My kindergarten students are all Latino. Many of them have recently immigrated to the United States, and others are the first in their family to be born here. The neighborhood where they live is a highly urban area of our city that is socioeconomically challenged. This is the first educational experience for many of my students. For many others, it is their first organized experience, of any kind, outside their homes.
For the first time in many years, our school has opened two bilingual (Spanish/English) classrooms.
I work closely with one other colleague to provide an educational experience in both Spanish and English for our students who have chosen to become not only bilingual but also bi-literate citizens of our global community.
Our school is unique because it is a primary center. All teachers, children, and staff in the structured English-immersion program, standard-English, and bilingual classrooms work together to tackle the unique challenges these young students bring to their first years of formal education.
My Project
My students will use these math games and tools to learn about math concepts and to practice the associated skills. These math games will provide me with great concrete materials which I can use to teach key math concepts such as more than/less than, addition, and subtraction.
After I have introduced and directly taught those concepts with students, we will use the concrete materials provided by this grant to practice the skills involved with each concept.
Students will have quantities and the symbols to compare numbers in order to determine which is greater and which is less than. I will use counters, symbols, and self-checking flaps on the addition and subtraction boards, when I lead guided practice in the skill of addition and subtraction.
Lastly, after many guided practice sessions comparing numbers, adding numbers, and subtracting numbers in small groups, I will place these math tools and games in our math bookshelf. There, students will select these games and tools for individual practice as often as they like.
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