GOAL SETTING IN THE CLASSROOM


Last year we did some blog posts to help you create some student-goal-setting learning experiences. We thought you may like to hop back to those this year too!


If you are looking to celebrate the new year and freshen up your learning space, take a peek at some other lovely printables we have in store:


Premium classroom goal setting banner display.


New year balloon craft


Addition and Subtraction Facts


Help your little learners master addition and subtraction facts with our Full House math center! It is ideal for small group math rotations or center work. Once your learners know how to play it will be perfect as a finisher too!

Students will flip fact cards and find the correct house to place them on. You can set up a cooperative learning experience where students work together to fill the houses, or develop a game-style activity where students compete to be the first to fill their house (or street)!

To play

  • line up the houses in your street
  • place fact cards face down
  • take turns to flip a card
  • solve the fact - aim for instant recognition, but remind students of strategies to solve addition to fall back on as they begin to memorize the facts
  • place the fact in the house
  • keep playing until your houses are full
You can use the houses to differentiate this activity and accommodate your emergent learners by providing them with counters and having them put quantities in each window to build the total. This will help with basic counting, making quantities, early addition and numeral identification.

This file features

  • a teaching tips page,
  • a detailed instruction sheet,
  • house cards for number 1 to 20
  • 80 fact cards
  • a recording worksheet
  • cover page. The cover page can be printed and used to help organize your game/activity tubs/pouches/packets or folders.

Students can play on their own by lining the houses up and filling in the windows.




New Year Balloon Craft


Let's soar in 2020 by choosing a focus word for the year, some goals and creating a beautiful learning-space display with a hot air balloon craft!

Brainstorm some ideas with your class for goal setting and focus words. Let them choose 4 templates pieces (7 options included) to create a unique and creative hot air balloon ready for lift-off!

Let's make a hot air balloon craft

  • print, color and cut template pieces (choose from a 3 or 4 panel 3D balloon) 
  • fold each piece in half on the guidelines
  • tape a piece of string down the center of one set (balloon and basket)
  • put glue on one side of the set
  • add the next sets by gluing on a folded half and following the process again
  • the final 4th balloon will be glued down entirely to cover both halves
  • open and expand the flaps to create your 3D balloon 

  • another option is to create purely decorative balloons by using the blank template option
  • we used Micador watercolors and love their bright colors and rich, creamy texture


The balloons will create a gorgeous display of your focus goals for the year and you can point to them and remind your students to 'aim high' if they start to give up!


This craft is over in our TpT store ready and waiting for you!

Christmas Coloring Placemat


Back in 2013 I made a printable coloring page that you could use as a placemat for little lovelies to color at the table on Christmas Day. We hosted all our Pond Coloring Pages over on a sister blog for Graphics From the Pond (currently in sleep-mode).  

I wanted to freshen up the coloring placemat for you this year. Print them out, trim and glue onto backing paper. When setting the table, pop a tub of crayons or pencils in reach of the little ones and they can get coloring while you make final preparations. 

We have had a most memorable year and close it this Christmas full of renewed excitement and energy for our creative work. If you celebrate, we do hope that your Christmas is filled with joy, love and laughter. We hope also that you can look towards 2020 with a sense of belonging and that you will be supported and surrounded by genuine purpose and direction. 

Printable Christmas Coloring Placemat

  1. Download it from Google Drive: Christmas Coloring Placemat
  2. Print
  3. Trim
  4. Glue to backing paper of desired
  5. Write names of guest in rectangle
  6. Place on the table to color
  7. Eat delicious food and be merry! 


Classroom Welcome Signs


A welcome sign at your classroom door helps create an inviting and happy learning space! We've made it super easy for you to print one that will look amazing! Simply print and write your class name on the pencil.

This new pack includes 7 slightly different poster options. There is a pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and black sign to select from.


A text-editable MS Powerpoint version is included so you can type your class name in if you prefer!


Hop over to our TpT store to find this new printable. 


These posters perfectly accompany the classroom pencil labels in our Pencil Door Display pack too! 



Santa Letter S Craft


Friends, I am so excited for the holidays! I hope you are too.

Today, I'd love to share with you a Santa 'S' letter craft. Have you seen our Alphabet Trace and Make Letter Crafts? This project is is the style of those and will help your little learners with
  • letter identification (s)
  • tracing (vertical line pattern)
  • creative fine motor - coloring, cutting, assembling and gluing

To make the Santa 's', simply:

  • print the template page - it's over in our FREE coloring club craft library
  • trace the vertical internal vertical pattern lines on the 's' with a marker
  • shade the other pieces in pencil
  • cut and paste the pieces to create their Santa
If you prefer not to give your students 'step-by-step' projects, show them this idea and ask them to free cut their own Santa using paper scraps. 

