Spark Grants

To help improve reading and comprehension of literary fiction through Shakespeare, this grant will fund the tools necessary for students to create their own engraved, hardcover bound 50-page personal narratives. Students will also attend a performance of Henry V at the Guthrie Theater and incorporate what they learn into their narratives.

West Middle School - Andrew Ferri and Serita Mattei

Alice Smith’s Juntos Spanish immersion students in grades K-2 will experience a cultural celebration of Latin America with a Mariachi band and the opportunity to create their own piñatas. This grant fuels a passion for sharing the rich culture of Latin American with our students. We're excited to continue providing them with authentic experiences that bring the language and traditions to life!

Alice Smith Elementary - Heidi Alfaro and Miriam Swiriski Lubin

In order to prepare pre-K students for the Gatewood outdoor curriculum, this grant will fund a mud kitchen, mud table, and rain suits. It will give kids a chance to splash in puddles, dig in dirt, look for worms and play, explore and experiment in the natural world.

Gatewood Elementary - Lori Lilly and Sandy Larson

Active exploration of real-world challenges and problems deepens students’ knowledge. This project will allow students to build their own golf course in small groups, sparking creativity and teamwork. It also engages them in problem-solving, critical thinking, and collaboration. The funds will provide the variety of materials needed for creating golf holes for a student-designed golf course.

Meadowbrook Elementary - Brock Tesdahl & Eileen Egge

This grant will help students learn about solar energy, using solar panels to model how sustainable energy is a real concept that impacts school communities. Students will also build models of cutting-edge solar energy technology. They will do this with 3D printing, solar array models, and hands-on electricity testing. The grant funds 3D printers and materials for building model solar panels including wood, metal and plastic.

North Middle School - Kurt Carlson and Jeremy Reichel

With this grant, Alice Smith's Hopkins Preschool playscape will be transformed from a bare space to a place where children can explore outside, learn and expand social interactions with peers. Engaging equipment and supplies will be installed including: an outdoor easel, play house, rain sticks, mud kitchen, magnifying glasses, spray bottles, nature paint panels, gardening tools, shade sails, and an Akimbira (African xylophone) to support artistic, imaginative and musical endeavors.

Alice Smith Elementary - Malea Becker and Kathy Willett

ECFE families in the 0-12 month classes will be able to explore early learning, and increase brain development, by using evidence-based, open-ended play kits from LovEvery in the classroom and at home. Kits include items like mobiles, sensory links, black and white cards, wooden books, rattle, and more.

Harley Hopkins Family Center - Hilary Novacek Bundt

To help determine the best therapy tools for students, this grant will provide a stock assortment of items like wheelchair rockers, feeder seats, adjustable tilting benches, portable lap desk and therapeutic balls for trial use before purchase. It benefits students at all of our schools in the district so teachers can experiment with equipment to see what best meets students’ needs. This will help maximize the accessibility of learning to students in special education.

Hopkins Schools - Tiffany Moriarity and Alyssa Winterfeldt

This grant will fuel the desire for students to engage with music. With the purchase of non-traditional music tools like stick horses, finger lights, light up drumsticks, scarves, stretchy bands, and other items, educators can provide new and innovative music lessons to students. Music teachers have found students are more likely to participate with a prop.

Tanglen Elementary - Angel Clark

Now that the first year of classes in the state-of-the art Certified Nursing Assistant Lab are underway, additional needs have been identified. HHS students in this program earn a CNA certification so they can get a health care job in high school or after graduation, or be prepared for college programs in health care. This grant funds expenses like nursing scrubs, background checks and transportation to long-term care facilities for the clinical rotations required for certification.

Hopkins High School - Kara LeVahn and Marit Lee-Dohse

This grant focuses on diversifying the language and literature curriculum by adding books by disabled authors. Students will read the novels in 6th and 8th grade choice novel units to enhance student engagement. This allows students to either see themselves and/or family members and friends represented in the books. It will also promote learning about disabilities and provide more visibility and learning about people with disabilities.

North Middle School - Izzi Lockheimer Toso and Maggie Sagstuen

Students with social/emotional needs benefit from practicing different ways to learn social skills. Students need direct instruction to learn how to navigate the social world, regulate their emotions and support mental well-being. This grant provides books for navigating those social skills that focus on feelings, friendships, anxiety and anger management.

Gatewood Elementary & Tanglen Elementary - Chandra Sue-Hughes and Heather Garibaldi

This grant supports Gatewood’s outdoor learning approach by helping students connect to the natural world. This grant will enhance the school’s animal and farm care program (for 6 goats, 9 chickens and a garden) with gardening tools, gloves, and farm boots, as well as create educational signage and add a webcam (for viewing anytime). Farm learning teaches perseverance, empathy and supports mental wellness.

