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 Students
Over 95% of our students qualify for free or reduced-price breakfast and lunch. Our school, originally built for 600 K-8 students, now houses over 900 students - 56 of whom have autism! They come from a range of countries across the world and many face struggles no one should ever have to face. I teach 10 students with autism who hail from across the city. They are bright and work so hard to learn, grow, and better the world around them. My students thrive on their daily class and community routine, sharing laughs and working through endless challenges to relate to a world that has trouble understanding their needs. In spite of all this, students in our substantially separate class have access to an education that includes field trips to the community, to work on generalizing their skills, numerous vocational opportunities and fun!
My Project
My students are all middle schoolers that have a desire to do activities and engage in tasks independently! Many of my students with autism need support and structure to build independent leisure skills appropriately. We currently have a wide range of learners in the classroom: some are able to complete 100 piece puzzles with ease, but others need the fine motor support of wooden/large piece puzzles to have the opportunity to build up their skills more gradually.
Puzzles are a preferred leisure skill in my classroom that help my students take a break from academic work while still keeping their minds and bodies busy!
Yet these large piece, wooden puzzles are expensive and we need your support to continue to build our skills! My students who need more support building these skills need access to a wide range of puzzles with varying topics.
These puzzles will help us continue to improve our independent leisure skills and give us a variety of choices so we do not get bored!
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. Lynch and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.