My students need 2 sound machines, 24 cot sheets, and a cot carrier for our daily nap, so that students can focus on learning! We also need laundry detergent, plus painter's tape to label the cots.
My combination class of urban transitional and traditional-aged kindergarten students are learning how to get along and express their needs in a social group setting, which is especially important since many of my students did not attend preschool. In addition, they are expected to develop foundational skills in reading, writing, and math!
67% of my kindergarteners are English language learners (38% are classified as Newcomers, because they entered my classroom speaking very little or no English).
Our small, Title I school is located in an urban, high-poverty neighborhood in Northern California. My transitional and traditional-aged kindergartners are eager to learn and full of energy. Many of my families are unable to take their children to the library or to provide access to lots of books at home.
My Project
I would like to take advantage of the sleep cots I found in the storage room, but I need a cot carrier to safely and quickly store (and move) the cots when they are not in use. We also need a supply of sheets for the cots and some laundry detergent, for when I take home the sheets to wash. I need some painter's tape to label the cots. My classroom is large and adjacent to the playground, so the two sound machines would help mask the the loud noise of children playing during our nap time. We may also use the sound machines when I need the room sound level to be lower, such as when I must periodically test kids individually, in different subject areas.
My young students have a full day kindergarten schedule and go home at 2:45 PM; sometimes they are in the after school program and don't go home until 5:30!
They need the opportunity to take a short nap after lunch, especially on the days when kids have a cold and don't feel so good, or if they simply didn't get enough sleep the night before. Last year I tried having kids stretch out on our area rug, but there simply wasn't enough room, the rug wasn't the cleanest, and the kids outside were so noisy, that I soon gave up. I'd feel much better if I could offer them a quieter environment, with a clean sheet and cot instead.
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