Help me give my students the supplies they need to create their hearts out! My students have great imaginations and they show it best through their work with materials that are both colorful and sensory.
My eleven students make up a diverse and complex group of learners from different backgrounds, whether it be culturally, linguistically, academically, or socially. The students that I work with are all a part of a program the Quincy Public School District calls "CARES", or Children Achieve Real Educational Success.
This program is a series of intensive, language-based, substantially separate classrooms for students who have Pervasive Developmental Disorders including Autism Spectrum Disorders and other severe disabilities marked by communication, social and cognitive delays.
The CARES program fosters independence in communication and enables learners socially, functionally and academically as they pursue the goal of inclusion.
My students, in particular, have a few important characteristics that add to the challenges they may face with regards to standards-based learning. Aside from each of them being diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, the classroom is also home to five students who are English Language Learners, and three students who are non-verbal and require assisted communication devices (PECS books/boards or GoTalk iPad apps).
My students are creative, hard-working, and have an endless desire to learn and be successful.
My Project
My students love to create art projects. With language and communication being one of their common barriers to standards-based learning, the imaginative process of creating promotes their ability to express themselves using materials that are both colorful and sensory.
Craft projects provide ample opportunities for my students to work on Fine Motor skills such as cutting, writing, drawing, pinching, and fastening.
They also provide opportunities to promote meaningful communicative exchanges when paired with visual aids such as PECS boards to ask and answer questions regarding their work! For example, "What did you make?", "What color would you like to use next?", "Tell me a story about your creation!".
Because students so greatly enjoy the creative process, I believe it is important to lean in to their imaginative strengths and use them to draw out other forms of meaningful, contextual learning!
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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. Petrelli and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
