This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
My Students
Many of my students have not yet discovered exploration through the ideas of the outdoor classroom.
We are a Reggio inspired program and our school consists of 15 classrooms and an Atelier (Art Studio) where children experience their first taste of formal education in a nurturing and creative environment.
Our students range from ages 3-6 and; participate in our fun-loving Preschool through Kindergarten program. We know that the concepts they learn and the attitudes they develop are critical to their future success in school.
The Reggio approach promotes self-expression, wonderment, curiosity, thought, problem solving and a desire to delve deeper into areas that interest students through creative projects that they find fascinating and fun. We spend a lot of time asking questions that prompt children to think and to develop appropriate responses.
My Project
Many of our students come from low-income families and most reside in apartment buildings where the exploration of creative outdoor play is limited.
We have paired with Nature Explore to take on a landscaping project, creating a Outdoor Classroom Environment for our 295 students. The children will participate in outdoor mini-classrooms that include Building, Nature Art, Music and Movement, Garden, Water, Messy Materials, Dirt Digging, Sand Digging, and Climbing and Crawling. We therefore will need such items as buckets, shovels, sieves, cups, wooden spoons and measures.
The children here will be introduced to discover and build knowledge and skills through contact with the natural world. The materials requested will be used to help them dig, plant, funnel and piece together ideas of the community through Nature.
We are happy to offer this exciting space to our students, and we would like nothing better than to have you involved in it.
All children need an environment which is meaningful, respects and trusts the child's abilities and encourages curiosity.
Many of our children reside in urban settings that may not offer "the outdoors " as exposure . The donations will help the children to use the hands-on outdoor materials in a space that is awaiting for them to explore .
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
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. Dickerson and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
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