Paper Craft Bundle

Classroom resource lovers, I have some fantastic news!

A new craft was added to my Paper Craft Collection today. The collection is a growing bundle of Print-Cut-Make and Print-Cut-Make-Write crafts and craftivities! 

These Paper Craft files provide you will lovely simple templates for your K-2 students to cut and paste. 

You could easily make these activities more challenging by copying the templates on white paper and getting your students to paint, color or decorate the pieces in addition to pasting the parts together.

craft for kids

A "Strong Brain" craft was added today which is perfect for teaching growth mindset.

It will provide you with the template pieces to make a cute brain craft and accompanying writing project for a class display. Students can complete one of 2 provided writing projects - "I can make my brain strong" or "I have a growth mindset". 

growth mindset activities

It is also available individually and separate to the bundle.
growth mindset craft activity

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog, I hope your little ones enjoy the craft as much as we did. Have a wonderful day!

Find more of our paper crafts over on our website page.

New Year Activity

Ask you students to think of one word that will define their 'new year' 2018!

They can cut and paste from the letters provided to make their word. Run off additional copies of the spare letters page in bright colored paper to provide ample supply.

Students can finish their page by writing 3 goals to work towards their word for the year.

Display by gluing on brightly colored art paper or scrapbooking paper!




Find this fat-prep printable in my TpT store HERE


I've added a 2018 banner to my resource collection if you would love to get your learning space ready to see in the new year.


Thanks so much for stopping by today - I appreciate you so much!


- Mel x

Snowflake Wallpaper


I vowed to shut the computer down today until after Christmas but I could not resist booting her back up again to make a sweet new wallpaper for the week ahead. Anyone else get all creative and focused when they relax?

So, I now have sweet little snowflakes on my screens. All is right with the world.




I'd love to share this soothing screensaver with you too. Simply download the images from google drive from the links below. Store them on your camera roll and choose them for your screen saver and/or wallpaper!


Find the Computer Screensaver HERE

and the Phone Screensaver HERE


{These are for your personal use only and cannot be redistributed or shared}

Find more posts and goodies for your 'teacher space' HERE

Find more screen wallpapers HERE

I am off to get the stockings hung.

Have a lovely day sweet friends, and I do hope Santa is good to you!

- Mel x
SaveSave

Christmas Big Shape Tracing

I am bringing you a Happy Christmas Tree big shape tracing page today to help your little writers at this special time of year.

Fun activities like tracing make students excited and engaged for writing!




Head over to TpT to find it free today!

'Big Shape Tracing' is a perfect first step on your students' handwriting journey!

Students will trace the large shape and pattern lines in their favorite markers and shade the picture in to decorate.

If you would love more of these activities, I have a big packet just for Christmas!




Find more fun 'big shape tracing' packets in my TpT store to help your little learners master pencil control and handwriting movements.



- Mel x

Christmas Roll and Cover

I love a fun math game SO much! And so do little learners. They often don't realize how hard they are working - they're having too much fun.

I made a cute little snow globe roll and cover game for you today that is super simple to prep and caters for all your learners. 


This is my gift for you in Day 9 of the 12 Days of Christmas celebration I started over on Instagram!



  • The printable file is blackline. Run it on colored paper to make it more exciting.
  • As an alternative, use white paper and instead of using counters/chips and have the students use crayons to color their game progress! 
  • There is a blank game board - write your own content to devise a game to suit your class needs - letters, fractions, larger numbers - you name it!
  • I've included roll and cover (numbers 1-6), roll and double, roll x3, roll x5 and roll x10. All you need for these options is a standard 6 sided dice and counters to cover.




Find this game in Google Drive HERE

Need more fun in your math lessons? Check out my Math Packs

Want more goodies From the Pond? Sign up to my newsletter - we'd love to stay connected!

Thank you so much for stopping by - have a wonderful day!

- Mel x

Directed Drawing Happy Tree

I have a free printable directed drawing for you today - it's of our cute Happy Christmas tree here in the Pond home office!

Simply print the page and supply crayons, pencils or paint to complete with your children.

We're offering it to you over in the Directed Drawing category of our free Coloring Club!





If you love drawing projects, check out my growing collection of drawing packs.

Directed Drawing Worksheets

Thank you so much for stopping by today - I appreciate you so much!

- Mel x

Join My Newsletter

Hello sweet friends!

I would love to send you my email newsletter each week. I have some sweet, sweet treats planned for this year and don't want you to miss out.

