“Let Nature be your teacher.” – William Wordsworth
Although they thoroughly enjoy books and videos, I find that when they physically interact with the world around them my students are truly engaged and inquisitive.
The six and seven years old students in my rural, first grade classroom enjoy the process of learning.
Their natural inquisitiveness takes us down many paths of learning. Whether we're learning about penguins, map making, or perfecting our skills as emergent readers and writers; our days are full of activity.
Students in my room are participants in the learning process. They help make decisions about what we'll learn and the best method for doing so. They are problem-solvers and take pride in the collaborative spirit we've created in our classroom.
My Project
We have a classroom terrarium. I brought in an old aquarium and my first graders helped me turn it into a terrarium for critter "visitors" that stay for a short time while we observe and learn about them.
Whether it's a "visitor" from our school woods, pond, playground, school or a "visitor" brought from home, they always bring squeals of delight, surprise, and excitement, and moments of silence, thoughtfulness, and questioning.
We love to get close and personal with the critters that come into our classroom. We interact with them while they are in the terrarium.
Once we were fortunate and were able to utilize a borrowed, digital microscope. It connected to our classroom computer and displayed the image on our screen.
If we had our own digital microscope, we'd use it regularly. Opportunities for use often happen at unplanned times. Those times that we discover a dangling spider, hatching caterpillar eggs, or an emerging moth!
A digital microscope would be a learning tool in our classroom.
We'd use it to broaden our view of the world in which we live. Having our own digital microscope would allow us to use it on a whim for not only planned learning opportunities, but also those moments during the day that are not planned... just crying out for a closer look!
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
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
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. Meacham and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
