My students need play dough, paint, paint smocks, glue, pipe cleaners, markers, and ink pads to give them a creative outlet and to help develop fine motor skills!
My students are five and some are turning six as the days go on. We have been in school for 46 days and yet these kindergarten students have taken two state standardized tests. Sometimes, they just need to be kids, and act 5 (and 6)!
In a small school in Illinois, sits my 24 students in a kindergarten classroom.
We rush to teach them to read, to write, to learn their numbers, sight words, take tests, and become successfully functioning citizens of our country. Every single item just mentioned is absolutely vital and important- this is why I am their teacher, and their parents send them to school. However, sometimes, the students need to have a few minutes to themselves, and show their peers what they can make with a pipe cleaner and an empty paper towel tube.
This time also allows fine motor skill development for some of the younger students in the class. By painting, using dough, or gluing gems to a mask my students are developing (or strengthening) muscles that will help them with their writing and manipulation of a variety of tools.
My Project
The art and craft resources that have been selected for my students are a variety of items that they can use in that very small window of playtime in their seven hour school day. Since we have started school I have slowly introduced the small amount of art and craft supplies I have to my students. During this time I have heard such genuine 'thank yous,' witnessed huge smiles, watched true personalities emerge, and have seen creativity, in a different way, shine through. The conversations that take place between my students while they quietly sit and paint with watercolors, or feel finger paint ooze onto their fingers is truly a portrait of childhood. This time is special to my students, and with these supplies I can continue to offer it to them on a daily basis.
Donations to my "Let Us Be Five!" project will allow my students to still act their age and 'let loose' after they have taken a big test, been assessed on their sight word knowledge, or participated in a small group rigor discussion.
I am confident my students are making great gains academically, I just want to make sure I have the tools to allow them to be creative and express their own individual personalities on a different academic level.
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