Pond Update Newsletter

We sent our first email newsletter in 2009 and have grown our community of very special pond-friends since then. It is a short, practical bi-weekly update on our most recent and popular content and new release printables for sale.

Most importantly we send you special ‘exclusive freebies’. You can unsubscribe at any time. Join, we’d love to have you with us!

Winter Tree Wallpaper

I've added a new festive screen wallpaper on my screens for the week and would love to share it with you too! 

 I've re-hung my Christmas pennants because, well, I want to look at them for one more week before they are stored for another year.



Would you like the Winter Trees background on your phone or computer this week too? Simply download the screen images from google drive from the links below. Store them on your camera roll and choose them for your screen saver and/or wallpaper!


I've added a print quality paper, pennant banner and binder/book cover in the growing bundle that coordinates with the screen wallpaper if you'd love to be matchy-matchy.


Find the computer wallpaper in google drive,  HERE

and the phone wallpaper HERE

If you have the Ultimate Banner and Paper Pack, the new additions are waiting for you now.



I'd love to send you more goodies and news via my email - sign up in my blog sidebar so you don't miss out. 


Have a fantastic day friends.

- Mel x

Happy Tree Printable Banner

Print these printable pennants to create a fun Christmas banner in your classroom or home learning space! 

It is Day 5 of my 12 Days of Christmas Instagram celebration and I am thrilled to be sharing this with you today. 

I am so appreciative of your support throughout this year and this is my little way of giving back and having a Christmas party. When you work at home on your own, you don't get invited to a raging office end of year event! Boo hoo.



Simply download the file, print, cut and peg it up on a line. Too easy! It coordinates with some of the resources I have already shared with you through the week.



Find it in Google Drive HERE my lovelies. 

Please be sure to sign up to my newsletter (sign up form in my blog sidebar) so I can stay in contact with you throughout 2018!



Have a wonderful day,

- Mel x

Games for the 100 Chart

This fun math center activity will help your students learn about counting and number order on a hundred chart. 

Choose from either the blank or numbered base board, copy a chart onto coloured paper and cut it into puzzle sections. 

Your students will love re-building the hundred chart to put the penguin back together





The  packet also includes a worksheet for follow up learning, and a cover page to help you organize your center materials. 

Hop over to my TpT store today to get this fun little guy for FREE!


If you love them as much as me, you may like to check out the big bundle of 12 more 100 chart math center activities. It is on sale today.

There is one for each month of the year:

January - Snowman
February - Valentine Cupcake
March - Pot of Gold
April - Chick
May - Patch of Flowers
June - Sun
July - Sandcastle
August - School Bus
September - Apple
October - Pumpkin
November - Turkey
December - Gift

 The fun themed toppers will add a fun motivating element to your students' learning.



Thank you so much for stopping by, have a wonderful day.

- Mel x

Pretty Pencil Tin Labels

I have finally found time to create a pretty new set of printable pencil tin labels featuring my favorite hand drawn Scrappy Kids.


They are a fun new twist on the original set - also free in my store HERE

Just print the labels on sticky paper and wrap them around a tin.



They are sure to brighten up your school or home classroom space. Find the file in my TpT store HERE

Christmas Tree Coloring Page

I would love to share a fun Christmas tree coloring page with you today. Your students can use perils, crayon or even paint to decorate their tree - add some glitter if you dare!



Find it in Google Drive HERE


 Alphabet Coloring Pages  was listed in my store today.


Make learning the alphabet fun with these review coloring pages. Learning the alphabet is much easier when students have a solid bank of vocabulary for each letter sound. 


Use them to review sample words when learning a new letter and for students to keep and review their learning - I've included a version with picture labels and without. 


I would love you have you as an email newsletter subscriber so I can stay in contact with you through the year - sign up in my blog sidebar.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

- Mel x





Activities for Telling Time

time to the hour in kindergarten


Math Pack 16 is all finished and ready for you.  I thought I'd show you the activities up close.

As usual the pack contains 5 activities that you could do one per day in a workshop style of have them all operating in a rotation style program for the week - student groups completing one per day. 

They have been designed for your learners to develop a beginning awareness of time, and to look at time to the hour. 

