EASY Letter Formation Activity

Here is an idea that I started this year for my daughter here at home.

My daughter L-O-V-E-S books of all types, but especially the books we make together. I turn anything and everything into a book for her. I used to cut out pictures of babies faces from catalogues and glue them in a scrap book for her when she was just a baby - she loved looking at other babies faces, and would squeal with delight as we looked through the scrapbooks together. I have stapled her drawings together to make books, and I scribe a story to go along with the pictures. One of her favourites is looking through photo albums. I made many for her as a toddler, with photos of family members and names written on each page. It helped her learn all the family names and develop her language and speech.

Recently, I combined some cheap mini photo albums from the dollar shop with flashcards to create write-n-wipe books for her.

I love me some write-n-wipe activities!

For the uninitiated, write-n-wipe activities see your students using dry erase markers to trace or write on laminated or plastic covered cards. They can then be wiped clean and used again.


Despite being LOADS of fun, write-n-wipe cards are great for students who may be struggling to connect with writing in meaningful ways. Using markers is particularly important for struggling students, as little pressure had to be exerted to achieve a good line. Almost 100% of their attention could then be left to focus on the actual formation of the letter, the directionality, shape and slope of the lines. For these students, pencils and crayons can inhibit their learning potential.

I throw a set of whiteboard markers into my grocery trolley every couple of weeks to replenish my classroom supply. I love the sort that have a little felt eraser on the top of the lid - ready for the wiping.

Create Write-n-wipe books


  • Start with a little photo album..

  • Then, get all those boxes of commercially produced flashcards that you have lying around and have NEVER used (I know you have them too!)
  • Then, slide a card into each album pouch..
  • This set that I used had great 'blackline' pictures on the back of each card... If you don't have this on your cards, the coloured side will be just fine... students can trace over the coloured letter or number just as well.

  • Now... your students can write-n-wipe each page.


Not only can you make use of all those flashcards (seriously I have 3 boxes full, and almost tossed them in the recycling bin last year) but by keeping the cards in an album, they will be all nice and tidy, easily transported and require very little set up and pack away effort!

We do offer a printable letter formation write-n-wipe cards set on TpT and at our website. These ones can be printed, cut and laminated or popped in the mini book!

5 Fab Frogspot Freebies #3 - Apples


Here are 5 apple themed resources from our free collection!


1. Classroom Poster

From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow! Here is a free poster for your classroom.


2. Apple Writing Papers

Encourage creative free writing with our apple themed papers!

3. Math Game for Doubles

This game has page sized game board - so fast to prep! Your students will spin the apple number and find the double to cover on their game mat.


4. Apple Art Project

Guide your students through a creative drawing and writing project with our little apple cutie!


5. Counting Play Dough Mats

Combine counting with fine motor using our play dough mats - also suitable for drawing with a dry erase marker!



We hope you have some fun apple learning in your classroom with our free resources! 

Free Mud Font

Just hop on over to our store to collect for yourself this very cute new font - Pond Free Mud.

My fonts are hand drawn and made to look a little scrappy!

Have fun with it making some teaching and classroom resources. You can use it commercially if you are a small-business teacher-author. Contact us if you are unsure how it can be used.

Free Pond Mud Font


Five Fab Freebies #2

Another Friday has rolled around... is it just me or do you feel like it was last Friday just yesterday.. I have had another busy week, and once again am in awe of the wonderful new teacher sellers joining TpT and sharing their fabulous freebies with the world!

free teaching resources

Here are five fab freebies in our store:

1. Cute Classroom Poster - From a small seed big things grow

free cute poster

2. Reading Group Posters for the classroom

Reading groups poster

3. Odd and Even Monsters

odd even posters

4. Dinosaur Shape Craft


dinosaur shape craft

5. Playroom Toy Cupboard Labels


playroom cupboard labels


We hope you love these freebies! By leaving feedback, liking and sharing this blog link with your friends, you can support us in making new freebies for you!

