Mini Reading Lessons - Fast Prep

 

We have a new series of reading mini-lesson resources that nestle under a structure called Read-Talk-Chart. We want to help you seize the moments after you read to your class to discuss and chart your students' responses to the text. This can be during guided or shared reading. 

Young students can struggle to provide or write a quality response to text, but by guiding a collaborative response on a chart - you can scaffold that development and model how to structure, organize and detail it.

We have a growing collection of these mini lessons. They are practical, engaging and can be used with any text! 

Use them flexibly 

• take the overall concept and create your own lesson
• use the chart design/scaffold and enlarge it on chart paper - scribe a collaborative response
• combine all elements for a full experience - read, prompt, chart and ask students to write independently as well. 

Each lesson printable pack includes an idea for discussion, prompt stick, chart design and student work page!

Here you can see some ideas generated from our new lesson, Surprise Me, recorded on the mini-chart printable page.

Transferring the design to chart paper however, gives students more opportunity to engage - it feels more collaborative and you can display it on your wall for the week to revisit and re-read. Revisiting and reflecting back to prior lessons can be a fast way to build deep connections with content and learning. 

From this lesson, an easy logical next step would be to have your students elaborate their idea into more detail in a dedicated writing lesson. They could write a draft of a more structured story ending, particularly if you are teaching 2-3rd grade. This mini-lesson experience will  provide a solid background and deeper connection with the text when your learners attempt their independent writing. 

If you would like to include this mini lesson idea into your overall reading and writing program you can find more details over on the website.

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comprehension, Reading

Penguin One Page Craft - Free

 

We have made a cute little penguin for your students or children to color, cut and paste. It is provided to you over in the free library of our Pond Coloring Club. 

How to make a cute penguin craft

• print the one page template
• color or paint the pieces
• cut the pieces out
• assemble using the picture for support

Extension Ideas

• take a craft stick behind your penguin craft to create a puppet
• use them in a large class display - make snow and ice from white paper to create a penguin scene
• research penguins and write some facts to include in your classroom display
• read some penguin books

We hope your little ones love their penguins and it leads to a whole bunch of creative ideas, discussion and fun!

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Craft for Kids, Penguins

Bee Classroom Door

Our bee classroom door display is a bright, happy and practical option to prep your classroom door and welcome your learners to their room. 

How to make a bee classroom door

• choose the fast-prep-pdf to print and write or the editable version to type
• choose a message board (4 options) and type a heading - e.g Welcome to our class
• type your student names on the bees (3 sizes to choose from)
• print
• display

Ideas for a bee door

• type positive messages instead of student names - eg. 'smile'
• use the plain bee accent for decoration
• laminate them for use in future displays - mix and match
• use the bees as classroom labels, name tags and posters

Bee themes in the classroom ooze happiness, productivity and cooperation. Talk to your students about what the bees represent - a hive of positive work! We have some more bee themed classroom blog posts here.

By using our packs you will achieve clarity and consistency through your learning space. We use similar colors and styles in all our resources. Start with your favorite and build your collection to mix and match!

Find all our door displays and more over on the website.

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bees, Classroom Decor, Classroom Theme, Door Displays

Happy Back to School + A Free News Poster

 

Happy back-to-school to our Australian friends - we hope you have a wonderful week getting to know your new students and families. How lucky those little learners are to have you with them each and every day to keep them safe, happy and to help them learn. 

We wanted to take some time today to remind you that we have a free coloring page that you may like to use this week, over in the club:

We would also love to share a free one page news day poster with you too. It is perfect for the small classroom with limited display space. Display it at student eye level and they will become very familiar with who is sharing news (show and tell) each day. 

News is a very practical way to allow time for students to talk and listen in the classroom. With a simple and predictable framework it can offer support to those students who may be reluctant to share verbally. News can be structured as a whole class, small group or paired activity. Perhaps have a mix of all three throughout the year to offer variety. Using news groups and pairs offers an opportunity for students to practice talking each day rather than once a week. 

