We need materials to make slime and stress balls, inspirational coloring books, markers, and board games to encourage and inspire relaxation, meditation, and friendship through collaboration to support mental and emotional wellness.
$499 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! 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.
”Don’t tell someone to get over it; help them to get through it.” ~ Unknown
Serving your community is a way to bring learning to life. My 9th grade English I students decided that they want to be Upstanders and help each other and others feel welcome and encouraged both inside and outside of the classroom. My students have a range of disabilities including autism, learning disabilities, visual impairments, cognitive impairments. They know what if feels like to be afraid, anxious and alone. Students decided to take advantage of this project opportunity to get funding for the materials they need to support their own and other's mental and emotional health.
My school is located in a large urban city. Of the 3,100 students 94% are low-income, 10% of the students have disabilities, and 8% are English Language Learners. I teach my students not to let their personal home situations, English Language Learners status or disabilities hinder their academic or social-emotional growth.
Students will collaborate to make plan game days to encourage friendship, they will make slime and stress balls to pass out to their peers to encourage safe ways to release stress. They will plan brain break opportunities on classroom quiz/test days and will plan game days during testing (standardized testing, midterms, finals) weeks. Students will create protocols for students to use games, stress reduction coloring or stress balls at times when they are feeling overwhelmed, anxious or stressed out. Students will learn organization skills as they plan for classroom and school activities. Students will learn the skills of following directions and safety while making the slime and stress balls. Finally, students will learn about teamwork as they encourage each other when they play board games or participate in respectful competition.
In Their Own Words
As students, we know how mental health impacts students. We reviewed the information on the Born This Way website about the A Bridge To Mental Wellness In Illinois and we agree. We want to make our classroom and our school more calm and welcoming to students who suffer from mental health issues (or who are stressed by every day problems) by creating things students can use to become less stressed out or have less anxiety. We want everyone to know that no one thinks it's bad if you have a mental illness just like no one thinks it's bad that we have disabilities. We want everyone to know that we all feel afraid or nervous or stressed out at times and there are friends who can help.
We will use our leadership skills that we learn from planning this project and activities by being there for others when they are nervous or alone. We can be upstanders and teach others to be upstanders. We can talk to our friends about how they can be less stressed. We can use our skills in the classes, in lunch, and in our community.
We have a huge school and there are some students who are always alone and students who feel stressed out all of the time. We are freshmen and we know that there is a lot of stress because of peer pressure with friends, because of what is going on in our government, because of the violence in some of our neighborhoods or because it is hard to make friends. We want everyone to feel that they are welcome. The stress balls will help people feel calm if they are stressed out about something. The coloring books can be calming too and we can hang up pictures when they are done to send positive messages. The games will help people work together and become friends and if someone is alone, we can invite them to join a game.
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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. Ovalle and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
