When you think of classroom supplies, items like pencils, paper, and textbooks might come to mind. But in one Orange County class, something as simple as discarded packing foam became the foundation for creativity, collaboration, and student pride.

At Legacy Middle School, theater teacher Miss Nieves sees possibilities where others might see scraps.

During a routine monthly visit to the Free Teacher Supply Store, she picked up something unexpected: rectangular packing foam. Like many educators, she’s always searching for materials to support hands-on learning, especially for theater. School budgets don’t always stretch far enough to cover the wide range of supplies theater programs need for set materials, props, paint, and texturing. That’s where A Gift for Teaching steps in.

Sometimes, the most unexpected materials make the biggest impact.

Turning Scraps into a Stage
At first, the foam didn’t quite fit her lesson plans. She planned to use it for a puppetry unit, but it didn’t quite work out. Then came a moment that every educator dreams of.
While her students were designing set pieces for their production of Disney’s Descendants: The Musical, one student had a simple but brilliant idea:

“Why don’t we paint the foam to look like brick walls?”

That one question transformed a single packing foam into something BIGGER.

Over the next three weeks, Miss Nieves’ students worked together to turn those pieces of foam into a stunning, realistic brick wall set. With paint, much of it also sourced from A Gift for Teaching, the students collaborated to design, build, and bring their vision to life.

What started as packing material became the foundation of a full set design of the school production.

But beyond the final product, something even more meaningful took shape:

  • Creativity flourished as students problem-solved and experimented
  • Confidence grew as they saw their ideas come to life
  • Collaboration strengthened as they worked together toward a shared goal
  • Pride blossomed when they stepped back and saw what they had created

As Miss Nieves shared, this experience is “a perfect reminder that items we think have no purpose can be completely transformed with a little creativity. [These] donations help to fill the gaps in our classrooms.”

Stories like this happen every day, but only because free resources from A Gift for Teaching are available when teachers need them.

When educators schedule a free monthly shopping visit to the store, mobile store, or for online ordering, they’re not just picking up supplies. They’re discovering possibilities.

For students, these moments can be transformative. They turn lessons into experiences and ideas into something tangible, memorable, and meaningful. For teachers like Miss Nieves, they fill critical gaps and unlock opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t exist.

You can help create the next story as a Classroom Hero!

Behind every moment of student creativity is a network of support, and that includes donors like you. When you give monthly to A Gift for Teaching, you ensure that more teachers can say “yes” to innovation, creativity, limitless possibility.

Become a monthly donor, a Classroom Hero, for less than a dollar a day and your ongoing support will craft more moments like these – not just once, but all year long.

Join our community of monthly donors today and help turn everyday materials into extraordinary learning experiences.