Free Zoo Font

Do you just love this new font as much as I do! It's called Pond Free Zoo.
You can find it to use on your resources and in your classroom over in our store.

Pond Free Zoo

You can use it in commercial projects if you are a small business teacher-author. If you're a bigger business or want to use it on hard goods, please contact us for licensing. 

Classroom Kindness

How do you encourage kindness in your classroom?

Classroom Kindness

Classroom Kindness

Encouraging students to be kind can be encouraged by fist modelling the value of kindness as their teacher. Set a good example by acting respectfully toward others throughout the school, most importantly your students and families. Teachers are great at this!

You can also:
  • communicate the importance of helpfulness - thank students throughout the day for helping others
  • use consistent classroom rules - the consistency will make a safe, happy environment from which students will feel secure to reflect on their behaviour and understand how kindness matters
  • talk with children about the feelings of others and the consequences of children's unkind behaviour
  • express appreciation when your students are genuinely kind to others
Kind people


Kind Acts in the Classroom

3 easy ways to actively encourage a kindness in your classroom.
  1. Draw pictures or take photos of children doing kind or caring things - like making cards for friends or new students, to send to people in need or donating items for a school event.  Display these photos or make a class book with photos with written reflections on how good your children felt to help some else.

  2. Create a class statement or promise that expresses the value of kindness in your learning space. 
  3. Let your students know that they are valuable people that can help others. Start by saying to each child, "We could use your help”

Printables to support kindness in the classroom

We have a growing range of resources to support your efforts in creating a kind classroom. Here are a few:

Kindness Brain Breaks

Kindness Brian Breaks

Choose Kind Door Display


Choose Kind Door

Owl-ways Kind Challenge


Kindness Challeneg

We'll Owl-ways Choose Kind Bulletin Board and Writing

Choose Kind

Fancy Font and Paper Circles

Today, my daughter and I had a great time making some simple paper crafts from my new resource file, A-Z with Paper Circles.


I made this resource for those moments in the classroom when you really want to quickly engage your students in something meaningful, practical and fun... but  you have not had quite the time to do a lot of planning or preparation.

For these crafts, you really just need to spend a short amount of time at the beginning of the school year, teaching your students how to fold a paper circle equally.


ALL of the crafts in this resource are made entirely from the segments that you cut from a paper circle. We call them Brennex Circles here in Australia, and EVERY K-2 classroom has a supply of them usually!


So, all you need for a basic paper craft is paper circle like these ones here. Of course, you can add any other craft materials to make your projects more detailed... but  it is a great idea to have the basic on hand for when you just want something quick, easy and simple.

For each letter of the alphabet, I have included a page that shows the finished picture, a page that details the pieces needed and one that can be photocopied if needed. You may want to do this if you do not have access to coloured paper circles. These pages would be great for displaying  on the Smartboard or Interactive Whiteboard, so students, sitting at their desks, can clearly see the pieces they need to cut from the circle that you have provided them with.

You can also turn the craft into a phonics activity by using the included worksheets. Teach your students to sing the words and they will have no problems remembering their letter sounds.

Here are some that we did today to decorate our toy room!






Five Paper Craft Freebies


During 2010-2011 I 'met' a fellow seller in the TpT seller forums, Pam. She had a blog called The Vintage Teacher. I helped Pam with quite a few things for her teaching resources and it gave me great joy to know that I was helping someone on the other side of the world and that in a small way I was helping her to achieve some dreams. We sent emails back and forth for a while, and while she never shared too much detail, I got a sense that Pam was not in a great way. Sadly, Pam passed away last year, but her blog and TpT store remain so we can all still celebrate the wonderful things she did. Every Friday she would help promote fellow TpT sellers with her 'Five Friday Freebies', and I was lucky to get a spot on her blog a few times.
I never got the chance to say goodbye to Pam, or ever really 'meet' her, but I do think about her often.

Today, I am going to blog about FIVE fabulous freebies, rather than just one in honour of Pam!

