Warm Winter Clothes to Keep Us Safe, Active, and Joyful!
My students need hats, boots, gloves, and scarves to help us take our classroom outside!
$289 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Celebrating 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.
My students are first graders at a charter school on the South Side of Chicago. Our school is committed to a holistic approach to education that celebrates and develops the whole child. These first graders are incredibly bright, creative, and eager to learn! They are a diverse bunch, representing various cultural backgrounds and speaking many non-English languages at home. Many of the students in my class are diverse learners. My students are curious, sweet, and LOVE to learn through inquiry and play!
My Project
Recently, an AMAZING nature playground was built in our urban community. It is full of trees to climb, animals to observe, and logs to balance on. As I watched my students at the nature playground this past spring, I saw a different side of them that we don't typically see inside the classroom. They were inclusive, imaginative, cooperative, and full of joy! They were learning so much from being outside in a type of natural environment that many don't have access to on a regular basis.
I was so inspired by what I observed that I began to read and learn more about Europe's increasingly popular Forest School Movement.
Forest Schools are exactly how they sound: schools where students play and learn through hands-on experiences outside, rain or shine, in a forest. While I'm not ready to move my classroom full-time to the forest just yet, I would like to incorporate more of the Forest School principles into our existing curriculum. Next school year, I would like to teach science completely outdoors. At the nature playground, we will observe plants and animals, study cycles of nature, classify and sort natural objects, and draw and write scientific journal entries. Like the forest schools in Europe, my hope is to learn at the nature playground as often as we possibly can, regardless of the weather.
However, I also know that we are a school in Chicago, where the weather is not always warm, and many of my students come from socioeconomically disadvantaged households. As such, I know that some of my students will need winter gear from school so as not to miss out on the opportunity to learn in our new outdoor classroom. My students will need hats, boots, gloves, and scarves. Thank you for helping to keep my students' hands warm and their brains engaged!
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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 Ms. Urben and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.