Help me give my students 6 pairs of Fiskars Titanium scissors, a Fiskars scissor sharpener, yarn in assorted colors, wooden dowels, a super easy cutter, a cutting mat, tapestry needles, magenta paint and fuzzy socks.
I teach art at a small elementary school in New York for students with severe disabilities. The students in my school are between four and eleven years old. There are thirteen 6:1:1 classes (6 students, one teacher, and one paraprofessional) and one 12:1:1 class (12 students, one teacher, and one paraprofessional).
Most of the students in my school are amazing and unique artists who happen to have Autism Spectrum Disorder.
My students really love creating art, exploring new art making materials and showing their work off when it is finished. They thrive in an environment that is hands on and interactive.
My Project
Last year my students explored different types of puppetry in the Art Studio. We made flat hand puppets, experimented with turning stuffed animals into marionettes, created short stop-motion animations using clay puppets, constructed body puppets out of cardboard and made hand puppets with heads modeled out of model magic. The kids have loved it all! They like creating characters and playing with them. It has also proven to be a great way to help the students interact more with each other, something that many of my students struggle with.
We want to expand our puppet program, to help our students bring famous fairytales to life through puppetry and short films.
Classes will select the fairytale that they would like to work on. With these new materials and materials that we already have in the art studio, my students will be able to create their own unique sock puppets and rod puppets inspired by the characters of their class fairytale. In collaboration with their classroom teachers, each class will write a script for their fairytale. The students will direct their film and have a screening of them at one of our Recess at the Movies sessions.
The fuzzy socks will provide the base of the sock puppets, while the tapestry needle will be the tool that they can use to add things like hair and eyes. The dowels, alvin mat and easy cutter will be used to help the students make rod puppets. The scissors and scissor sharpener will make it easier for the students to cut their own fabric to make outfits for their puppets. The yarn will help us to expand the options for puppet hair choices and the magenta paint will make it easier when mixing colors to create their own colors for their puppets faces.
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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. Cosimano and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
