Help me give my students hands-on activities to help increase their language and learning while having fun with their parents!
$498 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.
I am a speech language pathologist at a Title I school in Brooklyn, NY. 96% of our students receive free lunch and come from underprivileged households. Many of our children's caregivers are single parents managing houses with multiple children. They tend to be overworked and over stressed causing our students to go home to chaotic living conditions and limited learning opportunities.
However, despite the social and emotional challenges our students may face at home, they come to school everyday with a smile on their faces.
They are resilient and highly motivated to succeed. However, it seems our children have lost the art of unstructured and creative play, as well as conversational skills. Our sweet, little kindergartners are energetic, curious, and playful. They just need the opportunities to let their skills grow and personalities flourish.
My Project
Children are like sponges and develop language skills immediately at birth. Their caregivers are their first teachers and strongest role models. However, research shows that children from low income households enter school hearing 30 million fewer words than their peers. One way to address this issue directly is to adopt a Montessori-like approach of education that is based on self-directed activity, hands-on learning and collaborative play. I am asking for activities and books to send home with 20 amazing kiddos and their families each month for the entire school year.
These activities have been carefully curated and chosen to elicit an incredible amount of language opportunities while opening the child up to a fun, hands-on world of learning.
They are designed for at home play where the children will feel comfortable taking risks and asking questions while engaging with their parents without feeling the stress of academic tasks. And just as importantly, parents will be encouraged to see the valuable role they play in their child's learning. This project is the third in a series of four projects. The feedback from parents from the previous months' activities has been amazing. The rock painting kit will be for the February activity, the Cat in the Hat items for March and the Easter eggs for April's activity. I have created language sheets in English and Spanish to correspond with each activity to help guide the parents as they work and play with their child at home. Each paired language sheet includes basic concepts, engaging questions, and functional vocabulary such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives. I am asking for these materials to help our little ones learn thousands of words! All while developing social-emotional skills and increasing parent engagement.
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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. Alyssa and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
