Snail Play for Place Value

Integrate place value for math with fun and coloring using our Snail Play page! It's free for you today in the Pond Coloring Club!

Play the number game first and then allow students time to color or paint! Students will build sets of ten units and trade for a base ten, working their way to 100. 

How to Play Snail Play

Gather your equipment - for each pair of players

• 2 pages (one each)
• dice
• 10 counters each
• coloring pencils

 The aim is to be the first to color or 10 snails - representing 100. 

On their turn, players:

• roll the dice
• gather the matching number of counters
• cover the numbers on the mushroom in order (number recognition and counting order practiced here)
• once the mushroom is covered a snail may be colored and the counters are cleared from the mushroom, ready to start building the next set of 10
• periodically through the game, ask students to pause and tell you the number they have built so far - they will combine the tens and ones - e.g. I have 3 snails colored and 2 counters, I have 32 so far

You can find this page over in the free coloring club. If you're not yet a member, you are very welcome to join. Find out how on our information page. 

While you're here on the blog you may like 

• to see our 2023 coloring calendar
• find more ideas for place value
• to find the steps for a snail drawing project

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Place Value

Snowman Name Craft

 

Our Snowman Name craft has become a popular and well-loved return-to-school-after-winter-break activity! Teachers love doing them each year with their class to celebrate and build community. They look great in a hallway bulletin board as a long line display! 

As well as making your classroom look gorgeous, your students can:

• practice following directions, 
• recognize and order the letters in their name (get them to do it horizontal before they glue vertically)
• practice, develop and refine fine motor skills

With not too much to color, it also helps students ease back into school routine.

Today I added some more options to the original file:

• pages for students to draw the snowman's face instead of color
• a fast-cut option (3 snowballs in one chunk to cut)

Find this craft over in our TPT store!

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Craft for Kids, Name Recognition, Winter

Creative Planner

If you're in the Pond Coloring Club you'll be familiar with the monthly calendar pages. I'll add them again each month this year. 

They can be used:

• as a mini classroom calendar
• on your teacher desk for important event reminders
• in your teacher books and folders
• for students to track goal-progress or events

This year I have them available (along with some idea planning pages) for instant access! You can have the whole 12 months ready to go today.

The Way I Use Them

The pages are flexible and once printed you can use them how you like.

I use these pages to set up a scrappy (unplanned and a little messy) creative planner. 

If you purchase the calendar I'll add you to a special email newsletter list and you can take a virtual peek inside my planner. I'll send you tips, ideas and special bonuses throughout 2023. 

On the blog today, I'll share with you my first tip so you can get a feel for what it's all about. 

Planner Tip 1 - why scrappy?

I have my calendar/planner set up ready for January. 

So far, I have:

• purchased a 5 tab lined, spiral bound notebook that a local store has stocked for the last few years
• glued the 2023 cover on the front page
• set aside the first tab for January, gluing a plain cover page for a title page
• glued in 5 double pages - a calendar page next to an ideas page

Why do I use a scrappy notebook with glued pages rather than an expensive, carefully arranged and pretty commercial planner? Over many years of trying different styles I found:

• I had better and braver ideas with a relaxed, sometimes messy notebook
• I like being able to mix plain lined notebook pages between calendar pages - and tear them out occasionally
• I like the flexibility to add more pages and may run 5-7 different calendars for the same month (more on that later) - e.g. a calendar for drawing ideas, a calendar for blog post ideas, a calendar for ideas from you (my community)
• I like being able to sketch, doodle and draw more around my notes
• I love the feeling of waking up and being able to do whatever I want to do in a day - in here I can 

My scrappy creative planner gives me nothing but open opportunity, freedom and room for ideas. I use other calendars for events that are locked and rigid.

5 Tab Notebook - 1 tab for each month of the year 

January Title Page

Double Pages - side by side

I have 5 of these ready so far but could add more. 

Bonus Colored Covers - Brights or Boo-Hoo

What are you waiting for? Let's stay connected. I'd love to have you join me and although I won't be sharing teaching or classroom tips in the special newsletter I have no doubt you'll be able to transfer my ideas into your own creative process or journey, whatever you're doing in 2023! 

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Tracing Page Cover

Today you can find a panda tracing page over in the Pond Coloring Club! 

Your children can practice their pencil and writing skills by outlining in crayon or marker and then shading with pencil or watercolor. 

