By: Jackie Glaser, Title 1 Instructor at Prairie Rose Elementary
Prairie Rose Elementary (PRE) Title 1 teachers are excited to announce that we have received a $1,500 grant from Continental Resources. The grant funds were used to purchase different forms of visual manipulatives to be used in conjunction with the math intervention curriculum at PRE. The visual manipulatives that were purchased can be used across all grade levels.
A major portion of the grant was used to purchase Jot Writing tablets–also known as Boogie Boards. Jot Writing tablets are eWriters that eliminate the need for paper and pencil. They are a durable, lightweight LCD writing screen that is made to feel just like writing with a pen on paper. The image stays as long as you need it to and can be erased with the touch of a button. Each one comes with its own stylus. Math instruction includes many practice problems for students to solve. The tablets will eliminate the need for dry erase boards, markers and erasers, providing a low maintenance and effective way to engage young learners. They could be used to draw simple drawings of concrete or real items (e.g. marbles) to assist in counting, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Magnetic whiteboard resources were also purchased to aid in teaching a variety of math skills.
Very young children and students who struggle with mathematics often require different types of visual manipulatives. They can help students develop a conceptual understanding of mathematical concepts and provide differentiated instruction to meet the needs of all students. The goal of this program is for a student to eventually understand the concepts or procedures without the use of manipulatives. We are excited to have these tools to help our students succeed.