Though school budgets tend to only have room for the essentials, teachers like Carolyn Boucher are working to enrich their classrooms with more than the necessities.

Boucher, a fourth-grade teacher at James M. Quinn Elementary, greatly values physical activity and the positive effects it has on students in learning. She already integrates yoga in there every day learning but decided to take things a step further.

On Sept. 21, Boucher launched a Donors Choose campaign to raise money for six wobble chairs and six stability cushions. Typically used for occupational therapy, Boucher was interested in using them to help students exert their extra energy without distracting from their schoolwork. The project would cost $640 which would include shipping charges, taxes, and other processing fees.

Donors Choose is a funding platform dedicated to helping public school teachers fund private projects for their classrooms. Friends and strangers can pledge money towards a project which, only upon being funded, will be charged to them. If projects do not reach their monetary goal before the deadline, all pledges are canceled and no money is taken from the donors.

Boucher's project had until Jan. 13 to become fully funded. However, On Monday, Dec. 27, the project became fully funded. One of the foundations to back their project was the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is dedicated to supporting initiatives for education world health and community giving. Boucher's project became one of 445 fully funded projects that they foundation has donated to.

"My kids are amazing. They care about one another, and they love to learn, but they really need more movement in their lives. I watch them struggle every day to focus when their bodies are telling them to do something else. I know they are trying and they care about their education, but being forced to sit still is stiffing them in so many ways," Boucher said on her project's page.

Not only will the wobble chairs provide students with a small source of physical activity, it will hopefully help them exert pent-up energy that makes focusing in class more difficult, particularly for her male students, said Boucher. "I think my students would truly appreciate having the chance to move an exercise in a way that they can be rewarded for instead of being reprimanded for."

Boucher has seen other successful campaigns done by her colleagues, which inspired her to start her own. A fifth grade teacher successfully used Donors Choose to raise money for some Kindles for her students, and the school librarian, while at a different institution, also utilized the site to raise money for a project.

Boucher's friends and family came together to help fund her project. The campaign was two-thirds funded when goodwill came her way. A $100 donation, the largest yet, was made when another donor matched the donation and used a promotional code to double their donation, bringing Boucher's campaign to its goal of $640 a full two and a half weeks ahead of schedule.

Though the project is fully funded, people still looking to support Boucher and her class can still pledge money to their project. Any additional funding will go towards a gift card that Boucher can use on future class expenses.