Ashley Allen & Jenny Wyllie,
Franklin Elementary

Franklin 2nd graders will become puppeteers as they produce short videos to showcase their new academic and social and emotional learning through the Learning Through Puppetry project.

Katie Ellis & Jerrica Baum,
EPiC Elementary

EPiC kindergarteners will be learning while playing and developing real world skills such as caring for the environment, commerce and sustainability practices.

Andy Gonino & Dannie Ravenscraft, Liberty High School

The LHS Garden project aims to provide an inclusive environment in which students with unique learning needs can learn to grow and harvest fruits, vegetables, and assorted other plants.

Brandi Pruente,
Liberty North High School

Through the French Exchange program twenty French students and their two teachers will be hosted by Liberty North students and teachers for a two week stay. During their stay, the visiting French students will take two field trips to visit local sites and learn more about the establishing of the United States, our local history and art.

Traci Bartolotta, Margie Manion, Carrie Sparks, Mattie Shepard, Cooper Schechinger,
Discovery Middle School

DMS 6th grade students will have the opportunity to serve their community at Harvesters while learning about food insecurity. Students will apply what they have learned about agriculture and stable food supply in the past and how it applies to today.

Jill Eltiste, Teresa Cooper, Amy Maple, Angie Grondahl, Courtney Tankesley, Laurie Reibenstein and Lara Kruse,
Shoal Creek Elementary

Students will learn about simple machines and how they work to make our lives easier, and then they will tackle the real world problem of playgrounds not being inclusive to all children. Students will visit an inclusive playground to learn what makes a playground inclusive. Shoal Creek third-graders will then design inclusive playgrounds using simple machines and present them to district stakeholders.

Carly Bogaards, Librarian
Liberty Oaks Elementary

Students learn to collaborate, critically think, and create through play. The grant will provide Kindergarten - 2nd grade students with the tools to develop 21st century skills and also encourage them to create and share their own stories.

Christine Torres and Courtney Burgess,
EPiC Elementary

Storytelling is a big deal at EPiC, and this grant will enhance storytelling in 2nd grade. Students will get to use a variety of puppets in their creative storytelling across multiple subjects and units.

Josh Jacobs,
Liberty High School

Construction science students are participating in the Parade of Playhouses! They will design and build a playhouse that will be displayed at Science City and then auctioned to support STEM education. Some students who have participated in the Parade of Playhouses build have gained employment through this hands-on, real world learning experience.

Emily Callahan, 3rd Grade Teacher
Ridgeview Elementary

Ridgeview’s 3rd grade students (scientists!) got to visit the TriStar Experience at KCI Airport, where they learned about the science of flight.

Luda Bell, 2nd Grade Teacher
Liberty Oaks Elementary

With the purchase of two AeroGardens for their classroom, students will learn the process of germination, pollination, nurturing, and harvesting, fostering a deep understanding of the natural world. Students will develop essential gardening skills and also cultivate a lifelong appreciation for sustainable farm-to-table and environmental stewardship.

Cathy Dolskey and Michelle Schwinger,
Manor Hill Elementary

Manor Hill hosted their first World Cultures Day and invited Tri M Percussion (through Kansas City Young Audiences) to perform “Music Around the World.” Students attended the all-school assembly after listening to presentations from community and Manor Hill families about different cultures students.

Erika Iseminger,
Liberty North High School

The North Nation Garden Station will be a high school community garden, allowing Culinary students and Plant Club students the opportunity to gain knowledge and practical skills related to planting, managing and harvesting produce and herbs. Culinary and Pro-start students will then use the fresh produce and herbs from the gardens in their cooking and baking labs in class. Surplus produce will be given to social workers to distribute to distribute to students who deal with food insecurities at home.

Whitney Benson,
Kellybrook Elementary

Kellybrook students will use critical thinking, communication, creativity, collaboration, and computation skills to solve problems using coding and robotics with Sphero RVR+ robots and Indi robots. By integrating Sphero RVR+ & Indi into their project-based learning units, students will combine these skills, their academic knowledge across content areas, and design thinking to help solve or educate others about real-world problems.

Cristina Armilio, Kristen Mason and Jennifer Benjamin
Heritage Middle School

Students will be learning about historical reforms and current, modern-day issues of reform and how those connect. They will link their learning with their choir class as they learn how music has influenced change. Choir students will ultimately perform a piece of music and explain, through a live performance, how this song impacted their modern day reform project completed in ELA/Social Studies.

Maddie Backes,
Liberty North High School

This grant will fund FLEX Activities - opportunities for students to engage in enrichment activities during their FLEX hour. These activities range from social, interpersonal, cultural to academic in nature.

Ashleigh Robinson, Crystal Rodriguez, Tiffany Nichols and Nicole Hines,
Kellybrook Elementary

Kellybrook 5th graders will be going to Hodge Park where the Kansas City Water Department will lead a lesson and hands-on activity related to Macro Monitoring! Students will be given nets to find animals and organisms in the creek that are considered indicator species that live in the water. Students will then determine the water quality based on what they find.

Laura Meador,
Liberty High School

Ms. Meador and partners will be renovating the outdoor classroom from the 1990’s that has fallen into disrepair. Benches and fencing will be replaced, making a welcoming outdoor learning space for all students/teachers at LHS to use!

Gina Lange,
Heritage Middle School

Unified PE is an incredible program launched last year by Ms. Lange that partners BEST students with a peer mentor. These students have been practicing their bowling and pickle ball skills which they will get to demonstrate on upcoming real world learning excursions to a local bowling alley and pickle ball court!

Karen Duffner,
Ridgeview Elementary

Ridgeview’s kindergarteners will soon get a visit from the Kansas City Zoo and Aquarium Zoomobile, and then they will visit the Lakeside Nature Center in Swope Park to learn about animals and their environments in a fun and engaging way.

Grace Buehler at Manor Hill Elementary received the New Elementary Teacher Grant! Grace will use the grant funds to create a fun and welcoming learning environment in her first classroom.

Grace is a LPS graduate, and while in high school she participated in the Educational Internship Program, based at Manor Hill. She loved her time at Manor Hill and dreamed of returning after earning her teaching degree. What an incredible story!