Hi Everyone,
One more week until Spring Break, I can’t wait!!!! It’s difficult when Spring Break is this late, I am super tired and feel like I’m crawling to the finish line. My husband of course thinks I’m crazy, because he doesn’t get the (in his opinion) massive amount of breaks that teachers do, but I swear if he spent one day with those little balls of energy he would understand!
Anywho, I spent today updating my donation door, and I wanted to share the template with you.
I have mentioned before, that all of the families at my school have to donate 20 service hours for the year. If they don’t donate that time, they have to pay $5 for every hour that they are missing at the end of the year. The money usually just gets sent to the office. Last year, one of my parents was missing some of her hours, and she told me that instead of just giving the money to the office, she would like to buy books for the classroom. Why hadn’t I thought of that before!!!!
I have so many books on my wishlist from Kim Adsit’s reading workshop, Jen Jones’ phonological awareness curriculum, Deedee Wills and Deanna Jump’s writing curriculum, and many more! Unfortunately, I have yet to win the lottery, and can’t afford to get all the books I want at once, so the donation door really helps me get the things I need.
I write the name of the book that I want, plus the author, how much it costs, where it can be found (usually Scholastic or Amazon), and how many hours of service you get from donating this book to the classroom. I add a picture of the book as well, just so they can have that as a reference point when they are purchasing the item.
Side note – is anyone else frustrated that you can’t purchase Dr. Seuss books on the Scholastic website!
I let my parents know about the donation door on the second day of school at parent orientation. I also make sure to send a reminder note home to them whenever the office sends out the hours of service reminder slips : ) Books are obviously not the only thing you could add to these, any classroom supplies, such as glue sticks, pencils, Kleenex, etc. can be added.
I made a freebie with the “Can You Lend a Helping Hand” sign and some hands that have common items you might ask for from the parents. I also made some editable ones. You can write whatever you would like on the hand, and then just drag and drop a picture onto it for the parents. If you would like a copy of this resource just fill out the info. below:
