My students need a variety of blocks such as large hollow blocks, arched blocks, and blocks filled with colorful beads and sand.
FULLY FUNDED! Ms. P.'s classroom raised $1,297
This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
"The research on block building is surprising. Preschool children who are able to build complex structures with blocks have a better chance of mathematical success in middle and high school, even taking into account students' IQ levels, social class, and gender" (Wolfgang, Stannard, and Jones 2001).
As a kindergarten teacher in a high poverty area of New York City, I feel it is my responsibility to provide opportunities for my students to think critically and to use developmentally appropriate materials to stimulate their learning. I teach at an arts-based charter school and I currently have 20 students in my class. Because we are a newer charter school, we often do not have the funds necessary to purchase developmentally appropriate learning materials for our students.
The ability to build complex structures with blocks is a powerful tool that can benefit children in many ways. Young children use blocks to develop their motor skills as well as to represent their learning in math, literacy, science, and social studies. Block play also encourages social interaction and aids children in developing cooperation and the ability to collaborate on ongoing projects. At the present time, we do not have enough blocks in our classroom to allow students to create large scale structures to represent their learning in all subject areas.
In order to help my young students flourish into critical thinkers, I need more blocks in the classroom. More specifically we need a set of large school-age appropriate hollow building blocks that will allow students to create large scale structures such as buildings, vehicles, and any other structures they are interested in. These blocks are large enough for students to engage in building with their entire bodies and to use the structures as props for dramatic play and literacy learning. In addition to hollow blocks, we also need a set of arched blocks and blocks filled with stimulating materials such as beads and sand. These interesting blocks will spark my students' creativity and push them to add detail to their work. The arched blocks will also push my students to think critically about how to build structures out of materials that are not square or rectangular. Imagine the geometry involved!
Every day my young students face the ill effects of poverty, racism, and a lack of access to the thought provoking materials their age-level peers in more affluent neighborhoods have. With your help, my current students and students for many years to come will have access to stimulating and developmentally appropriate learning materials that will help them to become critical thinkers, mathematicians, and scholars from a their very first year of school.
This project will directly impact historically underfunded classrooms.
More than three‑quarters of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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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. P. and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
