Kindergarten used to be a time for children to engage in hands-on exploration, discovery-based learning, and play time with educational materials that fostered content learning as well as social development. Educational trends that focus on standards and testing have recently changed this.
My kindergarten students are excited and eager to learn.
They come to school each day looking forward to actively participating in their learning. They are interested in learning how and why things are the way they are and love to talk about it! Kindergarten has recently changed its focus to a very academic atmosphere where early literacy skills, learning phonics, writing and math have become the main objective of the day and require a lot of direct instruction. This type of instruction has its place, but my students' absolute favorite time of the day is learning labs because it is the only time they get to participate in activities based entirely on their own interests and make decisions about what they want to learn or practice. My students are highly engaged during learning labs and they would love to have new science labs to explore and learn from.
My Project
I am requesting science materials that will allow my students to explore by hands on learning to make their own discoveries about science. With the materials I have requested, my students will be able to examine magnified bugs, experiment with magnetism, explore what kinds of items sink and float, learn about the life cycles with 3-D models, and be active learners in the process of discovery. With a 2 hour and 20 minute half day kindergarten program, there is not enough time for formal science instruction. My students will greatly benefit from science materials that can be available for them during our learning labs time.
With a strict focus on reading, writing and math in kindergarten our students are missing out on a big piece of the learning puzzle through science exploration.
Please consider donating to this project to help foster the excitement and discovery that can be found through hands-on science.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. McLean and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.