1. Free Shape Dinosaur Paper Craft

Make a dinosaur from 2D shapes in this cut and paste activity with a paper circle!
dinosaur paper craft freebie

2. Free Circle Christmas Tree Craft

Use a paper circle to make a festive winter tree, perfect for Christmas!

3. Free Hug Bug Craft

An adorable baby bug to squeezy hug!

4. Scarecrow One Page Craft

Use just one piece of paper and craft stick to make a scarecrow!

5.  Free Santa Koala One Page Craft

Christmas just got cuter with our free one page craft Santa Koala!

Clearing the Clutter

At times,  I get asked how I manage to find time to do everything. I won't lie to you... it's tricky.

I have also been told that I am a very organised person. But you see... most 'organised' people don't actually think they are very organised at all, and that things could always be a little more... well... organised, or prepared. Have you heard of the analogy of the calm swan gliding along the pond, with the flippers under water flapping wildly.

That is kind of how an 'organised' person feels at times. For everything to glide along smoothly, there is lots of effort underneath the glossy exterior.
I am lucky, for some reason, some things in my life just seem to come together in the end. I don't know if it is good intuition, or just lots and lots of practise at planning ahead. Perhaps many years of trying to manage 5 year olds has helped...



Anyhow, my very top, all time, number one tip for being organised and having it 'all together' is very simple - I try to handle things ONCE.


Mostly paper. But it also applies to other things.


And that really boils down to having a spot for everything - or as I tell my little learners - a home for everything. How many time have you picked up things time and time again to try to sort them out... this is wasted time.

Time is precious to teachers. I believe it is the MOST precious thing we can utilise as teachers. Time is like gold to a teacher, and a learner. The better you can organise your time, the better your teaching and the learning within your room will become. Money and resources do not make great schools. Time and the wise use of time is what will make a great classroom and a great school.

But, back to handling paper ONCE.


In my classroom, I have 3 places for paper
  • 3 filing cabinets, 
  • a series of 5 'working folders', and 
  • a 'teacher tray'

The Paper Gets Handled Once

When I get a piece of paper (and let me tell you newbie teachers reading this post... you will receive, hundreds and hundreds of pieces of paper in a year that have the potential to literally flood your desk), I have trained myself to handle it once. 

I read it immediately, and decide if I can file it. It might go in

A Filing Cabinet (3 types)

  1. In my 'resource' or 'content' filing cabinet (files in here are things like 'Phonics', 'Frogs', 'The Seasons'... you get the drift - worksheets, units of work etc)
  2. In my 'boring' 'theory' filing cabinet - here, I file things like policies and  curriculum notes
  3. In my 'day to day' filing cabinet - near my desk - here I put all current school newsletters, staff memos, spare notes, proformas, class lists. In the top draw of this cabinet, I also have a file market 1 through to 10 (we have around 10 weeks in a school term). If I get a piece of paper that pertains to a particular week, for example, a seating arrangement for a school performance in week 6, I will file it in file #6. I always go through my week files on a Friday afternoon ready for the week ahead

A Binder

In one of my 5 working binders. They are always in my teacher carry bag or in a magazine holder on my desk. They include
  1. Day Planner / Diary
  2. Program (Curriculum Plan & Activities)
  3. Assessment Folder
  4. Payments, Permission, Student Infomration
  5. My Teacher Bible

The Teacher Bible

  • is nothing fancy
  • as light as possible to carry around and 
  • simple
No time for fancy pants covers and pretty title pages with this one. You just get a plain but functional display book and your label maker. Label each plastic sleeve pocket in your display book in the top right hand corner. This is where I store all those bits of paper that are essential for the every day running of my room and program, but are not 'officially' part of the formal program documentation.

