Help me give my students a sense of comfort. I would love to replace my institutional classroom tables with the wooden tables that create a more "at home" relaxed feeling at school.
I love working with kindergarteners. They are so eager to learn. They think everything you say is golden. They are so easily impressed with the simplest things. My favorite activity last year was when they were given a rubber band after teaching them about force and motion. There were rubber bands flying everywhere. They quickly figured out that the more force they used the more motion was created. I love their wonder and inquiry into everything.
My Project
According to the teachings of Reggio Emilia, schools should be a calming, natural environment. School does not need to look like an institution. This can be attained by choosing warm, calming colors to help our students feel comfortable and relaxed. Elements of light, transparency, and aesthetic design are used within the classroom. You will not find commercial poster or plastic furniture bought from catalogs. What you will find is documentation of the learning experiences and interactions of the children, teachers, and families as well as evidence of the identity of the community. The Emilia classroom is very welcoming and aesthetically pleasing.
Our staff has been focusing on trauma informed classrooms and the effects that trauma has on a student's education.
The research about the brain and stress is astounding. I work in a high poverty school. A lot of my students live in high stress households. My goal is to help reduce the institutional feel of my classroom and create an inviting and comfortable space for my kindergartens to learn.
I have been adding wooden shelving to replace all the metal shelving in my classroom. I have also begun to replace plastic storage containers with natural baskets. My goal is to replace my metal and plastic tables with ones made of natural wood to create a feeling of comfort over constraint. My overall hope is that the students that enter the classroom feel comfortable and have a sense of ownership and belonging. Studies show that if this goal is attained, student learning capacity will increase.
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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. Weiss and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.