Class Game to Play

Review the letter sound s within a context of other letter sounds by playing this fun language-based listening game.
You need: A 'Santa sack' (or back filled with objects - some starting with S (e.g. soap, sunglasses, salt, seashell, spoon, stamp, seed)
To play:
  • tell the students Santa has left a sack of interesting objects in the classroom for you to talk about
  • tell the students that Santa has an elf who needs learning to say the ssssssss sound, you you're going to help by finding all the s objects in the sack
  • invite one student at a time to reach into the sack and feel for an object, they pull it out and hold it up for all to see
  • encourage talk about the object, modelling correct pronunciation, language structure and new vocabulary 
  • ask the student, or class, to identify the beginning sound of the object
  • sort the objects into 2 piles - starts with s, does not start with s - label these 2 groups (early math)
  • repeat until all objects have been sorted

Alphabet Letter Crafts

Over in our TpT store we have a full set of these letter crafts. 

In it you will find easy prep projects for : apple, bee, cat, dog, elephant, fox, goat, house, insect, jaguar, koala, ladybug, mouse, nurse, octopus, penguin, queen, rabbit, snake, turkey, umbrella, violet, walrus, xylophone, yak and zebra.




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Drafting and Editing in the Writing Process


On Sunday we set up a writing center in our playroom and I challenged Sam to write a procedural text on how to build a sandcastle. We have broken the writing process down into steps and attempting one each day. 

We planned the week to unfold as follows:
Sunday - brainstorm
Monday - plan
Tuesday - draft
Wednesday - edit
Thursday/Friday - publish

We are a day behind in the schedule and today (Thursday) got to the drafting and editing stages - it's a busy time of year! 

If you are on Instagram, you can catch some 'in action' moments on stories too. 


Drafting for writing

To move from the plan to the draft I asked Sam to read through his plan. I explained that to create a procedural text we would need to turn his key words and ideas into complete thoughts and sentences. A procedural text helps someone learn to do something so clear and direct language would help. 

We went through each section at a time and expanded his planned ideas. At first I was modelling heavily, but as we got going Sam took over and was able to apply the strategies I had modelled to the next section. 

Reflecting back to action role play and photos of his prior experiences building sandcastles helped again with specific and direct instructions. 

For editing his draft I asked Sam to read through his work and listen to make sure it made sense. This was an efficient way for him to identify quickly, sentences that needed more detail or additional words. 

I have found in the classroom that editing is always a task that children are very reluctant to undertake. I always encourage them to find at least a few minor things to change and then move on quickly to the publishing stage. This approach is controversial at times, but I have honestly found it helps keep students encouraged and excited to write. I would rather them write eagerly every single day then get bogged down in the editing process and develop a lifelong hatred for writing. It's a balance. 

Sam really enjoyed using the simple key at the bottom of each page to quickly edit his writing. The well-spaced lines allowed him to write additional words clearly and easily in place.



This task is from one of 2 new Writing Packs.

Find them in our TpT store by clicking on the images below:



Having a clear structured week for writing and a project based goal for students to work towards can make planning for writing instruction simple and exciting. 

We'll see you tomorrow for the publishing stage!

Making a Plan for Writing


Yesterday we set up a writing center in our playroom and got started with a structured process to publish a procedural text: How to build a sandcastle. Sam was challenged to design the ultimate sandcastle and teach someone to build it! Hop back to read how we got started HERE

The week will unfold as follows:
Sunday - brainstorm
Monday - plan
Tuesday - draft
Wednesday - edit
Thursday/Friday - publish

If you are on Instagram, you can catch some 'in action' moments on stories too. 

Planning for writing

We started by looking back at Sam's illustration from his brainstorming page. I asked him to describe it in detail, drawing out his identification of the items he needed to create the sandcastle. He listed these on the first section of his plan and drew a quick sketch.  I reminded Sam that this was a plan, to guide his draft and that we just needed to uncover the main key words and big ideas.

I asked Sam to imagine he was about to start building his sandcastle and to identify his first step. He did this easily and we gradually uncovered each subsequent step, writing short sentences and making sketches as we went. 

When he struggled I asked him to return to his role-play actions from yesterday and act it out with his hands - encouraging a visualization of what he was writing.

This individual support is not often possible in the classroom for each child - a great work around is to do some 'modelled writing' or a 'joint construction' where the whole class watch you in the 'hot seat' pretending you are a student and going through the process yourself, verbalizing all the thoughts you would be having as a good writer. Here you can model the strategies that you would like the students to use when they go back to their desk to write independently. Some students will require individual support but most will be able to get started after watching you model the planning process. Project the page onto your whiteboard so it is enlarged and easy to see.

After students have completed their planning, ask them to read it to a friend to check it makes sense. 

This task is from one of 2 new Writing Packs.

Find them in our TpT store by clicking on the images below:



Having a clear structured week for writing and a project based goal for students to work towards can make planning for writing instruction simple and exciting. 

We'll see you tomorrow for the drafting stage!

EASY PREP WRITING CENTER


We set up a writing center in our playroom today. Sam is on summer break and we wants to do some 'school work' each day. 

