Discovery Learning: Hands-On for Special Needs Students!
My students need hands-on resource kits to aid instruction such as a calendar center, life cycle science center, and math aids like a talking clock, calculators, and weight/measurement manipulatives.
$689 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
This is the FIRST year of our self-contained special education program, and we started the school year with only one student! By the second quarter we added two more students, and we are hoping to add a few more before the end of the school year. We can serve up to 8 students in grades 5-8 who are diagnosed with intellectual disabilities, autism, Down Syndrome, or other health impairments that cause the student to function 2 or more academic levels below their grade level.
Our students learn more than reading, writing, and mathematics--they learn how to hope and dream and make choices for their future!
There are so many more options for students with cognitive impairments than there were in the past. At one point, intellectually disabled children were institutionalized and hidden from society for their entire lives. Now, we know that many of these children can learn, love, thrive, and contribute to society as fully functioning adults. In our classroom, each student begins learning where he or she is, and we measure success by how much growth they make in academics, social skills, functional skills, and behavior.
My Project
The students in our self-contained special education classroom learn best with concrete, hands-on activities. Learning comes alive for them when they are able to create models of math problems or scientific principles.
This is the first year of our program, and we are starting from scratch!
By helping to purchase these items, you will be giving our students an opportunity to access resources and learning aids years earlier than we would be able to purchase them with our limited budget. Help us become a fully stocked classroom!
The students spend a great deal of time making observations about their work, their classroom, their school, and their community. By exploring the senses with the Five Senses Theme Box we are able to expand their learning and make observations with all 5 senses. This will enrich their language comprehension, help them to categorize objects in science, and allow them to truly experience and discover the world around them.
Also, the students in Discovery struggle with the concepts of time, so having concrete and manipulative calendars like the Magnetic Calendar Center that change with the seasons is very helpful to anchor their knowledge and track the passage of days, months, and seasons.
Students in our classroom learn how to be as independent as they are able to be. Internalizing health and safety principles with the Health and Safety Theme Box will ensure that they react appropriately when they encounter something potentially dangerous, new and unfamiliar.
Part of our science curriculum is to study cycles within the environment. Learning how a tadpole becomes a frog, or a caterpillar becomes a butterfly is more concrete with the manipulatives in the Life Cycle Theme Box.
The Discovery Program: We don't do easy. We make easy happen with hard work and 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. Rodriguez and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
