My students need art/sculpture materials such as modeling clay, sculpture wire, and craft paper.
FULLY FUNDED! Ms. Scheid's classroom raised $832
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.
As an itinerant art teacher, I work at five different elementary schools. Unfortunately, words like "high poverty" and "low achieving" are often used to describe these schools. By the end of the school year, I teach close to 1000 students, mainly in the 3rd through 5th grades. Needless to say, supplies and resources are limited as well as limiting to the students. While paper and pencils are usually found in every classroom, and crayons, markers, glue, and scissors are sometimes found in every classroom, the students crave more. I strongly believe that as an art teacher and artist, it is my duty and responsibility to give my students art experience that is not only engaging and rewarding, but that is an art experience full of wonder and discovery.
I have become very creative and resourceful by utilizing the materials I find around the schools along with materials I purchase with a very meager budget. Amazingly, my students have created some outstanding art with these materials. However, nothing beats that moment when a child's face lights up with joy as they use a brand new material that may be strange yet wonderful to them. As a teacher, it is sometimes easy to forget that they are kids, after all, until you see a room full of light bulbs lighting up all at once. As cliched and corny as it seems, that is truly a magical moment.
Many of the children that I teach do not even have a box of crayons to call their own at home; school may be their only opportunity to get any kind of hands-on art experience. Since my students already make a lot of art with paper and simple materials, I would like them to learn about sculpture and sculpture making. For this project we need modeling clay, sculpture wire, and craft paper. It is one thing to create an amazing piece of art to walk by as it hangs on a wall, but it is another whole experience to create a piece of sculpture with which one can have a true interaction. When children create a three-dimensional work of art, the sense of play shines through. Not only are the children gaining skills and techniques in the art process, but the sculpture itself becomes a part of his or her life. I may have started a class with 25 or so living beings, but it soon doubles as the children put names to their creations.
In these tough economic times, it may be an anomaly to even have art in some schools. It is up to us to keep art thriving in school, especially with the children I teach. Many are already being labeled as "high risk," and these are the children we need to reach out to the most; they are the ones we need to keep engaged and keep in school. I often hear from people of all walks of life that having an art class is what kept them going to school each day. Even in tough times, art is not a privilege but a necessity. With your help, together we can reach many children and keep them learning and craving for more.
Nearly all students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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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. Scheid and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
