I am afforded the incredible opportunity of looping with my class (meaning that I start out as a first grade teacher and then continue to second grade with the same group of students ). No matter which grade I teach, I find that many of students' families are struggling. Some students receive food assistance from a local church through our Backpack Buddies program. Some utilize a local community resource for clothing. More than half of my students qualify for free or reduced-price breakfast and lunch. Even though many of my students live in a world of food insecurity and housing instability, their desire to learn is inspiring.
My students are inquisitive, enthusiastic, endearing, enchanting, and, of course, just the right amount of mischievous!
Our days are spent learning how to be a caring community member, how to be a critical thinker, and, of course, about academics such as reading, writing, math, social studies, science, health, art and more. No matter what task they are presented with, I know that this community of learners will rise to meet the challenge at hand.
My Project
Letters make sounds, sounds come together to make words, and words are linked together to make sentences. This sounds like a no-brainer, right? But learning to read can be a monumentally challenging task!
Did you know that there are 205 ways to spell 44 sounds?
And that out of the 7,000 most commonly used words, 60% of these words have one or more unpredictably used letter? No wonder learning to read is such an enormous undertaking!
Before children are able to sit down and read a book, they first must learn letter sounds, and how to link those sounds together. A high-interest, high-yield way for children to learn about letters, sounds, and words is through literacy activities that combine tactile and visual components. Having literacy stations with activities such as Wikki-stix, letter puzzles, and touch-and-read word matches will help my students build a solid literacy foundation.
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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. Messina and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
