Help me give my students an environment that fosters a love for reading! Our rolling carts will provide student choice in literacy stations, play doh will allow phonics practice, and floor lamps will create an enjoyable reading space.
My dual language class of 17 kindergarten students is eager to learn and grow! All students are fluent in Spanish and are improving their varied levels of English. They love using art, technology and play to deepen their knowledge of reading and mathematics.
We strive to celebrate diversity, bilingualism and equity.
We have built a classroom culture of teamwork in which students celebrate successes by building up themselves and others in difficult moments with phrases like "me voy a superar!" ("I will overcome it!") and "si se puede" ("yes you can"). These students are building super power brains that are going to solve the world's toughest problems with not just one language, but with two.
We are a low-income school in which all students have access to free breakfast and lunch. Our school does a fantastic job of meeting students’ basic needs in order to allow them to reach their full potential. However, we not only want to meet those basic needs, but we want to go above and beyond them to make the first year of learning engaging and joyful, fostering a life-long love of learning. Thank you for your support!
My Project
Reading resources in our classroom will allow my students to take charge of their growth and love for literacy. During literacy stations, students will have 2-3 options per station to choose from on their rolling cart. Currently, I assign an exact activity at each station, often resulting in a lack of student buy-in and investment. I have seen that when students pick the activity themselves, they are much more engaged and focused, resulting in improved reading capabilities over the course of the year and beyond. The carts I have selected will be located at each station, allowing them to have a more independent and meaningful learning experience.
I have found that hands-on learning and play activities are the best strategies for kindergarten students to retain information through creating themselves.
For that reason, I have added play doh to my cart. Every day, students use this play doh to practice their phonics and letter skills in addition to creating sight words that build the most essential foundation for future reading fluency. Currently, we go through about 3 small containers of play doh per week and are desperately in need of more. In addition, I have selected a floor lamp that I would like to place in our reading corner to make it a cozier and more appealing physical space, further promoting reading as an enjoyable pastime.
Lastly, I have selected a presentation clicker that I would like to use during our whole-group lessons. Currently, I sit at the front of the room next to the computer and touch the spacebar to advance the slides, but I would like to be able to advance the slides from any given point in the room so I can more effectively monitor students and ensure focus 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. Ermenio and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
