Perfect Solution to Second Grade Pencil Problem

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

My classroom is full of 50 second graders who love learning. In order to make a class of that size function efficiently, I must eliminate any possible problems - the biggest of which is PENCILS! Second graders tend to lose them, break them, or argue over them, taking away from meaningful learning.

My school is located in an inner city, with 85% of the almost 700 students receiving free lunch.

The school community is diverse, and students have the opportunity to grow not just academically, but also socially as they interact with diverse students from many different backgrounds. My classroom specifically blends the bilingual and monolingual students, leading to rich and meaningful learning and life experiences. Unfortunately, not all students are able to bring in sufficient classroom supplies for the year, and we are often short on pencils and erasers as the year goes on. It appears that the resources that the kids have are not always plentiful enough to keep up with their hunger for learning!

My Project

With a classroom size of 50, it is necessary to implement structures that will allow students to get the most learning possible throughout the day. Pencils cause a huge problem each year. Second graders often lose or break them, and sometimes even argue with their peers over them. This takes away from valuable learning time daily. To avoid this problem, I have developed a pencil system. Each week, every student will receive ten sharpened pencils in their pouch. They are responsible for their pencils and eraser for the entire week. On Fridays, their pouches will be collected by the teacher. If they have not lost any pencils or their eraser, I will put a trinket prize in their pouch. If they are missing a pencil or eraser, they will receive a note that says "Oops! Looks like you are missing a pencil. Try again next week!" This system will eliminate the stress and wasted time that occurs from the current pencil problem, and will allow for more time and energy to be spent on learning.

The donations to this project will have a huge impact on my students.

Not only will they provide students with the resources that they need, they will also provide students with the priceless gift of time - time to learn, time to grow and time to interact with their peers, rather than time spent on sharpening or looking for pencils to use.