If you're looking for some creative and fun ways to integrate an Autumn / Fall theme into your early years teaching program, you may like to bookmark our website page!
Let me know if there is something I can create for you or your classroom!
29 September 2021
More for b and d Reversals
If your little ones are reversing the letters b and d, you may like to have them complete some activity pages.
A new one in our Pond Coloing Club is this Daisy Garden page! Tell your little ones to walk through the garden and pick all the d's!
- cast their eyes from left to write across each row of letters on the page
- point to each d they find
- trace or color each d they find - perhaps in crayon
- color the other parts of the page
- add some watercolor
If you're looking for more ways to help your students identify and discriminate between b and d, you may like our recently updated 'Bs in the Bed' printable resource. Jennifer asked for a girl to be added so you now have both options.
If you ever have a request or something I can help you with please do not hesitate to reach out.
27 September 2021
Early Addition Fun
Make addition fun in kindergarten will the help of our little ant friends! Your students will learn to combine two groups to find a total. They can also label their addition story with numeral cards.
Fancy seeing ants crawling on your muffin! Tell your little ones to add ants to their muffin game mat and then find the total. Quick - find the total before the muffin is eaten! We've provided ant counters to use along with the muffin game mat but counters would also work well.
Fancy seeing ants crawling on your muffin! Tell your little ones to add ants to their muffin game mat and then find the total. Quick - find the total before the muffin is eaten! We've provided ant counters to use along with the muffin game mat but counters would also work well.
Options:
- remove the number cards and just have students 'act out' addition stories that you tell - e.g Listen to the story and put ants on your muffin - 2 ants crawled onto a muffin and then 3 more crawled on, how many ants altogether?
- play for subtraction - start with 10 ants, roll a dice and remove that many - how many left?
- follow up the hands-on game with the included worksheet to consolidate learning
25 September 2021
Draw a Lion Activity Page
Help your little learners draw a cute lion with an activity page from our Pond Coloring Club directed drawing library! Six easy steps are shown but children can add their own additional features and elements if they choose.
Perhaps ask them to draw in crayon, add some scribble detail and then watercolor over the top for a lovely vibrant picture!
You can see here how we added an extra layer of the mane, cheeks, the sun and a flower. Encourage your students to add detail or change the steps to their picture to make it unique!
Extend the drawing experience by incorporating it into your reading or writing program!
We love The Lion Who Wanted to Love by Giles Andreae and David Wojtowyez. Have you read it? The classes I have read it to have always been captivated from the first page through to the end. It has a good solid story structure which progresses with enough detail to extend into a reading lesson while maintaining a lovely rhyming flow and energy to keep engagement high.
It tells the story of a lion cub who does not want to hunt but would rather hug instead! He is an outcast and bravely chooses to find his own path.
There are loads of opportunities to discuss character and social situations in the school context by reflecting on the behavior and choices made by various animals in this text. Ask your students to suggest ways they have similar or different lived experience so that they may connect to the themes raised in the story.
A writing lesson you could implement after a shared reading would be to record some aspects about the character Leo. You could do this on your board, chart paper or a scaffold from our Character Webs pack. Draw or write details from the text depending on the age of your students. Show your students how to locate text directly from the page that reveals Leo's character. Discuss how some of the images and inferences we can make may also reveal his character.
We're so excited to share this new project page with you. If you are not yet a member, find out how to join, read our information page or contact us for more details.
Do you love integrating drawing with reading and writing? Find more of our Directed Drawing packs that include writing pages HERE
24 September 2021
Consonant Digraphs
I recently revised our Happy H consonant digraphs pack which gives you some engaging resources to introduce how letters combine with h to make new sounds!
- make stick puppets with the letters to show how they play and make sounds
- use the digraph cards to show how a new sound is made when Happy H is with his friend
- teach one at a time or all at once
- lesson details provide to guide you
- letter character shapes - make stick puppets or use as posters
- consonant digraph letter characters - ch, sh, th, wh, ph
- word cards
- all-in-one poster for reference
- 5 review worksheets - students read words and write from the word bank into the letter shapes
Find all our consonant digraph resources over on our website page!
