‌Hi! My name is Laura Beth Smith-Heimer and I teach 1st grade at Garfield Elementary school. Garfield Elementary is a small school located in the North Beach area of San Francisco, CA. There are English, Cantonese Immersion, and Special Day Classrooms. With a very diverse student population, Garfield students have a variety of academic and social emotional needs. Some students are externalizers (outward expressers of their emotional needs) and students who are internalizers (keep the feelings in and internalize their challenges). Both types of students have challenges, and need different approaches to their social-emotional learning. My students live in a variety of home structures, including homes, apartments, and low-income housing. 

Kimochis (meaning emotions in Japanese http://www.kimochis.com ) is a social-emotional learning program I used at the previous 2 schools I worked at. I found it extremely useful in helping students identify their feelings and express their needs constructively. The program has 5 animals/creatures that the students can relate to (all in different ways), a variety of feeling pillows (with faces and words to describe the face/feeling), and an extensive educators program of lessons and resources. While this program is really useful, it is also really expensive ($550 plus taxes/shipping). My district uses a different social-emotional program that I really do not find helpful or useful for my students. I want to focus my instruction next year on better preparing my students emotionally, as well as academcally, and Kimochis is how I know I can be successful at this. 

Funding from this campaign will help me buy teaching tools to help my students with their relationships with each other. I'd be able to do that by buying this learning tool. 
Please help me purchase this amazing social-emotional learning program!
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