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
My students have a passion for learning in and through the Fine Arts. Our school is the only Fine Arts Magnet School in our district, and we are a Title I School of Choice. I teach Creative Drama to elementary age students. All of the students at my school come to drama class for 50 minutes once a week, so I get a chance to facilitate integrated drama and literacy projects with all of our students.
My students love opportunities to express themselves and solve problems through dramatic play.
They learn best through active, cooperative projects. Their faces light up when they get to use puppets in my classroom.
My Project
My students enjoy using puppets to practice social skill conversations and to create stories of their own, but the puppets we have used for almost 20 years are falling apart. We would love to have a new set of puppets to continue our integrated work in drama, literacy, and social skills.
By using puppets, students are able to overcome their fears of getting up in front of others and learn social and literacy skills through dramatic play.
I find that, more than ever, students need to practice skills like "agreeing to disagree" and creating "win-win" scenarios to solve interpersonal problems. When they work with puppets, the problems they are solving are one step removed from their personal experience and are easier to examine. My students love to use puppets to create stories about animals and people with "real world" problems.
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 Ms. Burton and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
