Magna Tiles For Our Class!

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

My students come to school with a smile each morning and afternoon. I teach half-day and therefore have 40 students. I want to give them the best materials with the most engaging activities that coincide with our learning to continue to keep those smiles on their faces!

I teach in Chicago Public Schools in the neighborhood of Logan Square/Humboldt Park.

My students are predominately Hispanic and the majority speak only Spanish. Experiential learning helps us to interact with one another and bridge the language barrier dividing us. My students are the most rambunctious and curious two groups of students that I have ever had and I am excited to see all the new ideas they will have this year and what we will be teaching one another. I am lucky to be their teacher and feel it is important to have all the materials and information the children need to be successful and have a positive learning experience and environment. I feel fortunate to work with them and have the opportunity to both learn from them and teach them.

My Project

I have experienced the benefits of having Magna Tiles in the classroom directly in the other schools where I have taught. I believe that there is a need for an abundance of materials for children to explore at a deeper contextual level to allow for the development of higher order questioning and intrigue. Magna Tiles are a material that works better when students have an abundance of them. When the children are building with the Magna Tiles, the more they have, the more elaborate their structures will become. My children have fewer than 20 Magna Tiles right now and this leads to a disinterest in the material because there are not enough tiles to build a proper creation or structure. My students need 2 class sets of Magna Tiles to build different structures for improving spatial understanding and developing relationships.

The children need these Magna Tiles to develop their spacial understanding and the recognition of shapes and colors.

Magna Tiles create a work environment conducive to the development of positive social and emotional behaviors and allow for the creation of stable relationships and a safe community in the classroom.