My students need a globe, maps, writing paper, and books about Australia as we begin our pen pal adventure with another special education teacher in Australia.
$322 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
Help us take a trip to Australia as we learn about another country and exchange information and letters with a class of special needs students from Australia. My students do not have the opportunity nor can they afford to take trips away from the community they live in.
My students are all second grade boys with special needs such as autism, down syndrome, ADHD, cerebral palsy, and developmental delays.
They are energetic and willing to learn and full of life! They attend a public elementary school in central California that is in a high poverty area. Most of these students have never had the opportunity to travel outside of their own community. This year they have become very interested in maps. I have a cloth map of the United States and a poster of the continents. They can identify and verbally know their school name, city, state, country, continent, and the name of our planet. They learned this by using the materials I already mentioned that I have and by singing a song with those words that I taught them. They are also learning the difference between a river, a lake, and the ocean. They are beginning readers and writers and use a lot of visuals to comprehend what they are learning. They never give up trying and work very hard.
My Project
I have already been in contact with a special education teacher in Australia who wants to exchange letters with our students based on the Flat Stanley series. With the maps we already have and now adding an educational globe, laminated maps, and books on Australia I think it will really peak the interest of my students. They will be learning to write personal narratives and friendly letters this year and I thought this would be a great way to engage them and keep them motivated and excited. My students struggle with letter formations due to low muscle tone so often they don't want to write and I am hoping this activity with the use of these items will greatly encourage them to keep trying. My students really enjoy drawing and the story writing paper along with the lined paper for writing letters will be used many times during this project and throughout the school year for other writing assignments.
We all have dreams and I want my students to dream of places and ideas that can enhance their lives.
My hope is that by learning about another country and exchanging letters with other students that it will seem real and possible to them to perhaps have an opportunity to try something they never thought possible. I want this project to instill confidence and inspire my students to want to continue learning and try new things. With these tools it is my dream that one idea will spark another.
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