.

Title: B.A.M.S. goes D.R.U.M. (Discipline, Respect and Unity through Music)
Level: Middle/Intermediate
School: Brownsville Middle School, Brownsville Area School District
Contact:  Dorothy Jean Swinker, Ralph Bill, Deborah Mascia, Robert Mascia, David Higinbotham, Jack Beachly

This grant project provides students with the opportunity to be part of drum ensembles.  Rhythm, movement, improvisation, meter and timbre will be learned along with teamwork, self-discipline, and creativity.

Title: Everyone Can Be An Author
Level: Middle/Intermediate
School: Brownsville Middle School, Brownsville Area School District
Contact: Lori Rohrer, Martha Davis, Diane Sheridan

The project will showcase outstanding written accomplishments and provide ways of sharing our students’ achievements with the community.  Autobiographies, poetry, short stories, family history and traditions may be included in the publications that will be distributed to parents and placed in the school library.

Title: Channel 70 Set Project
Level: Middle/Intermediate
School: California Middle School, California Area School District
Contact: Bernard F. Spada, Jr., Diane Scrip, Debra McPhearson, Leslie Dennis, Ray Huffman

The purpose of this grant project will be to professionally and visually enhance the daily TV newscast set by creating false fronts and stage flats that will be versatile enough to be used for other production programs.   Students will design, build and paint the sets.  A logo contest will be held to select the newscast’s logo.

Title: Musical Theatre Workshop
Level: Middle/Intermediate
School: Charleroi Middle School, Charleroi Area School District
Contact: Jane Staranko, Mark Killinger, Nicolette Bachinski, Sandra Boyles, Regina Moorby

Students will have the opportunity to learn practical skills involved in the production of a Broadway musical.  They will explore careers related to the musical theater by working with Make-up Artists, craftsmen, actors, and artists who have worked in theater.  Students will learn about acting and speech and explore the development of a character on stage.  They will learn about costuming and make-up for further development of the role to be played. They will work with a choreographer to learn dance and movement.  They will learn staging as they build and design a stage flat.  This project will teach students about music, art, history, speech, and self-discipline.

Title: Reflective Portfolios
Level:  Middle/Intermediate
School: Elizabeth Forward Middle School, Elizabeth Forward School District
Contact:  Chris Estadt, Laurie Chorba, Natalie Glaspey

This project will allow students to work completely through the writing process including the publication phase.  Students will create portfolios containing a collection of their writings from the year including a reflective work.   They will learn to critically review their writing to determine their individual strengths and weaknesses.  The purpose of the project is to motivate the students to use the entire writing process and to help them become more cognitive of themselves as they develop communication skills.

Title: Essentials 4 Soldiers
Level: Middle/Intermediate
School: Frazier Middle School, Frazier School District
Contact: Carol Natale, Mary Liston, Darrin Belsick

In this grant project, students are engaged in a service learning activity as they write letters to service men and women stationed in Iraq.  Students will practice writing skills and exercise their compassion for others.  The purpose of this project is to teach the students of the sacrifice and dedication of military personnel and to spread cheer to those serving our country.

This project finds fourth, fifth and sixth graders participating in a cooperative art and learning experience that will result in the creation of a permanent, contemporary sculpture garden.  Using “What a Wonderful World” (the song by Louis Armstrong and the book by George David Weiss and Bob Theile) as inspiration, students will convey concepts highlighted in the story in a variety of art techniques—murals, mosaics and linear sculptures. The project will celebrate the naturally occurring beauty of the world and the wonder of being diverse in the making of the sculpture garden.

Title: Community Gallery
Level: Elementary
School: Francis McClure Intermediate School, McKeesport Area School District
Contact: Julie Esek

The purpose of this program is to showcase the artwork of fourth through fifth grade students in local businesses in the community.  The artwork will reflect regular classroom art lessons. By creating a community gallery of student artwork, community residents will see the talents of the students and the learning that is taking place in their schools. The artwork will change monthly in the community gallery and this showcase will foster an appreciation of the visual arts in both students and community residents.

Title: Pennsylvania Bird and Wetland Watch
Level: Middle/Intermediate
School: Yough Middle School, Yough School District
Contact: Rachel Reissman, David Brosh

This program will provide students with the opportunity to learn about wetlands and wild birds in Western Pennsylvania via classroom lessons, a speaker from the National Aviary, and journaling the activity of birds in/around a birdfeeder made in class.  Students will make birdfeeders, produce a research paper, write a reflective essay on the subject and keep birdfeeder journals.  The project will get students interested in the preservation and respect for their environment along with its surrounding wildlife.

Title: Tangerine Zone: Learning Under Construction
Level: Middle/Intermediate
School: Yough Middle School, Yough School District
Contact: Virginia M. Bogdan, Gail Burkett, Robert Cunningham

The idea behind this program is to integrate English and Science in such a way that students will be excited by reading and experimenting and their own sense of self worth.   In English class, students will read Tangerine by Edward Bloor and be engaged in fun-filled, hands-on activities in both English and Science classes that relate to the novel’s content and overall theme.  Character education will also be of focus in this program.

Title: Rome Wasn't Built in a Day - It Took a Week!
Level: Middle/Intermediate
School: Yough Middle School, Yough School District
Contact: Dr. Brad Blum, Jeremy Zufall

This grant program finds seventh graders celebrating “Rome Week” by presenting dramatizations multi-media demonstrations, and displays highlighting ancient Rome.  Groups of 4 or 5 students will research, plan, assign duties within the group, write scripts, and create props for a 20-30 minute presentation.  In addition, students will create dioramas and model buildings of Rome.  Students will be fully involved in the learning process as they recreate aspects of the ancient Roman culture with their presentations making their research come alive and more meaningful.

Title: Where Am I? Integrating Global Positioning System Technology into the Classroom
Level: Middle/Intermediate
School: Yough Middle School, Yough School District
Contact: Brian Grindle, Joe'll Wareham, Jason Kramer, Thomas Paterline, Thomas Mueller, Ph.D.

This project finds sixth graders experiencing, locating and exploring the world around them utilizing GPS markings.  Students will learn to use GPS instruments with the assistance of Thomas Mueller, Ph.D., Director of California University of Pennsylvania Crime Mapping Center and Department of Earth Sciences.  Students will collect soil samples from sites throughout the school district and use the GPS to mark those sites to be mapped topographically.  Soil samples will be analyzed for ph and micronutrients and recorded in a database.  This project will be completed in partnership with California University Geographic Information System Club members.