The students at my school come from a variety of backgrounds. Roughly 49% of our students come from a hispanic background and 59% of our total school population is in a position to receive free lunch. Ours students come to school from a diverse variety of backgrounds ranging from 2 parent families, single parent families, broken families and migrant families.
My students come in everyday with a smile on their face and ready to learn.
But sometimes learning can be difficult for them depending on what their family structure is like, whether they were able to have dinner the night before, or breakfast that morning.
I stumbled across a new way to introduce a math concept to my students that will engage them and create a fun learning opportunity without realizing they are learning.
My Project
When teaching coordinate grids and the "x" and "y" axis to my students last year they were struggling with the concept.
Battleship is a fun and engaging way to introduce the concept of coordinate grids to students.
I asked how many of them had ever played Battleship? Most of them responded with "yes". I explained that when playing Battleship they were using the "x" and "y" axis to create coordinate pairs to attempt to sink each other battleships. They were able to then make a connection to what we were working on.
As a result, I feel this year it would be advantageous to have a set of Battleship games to introduce this concept. By playing the game first, I can then have the students come up with their own thoughts and ideas as to how this relates to coordinate grids. I am excited to use something that they already have background knowledge with but do not realize that it relates to math and help to make that connection.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mr. Radocaj and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
