The cost of a variety of art supplies from Quill Corporation and Nasco, including No-Spill Paint Cups, washable paints, 12 paint brush sets, and a masterpack of crayons, is $569, 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>.
This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
My goal is to provide a learning environment that is culturally rich and educationally stimulating for kindergarten students. I work in a Title 1, Equity Plus School. Equity Plus means that we have a large population of free and reduced lunch students. We are also the home school for the Salvation Army Homeless Shelter.
The students that I teach are at risk educationally, socially, and/or behaviorally. Included in my class are children who speak English as a second language. I try to provide the support necessary to enable these children to enter first grade with the skills that they will need to be successful.
It is my hope to provide a literacy enriched educational foundation that will make these children successful lifelong readers. Being called an Equity Plus School sounds like we are provided with materials to make us equal to the other schools in the district. That name is very misleading. We have limited supplies and resources. I have to purchase paint, books, paper and other essential supplies out of my own pocket to make sure that my children have access to the same supplies as their peers in more traditional settings. Supplemental books to read at home and in the classroom is severely limited.
I strongly believe that children learn best when given opportunities to actively explore their environment. The materials requested will be used to allow students to express themselves through the medium of art. My students hear books read daily. As they are practicing their "writing" skills to show comprehension, they sometimes need to illustrate what they are trying to convey. Without the materials, crayons and paint, to allow the students to paint a vivid picture of their interpretations, this experience would not be as meaningful to them.
All of the materials requested would be used to promote literacy in my classroom. These children can only benefit from the many literacy rich activities that this grant would provide. The reading books would give them an opportunity to improve their phonic and phonemic awareness skills. Children would be able to practice reading in school and continue to reinforce those skills as they check out books from our class library to take home and share with their families.
My "at-promise" students would be able to use the upper/lowercase stamps to increase letter recognition and word building skills as they manipulate the materials to distinguish between upper and lower case letters and discover the ability to create new words by mixing letter combination.
Providing them with the tools necessary to begin to explore through a culturally rich and educationally stimulating environment is the best advantage that I can give them to help them grow to be successful readers. This grant would be the jump start of promoting this growth.
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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 Mrs. J. and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.