A classroom without a rug is literally like a kiss without a hug. There's just something missing! Because I've recently changed classrooms (and grades), I have found myself without a rug for my space. I use a classroom rug daily for morning meeting, math meeting and circle time.
Our school is a small, rural Oklahoma school.
The students in my class are very eager to learn. They have good basic skills for reading and math already, but will spend this year in first grade perfecting those skills, preparing themselves to be independent learners. By moving my students from their desks to a special rug area several times a day, they will not only get to get up and wiggle, but they'll learn to transition from one activity to another.
My Project
The rug I'm hoping for will help the students have a place to gather, "around the rug" in the morning, meaning they'll sit around the edges, criss-cross applesauce style, facing each other. Later in the day for math meeting, they'll have a place to sit "on the rug", all facing the math meeting wall with the calendar, weather and hundreds charts. For reading time, we'll all sit on the rug and allow our story to take us away to some other world. A rug will give me a place to contain them, a home base with a boundary, sort of, that will help them get still and focus on the lesson of the hour.
This rug will be a gathering spot.
It will not only be comfortable and attractive, but a learning tool on its own, with a world map depicted on it. I can see my students moving from continent to continent or ocean to ocean. I imagine there will be many geography discussions with the rug used as a resource.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Johnson and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.