The cost of this student learning center is $1809, 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>.
I am a first year teacher at Woodlake Elementary School, a public school in Mandeville, Louisiana. I am responsible for teaching my 24 students all core curriculum subjects, i.e. language arts (spelling, reading, writing), math, science, and social studies. Being a first year teacher my materials and resources are minimal. However, being a first year teacher in this hurricane affected area has sorely limited my resources as well as that of my school system. I do not have center materials at this time. I would like my students to be able to engage in learning centers which involve creativity and fuel the students' imaginations, but that can also be used across the curriculum. In this essay, I am requesting the sufficient materials for 24 students to use in a block center which contains hardwood unit blocks and a center which contains collections of animals. The students could use the wooden blocks to design and build habitats for the animals, homes, cities and entire communities as well as synthesize new products to solve everyday problems or to improve their world. Through the use of the blocks students will experience growth in their problem solving skills and higher order thinking through synthesis of new projects each time they visit the center. The students would learn how to play cooperatively and develop their social skills and personal self-esteem through fun group play at this center. The blocks can be used in endless ways across the curriculum. For just a few ideas, in social studies students can create communities, cities and practice cooperation in group settings. In science they can build habitats for the animals. The animal center can be used in conjunction with the block center or a separate center where students can draw, sort, research and create art work through the manipulation of the animals, books about the animals and through creative play with the animals. In math the students can work on visual and spacial perceptions, shapes, comparisons, sorting, grouping, and measurement activities. The students will benefit in language arts as well because a fun center such as this would encourage language through conversation, but also through written expression in journals and reports as students explain and describe the projects built in the center. I think that these creative play centers fuel the imaginations. I have tried very hard to teach my students that they have the ability to improve the world and that the greatest resource this country has is the children. These materials will allow my students to have cooperative experiences daily, while learning, thinking and problem solving as a natural consequence of those daily experiences. I have several students who have lost their homes as a result of Hurricane Katrina this year. I would like to give my students a chance to see what they are capable of creating just by experimenting with children's blocks and to give them positive, confidence building experiences across the curriculum. The animal center would help students to learn more about the animal inhabitants of the earth thereby hopefully increasing their concern for other living things. I believe the experiences they have will instill in my students the sense of control and show them that they can solve problems, come up with bigger and better ideas, to make changes and to help each other.
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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. C. and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.