My students need art supplies such as Crayons, Colored Pencils, Markers, Paper, Watercolors, and Air Dry Clay to enhance their artistic abilities, along with becoming diverse in the use of a variety of art materials!
My school is considered a Title 1 school which means the majority of our students come from low-income households. I teach art to grades kindergarten all the way through 4th grade with around 20 to 28 kids in each class. All of my students amaze me. Even though I see a wide range of students anywhere from age 5 to 10, their artistic abilities definitely differ. They all have something in common and that is their enthusiasm, creativity, and their passion for learning about the arts.
They are each so special, they always come in with big smiles, and so excited for the upcoming art project and to learn about what they are making that day.
This is what I love! I love their excitement and eagerness to jump right in and they are so smart! I read a quote that came off of a t-shirt and it just described how I felt when teaching these wonderful students. It said " Most people dream of meeting their favorite artist, but I get to teach mine!" This is so accurate. I absolutely love teaching them about all the different arts and techniques along with becoming diverse with the materials.
My Project
My school has around 500 students enrolled. I teach all of them. Funds are very limited especially when it comes to special areas like art, music, and PE. All my students use the same materials and because of this we are running out and do not have the funds to replace our essential materials necessary to make our art! We need crayons, markers, colored pencils, watercolor, paper, and air dry clay. We need these to help become diverse in our art and to strengthen our artistic abilities.
Art is so important in a child's education.
A few benefits of art are motor skills and language development, decision making, creativeness, cultural awareness, and improved academic performance as stated in an article from "PBS The Importance of Art in Child Development By Grace Hwang Lynch". Every child deserves to grow and develop and it is our job to supply them with these resources in order to help them do this. They need to be able to explore, be creative, make messes, and be able to create masterpieces that they are proud of! The best part of my job is when you see the look on their faces after they have completed their piece and they are truly in awe at what they created and this gives a sense of accomplishment and confidence which in turn makes me a proud teacher!
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