I am a K/1st-grade looping teacher in Kodiak, Alaska! My students love hands-on learning, real-life adventures, and making their learning REAL and impactful. To meet my students’ unique needs, I create lessons which engage them in their everyday life; for example, Kodiak is known for our bears, so in my classroom we learn with real bear hides and investigate where the bears live by looking at what they ate in their scat when the AMAZING Kodiak Wildlife Refuge visited us (okay, I'll admit - that was chocolate Playdoh with berries and fish bones mixed in).
My school has a very diverse student population, representing many different cultures.
My classroom represents many different ethnic groups and this makes for a very wonderful learning environment. I am excited to start this year with a new group of learners. First grade is a time of huge academic growth. My students are engaged all day with various academic and social activities. When you keep it fresh by incorporating a variety of resources, they thrive in their learning, and they become passionate students!
My Project
Little humans often have big emotions. Conscious Discipline is a program designed to help young children manage their upset feelings and self-regulate.
This program is specifically designed with young children in mind.
The materials are all child-friendly and teach children that it is ok to be upset, but we have to manage how we react in our emotions. It also teaches children diversity, because we all feel differently about things and it helps students to recognize and honor those differences.
Using the Conscious Discipline method does just that. It gives students the tools to breathe, calm, and process through their really big feelings.
I am requesting a Feeling Buddies Self-Regulation Toolkit. The toolkit provides everything you need to transform behavior problems into academic achievement. Feeling Buddies are an innovative method for teaching self-regulation. The Toolkit is created in such a way that the adult teaches the child to self-regulate and the child teaches buddy to self-regulate, both learning the five-step process together. The brain break pillows help the students make the choices needed during moments of high emotions and using both the pillows and the safe space mat in the classroom safe space, help the students know that their feelings are valid and can be worked through. The regulation board is another tool to be used in the safe space to help the students through the process visually when words are too difficult. I asked for the Conscious Discipline book to have the toolkit for myself and other staff to refer to when our students need some extra help.
The toolkit will teach and foster crucial life skills such as cooperation, constructive problem solving, and academic success. The empowerment taught by this toolkit will not only ensure a successful Kindergarten year but a confident individual for life!
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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. Kristi and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
