Freebie: Hoot Meeting Sign!

I had a request from a very special customer here in Australia for a "meeting in progress" sign with my special "Hoot" owl character. I thought I would post it here on my blog for all my lovely followers to download for free. I hope you like it :)

Click on the image above to download your free file :)


FREE File - Cookie Tray - Making Arrays to Learn Multiplication

Learning to multiply requires a good deal of repetition – playing games is a good way to make this repetition fun and motivating!

This game will assist students to become familiar with using equal groups in an array format to find totals in multiplication problems

A free printable math center for multiplication


I have been so pleased to see so many new followers here on our blog. I have just created this file and would love you to have it for FREE to use at home or in your classroom.

Cookie Trays will help you introduce the idea of "arrays" to your students, and in turn help them understand multiplication and division. I created these graphics especially for this file and had lots of fun putting it together. It pleases me that I have an avenue for sharing some of my resources with other teachers here on my blog.  I hope you enjoy using this file and following my blog.

Have a lovely day friends!

- Mel x

$100 Ho Ho Ho - Christmas Competition


From the Pond all began in 2006 with a little store on eBay - how we have grown since then. It has been wonderful to enter the world of digital teaching resources, but we currently still provide our teaching resources "ready made".

My husband and I spend much of our spare time printing, cutting and laminating. We pride ourselves on providing a very high quality product. All our game pieces are individually cut and laminated, so they have a laminated rounded edge around them. We enjoy helping many tired and stressed-out teachers by doing the preparation work for them!

I have decided to offer a HUGE prize for one lucky blog follower.

I would LOVE to reach 100 followers (or more) here on my blog, so I think a $100 open order from my eBay store would be a great prize. I will post the items to you as well. This competition is open to people from any country.

All you need to do, is become a follower of my blog and leave a comment here on this post to tell me you have followed (or are already following).

If you would like a second entry into the comp, all you need to do is blog, tweet or FB about this competition, and leave me a comment here with a link to your post.

I will use a random generator to select a winner and post the winner here on the blog, next Friday 22nd July.

Good luck!

FREEBIE - Christmas in July is on its way!

click this image for your FREE Copy!


Have you heard all the rumblings about wonderful Christmas in July savings and specials?  I am getting very excited too, and have decided to give you an early Christmas present! Download my latest math game for FREE today only from here on my blog.

I have just listed Ice Creams in my TpT store - what a place!



The best thing about Christmas in July in Australia is we are in the middle of Winter here and can truly celebrate Christmas with all the traditional trimmings!

Addition Game - Sweet Add

I have a fun and super sweet addition game to show you. It will help your students practice the counting on strategy. Students will roll 2 dice and to count on students must
  • identify from the 2 numbers which is the largest
  • say the largest number - e.g. 5
  • count forward from this number, to find the total - 5, 6, 7

To play, you will need 

  • 1 game mat per player
  • 2 dice
  • 11 counters per player
Addition Game Gumballs

Addition Dice Game
Included in the file is also a blackline worksheet style game. They will roll, add and color with colored pencil as they find each total.
Addition One Page Game

Addition Assessment

Do you know which of your students can count-on? 
Do a very quick assessment at the beginning of your teaching unit on addition. 
  • Have on your desk a pile of red counters and a pile of blue counters. 
  • Put a number of each (say, 5 red and 4 blue) in front of the student you are testing. 
  • Ask them to tell you how many they have altogether. 
Most students will probably count from one - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and tell you '9'. 
  • Make a note of the strategies they used. 
If they just announce a number, ask them "how did you count?". 
  • Now tell them that you will play a little game with them, and it is a bit tricky.
  • Put 5 red counters out and tell them "here are 5 red counters" then tell them you will hide them. 
  • Conceal the counters with a piece of paper. 
  • Now tell your student that you will give them three more blue counters - place these on top of the paper. 
  • Ask the student to tell you how many counters there are altogether. 
  • Pay particular attention to how they go about working it out. 
  • The student is not able to move the piece of paper. 
  • Some students will count from one (not counting on), others will be able to "count on" and say 5.....6, 7, 8, you may even have some students that have memorised some addition facts. 
  • Some students will make no attempt or have a guess

This quick, informal assessment will give you vital information about the strategies your students are using to attempt addition. Students that are making no attempt, will not be up to playing a game such as this one - they will need more practise combining groups, recognising and memorising dot-pattern arrangements (so they can hold a number picture in their mind).

For the students who are not confidently counting-on on instinct, you will need to continue to provide games such as these and encourage them to find the big number first.

Sweet Addition


I am putting the final touches to a large unit file for TpT on teaching addition.

I was very excited to find a very sweet book -

It is a colorful picture book that uses all kinds of classic candies and sweets to challenge children with delicious addition and subtraction stories.

I have a very deliciously sweet addition game called Sweet Treat, which I have only just listed in the TpT catalogue. It has been available on my website for a while now. Click on the image above if you would like to take a look.


Pop It! - A fun board game for addition





I have just listed this simple, but fun board game to help learn addition. Players use dice and counters to make their way around the board popping their opponents bubbles. Who will be the first to claim all their opponents bubbles?

Free Graphics/Clipart - School Stuff




Download these graphics over at my store on TeacherspayTeachers.

There are 10 png and 10 jpeg files.

UPDATE

I now make clipart for teachers to use in their classroom resources and documents.

I would love to have you follow my clipart store to be the first to know about new sets and freebies.

Find it HERE on TpT!

Feelin' Fishy?


Learning to read cvc words

I am having a great time revising some of my original products, and adding some more value to them! I have just finished adding some extra pages to Go Swish Fish! I also listed it on TpT for the first time. Click above to check it out.

It now has 
  • ten printable games and 
  • five worksheets.
There are two games and a worksheet for each short vowel sound. I like to structure my cvc activities on the short vowel sound - it gives me great opportunities to heighten awareness of the short vowel sounds, and teach them very explicitly. I have found that most students that struggle with reading and writing also struggle with short vowel sounds. 

The short vowels are in the medial position of cvc words: 
  • Short a -like in cat
  • Short e - like in pet
  • Short i - like in pig
  • Short o - like in hop
  • Short u - like in hut

Free cvc word worksheet

Here is a page from the file, that you can download fro free. Click on the image below.