My students are first graders and many of my students have special needs. They are also largely English second language learners. My students use flexible seating and brain breaks to help with focus. We often take breaks to move our bodies and help regain focus. This takes away time from in class learning but is necessary.
My students will benefit from the take-home math bags because they will allow for hands-on learning to continue at home.
The students and parents can use these tools to bridge the home and school gap and further the mastery of each skill. My students will also be able to teach these skills to parents and siblings at home giving them ownership of their math skills and bettering the community they live in. The "new" math is something even many parents are struggling to understand and provide support to students. These bags will make the math fun and easy for the families of my students and my future students will benefit as well.
My Project
These math materials will be put into "Take Home Bags" and sent home with students who need to practice various math skills. Each "bag" will include math games and manipulatives for different math concepts and skills and will go home for students to practice with their families.
The supplies that I have requested are all hands-on to make learning fun and involve the families of my students!
Young learners learn best through repeated hands-on practice in comfortable environments. Each item I requested covers a math standard, for example the base 10 kits will allow students to practice place value by building numbers and exploring the 10s place. Magnetic coins will allow children to practice making various amounts using different coin options, they can use the kitchen fridge as a surface therefore bonding with the parents while they make dinner, saving time and covering important skills all at once. Folder games are quick and easy ways to re-enforce skills that cover different standards. Number bonds show relationships between numbers an build math fluency. Each material covers different standards in different ways appealing to various learning modalities and demonstrating new applications and real word situations for using math skills. By using games that teach math and fun colorful manipulatives the students are less anxious and more engaged, therefore skills are more readily learned and mastered. Parents will get to see the children's minds at work and provide support. When school and home connect, learning soars higher!
Math helps students build the foundation for science and engineering as well as many other paths. I especially would like to see my girls get more confidence and excitement about math and science concepts. My young learners participate in monthly STEM activities in the classroom and I see many weaknesses in math standards to address.
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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 Mrs. Mianowski and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.