You're on track to get doubled donations (and unlock a reward for the colleague who referred you). Keep up the great work!
Take credit for your charitable giving! Check out your tax receipts
To use your $50 gift card credits, find a project to fund and we'll automatically apply your credits at checkout. Find a classroom project
Skip to main content

Help teachers & students in your hometown this season!
Use code HOME at checkout and your donation will be matched up to $100.

Your school email address was successfully verified.

See this teacher's page

Ms. Phinney from Concord CA is requesting books through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

Family STEM Backpacks: Making STEM Explorations Accessible to All

Help me give my students access to backpacks full of STEM and art related books and materials that will inspire them to explore, create and innovate at home!

  • $1,192 goal

Hooray! This project is fully funded

Hooray! This project is fully funded

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

Celebrate 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

We are a Two-Way Dual Immersion Kindergarten classroom. Our students are learning Spanish and English, many as a second or third language. Our students speak Ilocano, Czech, Russian and more. We are a newly opened school, so we lack the resources that most long-opened schools have.

I want my students to have access to rich, diverse and varied curriculum that will inspire them to great leaps of learning.

As a long-time teacher, I know that having a variety of materials makes for engaged students.

My Project

With STEM and arts at the forefront, these backpacks and the rich variety of journal responses will serve as a showcase of families’ wealth of knowledge. They will create new contexts from which to build family-school relationships and partnerships, facilitate connections across families, promote learning from and with families and develop the creative thinking that comes from involvement with STEAM activities.

The Family STEM Backpacks are designed to provide accessible and equitable science, technology, engineering, arts, math and literature-based experiences within classroom and home settings.

Each of the backpacks are designed around one of ten themes and include; books, open-ended STEAM invitations, a fabric world map and a response journal in which families can share their own stories through writing, drawing, photos and/or a variety of creative methods and inventions. Each set of books contains a wordless book and/or bilingual book when available so that all families—regardless of their home language and/or reading abilities—can access the theme and have the opportunity to make connections between the stories in the books and their own family stories and explorations. Students will be able to check-out a STEAM-themed backpack for a week, to share with their family and record their connections in any way they choose. As the backpack travels home with the next student, the journals in the backpacks will travel from family to family.

Ms. Phinney
Grades PreK-2

Boost your odds

Add a profile photo in addition to your classroom photo. If you add a photo, it'll show up right here on your project page.

You are more likely to receive funding if you put a face to your name.

Upload a photo

Top rated for efficiency and transparency.

You donate directly to the teacher or project you care about and see where every dollar you give goes.

Expand the "Where your donation goes" section below to see exactly what Ms. Phinney is requesting.

See our finances

TEACHERS, FEELING INSPIRED?

You can start a project with the same resources being requested here!

