My students need aquarium and terrarium supplies and animals to help reduce stress and anxiety as well as enhancing our classroom science unit which in turn will help promote responsibility, care and compassion for other living things.
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.
My Students
My students lives are very stressful and chaotic. They face homelessness, low-income, high poverty and crime every day. Most live in a single parent households and come from second language homes where most parents did not complete their education. Everyday students come in with new issues and concerns. This impacts their learning and concentration as well as their focus on their school work.
My class of 24 students are bright, energetic, enthusiastic, affectionate and thoughtful.
They are in dire need of rich and rewarding experiences that due to family circumstances they do not have the opportunity to experience. They face so many challenges in and outside of the classroom that I am trying to create a classroom that is a haven from the outside world.
My Project
My project will be two fold -- reducing student stress and anxiety while enhancing our math and science units.
The opportunity to interact with pets in the comfort of the classroom—can be an experience that can help them focus on other things than the problems or issues facing them at home.
Having students feed and tending to the animals needs on a daily basis can be a very calming force which can help promote positive effects. At times students just need someone to talk to that is not judgemental, that won't talk back but just listen. That is what an animal can do. By working and caring for our classroom pets students will also learn different ways to manage their stress and anxiety in a positive way.
Students will use the animals in the classroom on a daily basis. They will study them to enhance our science unit about living things. Observing their habitat, environment, physical characteristics and behaviors will help them appreciate and understand the world around them. They will also weigh and measure them over time which will help enhance our math unit about measurement and graphing.
Nearly all students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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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 Mrs. Conrriquez and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