News Pairs

• ask students to find a partner
• partners sit across from one another 
• students each have 1-2 minutes to tell some news
• partners listen and have time to ask 1-2 questions
• ask students to write in a journal/diary after news-telling to report on their own news or their partners

At the beginning of the year you may like to give your students some prompts for talking, rather than free-choice news. Give students a school based scenario that involves language, and ask them to role play it in their 'news presentation' time. For example, requesting help from a teacher, ordering food at the canteen, seeking help from unfamiliar adults in the school office, requesting to join a game in the playground. 

After a long summer break at home no doubt many of your learners will be itching to share, contribute and express themselves. We hope your classroom is a sea of happy voices!

Find the one page printable poster in Google Drive here: News Day Poster

If you need more bright, happy resources for your classroom displays, browse our website page that features our growing collection. 

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Back to School, Posters

Make Ten To Add Worksheets

Making ten to add is an essential addition strategy and requires students being able to identify or make the combinations that total 10. I had a lovely request to make more worksheets of the style we offered as a freebie back in this post.

These caterpillar themed pages make for great practice when students have already had loads of hands-on play with equipment. They will look for the 2 numbers on each caterpillar that total ten and shade them before adding on the final digit. 

The shading of the caterpillar squares is fun and a little cute, but it also helps create a powerful visual bond of the ten being partitioned from the other number. Over time students will need less of this visual support.

Our new pack includes 10 worksheets altogether. Five of them will require students to look for a ten. The other 5 worksheets are great for students who have become very confident with this strategy and they will find the 2 numbers that make 20. 

The one page sample freebie is still avaiable from Google Drive: Caterpillar Find Ten

And the full pack is now in our TPT store. If you have a request or need for a printable resource, please do not hesitate to contact us - we will do our best to help! 

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Addition, worksheets

Sing the Alphabet

Singing the alphabet every day in kindergarten is a great routine to establish. Most children know the song coming into class and you can begin to transition them into an understanding of each letter having a sound. Some students may also know the alphabet as one big long string of sounds - aabeeceedeeefgeeaitcheyejaykay. 

Asking your little ones to slow their singing down and initially and getting one lucky student to point to each letter as the song progresses can help clarify that each letter has one name. And build 1:1 correspondence for reading and math! 

Did you also know that daily singing may help you and your learners

• manage stress
• clear the sinuses
• improve posture
• live longer and happier 

We have a bright and happy poster for you to display to focus your students attention and remind them of the daily routine. It comes in 2 options:

• DIY poster (print 16 pages and glue together (as shown in these photos)
• giant wall print (you can get this printer professionally too)

Once you've moved on from singing the alphabet - (there are so many great songs to sing in kindergarten) it makes a useful reference poster for letter-sound learning and alphabetical order. It also contributes to your bright, happy learning space too!

Three more ways to use our alphabet poster:

• play a game of 'what is missing' - cover a letter with a post it note and ask students to identify what is missing
• play 'what starts with' - have a student point to a letter and ask all the other students to brainstorm as many words as possible that begin with that letter/sound
• play 'move like the letter' - describe one of the animals without naming it to your students - once they guess, ask them to move around the classroom like this creature and make the letter-sound in their best animal voice! e.g. I am thinking of an animal that crawls on the ground and likes to eat leaves - it will grow into a butterfly soon (one student guesses caterpillar, all children move around learning space like caterpillars, perhaps chomping on some leaves, and make the 'c' sound)

If you need some more fun, bright and happy classroom decor - find our growing collection over on the website. 

We'd love to have you sign up to our newsletter too - find out more while you're there!

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Alphabet, Posters

Sweet Valentine's Day Coloring Pages

We have some sweet Valentine's Day coloring pages ready for you over in our free Coloring Club. The Pond Coloring Club is a special website of ours made to share my printable pages with you. 

 The site has a growing collection of categories and a super fast 'recently added' option so you can quickly see the newest pages that have been added each day. 

We have a Premium Coloring Club on the site too - and for a very small subscription each year, you can help support the site. Your support allows for new pages to be added regularly. 

The pages on this post are from our Valentine's Day category. Use them along with your usual lessons and activities in February - in the classroom and at home. 

