Help me give my students the most basic school supplies necessary for me to print, laminate, and develop engaging, colorful, long-lasting classroom guidance lessons.
My school is part of a very rural community, where nearly half of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch. The students (and their families!) are wonderful and are consistently caring, friendly, and eager to learn.
Like several school districts nationwide, school funding - and classroom budgets - have decreased.
This has impacted the number of materials I have been able to purchase for classroom guidance lessons, small group lessons on specific topics, and individual student support for areas such as divorce, controlling emotions, and more.
This project will provide the most basic supplies needed to be able to continue to offer engaging projects that are intertwined with my classroom guidance lessons for all students in my school, grades 4K-6th.
My Project
As an elementary school counselor, I work hard and diligently to provide engaging classroom guidance lessons for all of my students, from 4K through 6th grade. Many of these lessons include some of the most basic office supplies possible, including paper clips, laminating film, tape, and colored construction paper.
Due to continued budget cuts, basic office supplies are not available for me to create engaging, hands-on lessons that help students create projects while learning about important topics such as resiliency, career exploration, friendship skills, feelings, anger management, kindness, and more.
This project provides some of the necessary, basic office supplies to make up for the funding that is no longer available at my school.
As examples, I have 4K students make construction paper projects after reading the book "The Bad Seed." Last fall, I had the students cut out leaves and write down strategies to handle their anger, using the theme "Frustrated? Try the Fall-owing". Their responses were so good that I ended up making a bulletin board with them.
I have found through experience that when I have students create projects that are strongly related to the lessons I am teaching, they are more engaged and much more likely to share their creations with their families at home, which in turn increases conversations about what they are learning in school. Support for this project will help me with the office supplies I need to continue to do "crafty counseling."
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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. Wondra and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.