Activities for Outdoor Play in Special Education IV
Help me give my students playground balls for outdoor play. They are highly active students and our school currently does not have many active items for recess and behavior breaks.
I teach at a therapeutic special education school serving approximately 82 students who have been unable to succeed in a general education setting due to intense emotional and behavioral needs. 100% of my students receive free lunch, making our school one of the highest poverty schools in the district. Some of our students are in foster care, experiencing homelessness, and nearly all have faced great struggles in their lives. Our school is located in an old warehouse, but I am determined to help my students reach beyond their current circumstances, with the hope of them eventually returning back to their neighborhood schools and into the general education environment.
It is often very heartbreaking to teach children as young as five who have already been pulled out of their neighborhood schools to attend a school for at-risk children with mental health issues and severe behavioral problems due to trauma.
However, because my students are so young, I am confident that my classroom can steer their behavior and academics in the right direction.
Despite so many hardships, my students are incredible children with boundless potential. Most of them have faced difficult home lives and traumas that greatly affect their behavior.
My Project
Our school is located in an old warehouse in a highly urban area next to an extremely busy road. Four years ago, our school was gifted a small play set to use as a playground, but most of the students do not care for it as it is extremely small and does not have much for them to do. Other than that, there is basically only a gated parking lot where my students can play.
My students have been removed from their general education schools and into this behavioral school, but it does not have the adequate resources to meet their needs.
All of my students suffer from emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), so many of them have ADHD. They need to burn off excess energy in a healthy way, and we are greatly trying to teach them this. However, we have extremely limited resources.
These requested balls can be used for active play and will greatly help us teach positive skills while also helping our students be healthy and enjoy school and recess time more.
My students have been given so little in life, and they truly understand what it means for life to be unfair. It is simply not fair that students from more well advantages general education schools have beautiful lawns to run around on and huge playground sets, while my students basically have a small slide/jungle gym and a parking lot.
I am requesting a variety of playground balls as well as an inflator to inflate them. Being an EBD school our materials can get worn out easily, but this high-quality inflator will ensure that the balls are always well-inflated and ready for use. I'm also requesting soccer and footballs for my students who love these sports!
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 Ms. Fredrickson and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.