We have a very needy population with the majority of our students who are coming to school without having many basic skills. They come from a vast range of backgrounds, including many low income families and/or immigrant families. Our students arrive in Kindergarten often never having been read to or knowing basic information like their birthdays. Many families do not have established routines and structure or stability in the home environment, which also makes it challenging for them to come to school and be in a structured environment where there are specific rules and expectations. This puts them at an early disadvantage and each year the amazing teachers at our school work hard to implement as many interventions as possible to help these students "catch up" and make as much progress as possible. We are fortunate to have a beautiful school for them to come to, but unfortunately we appreciate any support to include materials and items for our classrooms that we do not have additional funds for, besides our own personal money, which we already spend so much of every year.
My Project
Math is a life skill that so many of our student population struggles so much with. There is a great lack of practice and conversation about math in many of these families' homes starting before they come to school. Many students don't even know their birthday by second grade. One of the most important foundational skills for math is knowing basic facts. While they should have this mastered in first grade, most of them don't have it mastered in second, and some third or fourth. In order to review and reteach these basic facts consistently, we have many math games that support this. However, as the variety of games has increased, the need for proper storage and more dice for the games has grown. Most of the games I make at my house, using my own printer and laminator. I don't have additional funds to be able to also purchase storage as well. Additional storage is not something that the school is going to provide. I wish to have proper storage to keep the games organized and be able to sort them by the right skill I am teaching at the time.
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