My students are a rough and rowdy group of four and five year olds that are passionate about play and discovery! They are loud, active, and lovable! They know they are the best Pre-K class in the world, and they are already more tech savvy than I. It's time to bring it back to some old school fun! This kiddos need some time to unplug from all of their smartboards, tablets, phones, and Chromebooks to spend some time with hands-on, team work exercising, critical thinking skills building, classic board games!
My Project
I recently attend a professional development conference hosted by the great Dr. Jean. During the conference she made a very insightful statements. She said "we are so busy trying to give our kids things we didn't have. We forget that what we did have was pretty great". That got me thinking about all the things I played with, and loved during my childhood. One of my favorite memories is playing classic board games such as Candyland, Operation, Connect Four, and many others with friends and family.
I learned more engaging and meaningful life lessons while playing those classic board games than I could have from any paper and pencil activity, hands on activity, or lecture.
Why? because it was an experience! While playing those games I experienced the emotion and sensations of winning/losing, taking turns, thinking of the best strategy, talking, laughing, and just loving the time with someone I cared about!
It is my goal to bring this hands-on tech free experience to my class room. My students will be able to learn social/emotion skills that are so important for Pre-K while refining fine motor skills with games such as Operation, mastering counting/one-to-one correspondence with Candyland, and learning shapes and colors with Luck Ducks. I believe my students will carry their memories of these games with them all through their lives, and that this brain break away from traditional academics will be a nice change from doing a song on the smartboard! Thank you for taking the time to read about this project. I am looking forward to the day we will be able to enhance our classroom with these classic board games!
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. Becker and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
