The cost of 5 class sets of Mr. Popper's Penguins print and audiobooks from Recorded Books, LLC is $762, including shipping and <a target="new" href="http://www.donorschoose.org/html/fulfillment.htm" onclick="g_openWindow('http://www.donorschoose.org/html/fulfillment.htm', 300, 800, 'fulfillwindow');return false;">fulfillment</a>.
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.
I am teaching 5th grade this year (06-07) for Indianapolis Public Schools, after teaching 9 years at the middle school level. I am creating my classroom around the book Mr. Popper's Penguins. My classroom is known as the rookery (which is where penguins nest) and my class is Ms. Potts' Pesky Penguins. We are performing, personable people with pizzazz. As this will be the novel of the year each year, I plan on giving each student a book.
This book reveals the longing that Mr. Popper, who is a lowly house painter, has to travel to Antartica. He writes a letter to Admiral Drake who is exploring Antartica and is a hero to Mr. Popper. Admiral Drake sends Mr. Popper a penguin as a present. Then sends the first penguin a mate and soon there are twelve! The Poppers then turn their gaggle into a traveling act and tour the US making money everywhere they go. They become so popular that they are approached by a Hollywood producer who makes an generous offer to produce a show and is turned down by the Popper's. Then Admiral Drake shows up to meet the Poppers and their famous penguins and offers Mr. Popper a trip to the North Pole. Through this story students learn that their is more to life than making money and that dreams can come true.
I am looking for 50 books that I can hand out to students each year. I usually start the school year with 33-37 students and having the transient population that is prevalent in IPS, will have another 10 or so come and go through the year. These books will be used in reading groups, writing groups, personal writings, economic activities, and fluency building. Students will be able to take the book with them at the end of the unit in order to keep hold of the values that are prevalent in the book in regards to money and dreams.
The students that I work with have very little in the way of hope and looking forward to the future. I am hoping through the use of literature and the lessons that I plan around this unit to build hope back into their lives. I currently do not have the funds to buy a set of 50 books nor do my students have the funds to buy a $7 book. However, the more literature I can put into their hands, the more I feel I will be able to impact their lives for a very long time.
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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. F. and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.