The North Wind Blows. . .

Amazing readers are in the house!  Mrs. Sharp was in last week and commented on the growth that the children had made over the last several weeks!  Learning to read usually spreads like wildfire - each child is so thrilled and excited with their new abilities, that it inspires everyone to work very hard to become readers too!

The daylight changes and the cooler weather moves in, just in time for the children to be ready for longer more sustained periods of work and concentration.  These pictures are an excellent example of multi-age at work.  The child on the right is mastering letter sound  recognition, the student in the middle is working on writing cvc words like mat in the the playdough, while the child on the far left is working in his writing journal.  

Speaking of writing journals, the children were so thrilled with their parent's response to their writing! Please ask your child for their journal if you did not see it come home last Wednesday.  Writing workshop last Wednesday got a little crazy before we left for the library, and some journals may not have found their way into the proper backpack!

Look at these mathematicians!  Several children had lessons in the base ten system last week.  We use gold beads to represent ones, tens, hundreds, and thousands.  The children can very easily build a number when asked, for example, to get 4 tens and 3 ones.  Learning to count the number is more difficult, but with time and practice these children gain a concrete understanding of the base ten system.

Math workshop continues to be a big hit!  Many of these pictures were taken during this time.  The children work through a variety of stations for about half an our.  You may of seen some different looking papers come home.  These are from math workshop!