All the way back in November I wrote a grant for Donor's Choose. If you have not heard of it, its a wonderful website where teachers can write grants and individual donors can fund grants by donating small amounts of money. Those small amounts add up until the grant is fully funded and then the teacher gets the supplies (or field trip, or special visitor) that they need. So I wrote a grant for storage for stations and some new stations for the library centers. Well it was finally funded in March and the materials all arrived just a few short weeks later. This week was the first week that I actually got to put out some of the materials we received.
Some of the things included in the grant were storage containers (essential for library centers but not that exciting). But what was exciting was two of the new creative building kits I got. We got a marble run set (where students can create marble runs and use gravity to make the marble go down) and we got a magnatiles set (magnetic colorful translucent shapes that students can build with). They have been a huge hit this week! I thought that some of the older grades might think these creative building kits were "too young" but if you see in the pictures featured on today's post. These are all 5th graders (many of them GT 5th graders) have a blast with these two activities.
Seeing things like this in the library is why I LOVE my job, and why I am so thrilled about how the library centers have worked out this year. Honestly I think it is the single best change I have made to the library is the library centers. The centers show me how much students can truly be learning through what looks like "play" and how even in elementary school we are making their academic careers so "rigorous" sometimes they just need to step back and learn through play. I am so happy I can provide that creative and engaging learning play space in the library.
Some of the things included in the grant were storage containers (essential for library centers but not that exciting). But what was exciting was two of the new creative building kits I got. We got a marble run set (where students can create marble runs and use gravity to make the marble go down) and we got a magnatiles set (magnetic colorful translucent shapes that students can build with). They have been a huge hit this week! I thought that some of the older grades might think these creative building kits were "too young" but if you see in the pictures featured on today's post. These are all 5th graders (many of them GT 5th graders) have a blast with these two activities.
Seeing things like this in the library is why I LOVE my job, and why I am so thrilled about how the library centers have worked out this year. Honestly I think it is the single best change I have made to the library is the library centers. The centers show me how much students can truly be learning through what looks like "play" and how even in elementary school we are making their academic careers so "rigorous" sometimes they just need to step back and learn through play. I am so happy I can provide that creative and engaging learning play space in the library.