My students need opportunities to express themselves in various ways with puppets, books, and stampers. Children learn words by hearing them, writing them, and reading them.
Many children communicate easily with their own puppets, giving them confidence to express their ideas and feelings. Hand Puppets are an ideal springboard for developing speaking and listening skills.
I teach in a high poverty school located in a rural county of East Tennessee.
Over 50% of the school's population receives free or reduced lunches. Many students that I serve have had little or no experience listening to stories, writing stories, or retelling a story. The items that I am asking for will give my students opportunities to express themselves in different ways.
My Project
I am asking for a puppet theater, community helper puppets, puppet tree, word building blocks, (2) sets of 10 primary composition books, and alphabet dough stampers. Whether children write their own stories or adapt one of their favorite books into a play, story telling with hand puppets is one of the best ways for kids to build their reading, comprehension, and vocabulary skills, building on their ideas by introducing new words, their meanings and other information. Younger children will likely enjoy folk or fairy tales featuring animal characters, magic, or fantasy, while older children may be drawn to stories involving mystery, science, drama or even non-fictional accounts of important people or events.
Hand Puppet play helps young children develop creative skills by forcing them to use their imaginations.
They make up the roles, the rules, the situations and the solutions. It is through imaginative play that children come to understand the differences between fantasy and reality. The real world becomes more real to children who have opportunities to pretend.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
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. Burgess and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.