Enjoying the Cozy Pace of November

These children are such hard workers!  We've been turning on the Christmas music and settling in for our long winter's learning!  As the seasons change, and push us inside a bit more, the children show that they are ready to concentrate a bit longer and give their work more attention.  Writing words is all the rage in our classroom right now.  By watching the children's interest and desires, I am able to pull out work that really excites them.  This week I gave them a couple of baskets with little objects and matching cards.  Each basket had 4 or 5 items in it.  For example, a basket with a little doll that represents "mom", a walnut for "nut", a little tea cup for "cup" and  little wooden bat for "bat".  the children match the little objects to the word card and then write the word down on recording paper.  This work is highly motivating, and will get the most reluctant writer interested in writing!

The pictures below show the children making cvc words with turkey feathers, building towers, organizing pictures by their beginning sounds, practicing one to one correspondence by counting pumpkins through the teen numbers, strengthening hand grip with a marble transfer, reading about the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving, working on the 100s board, making a Montessor Bead book, identifying numbers and their quantities, and organizing objects by their initial sounds!  So much great work!