Empowering Reluctant Readers Through Chess & Comic Books
Help me give my students The Yak Pack Comic & Phonics Series, Lunch Lady books, The Diary of A Pug books, sets of No Stress Chess and a Conversation Starter Thumball.
FULLY FUNDED! Ms. Szarka's classroom raised $373
This project is fully funded
My Project
Have you ever struggled with seeing yourself as a reader? This is the headspace the majority of my students come to me in when we first meet. I hear a lot of "I can't read." We quickly learn how to turn our thinking around into phrases like "I'm not where I want to be in reading, yet." or "I'm becoming a reader ." However, I can tell that primarily reading decodable stories on copy paper isn't providing the encouragement my students need to see themselves as readers.
This project will provide 4 sets of quality chapter books that are of high interest with low readability for my 3rd-5th grade students.
This basically means, the words in the books work for students who are starting to figure out how to decode while having a subject matter and characters that are actually interesting! If you haven't checked out The Lunch Lady Series, go for it! They are super cool graphic novels. The Diary of a Pug is also a fun series that uses a blend of a comic style layout and typical paragraphing. Both series are illustrated beautifully. I've already introduced these series to a couple of my 4th graders, and they want more!
This project will also provide the Yak Pack Series for my younger readers. The Yak Pack uses a comic layout with very basic sentence such as "The yak sat on the mat." The illustrations make the story line more engaging while offering my students the feeling like, "Oh wow! I can read a book!"
Another item that this project will provide is a set of "No Stress Chess" board games. The board is marked, showing where to put each piece and how those pieces move. Students draw cards that state what move they are to make.
More than three‑quarters of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
No Stress Chess by Winning Moves Games USA, Celebrating 20 Years as the Chess Teaching Game Using Innovative Action Cards, for 2 Players, Ages 7+ (1091)
• Amazon Business
$20.16
5
$100.80
The First Helping (Lunch Lady Books 1 & 2): The Cyborg Substitute and the League of Librarians (Lunch Lady: 2-for-1 Special)
• Amazon Business
$10.83
5
$54.15
Pug’s Snow Day: A Branches Book (Diary of a Pug #2)
• Amazon Business
$5.99
5
$29.95
Pug Blasts Off: A Branches Book (Diary of a Pug #1)
• Amazon Business
$4.92
5
$24.60
FlagHouse Prodject Adventure Who Are You? Thumball
• School Specialty
$16.94
1
$16.94
The Yak Pack: Comics & Phonics: Book 4: Learn to read Bossy E words (The Yak Pack Comics Complete Series)
• Amazon Business
$11.15
1
$11.15
The Yak Pack: Comics & Phonics: Book 3: Learn to read decodable blend words (The Yak Pack Comics Complete Series)
• Amazon Business
$11.15
1
$11.15
The Yak Pack: Comics & Phonics: Book 2: Learn to read decodable digraph words (The Yak Pack Comics Complete Series)
• Amazon Business
$11.15
1
$11.15
Materials cost
$259.89
Vendor shipping charges
$1.69
Sales tax
$21.18
3rd party payment processing fee
$3.90
Fulfillment labor & materials
$30.00
Total project cost
$316.66
Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms
$55.88
Total project goal
$372.54
How we calculate what's needed
Total project goal
$372.54
1 Donor
-$25.00
Donations toward project cost
-$21.25
Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms
-$3.75
match offer
-$347.54
Match offer toward project cost
-$295.41
Match offer to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms
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 Ms. Szarka and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