If you have any questions about the Pond Coloring Club, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will do our best to help.

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Coloring Page, Valentines Day

Learning to Count in Kindergarten

 

Our clip it kids help make math in kindergarten fun and hands-on! Your learners will:

• identify numerals to 20
• count a collection of objects to match a numeral
• build fine motor skills using the pincer grasp 
• develop 1:1 correspondence as they count and match a peg to each word they say
• begin to notice part/part/whole relationships as they attach each peg

Students will clip each card with an appropriate quantity of paper clips or clothespins (pegs) to match the numeral.

To get this center ready, simply:

• print the cards
• laminate and cut
• team with clips, clothespins or pegs
• have fun counting!

This printable file is available in our TPT store and features:

• a teaching tips page
• a detailed instruction sheet
• game cards for number 1 to 20
• a recording worksheet and
• cover page. 

The cover page can be printed and used to help organize your game/activity tubs/pouches/packets or folders.

So many teachers using this activity have told us that their students:

• are instantly engaged with this activity
• have fun and smile during math
• work on their fine motor
• develop essential early math concepts
• enjoy math centers

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Kindergarten, Math Center

Owl Valentine's Day Craft

Some heart owl crafts on display in your classroom or learning space will be perfect for a sweet February! We updated our Owl Always Love You craft pack today to include 2 new versions. 

The pack now includes:

1. one page craft (all pieces one student needs on one page)
2. complete version (like a coloring page, all in one piece)
3. traditional template version - more than one piece on a page, so suitable for printing on colored paper

In the photos on this post, we used the original template version. This allowed us to have multi-colored owls , printing each part on different paper.

These owls would also make a nice Valentine's Day gift for students to take home to a parent.

Students will:

• write three reasons they will always love a family member
• color the templates pieces
• cut and paste to make the owl

Prior to your craft making you may read a sweet text about appreciating family - perhaps Koala Lou by Mem Fox for example. 

Have a class discussion to brainstorm ideas and share experiences. Be sensitive to different student family experiences within your context.

Hop over to our TPT store to find this printable.

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Craft for Kids, Valentines Day

Classroom Welcome

A fast prep welcome poster

If you need a fast-prep way to welcome everyone to your classroom or learning space, we have you covered! Over in our TPT store we have several options for you. You'll be good to go in minutes!

Find all our currently available welcome display printables on our website page.

Why have a welcome display

• when children start school or join a new class it is important that they gain a sense of security and belonging as quickly as possible
• they provide an opportunity for the full range of learners in your context to feel seen and appreciated - especially if you add photos of students and yourself as their teacher
• if you add student names or photos, it helps students get to know everyone in their class 

A fun welcome game to play on the first day of school

• once your display of student names or photos is up, ask your class to sit in a circle
• ask everyone to clap twice
• say the name of a student
• the group then clap twice again
• the child you named, now gets to say the name of another member of the class
• everyone claps twice again
• the child names now goes ahead and names the next child, and so it continues until all children have been names
• if you are working on name identification, consider having a set of flashcards spread out in the middle of the circle and you can flip a name once it is said - this will also help you keep track of who has had a turn

Good luck creating your classroom welcome - make it as simple or as detailed as suits your context. Do not hesitate to contact us if we can help!

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Classroom Decor

Valentine's Day Crafts

Choose one of the 8 Valentines Day Craft Activities in this pack to help celebrate sweetly this February! One Page Crafts provide a practical way to prep an engaging creative lesson in a snap! This pack features lots of hearts to cute - a great way to encourage your students to move from cutting straight lines to curved.

Students color their single page with crayons, pencils or paint before cutting and gluing their craft. Add additional crafty details, like felt, glitter, ribbon or cotton balls etc to make a more complex activity for your students.

We've included:

1. Sweetheart Stick (Valentine Heart on a craft stick)
2. Sweet Bee
3. Heart Fish
4. Lovely Owl
5. Puppy Love
6. Heart Friend
7. Sweet Little Mouse
8. Hearts-a-Flutter

Extend the activity with a writing project using the collection of coordinating 'writing papers' so you can ask your students to complete a piece of writing that you may display with the craft. There are no words on each writing paper, which will allow you to create your own myriad of writing lessons!

