By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

Keeping students interested in learning by making it hands-on and fun is the focus for Verbena second-grade teacher Mattie McCay’s “No More Morning Bore” project on DonorsChoose.org.

DonorsChoose.org allows teachers to submit requests to post information and solicit donations for items needed for their classrooms. Once a request is approved, teachers have a set number of time to raise the funds through the website. Teachers only receive the items if the project is fully funded.

McCay needs $200 more in order to be fully funded.

Donations can be made at donorschoose.org/project/no-more-morning-bore/3410935 before Nov. 16.

If the project is funded, each donor that gives his or her name when donating will receive a handmade thank you card from the students.

McCay has 21 students.

“They would much rather be hands-on doing something than doing a worksheet,” McCay said.

McCay said it was a challenge last year to keep students on task, while she took care of attendance and lunch count.

Often she would give each child a worksheet, but she wanted a better option.

If she raises all the needed funds, McCay would have story cubes, flat magnetic shapes for building 3D projects, a building set and games to improve math, reading and language skills.

The magnetic shapes would help meet the third state standard for science, which states “demonstrate and explain how structures made from small pieces can be disassembled and then rearranged to make new and different structures.”

The items would also be helpful for sensory, brain breaks, using their imagination and learning centers in her classroom.

McCay said she hopes the new items will show students that school and learning can be fun.

This is McCay’s second time posting on DonorsChoose.org for her classroom. The first request was for headphones for students to use with the laptops in the classroom.

She said this year her classroom has a Chromebook for every student to use, so already having headphones for each student has been helpful.