I teach kindergarten in a title 1 high poverty school. The children come from a high-need community where 66% of our students receive free or reduced lunch and 13% of our school population is Hispanic. We are a growing community and our school population increases every year. We are out of room and money for materials.
The obstacle I face with my students is they come from backgrounds of limited English and high poverty where no resources are available for alphabetic knowledge and phonemic awareness. They love learning and coming to school and often take back what they have learned at school and teach their parents/grandparents or younger siblings.
We need alphabet materials in our classroom that children can use independently, with a parent volunteer or the classroom teacher. These alphabet readers will turn kids who are just beginning to explore literacy into fluent readers with books and skill building materials for every letter of the alphabet. Each pack comes with a CD, the children can listen and follow along as the recording narrates an engaging storybook that focuses on a specific letter sound. It also includes words that begin with the target letter, then reviews the words and the story for extra reinforcement. Each pack includes enough materials for 4 children at once. This will benefit almost 40 kindergarten students this year and for many years to come. The children will begin with a good foundation and the love of reading to benefit them in their future.
Your help with this project will greatly impact the children in my classroom along with other kindergarten classes. We have fairly large classes which reduces the one on one time we can spend with each child. Some children in my class are special needs children who are autistic and students who have severe speech problems. When they learn to identify letters and sounds their eyes light up with amazement and it makes my job worth every minute. Please help my children's eyes sparkle.
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