22 September 2021
Classroom Clip Chart
Help students manage their day with a clear visual representation of the steps in your behavior plan. Display the cute kids clip chart and let students move a clip as they demonstrate and meet different expectations throughout the day.
- change the words using the editable version
- use all the steps or just a few
- have a clip for each child or one representing the 'whole class'
- remove the negative steps and just promote positive choices from green to purple
The steps on the chart are:
- ready to learn
- think and choose
- teachers choice
- parent contact
- good choices
- great choices
- outstanding
You can choose to:
- have a clip with each child's name
- have one clip representing the whole class
- have no clips and ask students to visualize where they are as you describe briefly your expectations for behavior in a situation
One very positive benefit to a visual display of the steps in a behaviour plan is that students can see how quickly they can get back on track and improve.
20 September 2021
Let's Stretch It Out
We have a printable resource that can support part of your reading program.
It is not a reading program itself, but can help your students when they come to unknown words in text they are reading. We always recommend using a range of resources to teach reading, these prompts could be just a small part.
Stretchy Snake can remind your students to:
- say the letter-sounds
- carefully listen
But what else could the concept of a stretchy snake help you with in the classroom? Really, stretching something out is simply,
- providing processing time
- isolating individual components
- providing opportunity for something to be identified (e.g. seeing c-a-t in its parts allows it to be more carefully differentiated from c-a-n)
Reading non-phonetically regular words
When you model reading and how to attempt big words you may say to your students something like let's slow down like stretchy snake and say all the letters and chunks in this word slowly to see if we can identify the word. You know some of the sounds from our phonics lessons.
Here in an Australian indigenous story - When the Snake Bites the Sun, the word 'suddenly' could be slowed down s-u-dd-en-ly as you read!
Attempting to Write
As students try to write words, suggest they be like Stretchy Snake - with head, middle and 'tail'. What can they hear at the beginning of the word they are trying to write (as they say it slowly c-a-t), what can they hear next, what is at the end?
During Phonics Activities
As students are completing phonics work, segmenting sounds - tell them that as they stretch the word, they can reveal all of its letters!
Stretch a Sentence
Play a class game. Give them a word to start - e.g. cat. Guide them in adding one new word at a time to build a long sentence. Each child in the group can add the next word. Record it on a board or chart to model writing.
Stretch Words Actively
Play an action game - let your students stretch physically! Tell them to start curled up on the ground and then stand up slowing stretching out like a long stretchy snake coming out of a basket, until their fingertips are reaching for the ceiling. As they stretch, ask them to vocalize a word being segmented into its parts.
This post gives you just a few extra ideas for using our Stretchy Snake prompt stick. There are probably hundreds more. Model for your students how learners:
- can take a concept from one learning area and associate it with another
- can be creative and flexible
- have fun
- know that there is often no 'right way' to do something and we need to combine ideas
- transfer strategies and content from one subject area to another - that we can link ideas
We are very confident that when you are flexible with resources like this you will witness some amazing magical things in your classroom - perhaps your students will devise ways of applying a 'stretchy snake' analogy to something else - let the sparks fly!
17 September 2021
Counting with Crow Finger Play
I have a new action rhyme finger play for you - Apple Tree. Your little learners can count with crow and get ready for listening on the mat as you transition between lessons or get settled for the day.
Finger plays allow you to incorporate some movement and action while keeping your class managed for instruction - perfect!
As well as being engaging for students you can use the text as part of your reading program
- use it as your model read for the day
- leave it on display to encourage students to read independently as you learn it and say it regularly over a week or two
- isolate aspects of the texts for short, explicit mini lessons - e.g. a lesson on the sight word 'the' - ask a student to circle every 'the' they see as you project it on the electronic board
This finger play is shared with you freely - find it through our website!
