Help me give my students a variety of authentic literature to spark their love of reading!
FULLY FUNDED! Mrs. Barnes's classroom raised $530
This project is fully funded
My Students
I teach at an engaged and diverse neighborhood school in the heart of the North End of Middletown, CT. Our school is truly a community school, with over 90% of our students walking to and from school each day. We are grateful to learn from the rich racial and cultural diversity of our students and their families. My fifth graders are creative, thoughtful, hard-working, and funny. They make me laugh every day.
Our school motto is "Knowledge is Power" and as the oldest students in the building, my students crave establishing that knowledge through their own curiosities; they are always asking questions.
We are a STEM-based school full of inquisitive minds who love to explore and learn more. Our school has two classrooms at each grade level K-5 as well as a pre-school, family resource center, and community health center within our building. Nearly 80% of our school is eligible for free and reduced-price lunch.
My Project
When was the first time you fell in love with a book? Was it the first story you read on your own, or the first time you really understood a character? Did you want to step right into that story, again and again, and share it with all of your friends?
On March 13, 2020, as our school closed for what we expected to be a two-week Covid-19 closure, I dropped books into my students' backpacks, encouraging them to borrow whatever they would read in those two weeks, fully expecting that most would return by the end of the year.
As we know now, most of those books actually aren't coming back to my classroom. I created this project to re-stock my classroom library with books that I know my students will love. Many of these titles are ones I borrowed from my local library to share with my students last year. Others showcase racially diverse authors and characters that I know will resonate with my readers!
More than three‑quarters 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 Mrs. Barnes and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
