As a Head Start Teacher, I serve families in my school's community who qualify under federal poverty guidelines. My seventeen students are all between the ages of three to five, energetic, curious, enthusiastic, and ready to learn. Most are beginning to learn English as a second (or third!) language, and all are learning what it's like to be in school for the first time.
Over the course of this school year, my students have been working (and playing) very hard to lay the foundation for skills that will help them be successful as they move into kindergarten and beyond.
My Project
In our PreK classroom, we spend most of the school year focusing on the foundation of writing: fine motor skills.
Every day, my students are offered many opportunities to develop the small muscles in their wrists, fingers, and hands that they will need to build for writing.
Throughout the school year they are working with playdough, fingerpainting, threading beads, manipulating sand and other sensory materials, participating in fingerplays, using tweezers to pick up small items, and even more. As my students' fine motor skills become stronger, they are then encouraged to pick up a crayon or a pencil and begin to write.
I want to provide my students with double-sided dry erase lapboards as one more environmentally-friendly tool to help them learn to write. As a teacher, I most frequently use my large whiteboard as a tool during lessons, and I know the lapboards will be even more motivating for the children since they will get an opportunity to write like their teacher.
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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. Carofine and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
