Mini Grants
Understanding Our Heritage Through Folk Dance and Music
Sarah Adams, Gail Daly and Bebe Zaniboni, Johnson School
The Folk Art Center of New England will present a program to introduce students to a variety of cultural heritages through dance and music. The teachers will be trained to use dance and music throughout the curriculum areas.

Print Write
Marty Guild, Occupational Therapist
This program uses techniques from occupational therapy to develop fine motor skills and enable all students to learn printing in a more interesting and motivating way. The grant provides for the development of worksheets, a materials kit, teacher's manual and two workshops to enhance the penmanship program used in the Natick school system.

Immigration and Literacy
Joanne Foster, Catherine O'Brien, and Dianne Keough, Bennett-Hemenway
Storyteller Elisa Pearmain will perform and involve fourth graders in the dramatizations developed from immigration tales. The purchase of literature will enhance the study of immigration, and be an extension of International Fair activities already in place.

Emergent Reading on the Computer
Susan Getty, Bennett-Hemenway
The purchase of CD-ROM versions of age-appropriate literature will help to engage K-1 students with both reading and interactive computer skills for beginning readers.

Keeping an Eve on the Weather
Debbie Mitchell, Patricia Like, and Maureen Feeney, Brown School
Purchase of weather boards, a thermometer, barometer, rain gauge and funding for National Geographics' "Project Hello" telecommunications, all students in grades K-4 will take daily responsibility for charting and interpreting weather related information.

Print Write
Marty Guild, Occupational Therapist
This program uses techniques from occupational therapy to develop fine motor skills and enable all students to learn printing in a more interesting and motivating way. The grant provides for the development of worksheets, a materials kit, teacher's manual and two workshops to enhance the penmanship program used in the Natick school system.

Deck of Cards Art Project
Jeanne Williamson, Lilja School parent
This project will allow the fourth graders collectively to design a deck of cards. Inspired by the designer's participation in a quilt show exhibited at the Smithsonian Institute, the project will add a contemporary component to the fourth grade art curriculum.

Historical and Political Investigations
Mary Breen, Kennedy Middle School
The purchase of interdisciplinary software and videos will add depth and innovation to the eighth grade history curriculum with its focus on historical investigation and decision making.

The Kennedy M&M Program
Sara Lane, Kennedy Middle School
This grant, complementing the STEP Mediation Program, will provide training in the techniques of mentoring for middle school students. Eighth graders will mentor sixth graders, and seventh graders will mentor fifth graders, acquiring interpersonal and analytical skills for their personal and psychological development.

What If I Couldn't
Susan Bornstein, Commission on Disability, Kirk Buschenfeldt, Natick Schools Director of Health & Physical Education; John Hughes, Kennedy Middle School
This grant focuses on creating an awareness and sensitivity in all children to the needs of children with disabilities. The USC of a multimedia program and materials, designed by the Boston Children's Museum, presents children with a non-threatening experience of what it might be like to have a disability.