Your children could also:

• glue some soft cotton wool to the tummy
• add some additional features or background elements - I've done some blue patches in the sky on this one
• glue the page into a scrap book or put it in a folder along with some writing about pandas

You may like to make a tracing page crap book for your students or children to collect and browse their favorite pages throughout 2023. It will be so encouraging for them to see their progress in pencil control as they turn each page. 

I'd love to share this page with you freely here on the blog and look forward to providing you with more fun tracing projects in the coming months. If you're not yet a Pond Coloring Club member, you can use the code xmas today to get 25% off your first year! 

If you have a request for a page design, be sure to let me know. 

Find the tracing page cover in Google Drive: 2023 Tracing Page Cover 

You may also like:

• to join all or one of my free newsletters so you never miss goodies and news of sales
• a fast-prep class collaborative panda writing activity
• color a cute and whimsical calendar for 2023

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Tracing

Feet or Sleep

 Play Feet or Sleep with your kindergarten or first grade friends as a brain break and for them to practice attentive listening and hearing the long e sound in words. 

Tell them:

The winter birds are getting ready to perch high in a tree for a little sleep but before they do they are going to walk about (on their feet) to find the last few worms to eat! When you hear me say a word that includes the long e sound, jump to your feet to get the worm. When my word does not include long e, you can curl up on the floor, asleep. 

Here are some long e words to get you started:

• bee
• beach
• been
• beak
• beetle
• bean
• clean
• creek
• cream
• deep
• eat
• feet
• greet
• leap
• reach
• sheet
• sleep
• tree
• week

Call words at random so students have plenty of opportunity to alternate between standing and sitting, getting some movement into their morning session as well as developing essential literacy and listening skills! 

Winter Bird Craft

Today in the club we have a winter bird tracing page that your children may like to trace and color! 

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us for help!

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Craft for Kids, Long Vowels, Talking and Listening

More Santa Scissor Skills

 If you love our scissor skills activity packs - I have some great news! I've added 8 new activity pages to the Santa Scissor Skills set to give you more opportunity for differentiation!

The new pages extend upon the vertical cutting lines of the original Santa beard pages and encourage your learners to practice cutting from the side into the center of the page.

They can also flip the sections gently back and forth after cutting.

Add some cotton on the hat trim and moustache. 

Once colored and decorated you can display them on a bulletin board or hang from the ceiling as a gently twisting mobile!

I hope you love this free bonus update - get the new pages from your My Purchases tab over at TPT!

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Christmas, scissor skills

Window Art for Christmas

11 more projects have been added to the Christmas Window Art pack. If you have it already - the new goodies are ready and waiting for you!

Just add a light spray of cooking oil to the back and the light will shine through!

Every time I have completed these projects with students, they just can't get enough. They ask to complete multiple pages and love seeing their beautiful work on display. Together with pages from their friends they make a stunning collaborative art project.print several sets

• have them sorted in trays for students to easily choose a design
• leave crayons adjacent to the paper trays
• use as a fast-finisher option over the coming weeks

They can also be displayed on a bulletin board, backed with black card or paper!

The designs include:tree

• pudding
• gift
• star
• holly
• candle
• bulb
• bell
• snowman
• stocking
• gingerbread person
• decorated tree
• reindeer
• santa
• winter bird
• elf
• dove
• rainbow sunrise
• pudding character
• winter cottage
• donkey

Hop back to this past blog post for a free sample! 

Find the complete pack of 21 projects in our TPT store ready to print: Christmas Window Art Projects

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Art Ideas for Kids, Christmas

Christmas Tree Classroom Door for December

 I would love to share a no prep game idea with you today that gets students moving, encourages attentive listening, builds classroom community and integrates numbers and counting with your theme work. 

It's called Christmas Tree. You can adapt the game to any theme or suitable topic for your students! 

How to play Christmas Tree

• play outside or in large space if possible
• tell students they will listen for a word and carry out the matching action
• gift = 4 (stand in group of 4 students, linking hands)
• heart = 2 (stand with a partner, cross arms on your own chest, hands on shoulders)
• star = 5 (stand in group of 5 and make star jump shape with body)
• Christmas Tree = run or move through playing space counting, when 10 is reached, stand high on tippy toes like a tall tree, hands above head like a star
• show students the boundaries of the play space and then call out the actions as students listen and follow - give support initially
• you may like to use the picture accents from our display pack to hold up as well (help students notice the correlation between the shape and the number - i.e. star has 5 points, gift a square with 4 sides, heart has two sections)

December Classroom Door

If you are looking to create a classroom display for December you'll love the other printable pieces in our tree themed pack too!