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bees, Craft for Kids, Valentines Day

Koala Stick Shape Activities

We love activities that encourage students to explore line and shape. Our new printable math center Koala Stick Shapes provide 40 activity prompts to spark curiosity and creativity in your learners.

They will:

• take a card
• talk about the shape
• copy the shape using craft sticks
• use mathematical language as they build and modify

Encourage your learners to talk about the lines in each shape they make. You may hear them say things like: corner, straight, up and down, across, sloping, slanting, between, crossed, join, inside, outside, left, right and diagonal. If not, model this language for them and encourage them to express their mathematical ideas naturally. 

Link the learning you encourage in this activity with your students' prior and future experiences:

• Have you seen a shape like this before?
• Look around for similar lines in the classroom.
• What does this shape remind you of?

As students move from one shape card to the next, challenge them to modify their existing sticks to create the new one. 

Encourage language such as flip, turn, rotate and slide. 

This activity is great for fine motor and visual memory also. 

Included in the printable file is a recording worksheet, cover page and activity instructions. 

Find it in our TPT store: Koala Stick Shapes

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2D Shapes, Math Center

Gum Leaves for Tracing + Finger Play

We love Big Shape Tracing activities to transition little learners from scribbles to writing letters and words. After lots of 'big arm' activities like chalking on walls and painting on easels your students can begin more formal 'handwriting' by attempting to trace big clear shapes and then internal pattern lines. 

Our latest gum leaf tracing page is a perfect early kindergarten activity for Australian classrooms especially. It features one nice big clear shape to trace and  simple 'downstroke' internal pattern lines. 

Teaching tip: tell your students the leaves fall down from the top of the tree to the ground and just about all our letters start with the pencil moving top to bottom. As they trace, tell them to say 'down, down, down'. 

Using crayon or marker to outline the gum leaf will engage your students. We all like to work with materials that feel nice on the paper and give a clear bright color! 

Little hands may have limited control of a writing implement at this stage and a narrow, small pencil can be frustrating as without strong hands it does not achieve a clear bold line. 

Option: letter tracking. The page features a title for students to track. Tracking is like tracing but learners stay inside the outline of the letters rather than staying on a dotted line.

Optional extension: after tracing, paint or color the leaves for a classroom display!

You could make a class gum tree, edge a bulletin board or simply clip them to an existing banner or string line like we did here in our play room. They add color and interest to a familiar area. Adding student work to your classroom is very important - it:

• builds class community (look what we made together as a group)
•  connects students to their learning space (my work is important and it matters)
• encourages language (some of our learners may have little in their home life to talk about, by displaying something as simple as this leaf, you have instantly given them and opportunity to talk with a peer, a shared experience, a bridge to build connections and communication between students)

You can find this printable page over in our store FREE today! 

Gum Leaf and Magpie Finger Play

While you are here, we also wanted to offer you our new free finger play: Gum Leaves Fall. 

Finger plays provide a wonderful opportunity to explore oral texts and build many essential skills into your daily routine. 

This one has just a few simple actions - again, perfect for the beginning of a kindergarten school year. 

Use it:

• to engage your students in the topic of gum leaves or Australian animals
• to introduce the concept of leaves falling from a tree and link to our pencil moving top to bottom when writing letters and numbers
• for behavior management (as students join in the collaborative language experience they will sit, listen and be ready to learn)
• to transition between activities and re-focus learners
• as a language and literacy activity - students love oral language activities, saying rhymes and learning new words

We included a blackline version too so you can send a copy home after students color it at their desks.  Encourage your emergent readers to point to each word and 'read' it after they have become very familiar with the rhyme.

Find a free printable page in Google Drive: Gum Leaves Fall Finger Play

Thanks so much for visiting our blog, we are so happy to be able to continue to share things with you here. You may also like:

• Gumnut Cuties Tracing Pages
• Gumnut and Gum Leaf Door Display
• Australian Animal Alphabet Posters
• Soup-er Star Class Australian Animals 
• Other finger plays

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Finger Play, Tracing