My students range in age from 3 to 5 years old and this is their first experience of school! The majority of my class are students with a wide variety of developmental disabilities who are working hard on fine motor, social-emotional, adaptive, communication and cognitive skills.
My students work best with motivating, fun activities!
They love coming to school and make us smile every day when we see how proud they are of their accomplishments. Many of the students have extra obstacles to overcome in a world that already expects so much! We want to give them everything we can to help them know that learning can be fun and every success, whether big or small, should be celebrated! They are our hearts!
My Project
The materials I have chosen will help to realize a vision I have of my preschool students coming into my classroom to see a whole new area: the LEGO wall! I can see the excitement on their faces as they don't even stop to remove their backpacks before running over to the newly created area, turning to us with huge smiles as they see the LEGO base plates hung on the wall, the large box of LEGO to play with and all the community and world people who are like themselves and their families!
The true joy of watching motivated students who love what they are doing is priceless.
Little do they realize that while 'playing' they are working on a myriad of skills! Social-emotional development is boosted when interacting with peers in building on the wall, oral language and conversational skills are practiced as they work as a team to decide what to build! Working on a vertical surface promotes strengthening fine motor skills used for writing and drawing and cognitive development is enhanced by problem solving when trying to fit pieces together to make them resemble what they have in their imagination!
This project has the potential to open more doors for students who have many obstacles to overcome already and allow them to do this in a highly motivating, fun, exciting environment!
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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. Haynes and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
