Our classroom bursts with the excitement, wonder, and urgency that young children bring to everything that they come across. Our 1st grade students are eager and thoughtful learners- ready with the foundation they gained in kindergarten to fully launch into becoming readers, writers, mathematicians, and scientists. They have gracious hearts, resilient spirits, and limitless curiosities. We are lucky to be their 1st grade teachers.
Our neighborhood is known to be one of the most diverse in the country and every classroom in our school reflects that gift.
In addition to the richness that such diversity brings, we also recognize that different opportunities and experiences in early childhood can create inequitable beginnings for children in school. As a school community, we know without a doubt that all of our students are highly capable and work with determination to ensure that every student has the resources, instruction, and support necessary to achieve success.
My Project
First grade is a time of tremendous growth for students. They launch from the building blocks of kindergarten to delve further into more complex thinking. In reading, they move from working with the alphabet and decoding words to making meaning of texts by making connections, comparing and contrasting characters, making inferences, and more. In math, they move from working on counting and using models like fingers and drawings to add and subtract to using a variety of strategies to mentally solve problems with greater and greater quantities. This rigorous work demands fluency both in reading words and in math facts. Our first grade classes use various computer programs to help our students develop this fluency.
Of the 12 computers that are shared among our 3 first grade classrooms, half don't have usable headphones.
Many of the headphones are low-quality- with only one side still emitting sound. Others are missing the foam cushioning or are even taped together. The remaining are adult-sized, so go past the ears of our first graders and frequently slip off of their heads. The 10 headphones donated from this project will replace our old, broken, ill-fitted pairs so that students can productively engage in their learning without being interrupted with headphone issues. By successfully focusing on developing their reading and math fluency, our students can better tackle the complex work of making meaning and problem solving in first grade and beyond!
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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. Poon and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
