My students need materials for hands-on activities. LEGOs and erector sets will help with creativity, language, and academic learning. Headphones are for reading groups.
We start every day with a 'Good Morning' and a hand shake. I ask my students "Are we good? Do we have this today?" and they answer "Oh yeah." I would like my students to have the resources to create with LEGOS and erector sets that will lead to increased creativity, independence, and language.
My students are Life Skills students, grades 9-12.
They are with me and my co-teacher for ELA, History, Math, Science and Life Skills. I teach both "intellectual challenged" and more "transitional" students. They are a great group of students who work, learn, and play together. I plan to use the Lego and erector sets during academic time for measurement, patterning, and counting. I will also have them (the kits) available during free time as follow up to lessons or to just create. The Life Skills program is in a public school. Most of my students live in housing developments and don't have access to basic resources to challenge them creatively and intellectually.
My Project
Having building tools (LEGOS and erector sets) in my classroom will help my students challenge themselves beyond paper and pencil work. It will give them the opportunity to create something that they have studied (White House, UN Building, etc) and make them come alive. Also, having the chance to think beyond a specific activity, will help them develop team building skills and enhance communication. My students will use the tools in history class, as mentioned, to make the places they have learned come to life, and in math and science class. In math and science, the tools will be used for MCAS. In Math, they will be used for patterning, counting and measurement and in Science for technology and engineering. We also need 6 headphones for our reading program.
These donations will make a huge impact on my students' learning.
Knowing my students, they will be initially overwhelmed by the thought of constructing something, and they will say things like "I don't know what do" or "what if I mess up?" And then their imaginations will run wild and the feelings of 'I can't' will become 'I can'. Having that confidence, is what I want them to come away with from having these resources.
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