I put these basic labels in my teacher bible:


  • Class Timetable (I copy at least 5, so if anyone asks, I can give them one)
  • My Class Lists - I am not sure if you have these at your school, but we have official class roll lists and I copy 20 blank ones and have them handy for anytime I need to create a checklist of roll. Ours have a list of names and around 15 columns, in a grid like formation
  • Rest of School Class Lists - I get a class list of every class in my school, and have 2 copies of each. This is particularly good for the Kindergarten teacher! You need to be able to track down siblings, buddies and helpers and what classroom they are  in. It is also helpful if you are coordinating a school wide function or activity.
  • My Filled Out Class Lists - Here I keep all the checklists I have made for my class for things that are current, e.g which students have permission to use the Internet, groups, sport houses, et
  • School Timetables - copy of any school timetable going around! Halls, fields, RFF/Specials, Library etc
  • Notes Home - I keep a master copy of the notes sent home in the last 5 weeks. After 5 weeks, they are filed in the filing cabinet
  • Things to Photocopy - Here I put anything I need to take with me to the office to get copied or filed in the school office
I add other labels as they are needed. The teacher bible gets regularly cleared out to keep it as functional as possible.

Teacher Tray

If I cannot decide where to file it, or don't have time to think about it (yes, sometime my mind is actually on the twenty or so 5 years olds in front of me), I will put it in my teacher tray or for a better name, my 'clutter bucket'. It saves my desk from getting cluttered and I have a rule that I do NOT go home until I have worked through the teacher tray and emptied as much as I can, filing it properly.


Clutter Buckets

I have 'clutter buckets' of one sort or another in just about every room at home. It helps me feel organised and tidy, which is sometimes difficult with little children in the house. They help to get the house under control, and maintian my 'lets handle it once' philosophy when sometimes, there is no time to get it sorted straight away. Clutter buckets are like holding bays....
I ask my daughter to tidy her toys every afternoon after a day's play. Most things have a place, as we have quite an organised play space. I do have clutter buckets for her, where she can just put little bits and pieces that otherwise do not have a place to live, until we can either find its proper home, or file it in the recycling bin ;)

It is a stand, that has lots of little baskets that rest on the shelves. Here, my daughter can place any little toy that seems lost of that does not have a 'proper' home. It is a great way to organise the 'un-organisable' and is also, in itself a wonderful place where she can go (along with her cousins and friends that visit) to 'dig for treasure'. Because there are so many little odds and ends, she enjoys having a poke around to see what can be discovered.
Today, on her 1001st 'mum, what can I do nooooooowwwwwww?' I asked her to sort them all by colour. She had a blast! We got all 12 baskets, emptied them out onto the floor in one big clutter pile, and then we just sorted it all by colour. So she put all the red toys in one basket, orange in another and so on...



How do you keep organised in your classroom? Do you use 'clutter buckets'?

Binder Covers

If you do love to have your binders and organizational folders looking pretty, be sure to hop pver to our TpT store to find no-prep covers and spine labels to make them pop!





Thanks so much for stopping by our blog today - have a wonderful week!

Fuzzy Bump Borders

You may like our Fuzzy Bump Borders, in TpT graphics store to decorate your own posters and creations for the classroom.
Graphics From the Pond
Today, I am finishing the preparation of some 'desk motivators' to help students stay on task and remember the order of steps to complete. 

Find it in my TpT store HERE.

Task Completion Visual Support

Have a wonderful day, thank you so much for stopping by!

Letterboxes Font Updates

Elkonian Boxes - Letterbox Fonts 


A few weeks back I designed a new 'font' for teachers - Letterbox fonts I searched everywhere for something like this, and could not find it, so made my own. It is quite a unique idea I think.

I have added some more fonts to the collection to make it even more value for you.

I added a 'separated' version, in case for some reason you would want the boxes separated within a word. Also a 'blends' version that has boxes that will fit letter combinations like bl, th, gh.... To type in that font you will need to utilise a keyboard key (so you know which keystroke will achieve each shape) that I have included in the zip file.

If you have purchased out letterbox fonts before now, please log in to TpT for the revised edition - go to your purchased items on the dashboard and re-download this purchase.