In the file is also a one page cloze reading activity - students cut and paste 4 words to complete the text. This is a great take home sheet for students to read to their families.
If you are looking for more ways to expand your program and lessons using this text as a springboard, you may like our bundle of activities. With the bundle you get a bonus printable - Word Cards and Puppets.
With the puppets (attach the pictures to a craft stick):
- encourage your students to retell the rhyme in their own words
- make up stories about crow, bee and the tree
- talk and engage with their peers
Use the words cards, in a pocket chart or on a bulletin board to:
- model how to 'write' the text (put it together with the class watching and verbalize the process of reading, re-reading and finding words to put in order)
- let students put the words in order in a pocket chart as a learning center activity
- provide 2 sets of the words in a basket for matching and playing games
The bundle also includes a collection of creative activities to help develop fine motor skills and to allow your learners to reflect and respond to the text after reading. I've included:
- big shape tracing pages
- pinning pages (pokey pin)
- writing quick crafts
- one page crafts
- directed drawings
Directed Drawing
4 drawings, each in 4 projects styles (drawing, draw and write, classic directed drawing and read-draw-write).- 2 simple drawings - crow + bee
- 2 detailed drawings - 3 bees and beehive + crow on a gate
Quick Craft Writing
3 writing templates (each provided in both plain and lined) for students to write a sentence or two. Each feature a picture that can be quickly cut around and displayed in the classroom on a bulletin board or string line.
One Page Crafts
Crafts that take just one sheet of paper per child to print.- apple
- crow
- beehive with bee
Big Shape Tracing
6 big picture pages to trace and color. Tracing is a perfect pre-writing or art activity in kindergarten.
Pinning
4 pages to poke holes in with a giant push pin - a great fine motor and mindful activity after a busy lunch or recess!
11 September 2021
Match Me Math Activities for Numbers 0 to 10
This week I revised one of our original free math activities for you! It is available for you from our TpT store and includes cards for number words, numerals and dot patterns 0-10.
I have also recorder a short video over on Instagram to give you lots of bonus ideas for using the cards to extend your learners.
To celebrate the newly revised resource being re-released this week I also made a coloring page that you could use along with an activity from Match Me.
Matching Numbers 1 to 5
Use the page as directed and have students link the matching numbers with a line. They may also color the number cards in the same color to show each match.
Combine Coloring with Math Equipment
Gather some simple math equipment and encourage students to play as they color. With each roll of the dice, they are building math imagery in their minds!
If you have lots of dice, let them roll and match a dice to the page directly. If you only have one dice per student, just ask them to roll and color a kid.
They could also roll and cover a kid with a counter.
For students learning to count sets and build 1:1 correspondence, ask them to build towers that match each number and place them on the page. Talk about the different heights of each tower and lay them down to compare numbers.
We are so happy to share these resources with you from our TPT store and Pond Coloring Club!
02 September 2021
Writing cvc Words
To complement our Sounding Out Train resources that help your kindergarten friends move from single sounds to making and reading words, we've made a set of activity mats!
These mats are ideal for using on a tablet or device but can be used equally as well printed with dry erase markers.
Students will sound-out letters on the train and create a word by adding 1 or 2 additional letters.
114 activity mats are included. Give a small selection to your students to complete at once - or print 2 or 4 to a page for students to provide more on a single sheet of paper.
Use the TPT Easel tool to use them digitally with your students!
- the mats feature a variety of beginning/medial/final sounds missing
- focus on aural and oral language by having students sound-out, listen and play with sounds
- students build a word and then write it 3 times for practice - use magnetic letters or tiles
- one focus word on each slide/mat
114 activity mats are included. Give a small selection to your students to complete at once - or print 2 or 4 to a page for students to provide more on a single sheet of paper.
Use the TPT Easel tool to use them digitally with your students!