Using Hands-On Learning Manipulatives to Support

Using Hands-on Learning Manipulatives to Support Emergent Literacy & Math Skills”

Dr. Donna Sanderson, Associate Professor West Chester University, West Chester, Pennsylvania

Learning Objectives:

1. Share and explain the concept of Cap Kits as educational learning materials and explain why child development research states that hands-on learning is the best way for children to learn. 2. Demonstrate and show what a Cap Kit is, how it assist student learning, and how you create one for almost free from recycled materials. 3. Provide examples of multiple strategies on how youngsters can enhance their basic literacy (English and Spanish) and math skills from pre-kindergarten through elementary grades. Over two dozen activities will be shared. 4. Show how to replicate Cap Kits so they can share this knowledge with other teaching professionals and parents to bring even more learning manipulatives to students in need.

Presentation Outline:

1. Main goals of the CAP KITS Project: a. to create and bring recycled, developmentally appropriate educational materials that support the Common Core Standards to young students to further their learning and, b. to offer training to parents and teachers on how to effectively create and use the materials with the children in the classrooms and at home.

2. Why are CAP KITS excellent manipulatives for youngsters based on child development theory? This project creates versatile materials that a. are recyclable and promote “green” awareness, b. are developmentally appropriate for a variety of age groups/grades, c. can be used at both home and school with multiple languages, d. both teachers and parents can learn how to create and use them, e. support common core learning standards f. are a sustainable initiative that is easily reproducible g. have easily been created for Spanish speaking ELL students and their parents who are learning English

3. Examples of literacy and math games and activities that students can play and learn from and how they are linked to developmentally specific standards of learning: a. Show a dozen examples of literacy activities at different levels i. Alphabet, matching upper case and lower case letters, beginning sounds, fry words, word families, silly soup, play dough fun, etc.. b. Show a dozen examples of math activities at different levels i. Number crunch, number line, number sentences, grouping classifying, patterning, graphing, etc…

4. Share CAP KIT CREATIONS website a. each teacher present will receive our free website information so they can access hundreds of free games and activities to support emergent math and literacy in their classrooms

How the audience will benefit from the session; and how the session relates to the theme “The World from Our Front Porch: Community and Culture.”

The idea of using plastic bottle caps to enhance children’s literacy and math skills was introduced in a pre-kindergarten methods and field class I was teaching at West Chester University. We wanted an essentially cost-free way to create fun, hands-on, educational games for students to learn basic skills that support the Common Core State Standards adopted by Pennsylvania (and 44 other states (www.corestandards.org/in-the-states). Upon hearing this innovative idea, one student approached me after class and asked if we could create a formal program that would have university students bringing plastic bottle caps, packaged into kits, into local schools to help children learn. Two years later, I am proud to say that we not only formalized our CAPS Kits program but also conducted dozens of teacher trainings and parent workshops and gave away hundreds of CAPS Kits that have positively impacted thousands of children. By getting these materials into the hands of children, we are giving them what they need: manipulatives that create meaningful, hands-on, engaging, and fun experiences that are developmentally appropriate and support young children’s learning.

What’s a Cap Kit and why do they work? A CAPS Kit is a bag of 126 plastic bottle caps from either water bottles or milk containers with upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and numerical symbols written on them. Included are 20 blank caps in case a teacher wants to create more letters or numbers. Instructions on how to make a CAPS Kit will be shared. Creating CAPS Kits is a surefire way to increase student interest in learning both literacy and math. When students play with CAPS Kits they are not only having fun, but simultaneously reinforcing their basic skills. Inexpensive, accessible, and versatile, CAPS Kits: ■ are recyclable and promote environmental or green awareness, ■ are developmentally appropriate for a variety of age groups and grades, ■ can be used at both home and school, ■ can be created by both teachers and parents, ■ support the Common Core State Standards, and ■ are creative and limited only by the imagination. When we create our CAPS Kits, we also place into each kit our accompanying website address which offers hundreds of different math and literacy games for children to play. The games are broken into two different levels, one for pre-kindergarten through second grade, and one for third through fifth grade. The teacher resources are now beginning to be available in Spanish for English Language Learners and their parents. This service learning project has grown tremendously in the past two years and I have secured thousands of grant dollars to sustain our efforts to bring this great idea into local child care centers and elementary schools in the Philadelphia area. The idea has even crossed borders and CAP KITS are now being used in Costa Rica, Guatemala, The Bahamas, Peru, El Salvador and Malawi, Africa. This hands-on, basic educational manipulative is highly adaptable and successful in the classroom. I would love to bring this idea to the SECA conference and share our wealth of knowledge!

Connection to the theme: The idea of CAP KITS fits beautifully into the conference theme since this is a play based learning initiative and both teachers and parents can participate with the children. CAP KITS can be used in the classroom or parents can also make them to play with their children at night, during the summertime, or even on the front porch. I will explain how teachers can host family nights at school to bring parents in to teach them how to create CAP KITS for home use. We have done this dozens of times over the past two years and it is always a highly successful evening that supports the home and school connection and fosters home literacy learning as well. As our society and culture changes CAP KITS have been adapted to include Spanish letters so children learning both English and Spanish can be included and serviced as well. This was born from a need from the community itself as shows the adaptive ness of these learning manipulatives.

Presenter’s qualifications to present on proposed topic: Dr. Sanderson is an Associate Professor and has been teaching in the Department of Early and Middle Grades Education at West Chester University for the past thirteen years. During that time she has worked extensively in early childhood and elementary classrooms and taught every field course in the program. Most recently she has developed the CAP KITS Service Learning Program which brings learning manipulatives that are made out of recycled bottlecaps and made by pre-service teacher candidates into local schools. She has presented dozens of faculty development workshops and parent trainings on this topic. She has presented this work at local, regional and international conferences and published in multiple early childhood education journals.