I am a teacher in a low-income, high poverty school district where my students are faced with several challenges both in and out of the classroom. Despite the many challenges they face, I am looking to keep things simple and provide my students with creative and meaningful learning experiences. My students are MY children, I want to offer the world to them. .They like to move, they love to read and love lots of positive attention. Many of them are being raised in single parent households and receive a free lunch based on their socioeconomic status.
These things may prevent them from getting ahead early in life and may not provide them with the life experiences many of us see as "typical".
From the minute they walk in the door of my classroom I focus on their potential and growth while they are with me. I may not be able to control their home lives, however, I can certainly control their experience during the school day. By doing this in a creative and positive way, I am hopeful to inspire even our earliest learners to continue on a path of academic excellence.
My Project
We need a fully functioning kitchen set, a table and chairs and a birch big book center. In Pre-K one of our main focuses is on play. My children love to pretend, cook and play "house." Another main focus of our curriculum is language and with a great kitchen comes great conversations, talking opportunities and lots of new vocabulary that most of my children do not receive outside of the classroom.
We are a family in our classroom and my children love to reenact these vital roles in which family members play.
When I first started teaching I was coming in mid-year after all funding had been spent. So my classroom which was the over-flow room, got all the discarded and unused materials. Our play kitchen is one that I picked up at a garage sale. The kids are making the best of the situation and they are happy with the "their" kitchen but why not give them the best of the best, don't they deserve it?
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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. Granger and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
