By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Dozens of parents lined up in Meadow View Elementary School’s library and gymnasium on Sept. 25 to collect small clear backpacks containing items ranging from small colored rods to dominoes.

“Through Title 1, we have been able to purchase all kinds of good things for our school,” MVES parent volunteer Tracy Peploe told a group of first-grade parents gathered in the school’s library. “Things like smart boards and school supplies that otherwise might not get funded.”

Through its status as a Title 1 school, which is granted to schools with significant populations of free and reduced-price lunch students, MVES receives federal funding to purchase items for the school and to fund offerings such as the backpack program.

The backpack program allows all parents to receive small backpacks multiple times per year filled with items and activities designed to supplement their children’s classroom lessons. Many of the items included in the backpacks also are used in the school’s classrooms, Peploe said.

“In first grade, we really try to stress math,” Peploe said. “These activities encourage the students to use math in their daily lives.”

During the Sept. 25 meeting, Peploe gave parents an overview of the items contained in the backpack, such as triangle-shaped cards designed to improve addition and subtraction skills and dominoes used in math-oriented activities. Peploe also encouraged the parents to include their children in math-related activities such as reading and making recipes in the kitchen.

The day also included other backpack meetings for kindergarten, second and third-grade students, and the school is planning to host three more backpack meetings for parents throughout the school year.

“We all use math in our lives every day,” Peploe said. “These backpacks are here to reinforce what we will be teaching in the classroom this year.”