My students need basic literacy and arts supplies in the classroom including sentence strips phonics magnets, a drying rack and more. They need tools to learn and play with words, reading, writing and create works of art.
My students are eager to learn and create. They amaze (and often amuse) me with what they write, draw, paint and say. They deserve a classroom that is organized with the tools they need to express themselves in these ways.
My students are a diverse group of children from an urban environment.
One quarter of them are English Language Learners and about half are bilingual. This means that is particularly important for them to gain confidence in reading, writing and speaking. They are energetic and eager to learn everything I put before them. At this point in the year, as their language, literacy skills and fine motor are truly beginning to develop, they are especially interested in expressing themselves in art and in writing.
My Project
At this age and stage of development, hands-on learning experiences are crucial in engaging children in lessons and activities. My students reach their hands as high as they possibly can when it is time for an interactive writing activity and I need a volunteer. Sentence strips are an integral tool in this process, as they allow the children to write and then own their sentence.
The phonics magnets will play an important role for my English Language Learners, as they provide photos to accompany the phonics principles.
The drying rack is simply a missing component in our classroom and it would be so useful to free up space in the classroom when one of our many projects are drying.
Finally, the books on CD provide a way to reach my auditory learners as well as offer children the chance to be read to when they are often not at home.
My classroom was pulled together two weeks into the school year in an effort to reduce class size and, though parents and the school community have been generous, it still lacks many materials that are vital in providing these children with rich learning experiences.
There has been no funding and my students often ask me why another classroom has something that we don't.
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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. Gass and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.