My students need non-toxic, natural materials to clean soiled library books: coconut oil and baking soda. They also need tough book tape to patch up frayed/torn books.
FULLY FUNDED! Dr. Pearson's classroom raised $224
This project is fully funded
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
Our school library suffers from a wonderful problem! We have some very popular books that are checked out by scores of kids. Now - imagine the state that these books are in. Our student library aides have to clean and patch up our most popular books on a regular basis.
There would be no school library without these aides.
Some help in the library during school hours. These are 7th or 8th graders whose time in the library counts as an elective period. Others volunteer to help out before and after school. These kids tend to be 5th or 6th graders. The students circulate, label, shelve books - do anything and everything you can think of. The library that they work so hard to maintain caters to around 900 kids. Over 80% of these kids receive free/reduced lunch. Most are the children of immigrants. More than 80% speak a foreign language at home. The ages of the students at our school range from four to fourteen. And those kids are constantly checking out library books.
My Project
But those books! You should see the state that they get in! Once a book has been circulated 10, 20, 30 times, it is covered with a film of grime. This is easily removed with some elbow grease and a good cleaner. I'm thinking of brands specially formulated to remove goo and gunk. The trouble is, the cleaning is done by student aides, and these chemicals shouldn't really be used extensively by children. I googled 'DIY gunk remover' to find an alternative, natural book cleaner. Why don't you do the same search? You'll find the solution = a mixture of coconut oil and baking soda. Nothing to bother the student aides there. Nothing to upset the environment, either. Of course, once we've cleaned up the books, we may need to patch them up a little. That's where the Scotch Tape comes in. This is a special, extra tough variety, specially made for book repair (I've tried cheaper tapes, but they just come off after a month or two.) Coconut oil / baking soda / tape: just what our books need.
If you could possibly supply these materials, we'll supply the elbow grease and meticulousness to get those books cleaned and patched up just right.
Both the kids who maintain the library, and all the kids who use the library (nobody enjoys checking out a tatty book) would be extremely grateful!
Half 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
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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 Dr. Pearson and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
