My students need a new way to start their day. I want my students to get excited about challenging their minds in new ways with Bridge Building Engineering Center and Magna Tiles. This is a great way for hands-on activities, no worksheets!
Our school is fairly large elementary school currently comprised of 431 students. Our students come from a variety of different economic backgrounds with over 44% of our students receiving free/reduced lunch.
Our morning routine at school places some students in our classrooms twenty minutes before instruction begins.
Our school drop off time currently begins at 7:25am. Instructional time at school begins at 7:45am. We aim to get our students excited to come in to our classrooms early, of course, and worksheets just don't cut it. This 20 minutes leaves a window for parents to successfully make it through the drop off line in time as well as time for students to eat breakfast in the morning should they need it before we begin our day.
My Project
These materials will make a difference because it will allow my students to have a collaborative start to their day. When they come in each morning, they will come in more excited to build a taller, wider or stronger structure with different materials instead of working on a worksheet.
It's time for morning work to be transformed.
This should be a time for students to express themselves creatively and use critical thinking skills to solve problems. This should also be a time for students to build and maintain relationships within their classroom. I look forward to seeing my students eager to start.
Each of the materials that you see we are requesting will be split up and into art boxes. Each small art box will contain enough materials for a student to build a structure or solve a problem. In conjunction with these materials, they will be working on STEM task cards to complete tasks.
When this project is funded, when a student walks into a third grade room in the morning, they will hang up their backpack and visit the STEM bins to choose from some of the items below as well as play doh and other classroom manipulatives. Once they have chosen their STEM bin, they will choose a seat in our room and begin building a structure or solving a problem presented to them on the task cards in each bin. This same project can be worked on all week or simply put away at the end of the morning. This will allow us to put the choice back in morning work! This is how I would love to see third graders starting their day. They will not only be engaged and excited with these materials, but they will be learning!
More than a third 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. Schulte and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
