Help me give my students books for whole group read alouds, as well as books to enjoy on their own during independent reading. These books will keep the students engaged, while giving them a different variety of stories.
My remarkable first graders are my second class I get to teach in my teaching career! I have 20 little firsties who make every day interesting. I teach in a Title 1 classroom, housing students who come from low-income households, but have a true desire for learning. Unfortunately, our will for learning gets hindered by the lack of classroom reading resources for the students.
There is never a day that goes by in first grade that we don't read at least three books.
My students are kind, smart, and caring, but also need the opportunity to get their minds moving and their wheels turning by enjoying new, unique stories that I read to them, as well as ones they read to themselves. The more my students read, the more the know, and the more they grow! Our outdated library is not interesting or enticing for these creative minds - we need new story-lines to keep us all engaged.
My Project
Students in the everyday classroom are accustomed to reading or listening to the same stories day in and out. I am attempting to expand my classroom library with themed books for read alouds and personal student reading. Creating engaging reading lessons is difficult when the reading material is not easily accessible or available at all - and these books often cost anywhere from $5 to $25, which comes directly from the teacher's own pocket. Funding books for teacher and student use in the classroom can often cost hundreds and even thousands of dollars, forcing teachers to use hand-me-down stories from years and years ago, or attempting to find online read alouds.
Let's face it, listening to a story on the Smart Board is no where near the same experience as hearing it read aloud by the teacher and seeing the pictures as the pages turn, and listening to First Day Jitters for the third year in a row isn't the best experience to instill a love for reading and hearing new stories.
Our students need fresh books to open up their minds and get them interesting in reading again. They need a new dog to save the day, they need a new back to school story for the first day, and they need a new version of The Gingerbread Man to take place of the one that they've heard fifty times beforehand. With these new books being utilized in our classroom libraries, students will get fresh stories and new characters to fall in love with, and, hopefully, help them fall in love with reading as well.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
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. Wiles and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
