My project needs various art and music materials to enhance our arts curriculum.
FULLY FUNDED! Mrs. Kelly's classroom raised $380
This project is fully funded
Art and music offer much more than the ability to paint a landscape or recognize a Mozart symphony. An education in the arts ensures an enriched cultural appetite, stronger analytical skills, and higher achievement in other subject areas. Lessons in art and music help children cultivate their imaginations and learn how to problem solve.
I am teaching 18 children in a full day pre-kindergarten class in a culturally diverse neighborhood in New York City. The children come from low-income households for the most part and many are learning English for the first time. All of the students in our school receive free lunch.
My goal is to give them a solid education in all subject areas which includes the arts. An arts education enriches children for the duration of their lives, teaching curiosity, motivation and synthesis. They need to explore sensory materials and create original works of arts.
To survive in the 21st century labor markets, our kids will have to do work that is hard to automate. In other words, more routine job duties will be farmed out. They will be doing work that requires abilities that go beyond the left brain, spreadsheet, SAT, correct-answer abilities we've long revered.
In my opinion, they will be relying more heavily on design, inventiveness and big picture thinking. That is why we must sharpen these abilities by teaching the arts. The arts teach children a whole-minded way of thinking, and that's what they're going to need.
Please consider supplying us with art materials to help realize my dream of immersing children early in life to the arts. Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it is judgment rather than rules that prevail. The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer.
The children will be able to complete works of art that will hang on their walls for years to come. They will be given the chance to plan, will be shown patience and perseverance, and will strive for excellence. In a world in which everything is becoming standardized, the arts allow children to remain individuals-to march, in Thoreau's words, to a different drummer.
I am requesting basic art supplies such as collage materials, tissue paper, foam, and materials for special projects. Thank you for taking the time to read my proposal and for believing in the magic of an arts curriculum. Exposure to the arts early in a child's life is the key to a future filled with better educated individuals.
Please pick us, we can't wait to start creating our masterpieces. The children are so eager to learn and I want them to thrive in their very first school experience.
More than three‑quarters of 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. Kelly and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
