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Goal

Students age 4-8 learn best when they can manipulate learning materials with their hands. Our goal is to make learning as concrete as possible by taking challenging concepts and creating hands-on activities that will allow students to experience the concept, rather than just hearing about its meaning. We chose "Other" to describe our subject because this combined grant request includes many different learning areas: the alphabetic principal, setting in literature, mathematical concepts, STEM, position/direction, self-regulation and more. Additionally, we hope to minimize administrative tasks on your end by combining multiple small grants for our school into one request. Thank you for your consideration! 

What will be done with my students

In the Library (MacCabe), preK-2nd grade students will experience the concept of "setting" by creating settings for stories they imagine. Currently, we have a large wooden dollhouse that students use to create backgrounds for stories they build cooperatively. Since the furniture and dolls receive a lot of love, they are beginning to fall apart and need replacement. In addition to replacement furniture, we would like to purchase wooden doll people in varying ethnicities to represent all members of our student body. We also have a magnatile center (from a previous grant), and we would like to incorporate this into our setting unit by purchasing the Road Topper set. This set has highway tiles which snap over the existing Magnatiles, so that instead of just creating buildings, the students can connect their buildings into a community. We would also like to purchase Magnatile cars bases, so that students can create cars and trucks that carry imaginary characters from one setting to another. We also hope to purchase a wooden train track set, which comes with "community helper" structures, including a hospital, fire station, police station, and more. Finally, we would like to purchase 2 Magnetic City block sets. These blocks look like Minecraft cubes and will be an instant hit encouraging students to design an entire scene, including different ground surfaces, trees, streams, brick buildings, and more. Combined, students will be able to create a "home" setting, a "residential" setting, a "nature" setting, and an "industrial" setting, to provide backdrops for cooperative storytelling. Instead of being an abstract concept, the idea of a story's setting becomes concrete and - most importantly - fun. At the PreK level, we would like to add a wooden puzzle with doors that open and shut to add the concepts of "open/closed," "in/out," "right/left," and "through" to the setting discussion.

Kindergarten classrooms - Shelton: Alphabots are letter shapes that unfold and transform into robots. They help kindergarten students engage with the abstract concept that the shapes of letters match the written mark on a page and also with a specific sound. The bright colors make alphabots an attractive play item and fidget, so that students don't even realize that they are learning. Each Alphabots set will be shared with a 4-classroom pod. (3 sets)

Kindergarten classroom - Beckham: The concepts of greater than and less than are challenging for five-year-olds. However, the mouth on this froggy balance is a >, and it shifts towards whichever side holds more cubes, making a visual reminder that 5 > 3 because the froggy's smile points the way, and then that 6 < 7 because the froggy's smile shifts again. This balance uses both kinesthetic and visual aspects to make the concepts of greater than, less than, and equal concrete and fun. Each balance set will be shared with by 2 classrooms. (6 sets)

In an ESE 1st & 2nd grade classroom - Emerson: Students developing their connection between number shapes and number value will use the wooden tracing board. Students working towards switching from counting to addition will use the manipulative kit that provides and extra pair of hands for counting to higher numbers. Other students are developing their understanding of fractions with the divided circles shaped like pizza slices and orange segments. The place value tiles help make tens, hundreds, and thousands easier to visualize. Students will use the froggy balance described above to cement the concept of inequality. Students will use the rainbow rock manipulatives to create patterns and mosaics on a light board.

In an ESE Kindergarten classroom - Silva: Students in this class are having difficulty with spatial concepts like "behind" and "in front of." Ms. Silva is requesting a Position Game, which comes with direction cards & game spinners that cue students to move froggy manipulatives behind, inside, and to the right of a model cave, bowl, and lilly pads. Practicing this concept with concrete manipulatives in a game setting will help students to master the directional concepts in the real world.

In a Developmentally-Delayed PreK Classroom: Ms. Leighton is a new PreK teacher at YPS. We are looking to outfit her classroom with basic sensory, fine-motor, and instructional materials to help students develop the following concepts: colors, number sense, shapes, and matching. The magnetic tiles add a STEM element, while the sensory mats help students develop self-regulation skills through tactile exploration. 

Benefits to my students

Students will develop a deep understanding of challenging concepts - through the use of manipulatives that expand on verbal explanations given by teachers. The following concepts will become concrete in our students' world view:

Language Arts: the Alphabetic Principle, Setting

Mathematics: Number Sense, Inequalities, Place Value, Pattern Recognition, Fractions, Shapes, Matching

STEM: Imagining and constructing buildings and communities

Body/Mind Awareness: Fine Motor Skills, Self-Regulation

Because many of these activities are communal, students will also be practicing social skills, including sharing, taking turns, explaining ideas and opinions, asking and answering questions, perseverance, and problem solving. 

Budget Narrative

All requested items are available at Amazon.

Our combined grant breaks down into the following categories:

Library (All 570 students will utilize these materials.): $492.82 = 42% of the grant request

Kindergarten (1/3 of YPS students will utilize these materials each year, with all students using them as they advance through YPS grades) $328.70 = 28% of the grant request

ESE Kindergarten (all ESE students will utilize these as they advance through YPS grades) $ 25.99 = 2% of the grant request

PreK (PreK students at YPS will utilize these materials.) $140.93 = 12% of the grant request

ESE 1st & 2nd grades (All ESE students will utilize these materials as they move through YPS grades.) $173.69 = 15% of the grant request.

None of these materials are consumable. They should last several years with minimal wear and tear.

Thank you again for considering our combined YPS grant!
 

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