My students need K'NEX kits for force & motion experiments and materials to emphasize concepts in sound & light.
FULLY FUNDED! Mrs. Duncan's classroom raised $317
This project is fully funded
My Students
The students in our class are motivated learners that press forward despite their hardships. They'll eventually improve with routines that encourage them to make their thinking visible, to confidently share their knowledge or thoughts without reserve, and to develop inquiring minds that are actively engaged throughout lessons and activities. Each student is heard, holds a classroom job, and leads intellectual discussions, assignments, or experiments regularly. They rely on each other, and on a loving, supportive setting to become resilient and successfully achieve. I "proactively" encourage confidence and trust in one another through our class motto: "We can do hard things! Climb though the rocks be rugged."
Every student matters, every moment counts.
My class of 30 students, mostly from low income households, will require rigorous interventions to function on grade level by the end of this school year because of trauma, disruptive life events, and a majority already lacking essential skills. My third grade class has several special needs, ESL, and below-grade level students enrolled. They all have a think win-win attitude and do their personal best to contribute to our classroom community. We each hope to keep pressing onward, enjoy our precious journey, and ultimately realize our climb.
My Project
We are required to study force, motion, sound, light, and energy in our third grade curriculum. These topics are difficult to teach through reading alone. Corresponding activities that reinforce what students read about and allow them to experiment will increase comprehension. When they create deeper levels of meaning, they'll internalize the content so that they're mostly thinking about it on their own; moving themselves toward the higher cognitive skills of synthesizing information and applying it in new contexts. We will read books and then transfer knowledge gained, into different situations to investigate. For example, we will read about the visible light spectrum and experiment splitting white light with a prism.
Our students have special challenges and need more engaging resources to get them achieving expeditiously.
With my lessons and activities that incorporate these materials, our aspirations have a greater likelihood of success. Students must demonstrate how forces cause changes in speed or direction of objects. With the K'NEX kits, they'll investigate how forces applied through simple machines affect the direction and/or amount of resulting force. These are core objectives I'm obligated to teach. We used popsicle sticks, straws, and rubber bands last year. Most of these materials couldn't be reused after each lesson. We have students with rubber and latex allergies this year. Having kits that are reusable and more allergy safe is a smarter way to manage our activities. All rubber bands will be removed from our lesson materials and alternatives shall be put in place. Students will simply focus on academic tasks at hand, and not on whether their materials are going to make them ill or not. Having less mess and waste is another bonus. Again, every student matters, every moment counts; protecting children's health and saving precious learning time with more suitable materials is our priority.
Half 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. Duncan and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
