Several teacher-requested classroom grant proposals involve amounts less than $500, yet result in amazing gains for students. Such was the case of a classroom afghan project last year by Pamela Muncey’s fifth-grade class. Here is a description of the project which the Foundation funded for $150 in her own words:
“This was a wonderful and successful project for my classroom. Every child participated in dying the yarn, rolling it into balls (Yikes! Many tangles!), knitting (even if it was only a few inches…), selling the raffle tickets, and most importantly, choosing the charity to send our money to.
We raised $310.69 by displaying the finished afghan, and selling raffle tickets at our school’s open house in June. The children were adamant that we send the money to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. One of our classmates was diagnosed last spring with type 1 diabetes, and has had a rough time.The students are very attached to each other as this is a 3 year loop class. The family of the student handled the donation and was very touched. The students in my classroom were very proud of themselves.
This was a long project. It took several months, and an amazing amount of perseverance on their part. It illustrated the students empathy for one another (It took a lot of ‘helpers’), their leadership skills, and their creative problem solving.
I was amazed and proud watching them figure out how to accomplish all this, and to get it done on a timeline.”
