Expanding Thought Through Literature

When I first became a teacher in November, I was very quick to put up my first ever project on Donor's Choose looking to get funded. When I walked into my new classroom, the previous teacher told me that she brought her materials to the class from her year of teaching 2nd grade.

Including books.

So, my wonderful group of 5th graders are stuck choosing between picture books and stories about Flat Stanley. Not the best for trying to get them to expand their horizons.

And my school doesn't have a library so I can't just say "go get a new book from there" to them. They want more stories and challenges.

So, I set up my first project looking for people to help fund a revamp of my classroom library. I went through, and picked out books that I thought would excite my kids, as well as ones that would excite me (ahem, I'm talking about you Peter Pan and BFG). One of the most exciting parts is that I included the ENTIRE collections of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and the Magic Tree House (which the second set is a third of the entire project alone).

Today, I went on to see how much longer I have left, etc. 36 days. And there's been 4 donors, 3 from my family, and one matched. So there's still about $310 to go.

I had told my students about the project before and how I'm trying to help them get more books. They're waiting in anticipation to see if it happens.

The project's listed here.

I'm hoping I can give an update in the next few weeks with the word "completed!!!" in it... fingers crossed! :)


Here's a picture of our current library's state: