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writing in the sand

The children in my classroom love to hone their writing skills in this box of blue sand.

Sand is the perfect medium for beginning writers.

It's more interesting than tracing sandpaper numerals,
and it's more forgiving than a pencil on paper. Usually, the children practice writing letters in the sand,
but this child decided that he would rather write numbers.
(Hooray! for thinking outside the box! As I watched him write, I thought, Why haven't I ever done this? From now on, I am definitely going to use the sand for number practice, as-well-as letter practice!)

When a group of friends gathered around the number-writing child,
he effortlessly turned his work into a game...
encouraging them to guess what number he was writing.

It's the best when the children become the teachers!