Where Your Donation Goes

Materials Cost Quantity Total
Fabric Traditions Multi Panel Map World • Amazon Business $12.65 10 $126.50
Everest Basic Pattern Backpack, Prism, One Size • Amazon Business $11.86 10 $118.60
TYH Supplies Set of 10 Reusable Dry Erase Pockets, 9 x 12 Inches, Assorted Neon Colors • Amazon Business $12.99 3 $38.97
Avery Durable View Binder, 1/2" Slant Rings, 120-Sheet Capacity, DuraHinge, White, Case Pack of 12 (17002) • Amazon Business $29.64 1 $29.64
Learning Resources Learning Resource Rainbow Link 'n' Learn Links, Bucket of 1000 • Amazon Business $25.49 1 $25.49
Wangari y los arboles de la paz / Wangari's Trees of Peace (Una Historia Verdadera) (Spanish Edition) • Amazon Business $20.99 1 $20.99
Juvale Foam Stickers - 1000-Pack Self-Adhesive EVA Foam Stickers DIY Crafts, School Projects, Decorations, Geometric Shapes, Multi-Colored • Amazon Business $19.99 1 $19.99
Qty 100 of Each, 10 Mil Luggage Tag Laminating Pouches & 6-inch Loops, 2-1/2 x 4-1/4 pre-slotted • Amazon Business $19.96 1 $19.96
Soñadores (Spanish Edition) • Amazon Business $18.99 1 $18.99
Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building • Amazon Business $18.95 1 $18.95
Over the Ocean • Amazon Business $15.25 1 $15.25
Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature • Amazon Business $14.62 1 $14.62
Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian • Amazon Business $14.39 1 $14.39
Window • Amazon Business $14.31 1 $14.31
Dream Something Big • Amazon Business $13.95 1 $13.95
Rainbow Weaver / Tejedora del Arcoris • AKJ Education $13.83 1 $13.83
The Watcher Jane Goodall's Life with the Chimps • AKJ Education $13.13 1 $13.13
Malala's Magic Pencil • AKJ Education $13.13 1 $13.13
A Boy and a Jaguar • AKJ Education $13.13 1 $13.13
Going Places • AKJ Education $13.13 1 $13.13
Hidden Figures • AKJ Education $13.13 1 $13.13
Beautiful Oops! • Amazon Business $13.06 1 $13.06
Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat (A Poetry Speaks Experience) • Amazon Business $12.76 1 $12.76
The Little Red Fort • Amazon Business $12.75 1 $12.75
Julián Is a Mermaid • AKJ Education $12.40 1 $12.40
Perfect Square • AKJ Education $12.40 1 $12.40
Sparrow Girl • AKJ Education $12.40 1 $12.40
Dreamers • Amazon Business $12.12 1 $12.12
Drummer Boy of John John • Amazon Business $11.95 1 $11.95
Whoosh!: Lonnie Johnson's Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions • Amazon Business $11.86 1 $11.86
The Most Magnificent Thing • Amazon Business $11.86 1 $11.86
AmazonBasics Letter Size Laminating Pouch 9 x 11.5in, 100-pack • Amazon Business $11.70 1 $11.70
La idea más maravillosa / The Most Magnificent Thing • AKJ Education $11.64 1 $11.64
The World Is Not a Rectangle: A Portrait of Architect Zaha Hadid • Amazon Business $11.48 1 $11.48
What If... • Amazon Business $11.37 1 $11.37
Maya Lin: Artist-Architect of Light and Lines • Amazon Business $11.16 1 $11.16
600 Sheets Premium Origami Paper | 70GSM | 30 Vivid Colors | Double Sided | 6-Inch Square Sheets • Amazon Business $10.95 1 $10.95
Ada's Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay • Amazon Business $9.98 1 $9.98
El violín de Ada (Ada's Violin): La historia de la Orquesta de Instrumentos Reciclados del Paraguay (Spanish Edition) • Amazon Business $9.98 1 $9.98
One Red Dot One Red Dot • AKJ Education $9.66 1 $9.66
A Desert Scrapbook: Dawn to Dusk in the Sonoran Desert • Amazon Business $8.47 1 $8.47
What To Do With a Box • Amazon Business $8.09 1 $8.09
Origami Paper 300 sheets Japanese Washi Patterns 4" (10 cm): Tuttle Origami Paper: High-Quality Origami Sheets Printed with 12 Different Designs • Amazon Business $7.99 1 $7.99
The Tin Forest (Rise and Shine) • Amazon Business $7.99 1 $7.99
Wangari's Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa • Amazon Business $7.99 1 $7.99
Not a Box • Amazon Business $7.19 1 $7.19
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind • AKJ Education $6.56 1 $6.56
Color Zoo Board Book • AKJ Education $5.83 1 $5.83
Seeing Symmetry • AKJ Education $5.83 1 $5.83
Music Everywhere! • AKJ Education $5.80 1 $5.80
Yoko's Paper Cranes • AKJ Education $5.10 1 $5.10

Materials cost

$888.40

Vendor shipping charges

FREE

Sales tax

$81.29

3rd party payment processing fee

$13.33

Fulfillment labor & materials

$30.00

Total project cost

$1,013.02

Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

$178.77

Total project goal

$1,191.79

How we calculate what's needed

Total project goal

$1,191.79

2 Donors

-$1,191.79

Donations toward project cost

-$1,013.02

Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$178.77

Still needed View calculationHide calculation

$0.00

Our team works hard to negotiate the best pricing and selections available.

View complete list Show less

Support a teacher
near you!

Explore a map with requests from teachers across the country.

View map of requests

Project Activity

{"pmaHash":"","schoolCity":"Concord","showProjectRecommendations":true,"teachersOnPage":[4751145],"isTeacherViewingTheirOwnProject":false,"hideTeacherDetails":false,"schoolState":"CA","teacherPossessivePronoun":"her","PMsManager":null,"schoolGradeType":{"id":1,"name":"Early Education"},"TeacherPMForms":{},"proposalId":3609862,"proposalMessageFormModel":null,"numActiveProjects":0,"completingDonationAmount":0,"teacherHasClassroomPhoto":true,"proposalURL":"https://www.donorschoose.org/project/family-stem-backpacks-making-stem-explo/3609862/","verifyShowPhotos":"","eligibleToBeCopied":false,"mayHaveReplacements":true,"numStudents":44,"teacherScreenName":"Ms. Phinney","isEquityFocus":true,"authorIds":{"4751145":{"owner":"Ms. Phinney","donationSalutations":{}}},"displayedPercentFunded":1.0,"proposalsOnPage":[3609862],"proposalHash":"1230673192","isApplePayMobileOnly":true,"progressBarPercentage":100.00,"pmaId":"","teacherProfilePhotoURL":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/272x272/tp4751145_272x272.jpg?width=136&height=136&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1528747390298","teacherHasProfilePhoto":true,"currentWorkflowStatusCode":21,"teacherChallengeId":21022371,"photosPublished":true,"queryString":"","DonorPMForm":null,"isApplePayEnabled":true,"fundedByTarget":false,"activeProject":null,"donorIdsForImpactPhotoCheck":["NTU3NjI2Nw==","NTE2Mzk0MQ=="],"teacherId":4751145,"schoolCounty":"Contra Costa","fullyFunded":true,"isStudentLed":false,"isExpired":true,"schoolStateObj":{"code":"CA","name":"California"}}