Past projects 2
Manipulatives for Mighty Mathematicians
Funded Apr 14, 2021As we enter into this week of thankfulness, I am writing to express my thanks for you and your generosity. Last year, learning was a struggle for any student enrolled in remote learning and there were limited resources allotted to these students. However, your donations to this project, Manipulatives for Mighty Mathematicians, made a huge impact.
Usually, spring in the first grade means the beginning of our place value unit and for weeks the tables during math time are overflowing with unifix cubes stacked in groups of ten. When I was in first grade I was taught to line up numbers like 35 and 49 vertically on paper and "carry the 1." I had no idea what I was doing! And as an adult, I struggled with mental math. These abstract concepts are hard for young learners. However, with unifix cubes students are able to build the numbers, push stacks of tens and ones together, and physically regroup when needed. As they work more and more with the cubes they learn how to break apart numbers on paper and eventually mentally. They are a crucial tool, and last year in-person students would get to use them but remote students would not... until YOU!
Your donations allowed us to buy cubes for TWO remote classes. Students used these cubes to follow along with videos and complete asynchronous work. During small groups, remote teachers were able to look students' cubes, assess how well they were grasping concepts, and then guide them if necessary. These tools were also a way for students to feel connected to the classroom experience - there's something about the math center and its bins of math tools that's so exciting to a 7 year old, and we were able to to bring a piece of that excitement and connection to them.
Thank you again! With your help this became a meaningful unit for our students. I hope that you will continue to support public education and use your voice to advocate for equitable distribution of resources.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Yankovich
Growing Readers, Growing Activists
Funded Sep 16, 2020I can't fully express my joy, excitement, and thanks for your donation to my project. I'm so thankful that you share my vision for diversity and social justice. The amazing thing about this project is that the books were used to teach both in-person and remote learners. At a time when New York City is struggling to create an equitable learning experience for remote learners, our remote students were able to enjoy and learn from these books as deeply as their peers in school.
I received several messages from parents who appreciated seeing a diverse representation of families throughout the unit. One parent told me, "This is our family. This is our culture." There were other wonderful connections students made that I hadn't even anticipated. One book in particular Saturday, about a mother and child whose Saturday plans are ruined, especially resonated with students as they reflected on how the coronavirus had disrupted their lives and their resulting feelings. Another book Big Red Lollipop, about a little sister who seems to always be in her big sister's business whether inviting herself to activities or taking her sister's things, brought up a lot of the tensions siblings have had to face sharing space while in quarantine.
Throughout the unit remote and in-person students practiced skills like retelling a story including all the important information, making text-to-self connections and text-to-text connections, and making inferences about character feelings, thoughts, and motivations. They responded to the books through Google Jamboards, Flipgrid assignments, and drawings and writing that they submitted through Google Classroom.
This family unit is the springboard for our upcoming activism unit. We started with families and how they take care of each other because we will build upon it in our activism unit, as we discuss how we can take care of each other as community members and citizens and how to stand up for justice. At the end of each book we had discussions about the lessons we learned, and students said things like: families help each other solve problems, families don't give up, family members who are different can find common ground, families are different and beautiful just the way they are, families are stronger together, families make each other brave, and the list goes on.... We are hoping that students will see many of these lessons hold true for community members and citizens too.
This unit was meaningful and impactful with students in a way that I've never seen before. Without your help, I would never have been able to teach this unit. Thank you so much for your generosity.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Yankovich
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose 20th Anniversary Fund and 6 other donors.