My students need sensory items in order to practice regulating their emotional state. They need bean bag chairs for our "chill zone" as well as glitter wands and therapy putty for stress relief.
I teach in a high-functioning, self-contained autism classroom at a Title 1 school. My students come from a variety of backgrounds and are in the third, fourth, and fifth grade. Some of my students are on the Common Core curriculum while others are on the EXTEND 1 curriculum. Since we have such a variety of skills and curriculum, my students learn in small groups with myself and my assistant.
They are all spending some time in the inclusion environment and are learning to navigate a variety of social situations-and they get better at it every day!
They are really a unique, engaging group of students that I consider myself very fortunate to teach!
My Project
My students have autism and often struggle to regulate their emotions- this means that the smallest incident can lead to disregulation and melt down city! Since autism in a neurological disorder, their brains require explicit teaching of how to handle the emotions that flood our brains on a daily basis combined with appropriate sensory input.
Imagine if every time you got upset or frustrated, it had the same devastating feeling as a serious life event-for example a loss, a car accident, or displacement from a job.
We consider these to be near traumatic life experiences and justify the subsequent emotional response. To a child with autism, nearly every emotional event can be translated this way because their brains are not neurologically wired to differentiate between "serious" emotional issues, and the kind that happen every day.
While I have access to wonderful socio-emotional curriculum to teach and aid my students in navigating their way through school, we lack the sensory objects to first help them calm down. Very few people are capable of problem solving when in complete distress, and my students are no different. The sensory items I have requested (bean bag chairs, glitter wands, and therapy putty) are all items that have been observed to help my students calm down so that we can address their feelings and practice how to handle them. These materials will all be a part of my "chill zone," the designated classroom space we have for students to relax when stressed. With these materials we will learn how to survive school- sensory style!
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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. VanderSchaaf and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
