My classroom is a self-contained special education classroom for preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorders. We adapt the preschool curriculum to meet the diverse needs of the students and to increase opportunities to work on social, communication, and academic skills. It is my goal to find materials and activities to help motivate and engage my students to participate in classroom activities and to increase interactions with each other.
Preschoolers love to come to school to play, learn, and meet new friends, but some kids have barriers that make it hard to enjoy and participate in these activities without support.
The students in this classroom have high level needs, and they are not yet able to participate in a preschool classroom with a larger group of students. They need a structured environment with a small number of students and many direct teaching opportunities.
The school is located in an urban setting and serves many children who qualify for free or reduced rate lunch and experience homelessness. The district has limited funding and early childhood programs rarely receive the materials they need. Many times we need to create or purchase materials on our own in order to have the materials we need.
My Project
Getting safe, functional, and child-friendly equipment will help our students engage in diverse appropriate and positive sensory-based activities to promote the way they integrate and process sensory input. Sensorimotor activities help promote attention, behavior, learning, movement, coordination and social-emotional copying skills.
Our preschoolers in the Autism program often have sensory processing difficulties.
They need to move and they need to learn how to move using equipment in a safe and positive way.
During weekly sensorimotor groups, they are exposed to appropriate and positive sensory-based activities, leading to positive responses to sensory input.With practice and time, there is a change in the way they integrate, process and modulate sensory input and the way they respond to environmental demands or explore their environment.
This project will provide new mats to replace the ones that are broken or are falling apart. It will include different shaped mats to give new sensory motor experiences. The success balls will help our students work on their balance and catching skills in addition to learning social skills.
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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. Rodenkirchen and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
