Project Description: We currently volunteer at Mason Crest Elementary School in the Enhanced Autism classroom. We run different toy stations, helping kids practice their speaking and fine motor skills. We would like to thank the instructors for letting us volunteer in their classroom and for providing us the opportunity to learn more about their program. Note: We edited out the kids in the photo below to respect their privacy.
Project Outcomes: We were able to make 33 care packages to send to three different elementary schools: Weyanoke Elementary School, Belvedere Elementary School, and Columbia Elementary School. Each package consisted of 4-5 coloring cards, a handwritten message, and a large pop-it. Thank you to all our volunteers who made coloring cards and all the monetary donations!
Project Description: In an effort to combat the lack of materials in low-income special needs classrooms, we are creating care packages including pop-its, crayons, and a picture book we create ourselves. Our mission is to provide a fun and stimulating learning environment for children in special education classrooms, and by helping us you could benefit many people. Help us create this picture book by creating a simple drawing or help us fund our project by donating to our GoFundMe! More details on the picture book and our donation box are listed below. If you would like to be informed about our future projects, please join our email list located under the join tab. You may earn service hours for your work on the coloring pages if you make a minimum of two acceptable drawings.
Draw a cool picture and help us make a picture book to give to special needs classrooms!
Directions:
- To make a coloring page, you can choose to draw on a piece of paper or digitally. If you choose to draw on piece of paper, please scan it in as a pdf and submit it that way.
- Make sure to draw on a white background and use black outlines. There should be no color on your pages and the drawing should be suitable for children. Be creative!
- Examples:
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- Once you are done with your drawing, upload your image using this Google form
All monetary donations will go to funding the different materials necessary to complete this project (Pop-its, stress balls, boxes, tissue paper). Thank you so much for your donation! Thanks so much for your participation in this project, we really appreciate it!
Project Outcomes: For this project, we are partnering with elementary schools to bring sensory stimulating materials to classrooms. Our goal is to heighten student focus in the classroom with materials such as stretch tubes, textured surfaces, and other fidget toys. Research has shown that fidget toys are beneficial in keeping users less focused on the task at hand rather than using excess energy in feelings of restlessness and unproductivity. Giving the hands something to do increases focus, especially for students with ADHD and special needs. For this reason, we will be donating fidget toys to special needs classrooms. The following items were donated to Mason Crest Elementary School in Fairfax County, VA, as it has a high population of special needs students: stretch bands, colored beads, ladder fidgets, pop tubes, textured tape.
Project Description: In light of Autism Awareness Month, we raised money and donated 3 cause-and-effect toys and a couple puzzles to the classroom that has given us so many opportunities. Through volunteering, we observed how much the kids learn from these cause-and-effect type activities, and thus, we decided that these toys would be the most beneficial towards this specific classroom. We were so happy to see the kids play with the toys we donated and would like to thank all those who donated money.
Volunteering at Mason Crest
The Care Package Project
Ended November 23
The Christmas Project
Ended December 17
Donation to Mason Crest
Ended April 13