My students need exercise balls for flexible seating. Wordless books will help us with our illustration mini-unit focused on details. A pencil sharpener is critical.
My 1st grade students exercise their bodies to wake up and prepare their minds for active and engaged learning. Our class motto is, "We work the hardest and we have the most fun." We try to meet that goal every day with fun movement and interesting learning activities.
My students come from mobile homes and new housing developments in Colorado's growing front range.
They love a good story woven into their lessons to add a laugh or to get a chance to say, "no way!" to their goofy teacher. Most importantly, they are excited to come to school every day and learn.
My Project
The exercise balls requested will replace chairs for 1/3 of my students. We will come up with a way together to decide who may use the balls, when, and what the rules for behavior will be. The goal is that the students will be able to wiggle a bit when at their desks, and that they'll keep their bodies moving to keep their brains engaged in learning.
The books are primarily award winning wordless books. My class is studying how art in storytelling can transform your understanding just like words. We are talking about inspiring pictures that ignite the imagination and the brain's language centers - this is where the Michael Jordan poster comes in!
Several times a week, my students go next door and borrow a pencil sharpener from our generous neighbor. My hope is that we always have enough sharp pencils prepared in the classroom so that we don't let pencil issues slow down our writing work. Having our own sharpener will streamline things and allow us to reach our focus goal.
Currently, my students only have hard backed chairs.
My hope is that introducing some choice into seating will improve desk behavior and make our classroom a little bit more fun. We change our room often and enjoy a stimulating environment. These balls are a natural next step for us. The books will help us with our ongoing work on illustrations - The Red Book (Caldecott) has amazing and outside the box art that never fails to inspire. And of course, nothing is better than a sharp pencil.
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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 Mr. McNeely and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
