"We are TK!" My students often chant at assemblies or walking through the hallways. I look at them with my head tilted sideways, since I did not even teach them that saying. They love being in TK, or Transitional Kindergarten, and love each other. I often joke that my class is very "kumbaya" since they all adore and respect each other so much.
I teach at a Title I school in Sacramento where nearly 100 percent of our students receive free breakfast and lunch.
My students are eager to learn and do their best. Their huge, smiling faces as they chant do not indicate what struggles our community faces. They love being together, and the community we have created in our room.
My Project
My students LOVE science. I'm not kidding, when I say it's science day I have to spend 5 minutes calming them down because they love doing experiments. One of the big units in TK is learning about plants. We learn everything about plants from how dirt works, to the parts of the plants and we even grow our own plants!
My students grow their own plants in our classroom, but often we struggle to get the plants to grow due to having not enough light.
I plan on using these resources to conduct experiments in my classroom using plants. We will grow several different plants and test to see which responds best to what type of light. For example, does a bean sprout grow best with direct light from a lamp or with a more diffused light such as using the Christmas lights.
We would be able to use the different lamps to grow several different types of plants and become plant experts. My students want to become scientists and love having the chance to put on experiments. They even use language such as "my hypothesis" or "my prediction" when we do experiments. These lighting options would allow us to foster our love science and put on amazing experiments right from our classroom.
I want to continue to teach my children about the importance of gardening and loving nature. Having these resources will allow us to grow a school garden and help bring a love of nature to my children daily. This will not only teach them about plants but also help them learn about why plants are important and how to grow them.
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