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Ms. Creegan from Bronx NY is requesting other through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

Turning First Graders into Storytellers

My students need 8 block resources, including block play stores, block play people and an assortment of wooden blocks.

  • $290 goal

Hooray! This project is fully funded

Hooray! This project is fully funded

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

Celebrate Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

I am a first grade teacher in a high-poverty and high-needs neighborhood. Many of our first grade students enter school without any classroom experience, no kindergarten and no preschool. On top of that many of our children have never been taught how to play with other children or to use their imagination to create worlds, characters and story lines that are all their own. Unfortunately, in many hard working 2-3 job households the television becomes a back up babysitter and children miss out on being read to, talked with, and shown how to create their own stories with make believe characters.

We place so much emphasis on getting our students to become life long readers and writers. We want them to love reading and writing and the new worlds that are opened to them. But, what I have found is that many of my first graders struggle with orally relating stories before we even get to the written part. Being able to role play and story tell is such an important stage in a child's development. Just because I teach first grade and my students have yet to be exposed to opportunities where they can do so, does not mean I can just ignore that and move on with the curriculum. Without developing these skills, my students will be deficient for years to come.

Although we work a lot during the writing workshop on telling a story across our fingers, I have found that one very effective way to help children get into acting out a story we have read or coming up with their own is during choice time. Choice time is a block of time in which we allow children to "freely choose" an activity to work on. All the while, we the teachers structure those activities from which they choose in order to help their learning curve. Through the use of these building blocks, block people and stores my children will grow as readers and writers. Last year my students used different Legos to represent people and characters. How much more effective would it be if they had real block families that looked like them and buildings that represented real settings in their community?

Introducing children to the world of reading and writing begins with turning them into effective readers and writers. Giving them the opportunity to do so in a safe space like our classroom with materials that they will cherish and want to play with is what I am striving to do. Please help us become story-tellers. It is a very important step on the way to becoming life long readers and writers.

Ms. Creegan
Grades PreK-2

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Where Your Donation Goes

Materials Cost Quantity Total
B55 - Triangle Hardwood Block • Lakeshore Learning $2.75 4 $11.00
B53 - Quadruple Unit Hardwood Block • Lakeshore Learning $7.95 2 $15.90
B52 - Double Unit Hardwood Block • Lakeshore Learning $3.95 10 $39.50
B51 - Unit Hardwood Block • Lakeshore Learning $2.35 10 $23.50
AA205 - Lakeshore Block Play People - 8-Piece Black Family • Lakeshore Learning $24.95 1 $24.95
AA203 - Lakeshore Block Play People - 8-Piece Hispanic Family • Lakeshore Learning $24.95 1 $24.95
RR637 - Lakeshore Community Block Play People • Lakeshore Learning $29.95 1 $29.95
JJ973 - Block Play Stores • Lakeshore Learning $34.95 1 $34.95

Materials cost

$204.70

Vendor shipping charges

$20.47

Sales tax

$0.00

3rd party payment processing fee

$3.07

Fulfillment labor & materials

$9.00

Total project cost

$237.26

Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

$52.08

Total project goal

$289.34

How we calculate what's needed

Total project goal

$289.34

1 Donor

-$289.34

Donations toward project cost

-$237.26

Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$52.08

Still needed View calculationHide calculation

$0.00

Our team works hard to negotiate the best pricing and selections available.

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Project Activity

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