4th Grade Skateboarding Project

We are two fourth grade classes at a project-based learning school. This skateboarding project, Off the Wall Together, is designed to help our students step out of their comfort zones, to learn grit and resilience, to challenge sterotypes and powerfully engage EVERY student. We launched this project by disassembling donated skateboards and we were struck by the buzz in each class as students worked together, helped each other and took on leadership roles that we have not seen from those students.

We've already seen the powerful learning that this project inspires. All we need now is the money to make our students' dreams a reality. My colleague, Ashley Carrico,  and I would like our 48  students to have the opportunity to learn to skateboard (or learn new tricks), to explore angles and physics, to become engineers and build their own boards, and finally, to create artwork to reflect their new-found resilience and personal growth. 

Through this project it is our hope that ....

-each student has the opportunity to build their very own board with personalized art work

- students expand their idea of who a skateboarder is  by examining biases and breaking them down.

  -students  tap into the rich cultural aspects of the skateboarding community especially here in San Diego. 

Here is a list of what our students need:

50 blank skateboard decks

100 skateboard trucks

400 bearings

8 rolls of skateboard grip tape

200 skateboard wheels

4 Power Drills

3 Skateboarding lessons for both classes

Please help us to make our students' dreams, and our dreams for our fourth graders, a reality.