Adopt a classroom

After meeting with the teachers for the past few weeks, I have asked what they needed assistance in and would like more knowledge in... and these were their responses...

• I need assistance in...
  
  • making charts
    
  • decorating the classrooms
    
  • real play/hands on materials/books
    
  • learning with concrete objects
    
  • catching the children up who are behind
    
• I would like more knowledge in...
  
  • organization
    
  • lesson planning (need ideas on other methods of how to present a lesson...)
    
    • needs to be student based versus teacher based.... instead of teacher will... the goals should be student will be able to...
      
  • including all the children
    
  • developmental needs
    

For most first time teachers, these are common things that need to assistance. A lot of these topics we have started to cover in our weekly staff development meetings. However, in the village, getting our hands on real play materials for the classroom setting is difficult. Can't just pull out the Lakeshore catalog and place an order! So over the past two weeks I have been rummaging through my garbage and “making” learning materials. Attached are some of the very simple ideas that I have put together. I do have markers, construction paper, and scissors with the teaching stuff that I brought and thanks to generous donations the teachers have things like markers, colored pencils, and crayons. But for hands on materials, they are lacking so much that would be beneficial to hands-on learning for these children. I am going on a scouting mission next week to see what I can find in Kampala but after several people have asked of some of the needs I thought I would post this now instead of next weekend when I get back from my scouting mission.

• Wooden clothes pins for activities involving letters, spelling, and numbers (can only find plastic ones in country)
  
• a simple playdough recipe that includes only basic materials
  
• 

  

  Toilet paper rolls to assist with sorting colors... need beads or pompoms to go with this!

  beads (like the big pony type beads) and pompom balls in bold primary colors for sorting and counting and touch math
  
• small cars (matchbox type) for fine motor skills
  
• stickers or other small gifts
  
• felt (to make quiet books... Mr. Potato head... visual stories...puppets... etc)
  
• permanent makers (Sharpie)
  
• pipe cleaners
  
• food coloring
  
• powdered paint (the kind you mix with water) and paint brushes/ water color would also be fun to introduce to the children
  
• shallow trays for writing in sand/flour/salt/dirt
  
• items to make busy bags... see pinterest for more ideas!
  
• contact paper or a way of laminating so that things can last longer than one use
  
• construction paper (preferably in bright colors)
  
• drawing paper
  
• toothpaste/brushes... introduced brushing teeth a few weeks back and it is a hit... however with 60 children brushing teeth daily we go through a lot of toothpaste!
  
• soap/fingernail brushes/nail trimmers … working on personal hygiene
  
• Children's storybooks...these have been such a hit with the research project that each teacher has requested books for their classroom... there are no story books!
  



Ok... well I am sure my list could go on and on... I am sitting here thinking how blessed I was in my former classroom to have all these supplies and shelves of books... all that I took for granted most of the time. So if you are a teacher or a mom of young children and you want to do a service type project or an adopt a classroom for Christmas, we would love to partner with you. We will send pictures and messages back to the children and it will be a good geography lesson of where Uganda is as well as what it looks like to help other children out.

Our mailing address is...

In the Field Ministries

c/o Integrity Primary School

PO Box 71748

Kampala, Uganda, AFRICA

*When you mail a package... you will have to list on the customs form what is inside and the value... please list any of the above mentioned items with “educational supplies” and put a low value amount! Packages also can take anywhere from 1 to 3 months to get here so take that into consideration if mailing “Christmas” related materials!

Thank you in advance for your assistance in educating the children of Nabisooto!

Sequencing... ruler...Velcro dots... and an old workbook... BEING CREATIVE!

When you don't have posters for conversation starters... you make your own from and old workbook!

Again... another thing that needs beads or pompoms to work on counting skills

Since we have not building materials... I have been saving all my boxes for the children to use as blocks!

Old soda bottles can be used for all sorts of games and projects... these will be used for a game of bowling!