My students need a document camera, a mobile storage cart, and a Nonfiction Leveled Books Classroom Library to satisfy the core curriculum standards for first grade, and to enrich their minds with factual information.
This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
My Students
Can you imagine what the jungle looks like? Do you remember the first time you saw a picture of a camel or a penguin? My students can not recall any of these experiences, because they have never had the opportunity to read about anything nonfiction, from ecosystems, to weather, to animal habitats.
I am so lucky to have 24 brilliantly enthusiastic six and seven year old students in my classroom.
They love to learn and are passionate about (almost) everything I teach.
The first time I showed them a map of the world, we spent 30 minutes discussing the countries and continents. Unfortunately, I did not have any books in my classroom library to read to/with the class about the places I had pointed out.
My students live in the inner city. Most of them have never left their neighborhoods. Everything they know about nonfiction material, they see on television or learn in school. However, what they know is not enough to be successful in school and the world.
My school is a wonderful place, but we lack the resources needed to expose our students to the important real text they need to experience before they go off to high school, college, and adult life.
My Project
If I had a classroom library of nonfiction text, my students' lives and educational experiences would be changed forever. I would be able to teach my students about the structure of nonfiction text, how to compare and contract REAL information about the world, and expose them to facts they would otherwise never learn in elementary school.
With the document camera, I can project the nonfiction books for the class to see as a whole. With the leveled library, my students can use their own judgment as to what they want to learn. The animal and science books and cards will be perfect for my students to use while writing their first research report.
I believe that this nonfiction book project would change the way that I teach reading in my classroom.
I will be able to show my students books about REAL things in life, not just imaginary fairy tales.
It is amazing how often we adults forget the amount of informational text that we read a day, and that we had to learn how to process the information in these texts. Newspapers, emails, graphs, encyclopedias, etc, - we were taught how to use them. With this project, I can teach my students too!
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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. Houston and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.