You can use just a few pieces or all of the options included! 

• there are 2 message boards to choose from along with an editable slide so you can type your own unique classroom title

• if you're pressed for time, just adding the message and one tree can help welcome your students to class

• type or write student names on the tree and use the picture accents as you choose

• your students can color, paint or crayon a tree too!

Take a peek over at TPT if you'd like the pack!

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Christmas, Door Displays, no prep activities

Letter to Santa

Help your students learn to write a letter by using our Dear Santa printable banner and pages!

Use the banner - letters and printable pictures - to help create a writing center or display! Pop it over a desk and include paper, pencils and envelopes.


A letter writing page is included in the pack.


Blackline versions are includes so you can save on ink and color or paint your pennant pieces.


Our printable classroom Dear Santa banner packet and letter writing paper is in our TpT store.

Over in the free Coloring Club is a envelope-themed advent calendar for students to trace as the days of December progress. 

Have fun writing to Santa - tell him we'll have milk and cookies ready too! 

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Christmas, Writing

Place Value on the Beach with Santa Koala

 Here is a low-prep math game for developing an understanding of place value!

Build a Sandcastle 

You need:

• Santa Koala coloring page (free)
• standard dice
• place value cubes- ones
• coloring pencils

To play:

• roll a dice
• count and position a matching number of cubes on the starfish or shells
• roll and count again
• when all ten starfish and shells have been covered, you can color a gift (gift is worth 10)
• keep rolling and coloring until all 9 gifts are colored
• the sandcastle can be colored next (after another 10 cubes are added) and this signifies a 100 and the win

This can be played:

• independently without an element of competition
• in pairs - each with their own page and taking turns
• with a 20 sided dice to make it faster and to encourage faster trading of numbers (for example if a child had 6 cubes out and rolls a 17, and opportunity arises for them to begin to trade mentally - coloring 2 gifts and collecting 3 cubes to represent 23 which they have calculated with a variety of strategies)

If you're not yet in the Coloring Club, we'd love to have you!

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Christmas, no, Place Value

Speaking, language and listening

Language and listening activities provide an important foundation for literacy in early years education - and bonus - they are so much fun! 

I'm sharing lots of minimal-prep activities and writing action rhymes to support your program and help make your mini-lessons imaginative and playful.

Today I'm also sharing with you - over at TPT - some visuals to create speaking sticks or posters. 

A speaking stick, puppet or mask can help a reluctant-contributor to be brave and take a turn in a language activity. My personal teaching philosophy was always to wait for students to feel confident to share verbally when they were ready but to try various scaffolds or support along the way. All children are different but as you gain experience you will notice some similar characteristics and ways to support your language activities - try different strategies within a consistent, safe learning space for students. 

Just a few ideas:

• reducing pressure for students to take a turn
• making games short, fun and 'no big deal' (don't get overly congratulatory or too spirited when a shy student does particulate initially) 
• letting students play whole class games in smaller groups or pairs the next day
• creating a dress-up corner, puppet corner or putting these speaking-sticks out for flexible, open-ended and free play opportunities

Here is a language game to play with the sticks (or without) that will help your students be brave and ask for clarification. 

Tell Me Again

• have 2 students hold a speaking stick (for the first round the teacher can take one and lead)
• greet one another and have a conversation that includes a long list of things to remember - e.g. shopping items, going to the beach, preparing gifts for Christmas, cooking

• An example could be:
• Mel: Hello Sam, what are you doing?
• Sam: Oh hi Mel, I'm going to the beach, do you want to come?
• Mel: Yes, what do I need to bring?
• Sam: You need to bring a big warm towel, a bucket to play with, lots of sunscreen, a water bottle that you can refill and a big straw hat.
• Mel: So many things! I need help - can you say that all again please and help me remember.
• Sam: Sure, I can help. You'll need a towel, bucket, sunscreen, water and a hat. 
• Mel: A towel, a bucket...
• Sam: You'll need a towel, bucket, sunscreen, water and a hat. 
• Mel: A towel, bucket, sunscreen, water and a hat. 
• Sam: You got it!

