Balance Beams, Balls, & Bats, Oh My!: Maximizing Outdoor Play
Help me give my students outdoor sand and water play tables, balls, outdoor balance beam, and other resources to support outdoor and gross motor learning and play!
FULLY FUNDED! Ms. Erika's classroom raised $1,044
This project is fully funded
My Students
I teach in a high-poverty, all-female, public school/Head Start program. We use a project-based approach which lends itself very naturally to lots of experiments and field experiences as the context for learning critical pre-literacy, pre-math and social-emotional skills.
My students are fiercely curious and active four-year old girls learning in a single-sex classroom environment.
One of the most common questions I hear is, “How...”, which inevitably leads us into an experiment/investigation! Everyday is a joy with loads of learning and lots of laughter.
This year, we are studying the natural environment (trees), the built environment (buildings), the interaction between people and the natural and built environment (reduce, reuse, recycle), culture and art (through a clothing study), and physics and coding (through a balls study)
My Project
Our school playground is in disrepair, so we have to get pretty creative about making outdoor play fun and meaningful. Our outdoor play time (and indoor play during inclement weather) is educational time, and our classroom needs resources to support our learning objectives!
In early learning, movement facilitates social and academic learning; these critical resources will better enable our classroom to maximize learning during outdoor play!
Balance, complex gross motor movement, and other physical games during outdoor play support many of our physical and social learning objectives. Meeting individualized needs during outdoor play means providing for quiet and calm activities such as reading a book on a blanket, painting a scene on an easel, or engaging in sand or water play.
If funded, this project will improve outdoor play experiences for my students, maximizing learning time and improving our learning outcomes as a result.
More than three‑quarters of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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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. Erika and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
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