I am using the printables from one of our Writing Packs to engage him in a structured week of writing in this center. We will do one small part each day and by Friday have a published piece of writing - How to build a sandcastle

I made a banner for the writing center from our Pencil Letters pack. We used our KMart Market Stall - but honestly, in the classroom a desk/shelf combo would be more practical. 

This is just one style of writing instruction. I would urge you to encourage your students to also engage in plentiful free and creative writing to complement structured, focused projects like these. 

The week will be:
Sunday - brainstorm
Monday - plan
Tuesday - draft
Wednesday - edit
Thursday/Friday - publish

We will do our best to keep you updated on each stage - catch us on Insta stories too. 

Brainstorming for writing

To begin I introduced Sam to our focus for the week - by Friday he will have a published procedural text to show his sister how to build his ultimate sandcastle design. His sister needs to be able to read the text and carry out his instructions. 

To begin the brainstorming process we looked at photos from times Sam has built sandcastles. I printed these and put them in the writing center. 

We looked at each and talked about them. I had to guide Sam here and said things like:
  • how did the sand feel
  • what did the sand look like
  • close your eyes and describe the sandcastle
  • how did you start building this sandcastle

We recorded many of the words Sam used on a whiteboard from the writing center. Later in the week I will encourage Sam to add more descriptive words to turn these into phrases. In the classroom, make an anchor chart of useful words. You may not have access to student photos so just do a google image search for sandcastles and look at them and talk about them. 


I also placed some theme items on the writing center to trigger thoughts and memories - shells, a bucket and spade.


We read Grandpa and Thomas by Pamela Allen (not a sponsored link, just helpful). It is a firm favorite for many little learners and has a great story sequence revealing some simple steps for building a sandcastle and helping readers to make connections to their experience with a day at the beach.


Sam completed the first page from our writing pack, the brainstorming page where he drew a picture of his design. He labelled it also. Before the drawing I encouraged him to act out the steps in a little drama based role play - this helped a lot!

He has not noticed how pear-like his sandcastle is - I think it's gorgeous!


Tomorrow we will break this illustration down into steps on the planning page!


We just released 2 new packs in the Writing Pack series.




Find them in our TpT store by clicking on the images below:



Having a clear structured week for writing and a project based goal for students to work towards can make planning for writing instruction simple and exciting. Let us know your best tips for writing centers too!

We'll see you tomorrow for the planning stage!

2020 Wall Planner FREE

Giant Year Planner Mel Lloyd Teacher

Yesterday I made a new wall planner for our home office. I made one for last year and loved that it was giant, simple, clear, practical with the tiniest hint of 'cute'!

I had it printed at Officeworks for $20 and have it mounted on an inspiration board from Kikki K.

I would love to share it with you so you can make one for your creative or office space. 

Find the image file in Google Drive to print yourself - Giant 2020 Year Planner From the Pond

Giant Year Planner


The white spaces on my planner are weekends and the blocks of color help you see a 5 day work week quickly. 

If you love this planner, you will also love the printable pack of goodies we put together for your classroom and teacher space. 

Included is:
  • giant classroom numbers '2020'
  • printable classroom decorative banner 'Let's make 2020 extraordinary' in color
  • printable classroom decorative banner 'Let's make 2020 extraordinary' in blackline
  • student writing banner pennants - 'This year I will ...', 'My goals for 2020...', 'This year...'
  • one page year planner (days of week or plain version)
  • year classroom calendar - one month per page, students can draw a picture of attach photo, cover included
  • one page calendar - students can draw picture to illustrate or attach a photo
  • 2 '2020' coloring pages
  • 20 for 2020 bookmark (students can make a list of 20 things they want to read in 2020 etc)

Get ready for the new year and relax over the holidays!



Please note that we will send out our newsletters - or Pond Updates every other week {on a Sunday} in 2020 and would love to include you so we can stay in touch! We use our newsletter to let you know when we have new items added to our store, to share ideas and exclusive freebies with you.

Sign up if you would like to join our newsletter. We've been sending it out since 2009 and think you would love it too.

Numbers Before and After


Ordering numbers is an essential early math skill. An ordered sequence of numbers is the basis of our number system. 

Play some games and provide opportunities for your little ones to develop a deep and clear ability to place quantities in order of increasing (or decreasing) size. Make sure your little ones can:
  • make groups of numbers that are 'bigger' or 'smaller' than other sets you have made
  • tell you 'one more', 'one less', 'ten more', 'ten less'
  • confidently order numbers in sequence 1-10
Our Math Pack 7 helps you teach the ordering numbers to 10, if you need to support learning working at an emergent level. We've recently created 2 new math centers for students working confidently with big numbers.



Learning numbers 'before and after' can be fun and practical with our new math activity cards! We have a set for 2 digit numbers and 3 digit numbers!

Students write with a dry-erase marker, the number before and after the featured number on the card.

Included in the packs are:
  • activity cards
  • activity instructions
  • a recording worksheet and
  • resource folder cover page
Simply print, laminate and snip the cards to have your math center, group or worksheet activity up and going in no time.


Find both sets in our TpT store by clicking on the images below: