Students Learn and Grow with BEF Innovation-Grant Materials
Berkley Building Blocks - Planting a Garden
On Monday, June 3, Berkley Building Blocks preschool students in Ms. Soffa’s class took part in a garden planting session. The goal of this hands-on gardening lesson was for preschoolers to learn more about veggies and what it takes to grow them. Students learned how to handle soil, plant and water their seeds as well as splitting apart fully developed vegetables. Students learned about how pea pods worked internally and documented what they saw. The gardening supplies were funded through a Berkley Education Foundation Innovation-Grant.
BHS - Students Learn Keyboarding Skills
BHS Concert Choir students used MIDI Piano Keyboards, purchased this year through a BEF Innovation-Grant, to work with a partner to learn how to play a song of their choice on the piano. Teacher Sarah Noble shared, “As choir students, there are many benefits to having basic keyboard skills. Students have to engage ALL their musical muscles to break down the music on the page and play accurately and confidently at the piano. This is the third year that I have done this project and I think that our students have never been so well prepared for their Piano Project performances, thanks to the MIDI keyboard resource.” Students have time to practice at a real piano during class too, but the keyboards allow them to problem solve and continue engaging in productive preparation while they wait for their turn.
Burton - Students Learn to Cook Family Recipes
Students in Lauren Rentrop’s 5th grade class at Burton enjoyed their last cooking project of the season, family muffin recipes, as part of a Berkley Education Foundation Innovation-Grant. Students enjoyed making Leo’s Great Grandma Estelle's Pumpkin Bread, Ollie’s Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread, and Owen’s Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cake. The Innovation-Grant purchased the cooking supplies to support the grade-wide cookbook project. Each student submitted a recipe, shared the importance of the recipe to them and/or their family and Mrs. Rentrop selected recipes that would be manageable to make in the classroom 'kitchen.'
The Berkley Education Foundation funds staff innovation-grants twice a year to enrich students' experiences, to enhance their learning and to open opportunities for Berkley Schools staff outside of the traditional school budget. To learn more about the BEF, visit their website. To support the BEF and the grants program, visit the BEF’s donation site.
ATP Students Travel to Detroit Historical Society
On Thursday, June 6, students in the Berkley Adult Transition Program (ATP) visited the Detroit Historical Society, completing a heritage and awareness month field trip circuit funded through a Berkley Education Foundation Innovation-Grant.
Prior to the field trip, students viewed multiple resources on Asian American, Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and Jewish Heritage Months. They discovered new inventors, public figures, actors, actresses, political influencers, and much more. They picked one person to research from their learnings.
At the Detroit Historical Society, students enjoyed a private tour through the “In the Neighborhood: Everyday Life on Hastings Street” exhibit. “In the Neighborhood: Everyday Life on Hastings Street” takes visitors on a walk back in history to Hastings Street’s time from 1880-1930 as an enclave for Detroit’s Jewish immigrants, where everyday life was full of the choices, adversities, innovations, triumphs, tensions and synergies that defined this incomparable place.
The Jewish Historical Society of Michigan led the private tour. Jewish Historical Society of Michigan is an independent non-profit organization that interprets and highlights the Jewish history of Michigan, capturing and sharing the past with its communities, state, nation, and the world, producing academic-quality historical knowledge and offering meaningful and engaging programming.