Now I call that a successful lesson

I was trying to find something new to engage M with without presenting a brand new work. So I settled on the land and water forms, thinking she had really enjoyed them last year but hadn't really used them too much this year. The regular presentation involves pouring water in to pre-molded forms that show the basic land and water forms (lake, island, etc.). It's a pretty simple activity and while most children enjoy it, there's not a lot for them to do with it. Pouring the water is fun, and of course we teach the language of the formation, but there's not much to manipulate and explore with.

So as an extension I made some laminated cards showing real life pictures of the different land and water forms. I had M take them out and try matching which form they went with; trickier than it sounds since of course real life doesn't ever quite match the 'ideal' definition. However she did great with it, and almost the entire class was gathered around watching by the time we finished and flipped them over to check the color coding on the back.

And of course someone else wanted to do it the instant she put it back so that right there marks it as a successful presentation in my book.

But then it got better.

At least an hour later I was doing the sandpaper letters with a couple of children and we were doing the 'i' sound (like in 'itch' and 'in'). And from across the room, in the midddle of her work, M pause and pipes up " i for isthmus!"

Now that's success!