Local teachers looking for help through 'Limeades for Learning'

Three local elementary teachers are looking to get some help from a local eatery to fund new material for their classrooms.

Kindergarten teachers Sabrina Terry and Susan Regan, along with first-grade teacher Linda Minor, are seeking funding through SONIC's annual initiative Limeades for Learning to ensure children nationwide do not go without the necessary tools needed to learn.

Terry has submitted two projects in this year's competition. The first, "Centers + Change = Fun Learning," has already been chosen to receive funding. The project is a program in which learning centers are used to promote learning through themed learning sets in the core areas of science, math and reading. With the funding, Terry is hoping to update the current centers with more books and technology to inspire students to learn.

Terry's second project, "Caught Eating Smart in Kindergarten," would be used to promote healthy eating among her kindergarten students.

Terry said the funding would be used to cook in class with the FEED USA program under which the students would cook and try healthy, new recipesand develop a cookbook.

"This would be a great way of capturing and make lasting learning experiences with our families, as well as their children," Terry said in the project description on the Limeades for Learning website. "As a class we would put together many healthy snacks each week using our cooking sets, books and recipes from home. With the digital camera, we would be able to capture the students taste testing their weekly hands-on cooking snacks."

Along the same lines as Terry's learning centers, Minor is also hoping to get funding for her listening center project. The money would be used to create two listening centers with three books on CD for students to use while the teacher is working with a smaller group. The centers would allow the students to remain engaged and learning while instruction is being given to other students.

"The listening center is a great resource for any classroom," Minor said in her project description. "It gives the children the opportunity to hear language and enjoy books that would ordinarily be too challenging to read. Children tend to enjoy their time in the listening center because their is no pressure. They don't need to stress about decoding words, they can just sit back and enjoy the book."

Along the lines of listening, Regan has submitted a project she calls "An Apple iPod 'Touch'es Children Through Music."

If her project is funded, Regan hopes to purchase an Apple iPod Touch for the classroom to save the time used sorting through CDs to find the right song.

"I am requesting an Apple iPod Touch with accessories and a docking station," Regan said in her project description. "Many times throughout the day, I use music as brain breaks and as a signal to transition from one activity to another ... Music is such a wonderful and necessary tool for helping these young, energetic children to learn and remember what has been learned."

The Limeades for Learning initiative was created to support U.S. public school teachers in their local communities. In partnership with DonorsChoose.org, SONIC will provide essential funds needed for learning materials and innovative teaching techniques to inspire creativity and learning in today's youth, the Limeades for Learning website said.

Voting for local projects will conclude on Sept. 30. Voters can express their preference for one of the local projects, by visiting www.limeadesforlearning.com and entering a valid email address. One voter per address may be cast per day. Purchases at SONIC come with a code that will allow two extra votes. Ten online votes will also earn two extra votes.

During the five-week campaign, SONIC will fund $100,000 of the top vote-receiving projects weekly with the final votes being gathered Sept. 26--30. The drawing will take place on Oct. 3.