Our classroom provides a safe place for children to learn and explore. Roald Dahl said, "The more risks you allow children to take, the better they learn to take care of themselves."
My classroom is full of energized first graders, ready to move and learn.
They have high energy levels and are never lacking when it comes to participation. Our day consists of learning through cooperative learning, teamwork, whole group, and individual learning. I like to mix it up!
Our students are diverse and come from many backgrounds and ethnicities. All of our students participate in our school's free or reduced-price lunch program.
My Project
I would like to give my students a soft start to their school day. With COVID, our focus this year has been on social and emotional learning for our students. Many times, students feel stressed and rushed into working because they enter the class and are immediately thrown into work. By creating a soft start environment, my students will be allowed to work with these STEM bins to get their minds in the learning mindset before we start doing "work." Plus, during COVID arrival and departure, students will have time to enter the classroom at staggered times.
Help me create a learning environment where students feel encouraged to learn instead of stressed out about their learning during staggered arrival and dismissal.
Instead of entering the classroom and immediately getting started on the work for the day, my students will be greeted at the door and pick out a STEM bin for their hybrid day. Students will work quietly with their bin to get their minds warmed up for learning. This will allow others to have breakfast and will be individual for COVID safe material use. These activities will help to stretch their critical thinking without them being stressed by the "work." Soft starts have been proven to lower student stress level and to increase student activity throughout the remainder of the class day. These bins are clear for easy display of materials where students can see and select without touching individual materials. We can't wait to add them to out day. With 20 bins, all students will have their own choice, and we can still keep manipulatives in class. Additionally, the four heavy duty bins will hold our quarantined classroom library.
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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. O'Donnell and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