Learning Days of the Week

In the game Week Walk, students will identify yesterday, today and tomorrow, and will put the days of the week in the correct order. For your littlest learners you might want to start by placing the today card down ready for them.

days of the week

Long Time and Short Time

How Long asks your students to sort events or scenarios into 'long time' or 'short time'. This concept can get tricky because depending on your student's individual perspective, a long time and a short time can be quite varied. To assist with this, I've come up with some scenarios that you can directly compare.  For example: building a sandcastle versus filling a bucket of sand. If scenarios are related in some way they can be more really sorted.

short and long time

Telling Time to the Hour

Monster Clock gives you the opportunity to introduce the clock face and telling time to the hour.

time to the hour games

Matching Clocks with Work Times and Digital

For Timebot, students will match clocks with number and word times to complete their robot game card.

digital time

Analog Time

 Flower Time will  have students arrange clock hands to match a written times on the hour.   

hour times


All of these activities come with a printable worksheets which allow students to have a record of their learning.


It's such a pleasure to make math activities. I really really love creating them, and thinking about how students can learn the concepts in a fun way.

Star Bright Wallpaper

I've created another festive screen wallpaper for you this week adding a bright modern twist to a traditional star theme to create 'Star Bright'.

 I'm super busy at this time of year so I hung pennants from my 'The Week' pack and I am going to select 6 main tasks for each day to keep me focused. 



I'm so glad to be able to share this week's 'Star Bright' screensaver with you. Simply download the images from google drive from the links below. Store them on your camera roll and choose them for your screen saver and/or wallpaper!


I've added a print quality paper, pennant banner and binder/book cover in the growing bundle that coordinates with the screen wallpaper if you'd love to be matchy-matchy.

Find the computer wallpaper in google drive,  HERE
and the phone wallpaper HERE

If you have the Ultimate Banner and Paper Pack, the new additions are waiting for you now.


I am off to put my feet up for the last few hours of this glorious Sunday.

Have a fantastic day friends.
- Mel x

Toy Cupboard Labels in the Playroom

You may have caught my Instagram story a few weeks ago on the day I was organizing the toy cupboard in our playroom. 

I recently purchased new tubs that took full advantage of our big shelves. Previously I had quite a lot of empty space and these new tubs enabled us to fit twice as many toys into the same cupboard. - freeing up room to play within the playroom. 


My best advice for managing your childrens' toys is to decide early on in their life on a few broad themes that reflect different types of play. Choose a quality brand or type of toy that represents that theme and try to stick to that when you make new toy purchases. 

Also, think about the type of play that is encouraged from the toys.

For example, selecting just Duplo and Lego for 'construction play' enabled us to 'rule out' many other options. If a new toy did not offer any new style of play that was encouraged using Lego bricks, we did not need it. The result is quite a good selection of Lego and Duplo and deep meaningful play sessions from the good supply of equipment that works together. 


When I sorted out the new toy tubs I:
  • emptied our old ones onto the floor
  • cleared the cupboard
  • measured the shelves, particularly the depth and height
  • sourced new boxes (I got these ones from Bunnings, here in Australia)
  • sorted the pile of toys on the floor into 3 sections - junk to throw, toys to donate and toys to keep
  • sorted the 'keep' into themes/styles of play, keeping in mind the play that I had witnessed my children engaging in over the last 6 months
  • distributed all the toys into the new tubs
  • printed and attached new labels (I used full sheet sized printable sticky paper)



We love having our toys sorted. It helps my children make great choices for new play, quickly and easily. It also encourages them to pack away and keep our playroom tidy. 

One rule I taught my children (from crawling age) was never to climb up furniture in the house and to ask for things to be lifted from high shelves by an adult. I am blessed to have very well behaved children and we have never had a problem with the boxes being pulled down, but this is also something to keep in mind with little ones. 

If you would love the labels for your toy boxes too head over to my TpT store to download them.

Have a great day!

- Mel x

One Page Craft Pack 5

I have created a 5th edition of my popular 'One Page Craft' packs. A one page craft will help engage your students in a create project that is 'all on one page' so it is simple to prep and lots of fun to make.



Students color or paint their page before cutting and assembling their craft. Each craft will differ slightly in assembly procedures.

Don't forget that you can add crafty details - like glitter, crepe paper, sequins if you choose, to make this a more complex activity for your students.

Here are a few of my favourites from this new pack:

Mitten Craft

(addition template included that encourages students to create their own pattern detail)


Snow Owl Craft

Several of the crafts are seasonal - covering winter, Valentines' Day and Groundhog Day.


Digger Craft

As requested by my Sam.


Dragon Craft

Seriously, who would not want a dragon friend who could flap his wings and fly you away?


This packet of 20 crafts and coordinating writing papers is on sale today if you would like to check it out!


I had a request from an Aussie teacher for an Australian themed 'one page craft' for Christmas so I made this little cutie and would love to share him with you.

Download the Koala Santa from TpT HERE


Have a wonderful day friends and thanks so much for stopping by!


- Mel x