The Sounds and Sights of December in the Classroom

It's been a busy couple of weeks and the classroom has been filled with the sights and sounds of the season.  Here is a collection of photos from the last two weeks of school:

Using a scoop to transfer jingle bells.

Practicing putting on gloves.

Teen numbers with the Teen Bead Hanger and number labels.

Working sensorially with the Binomial Cube.

Pairing Sound Cylinders -  refining auditory discrimination.

Tracing and naming shapes from the Geometric Demonstration Tray.

Practicing making tally marks.  

Reading sentence practice.

Matching bells by pitch.

This poinsettia paper craft is always popular with the children! :-)

I added a basket of letter stamps to the play dough.  Several of the children have enjoyed building words in the play dough or giving each gingerbread man a letter.

Visual discrimination of size using all four of the Solid Cylinders.

Patterns with shapes and colors using the pattern board.

Opening/Closing practice with different shaped boxes - each box has a little bell inside.

Brown Stair exploration with the red Knobless Cylinders.

Here is something I haven't seen in my classroom until now -  The Pink Tower with Knobless Cylinders.

This is what happened after bit more exploration.

Ending sounds of words using the Language Step Board.

Animal puzzles:  Parts of the Bird

Working with the Puzzle Map of Africa and learning the names of countries.

Sequencing days of the week and numbers with the December calendar.

Number 1-20 writing practice.

Static Addition with golden beads.

Reading practice: blending sounds with the Vowel Tree.

Decimal system cards and golden beads.

Exploring dimension of size with the Pink Tower and Brown Stair.

Making words with 'ar' using the Small Moveable Alphabet.

Three-Part Reading Cards

Tracing leaf shapes from the Botany Cabinet.

Writing words with the Moveable Alphabet.

Setting out the Decimal System Cards (while wearing the word 'the' on a lanyard) :-).

A verb lesson with grammar symbols.

Phonemic awareness:  blending sounds in words.  (Please visit Trillium Montessori's Teacher Pay Teacher's site for this lesson and other wonderful materials!)

Building the Pink Tower.

Using the smallest Red Rod to measure the others.

A seasonal number sequencing work.

Land, Air, Water:  picture sorting.