The excitement of Christmas is definitely building! The days from now until Christmas Break will be packed full of learning, activity, and fun! 
Have you heard about our class elf that visits us each day? The children voted and named him, Chippy Cookie. The hunt for the elf's hiding place is fun, but I love the notes he writes on the board.  These letters give us an opportunity to look for sight words and practice reading. We definitely have a class of children that are beginning to read!! 

Our Fundations time has been spent reviewing uppercase letters. We will work through these very quickly, practicing 2 a day. We also have been "tapping"out words, which is the practice of separating the sounds. This important skill will help the children with spelling and decoding words.

Our class story last week was, Caps For Sale.   We were able to act out the story a few times and they did an excellent job. This week's story is The Gingerbread Man. With each of these stories we discuss elements such as characters, setting, problem, solution and the sequence of the events. 
In math we have begun Unit 7, which introduces addition. But besides the work the children do in their math books, they are also working in math centers. Many of this month's center games are themed around the gingerbread man. Several of these games are differentiated, allowing the children to work at their level of understanding. The children have a partner and work on different math skills. The children are rotated through the centers so that everyone has a chance to play each of the games. Check out the pictures below.

Carson and Emma are playing a Gingerbread number game. 

Andrew and Myla are playing a number or fact search game. 

Lillie and Bronte' are playing a game called Bump, which uses 10 frames.

 Kaeden and Ella are involved in a number fact search activity.

     Chris and Mina playing math games on the iPads.

Dominic and Clara are playing a game which reinforces numbers recognition to 30. The Gingerbread Man is missing behind a number. Can your partner find the Gingerbread Man? 

As you can see, there is a lot of learning going on and the children seem to really enjoy these activities. They handle the routine of math center time beautifully! I am so proud of them. 

As the children have become better writers, the writing center has become extremely popular. The children are working on little books about Christmas. As the children complete a booklet, they read it to the class and earn a "clip up"! (That may have something to do with the popularity of the center, but I'll take it!) When the children have free time, they often crowd around the little table helping each other spell out words. It's so cute. 

Finding time to make some Christmas decorations too. I love these happy little Santas.

Have a great weekend!