The most exciting part about this project is that it came from an idea that the students had. The students gravitate towards the one comfortable reading corner in the room and now want another area to relax and read.
The students developed this project idea because there is quite the competition in each class to be the students that "get the spot" in the reading area in the classroom. Slowly but surely, we've been building our classroom library and adding book shelves. At this time, we have an area with old floor pillows that doesn't get used because the floor pillows are too old and the cement floor is cold!
My students are beginning to learn to problem solve by creating this project. Being 12 and 13 year olds, it would be easy to just complain that there's no comfy spot to sit in. But instead, the students didn't complain and now are attempting to solve a problem. This hopefully will develop a habit of real-life problem solving instead of real-life complaining!
In Their Own Words
The idea for the project we can up with is to add a carpet to a reading corner. We always try to run to be the first in the reading corner for group work or independent reading. Instead of doing this, we wanted to get a big carpet to have an area where more kids could sit!
We will be leaders by making sure every student gets a chance to hang out in the area during class. Our class created a "reservation chart" so everyone can get a chance to use this new area. We also will help keep the area free of books and other items.
Getting this project funded and having a new comfy carpet will help us get comfortable during our reading time and group work. Since our classroom has cement for a floor, it isn't very fun to sit on. Having a nice new carpet would be great to read a book on!
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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 Ms. Horzen and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.