John Adams Special Ed class needs your help

In kind donation or direct funding through donorschoose.org:

How Do You Communicate Without Words?
Ms. Handel
John Adams Elementary School
Alexandria, VA
High Poverty
My students need a laminator, pouches, binding combs, and a bookbinding machine to preserve their work.

Children who do not have language need alternative ways to communicate. Pictures and symbols are an effective way for children to express their wants and needs.

My students are between the ages of 2 and 3 and have many different disabilities and needs such as autism, developmental delays, intellectual disabilities, and emotional and physical challenges. I also have a few students that are typically developing that serve as peer models for language and socialization. My students come from culturally diverse families and many have socio-economic challenges, as well. My school is a Title I school and we have a large population of children with special needs and English Language Learners.

Some of my students do not talk yet, and rely heavily on pictures to communicate. In order to have pictures that will not be destroyed, they will need to be laminated.

The students will not use the laminator, pouches, laminating combs or bookbinding machines directly since they are so little, but they will use the materials developed with both machines. As the teacher, I will create non-destructible laminated symbols and use pictures for the children to access in the classroom. Pages can be bound together to form books using the binding combs and bookbinding machine. Currently I am using paper, which gets destroyed very easily.

Many of my students require pictures to communicate and express their wants and needs. The children will be able to point to or hand an adult a picture symbol. During meal times, the children will have sentence strips with pictures of the food choices on the table. We also use a picture schedule in the classroom, and the machines will be used to create those materials for the children to use, as well. When it's time to play, the children let me know where they want to go by putting their name and picture on a board with the different activities. All of these materials would last longer if they were laminated.

The donations will improve my classroom by allowing me to create materials that last longer, and are able to be handled by the children in the class. It will change the students' lives for the better because it will allow them access to pictures and symbols which will allow them to communicate.

$450 still needed to fund this project.
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