My students need hands-on materials to create their 120 required sight words by year end. Materials include Pla-Doh, stamps, magnets, paper, cubes, tiles, and paint. These materials are used and loved on a daily basis.
I am a kindergarten teacher in the beautiful state of Washington. The dynamics of the school population are ever-changing and booming. Students live in a small, agricultural town where many students grow up with one another from Kindergarten through high school graduation. My students attend the largest primary school in the state of Washington with nearly 850 students on a single K-2 campus!
Our district has a population of approximately fifty percent of all students receiving free or reduced rate lunch at .
Students come from a wide variety of backgrounds with an increasing number of students who are English Language Learners, migrant students, and students with huge needs related to social and emotional development. Even with such diverse needs, teachers do not have a budget for purchasing curriculum or developmentally appropriate tools to meet their students needs. Don't let any of these factors influence you or discourage you because they are sharp, savvy and spunky kindergartners with lots to say!
It never ceases to amaze me how far they grow academically and socially in 180 days time. With such wonderful kiddos, it is my goal to provide beautiful books and hands-on experiences related to social and emotional development.
My Project
My students have one year of a recent English Language Arts curriculum adoption. We have learned the importance of learning our sight words to develop our reading fluency and capabiliites. In our district, our sight words are called Power Words as they empower students to be able to rapidly and accurately read 80% of words found in text.
Students begin kindergarten reading books with repeatable patterns in them.
Those simple sentences are made up of approximately 60 Power Words. As students progress through being able to read a patterned text, they move into texts that no longer hold patterns such as "I like the _" on each page. By the time students are at this level, they must be able to read and write their Power Words in and out of context in stories and in their own writing. This is a huge jump and where the majority of kindergarten students work throughout the school year.
The curriculum is highly developmental and encourages hands on work. Students worship the 15 minutes that they are allotted to work on testing their Power Words and building their Power Words. This is our Word Play time.
My students have requested new materials and tools to freshen up our beloved Word Play Center!
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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. McDonald and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.