Early Finish Crafts

Grant - December 2022

School: Oliver Brown Elementary
Subject/Area of Influence: School Supplies
Cost of Grant: $318.42

I would like to purchase craft supplies for students to use after finishing planned activities. The supplies would be used for bead crafts, embroidery, and felting. Specifically, I would like to purchase pony beads, string, embroidery hoops, cross-stitching fabric, needles, embroidery floss, felt, felting needles, and felting blocks.

The impact of this grant on my students will be to provide hands-on early finish choices that develop students’ motor skills, creativity, spatial skills, and interest in new activities. One of the challenges I face every year is making early finish time meaningful. Typically, the options are read, play an educational game, or use an educational iPad app. These are good options, but none of them are hands-on and the games and apps are usually repetitions of material students have mastered. Every year, I do some craft activities, including bead work, as a class. Students love these activities and get very creative, teaching themselves and each other new techniques. I don’t have the supplies to let students make many items, and I would like to be able to provide supplies all year to my students. I strongly believe that such hobbies are excellent for mental health, as well. With these craft supplies, students will have the ability to use their early finish time for something that is fun, creative, and something they can do at home if they are interested. This will be a big improvement over playing the same multiplication game or sneaking onto a game app that doesn’t develop any skills.

I would like to note that many of these materials can be reused, but I selected “annual” for the longevity of the grant because some raw materials will need to be replaced. Also, I would like to add other crafts in the future and, if possible, get other teachers interested in using these supplies, too.

Dana Kilbride - 5th Grade Teacher