Our students are energetic about learning and endlessly curious about the world around them. We want to support their inquiry by providing rich, inspiring, and thought-provoking texts in math and science content areas.
Our fifth graders have ideas and questions about everything around them.
Where do colors come from? Is zero a multiple of a number? Why are humans conductors of electricity? We want to support our students' inquiry in math and science by providing them with high-quality texts that will bring them more deeply into the content we're learning each day. Our students have a wide net of teacher, parent, and community support around them at our elementary school. However, like any other public school, students and teachers face the pressures of standardized testing and a shrinking curriculum that prioritizes bubble-answer tests over child-centered inquiry. In an effort to minimize these negative impacts of testing, we want to bring literacy to the forefront of our learning in math and science. We want students to connect with books that help them learn and wonder about math, science, and the world all around!
My Project
The requested books will be used in fifth grade. Therefore, all fifth graders will have access to the new texts that will be used in many different ways. At times, the books will be used as the "hook" in the lesson, introducing an idea, skill, or concept that will be explored during a particular day. Other times, the books will be used as "text sets" in which teams of students will share the books as part of a discovery activity, like a science lab or when learning a new math skill. The books will also be used as part of "reading workshop", in which students will have the opportunity to select a book of their choice to read and later share with the class.
We know these books will help us teach our fifth grade curriculum by engaging students in new ways of learning math and science.
However, the books will also inspire students' personal inquiry into topics that interest them the most. We want our students to be life-long learners, always wondering and asking questions about the world around them. By putting high-quality books in the hands of our students, we are furthering their inquiry of the world that will last a lifetime.
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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. Daly-Lesch and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.