Eiland Elementary Awarded $14,620 from KEF for ‘Eiland Around the World’ Lead the Spark Grant

Eiland Elementary received a Klein ISD Education Foundation (KEF) grant to kick off their initiative “Eiland Around the World” in efforts to utilize the school library’s focal wall and highlight a world map, analog clocks, phases of the moon, and the night sky. The walls of Eiland’s library offer a place to extend student learning and integrate standards from every level, pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. 

This grant-funded project, “Eiland Around the World,” will intentionally target learning expectations in standards from:

1. Social Studies (including compass rose, grid lines, and scale).
2. Math and science that relate to time zones.
3. Science refers to moon phases and identifying objects and changes in the night sky.

The library’s side walls will have integrated places to display poster-sized student-created works focusing on explaining, illustrating, and promoting content standards. Intentionally targeting instruction, these spaces will provide students with a space to share their learning with their peers innovatively – from visually showing mastery of concrete learning standards, like the water cycle, and visually representing content vocabulary, to discussions bolstering oral language development.

During a surprise visit by the KEF Celebration Express, the school was awarded the grant by Foundation directors, community members, and our Superintendent, Dr. Jenny McGown. 

School staff was overjoyed as dozens of Foundation supporters climbed out of their school bus and delivered extensive checks to grant recipients. 

Eiland Elementary will use the $14,620 grant, sponsored by Houston Methodist Willowbrook Hospital, to offer visual support as the standards taught in the classroom offer learning and synthesis from the moment students enter PreK and, as outlined in the district’s Profile of a Learner, hone our students as Pathway Explorers and Equipped Scholars that are prepared for future success.

“‘Seeing is believing’ is a phrase that immediately came to mind as I envision this grant becoming a reality. It is one thing to tell students about the world they live in and will be opened up to them in their future, but it is another to be able to show them where it is visually,” Klein Education Foundation President Bill Lakin said. “The opportunity for students to understand that the world is massive but simultaneously so close because of technology is extraordinary. What an opportunity for students to understand where they are now, but where they could be in the future is a dream come true!”

This spring, the KEF Celebration Express delivered grants totaling $58,281 to bring education to life for our learners. From school Pickleball teams to fully accessible playgrounds, our Spring 2023 grant recipients are innovative, engaging, and inspirational.

Thank you so much to all our grant sponsors who made all this possible. Your contribution will help further the educational experience of every Klein ISD student. 

The Klein ISD Education Foundation accepts grant applications twice a year to encourage, facilitate, and recognize creative projects that lead to academic achievement for our Klein ISD students. 

For a full-day recap, please read our overview article here.