The cost of 12 different titles from Lakeshore Learning, including Read-Along Nursery Rhymes Big Book, I Know My Colors! Big Books Series, and I Know My Shapes! Big Books Series, is $724, including shipping and <a target="new" href="http://www.donorschoose.org/html/fulfillment.htm" onclick="g_openWindow('http://www.donorschoose.org/html/fulfillment.htm', 300, 800, 'fulfillwindow');return false;">fulfillment</a>.
I am a language-arts teacher for kindergarten and first grade in a low-income area in Brooklyn. Our school consists of pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and first-grade students, 75% of whom are below poverty-level standards. These children are bussed daily to our school because their neighborhood school is overcrowded and has become a second-to-fifth-grade school, which our school leads into. I serve over 250 students per week in forty-five-minute intervals, encouraging student learning through the use of dramatic play and learning-center activities.
Last year I taught in a vacant hallway area. It was very difficult to teach Language Arts with so many distractions. I am very excited to be in a classroom setting this school year. Having a classroom to work in allows me to set up the students learning environment the way I feel a classroom should be set up, with different learning centers around the room. I want the children to enjoy learning and to be engaged in it. There is no better way to engage a child then to have them work in learning centers with hands-on activities.
In Early Childhood, all teaching is literature-based. Books with familiar words and subjects help emergent readers become fluent readers. Big Books give children the opportunity to see books enlarged. It introduces them to concepts about print. It engages them in book talk and new vocabulary.
As the Language Arts teacher, I try to correspond my curriculum with that of the various classroom teachers. I try to review and enhance what the students are learning in the classroom. However, when I choose Big Books from the school book room to teach my aims from and read to the children, I often hear "We read that already with our teacher." It is very discouraging for me and repetitious or boring for the students. That is why I am asking for my own set of Big Books . I'd like books with familiar topics, but not the same titles.
Kindergarten and first grade are when children acquire most of the skills needed for future success. Early teaching of language arts helps to develop strong building blocks for all future reading and writing endeavors. I love teaching and I love watching children grow and learn. The materials I am asking for would improve this situation, heightening the response I get from the children and, in turn, increasing the learning that goes on.
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. C. and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.