My students need math manipulatives to help them transition from concrete concepts to the abstract topics covered in sixth grade math.
$981 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
My Students
My students face many obstacles in life that I cannot even imagine having to overcome. A vast majority of them come from socio-economically disadvantaged homes. For some, the only meals they eat in a day are the ones provided at school. Some have had to miss school because their parents had to go to work and couldn't find or afford a babysitter for their younger siblings. Additionally, all of my students were deeply impacted by Hurricane Harvey. Not only did they all lose two weeks of valuable instruction last year, but many were trapped at home without power. Some were even displaced due to damage caused by flooding. A tornado touched down less than five miles from our campus.
Despite the challenges these students face on a daily basis and the challenges that they continue to encounter in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, they come to school ready to learn, with a desire to improve themselves so that they can improve their circumstances.
As a sixth-grade math teacher, I want to be able to provide my students with the resources, skills, and practices that will launch them towards the life they desire.
My Project
In sixth grade math, students make the transition from completely concrete math problems and topics to being able to apply previous and new knowledge to abstract concepts.
These materials will help our students explore new concepts and discover algorithms for solving math problems on their own; this self-discovery will help them retain and apply these new skills effectively.
Our goal is to help students learn new concepts using these concrete manipulatives, then transition to pictorial representations, and eventually get them to abstract thinking and problems. These manipulatives will give them the experience they need to excel in the advance topics covered in sixth grade.
AngLegs will help our students understand the relationship between side lengths to determine if they can make a triangle and the relationship between opposite angles and legs of a triangle. With the interlocking pop cubes, we will introduce our students to exponents and prime factorization so that they can understand that exponents are repeated multiplication in the same way that multiplication is repeated addition.
We will use the plastic algebra tiles to introduce our students to the concepts of equivalent expressions, solving one-step equations and solving one-step inequalities. Plastic two-color counters will allow our students to explore the concept of negative numbers and using these negative numbers in problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The fraction model will help extend their understanding of fractions from adding and subtracting to multiplying and dividing as well.
All of these valuable manipulatives are what our students need to become success critical thinkers and achieve goals.
If you donated to this project, you can sign in to leave a comment for Mrs. Alvarez.
DonorsChoose is the #1 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 Mrs. Alvarez and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
