My students need Numerical Rods, Number Tiles, Magnetic Wands, Magnifiers, and various other hands-on materials to enhance their math and science skills in our classroom.
This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
My Students
My classroom is full of 20 active, busy, and energetic 4 and 5 year olds who love to learn. We use hands-on materials that engage the children in their daily lessons. However, because of lack of funding in my district it is a challenge to supply my classroom with enough needed materials.
My students like others in their age group are very young children who want to try new experiences.
They also want to be more self-reliant and seek to expand the areas of their lives where they can be independent decision-makers. My students are developing their ability to understand abstract concepts, especially when thinking is supported by physical interaction with materials.
It is said that using manipulatives with young children will enhance student learning because they provide an additional hands-on resource for learning math concepts, draw on their practical, real-world knowledge, and engage students in physical activity, which has been shown to enhance memory and understanding.
I teach at a Pre-K - 5 public elementary school within an inner-city neighborhood. My district is a large urban school district.
My Project
Young children are not good sitters. They are hungry for stimulation. They want to see, touch, taste, sniff, handle, and use materials. They want to test things out for themselves. Children learn best when they are encouraged to explore, interact, create, and play. In fact, research confirms what most early childhood professionals already know, children learn the most when they are actively participating in the learning process.
The use of manipulatives enables students to explore concepts at the first on a concrete level of understanding. When students manipulate objects, they are taking the necessary first steps toward building understanding and internalizing math processes and procedures. Research shows that using manipulatives can contribute to the development of well-grounded, interconnected understandings of mathematical ideas. Students can more easily remember what they did and explain what they were thinking when they used manipulatives to solve a problem.
I envision my students actively involved in the learning process with the use of these hands-on materials.
I see my students loving the learning process and even more important showing academic growth as a result of using these materials. Using manipulatives in my classroom is an amazing way for my students to not only explain, but also show their thinking for any mathematical concepts.
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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 Ms. Vickers and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.