Lakeside kindergarten receives Ascension Fund Grant

Elise Frederic’s kindergarten class at Lakeside Primary in Prairieville was awarded the Capital One endowment from the Ascension Fund Grant.  The project, Theme to Read!, provided nonfiction books for the classroom library.  As students learned about different themes in Science and Social Studies, they were able to read books about the theme.  Students especially loved the colorful photographs and diagrams in the books.  

Some of the topics they learned this year include: forces and motion, how plants grow, weather, presidents and patriots, citizenship, holidays around the world, and maps and globes.  Other areas of interest include outer space, trains, vehicles, and animals. 

Frederic used the $500 endowment to purchase books about each of these themes.  Some books were used as read alouds, while others were part of the classroom library and book browsing boxes.  

“I learned about trains and I looked at the pictures in the train book.” said kindergarten student Tristan Trammell.  When asked what he learned from the train books, he said, “I learned about tanker trains and steam locomotives.  A steam locomotive has steam that comes out and the wheels can go super fast.” 

He also requested more books about trains to the classroom library so that he can learn more about them. Tristan’s enthusiasm was one of the many noteworthy positive impacts of the grant. 

“I was able to see the impact of the grant because I saw students making many connections to information they gathered from these books to what we are learning in the classroom,” Frederic said. “They are sponges soaking up information about the world around them.”

Funds for this grant were provided by Capital One through the Ascension Fund.  The Ascension Fund is a non-profit organization established in 1991 by the Gonzales Rotary Club as an instrument for private sector leaders to invest directly in the work of individual teachers and schools through grants for innovative ideas and programs in Ascension Parish public schools.  Teacher Grants of $500 or $1,000 and School Impact Grants of $2,500 are awarded on an annual competitive basis.  To date, the Ascension Fund has awarded approximately 1,300 grants representing over $1.55 million dollars in the school system.  For more information, visit www.ascensionfund.com