PRISM: Grand Opening — Sales Partners — Algebra Studio
PRISM

PRISM: Grand Opening

Grades 3–5 · Area, Perimeter & Multiplication
Explore Page
Grades 3–5 10 Sessions · 15–20 Hours 3.MD, 3.OA, 3.NBT, 2.MD Consumable

When to Lead with This

Elementary buyer, grades 3–5, conversation involves engagement, enrichment, STEM blocks, hands-on application, or area/perimeter/multiplication standards. If you're unsure what to show an elementary buyer, start here.

Also useful for the "we already do hands-on math" conversation — the 10-session arc distinguishes an extended project from a one-off manipulative activity.

Not this if: buyer needs fractions (→ Mega Mini Games), coordinate geometry or upper-elementary STEM (→ Finding P.I.P.E.R.), or grades 6+ (→ Balance Lab + Slope Lab).

30-Second Pitch

Students work in teams to design and build departments of a pet supply store. Over 10 sessions they tile areas with paper squares, calculate material costs, build an aquarium castle with wood blocks, and present their finished department. Seven teams, seven departments, one store — area, perimeter, and multiplication applied through a collaborative design project. The teaching portal runs every session with slides, timing, and video walkthroughs, so any teacher can facilitate it. Supplemental — built for enrichment time, STEM blocks, or flex days.

What to Show Rep Only

60 seconds

Explore page → classroom gallery. Photos of kids building, measuring, presenting. Have it open before the meeting.

5 minutes

Explore page → session arc. Pause on Session 1 (students get the scenario, start planning), Session 5–6 (tiling areas, calculating costs), Session 10 (teams present, class assembles the full store). Setup → math → payoff.

15 minutes

Walk through the teaching portal live. Open Session 1 slides, advance 3–4 slides so they see the structure: timer, Howie's video walkthrough, student activity. Jump to Session 5–6 to show how the math deepens — cost calculations, spatial constraints. End with the standards alignment table.

Teacher audience specifically

Show the teaching portal from their perspective. Click through 5–6 slides, demo the timer, play one video walkthrough. Once they see that the slides run the lesson and the videos show exactly what to do, the "will this work in my room?" question answers itself. Follow with one classroom photo.

Objections Rep Only

Product-specific. For universal objections (budget, time, evidence, digital), see Scenarios.

10 sessions is a lot of time for area and perimeter
It is. A worksheet covers area in 15 minutes and moves on. PRISM gives students 10 sessions to use area and perimeter in a context that requires real mathematical thinking — tiling with paper squares to understand unit area, calculating costs with multi-digit multiplication, checking whether a design fits the allocated space. The time comes from enrichment or STEM blocks, not from the core math period.
The materials are consumable — that's an ongoing cost
Yes. Students take their work home at the end: the store departments they built, the planning sheets, the posters. You repurchase the kit each time you run it. At $595 for the 4-Team Kit serving 16 students, that's about $37 per student for 15–20 hours of instruction — comparable to a consumable workbook.
A pet supply store seems young for 4th/5th graders
The pet store creates coherence across sessions and gives the math consequences. The math itself is not young — multi-digit multiplication for material costs, area models, budgets with constraints, quantitative presentations. A 3rd-grade team and a 5th-grade team building the same department approach the math at different levels of sophistication. The context is accessible; the math scales.
We already use a project-based program
What does the project structure look like? Most PBL programs are teacher-designed frameworks — the teacher creates the project, manages the materials, builds the mathematical content. PRISM is fully designed: every session has slides, timing, video walkthroughs, and specific math goals. The teacher facilitates, not designs. That matters for schools that want PBL without requiring every teacher to be a PBL designer.
Can I use this for intervention or remediation?
Position it as application, not remediation — students apply area, perimeter, and multiplication they're learning in their core curriculum. The hands-on, collaborative format does often reach students who struggle with traditional instruction; teachers report that students who disengage from worksheets participate actively during PRISM. But frame it as enrichment and application. That's both more accurate and more appealing to buyers.

What's in the Kit

Ships in 1–2 boxes. Everything sorted and labeled by session. All materials are consumable — students take finished work home.

Student Materials

Colored 1″ tiles (500–3,500 by kit size)
Custom Petville maps (11×17)
Wood cubes — ½″ and ¾″
Custom PRISM rulers
Department grid sheets, planning sheets
Parking lot grids
Construction paper, glue sticks, stickers
Dice, tongue depressors, chenille stems
MATHKINS™ stuffed dogs

Teaching & Organization

Quick-reference booklet
QR code card → teaching portal
Blueprint poster (24 × 36)
Bar graph poster
7 shelf posters (one per department)
3 decoder posters
Teamwork guidelines poster
Name cards and job cards
Question booklets per team

Standards by Session

#SessionStandards
1ID cards & floor plan — area by tiling; area as additive3.MD.5, 3.MD.7
2Choose a location — measure length; scaled bar graph2.MD.A.1, 3.MD.B.3
3Pet play zones — concrete models for area; products3.OA.1, 3.MD.5
4Parking lot — perimeter of polygon; models for area3.MD.8, 3.MD.7
5Order pet food — area models; multiplication; additive3.MD.5, 3.MD.7
6Display tables — combine objects in arrays3.OA.A.3
7Fish castles — add/subtract; multiplication models3.MD.5–8
8Signs — perimeter; area; add/subtract3.MD.8, 3.NBT.2
9The commercial — add/subtract; multiplication3.NBT.2, 3.OA.7
10Grand Opening — perimeter; area; multiplication3.MD.5–8

PD Workshop

Half-day, up to 30 teachers. $3,995. Fundable through Title II-A (separate line from kits).

The facilitator uses a PRISM session (typically Session 5 or 6) as the core activity. Teachers do the session as learners: they measure, build, calculate costs, argue about whether their layout works. Then they unpack the teaching moves — how to launch, when to let teams struggle, when to intervene, how to run the debrief.

For the buyer: "We offer a half-day PD workshop where a math educator leads your teachers through a PRISM session — they do the activity, then unpack the pedagogy. $3,995, up to 30 teachers, Title II-A fundable."

Pair With

Mega Mini Games: Design Game X (Grade 4)

Same collaborative format, fractions focus. Schools doing PRISM in 3rd grade add Design Game X in 4th. Covers area/perimeter/multiplication and fractions across two years.

Games Library (Free)

Use as a lead-in. Send 2–3 free print-and-play games, follow up in two weeks, ask how students responded. If the games land, propose PRISM as the full lab experience.

The 3–8 Sequence

For district conversations: PRISM (3) → Design Game X (4) → Next Big Game + Finding P.I.P.E.R. (5) → Journey to Titan + Balance Lab (6) → Slope Lab (7+). One product per grade level through algebra.

Pricing

KitTeams / StudentsPricePer Student
Starter2 departments · 4–8 students$295~$37
4-Team Lead with this4 departments · 12–16 students$595~$37
Grand Opening7 departments · up to 28 students$995~$36

All kits include tiles, rulers, grid maps, wood blocks, teacher guide, and teaching portal access. Consumable — repurchase each time you run the lab. Per-student cost is for 15–20 hours of instruction.

PD: $3,995 half-day, up to 30 teachers. Title II-A fundable (separate budget line from kits). See Funding Guide.