Gatewood Elementary - Chris King and Katelyn Myers

The goal for this grant is to revitalize and modernize the RISE program at Meadowbrook Elementary, a vital resource for elementary students requiring specialized support in emotional and behavioral regulation. The funds will enhance a sensory room with new tools and technology for helping students understand and manage emotions. With the grant, the space will be stocked with puzzles, coloring books, fidgets, stress balls, kinetic sand, balance boards, and games (e.g. dominoes, Bananagrams). 200 books will also be purchased for a classroom library that is now empty (e.g. books supporting grieving students and reluctant readers, social-emotional learning and more).

Meadowbrook Elementary - Nicole Doescher-Train and Ali Servais

Children who need help with their family's daily routines and activities will be supported by this grant. The goal is to provide social/emotional tools to coach families to help their child learn. This will help children who are sound-sensitive learners, oral seekers, visual learners and also students who need support with their vestibular and proprioception sensory inputs. Tools include sensory bins, LED wands, bubbles, timers, spray bottles, tools for social stories, noise canceling headphones, chewies, bean bag chairs, yoga balls, slides, tunnels, scooters and more.

Harley Hopkins Family Center - Cady Gulbranson and Ellen O’Gara

With the purchase of a class set of 3Doodler Start + Essentials 3D pens, students will be able to create 3D shapes and creations for K-5 STEAM learning. 3D pens extrude warm plastic, like a mini 3D printer. Whatever a student imagines, they can create! This hands-on tool will help students better grasp geometry skills. In addition, students will be using the engineering design process to create physical objects with the pen.

Tanglen Elementary - Annie Martenson

The Unified PE program format comes from the Special Olympics Unified Program established five years ago. Half of the students have disabilities and the other half are not disabled. In this class, students learn to participate cooperatively in both large and small group physical education activities like kickball, flag football, dodgeball, floor hockey, softball, and track. The students develop relationships that move beyond PE class. The grant will fund new equipment designed for kids with gross motor delays including scooter boards, bowling sets, bean bags, hockey sticks, social balls with bells and more.

Hopkins High School - Lori Komoto and Karl Schroeder

This grant will be used to purchase adaptive equipment for toddlers with physical limitations such as chairs, standing frames, walkers and gait trainers for the Hopkins Early Intervention Program. It will be used to empower children who can’t stand, move or walk to move independently and foster autonomy. The proactive approach will not only enhance short-term participation in activities but will also reduce potential long-term deficits in cognition, language and social development. This will set up children for success in elementary school.

Harley Hopkins Family Center - Katherine Wacker and Cady Gulbranson

Hopkins culinary students work at events such as student music performances and engage in competitions. Students in the culinary program learn how to tailor a menu to guests and execute an event using teamwork. To present themselves professionally, these students need new chef jackets since current jackets are twenty years old and no longer usable. Linens for events will also be purchased.

Hopkins High School - Jennifer Brandabur and Yume Bollum

This SEL Art Therapy Group uses art projects and creative activities to engage students in social/emotional and sensory regulation learning.This grant funds art therapy items such as paints, markers, art therapy books, magnet beads, gyro wheel spinners, Squishmallows, weighted stuffed animals and more. Art therapy is used to help students to engage in creative expression of emotion and identity, and goes hand in hand with sensory modulation interventions.

North Middle School - Sydney Timm and Michele Mandell-Paulson

The Learning Center at Gatewood provides targeted support to students with IEPs. To make it a truly special place for students to take breaks, this grant will fund supplies like fidgets, sensory items, and games to help with math, reading and social skills like making friends. The Learning Center serves as a crucial resource for students with diverse learning needs, ensuring that they receive the necessary interventions and accommodations to thrive in the classroom environment.

Gatewood Elementary - Nicole Doescher-Train and Heather Garibaldi

Since the Twin Cities is considered one of the top biking communities in the country, and we have extensive bike trails, the Outdoor Adventures course, an immersive and exploratory learning class, aims to teach the health, wellness (and transportation) benefits of biking. This grant funds the purchase of bikes and safety equipment that students will use for biking during class.

Hopkins High School - Karl Schroeder and Betsy Julien

This grant will make it possible for our high school counselors to attend the annual educators’ conference in November 2024 in Duluth, where counselors can learn new strategies, learn from others and gain CEU credits for re-licensure.

Hopkins High School - Samantha Schwanke and counselors