Discuss with you class how the conversation went, how clarification was sought and how a list of items was summarised and repeated to help with remembering things!

This is just one language game of many I hope to share with you! Check this page regularly for for more ideas!

Your students may also like to create some conversation, kind words or a simple story using the 'said' page over in the Coloring Club! 

Don't forget to get the free sticks today - over at TPT!

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Oral Language

Tens in the Den

If your students are making the Bear's Den from back on this post here is a little minimal-prep math game you can play before they start writing!

It's called Tens in the Den and will help your students work with place value.

Tens in the Den

You need:

• counters in 2 colors
• den (use our page or a circle of paper)

To play:

• tell students: the den is quiet and dark, so close your eyes and scoop a small handful of counters from the dish
• put your counters in your den
• pink are worth 10 and green are worth 1, find the total
• students work towards finding the total of their den and can record their work on their math journal or on a whiteboard

Here the student has made 24. 

 

If you have students not ready for place value work you can play with a dice and have them build a set of ten. They roll and take single cubes from a dish until they reach ten and then trade for a ten block. 

I hope your learners have fun finding the tens in the den! 

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math warm up, no prep activities

Winter, Thanksgiving and Christmas Craft Writing Activities

I would love to share with you a more detailed look at a few more of the craft projects from One Page Crafts Pack 4. I first shared some with you back here.

If you haven't seen these before, my one-page crafts are projects your students can work on that take just one page of prep. 

They are:

• engaging
• combine scissor skills and creativity
• can be a stimulus for writing (papers included)

Lots of teachers tell me they love to enlarge them onto big paper (A1 here in Australia) or thicker craft paper. 

Use pencils, crayon, markers, watercolors or a combination of all of them to help students do their best work. 

Let's take a look at a few of the 20 projects included:

Christmas Candy Cane

Talk about repeating color patterns with your learners as they alternate red and white to complete the candy cane. An option without a face is included too! Why not add some glitter or smelly pens for extra sparkle. 

Hot Chocolate Craft

This cutie will get your class warmed up for winter! Add some cotton on the marshmallows or draw a mug design on the plain version for additional creative options. 

Santa Craft

This one is a favorite and combines several fine motor skills. Color or paint, cut the vertical lines and then roll them around a pencil for a curled beard! 

Writing papers accompany each of the crafts in this series which will help you turn a creative experience into a literacy session too!

Students could:

• write a word bank
• write a poem
• write a procedural text about how they made their craft
• write a sentence
• write a story 

Find all 20 crafts and writing paper pack over in our store!

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Christmas, Craft for Kids, Winter

End of School Year Gift

End-of-year student gifts have become a lovely tradition for many teachers, but it can be a task that takes additional time, costs you extra money and will chew into your planning time and thoughts. If you need something practical but fun I have an idea to share with you today. 

One end-of-school-year gift for a class I helped teach (job sharing on a first grade) was a Rainbow Paddle Pop (ice cream on a stick). 

The kids got an ‘early mark’ on the last day of school (we sat outside the classroom, in the warm Australian heat of the afternoon, gentle sea breeze blowing 2 minutes before the end of the school day). We talked, enjoyed an ice cold sweet treat and waited for the final bell of the year together. 

It was perfect. The gift from the teachers to the students was 

• enough 
• an experience
• a final moment as a class community
• something we had not done before
• waste-less (cardboard box, paper wrapper, biodegrade-able stick)

The best part was the kids absolutely loved it and I hope many of them remember it as much as I do. 

We've all had a big few years and teachers especially. Take an honest look at your to-list as we approach the end of the year and edit some of the time-consuming or stressful tasks you've created for yourself. How could you could you better approach some of your hopes with something equally as significant for your class community but less intrusive on your energy.

Whatever you do for the end of the school year or holiday celebrations with your students, do so knowing that you have worked hard this year, your work is appreciated and that you are enough. 

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End of School Year

Bears in the den

Have you used the All About pages in our Pond Coloring Club? They provide a consistent framework for helping your little learners begin to write or plan informational texts. 

Here is one for bears! 

Read some books as a class to research information on grizzly bears. The National Geographic website is always an excellent source for children too.

Ask your students to recall some information you found as a class and do some collaborative writing. Record a few simple facts that your young learners can practice reading. They can then copy some facts down on their page, retrieving it from your modelled writing chart or encourage them to go back to the books and website and find more to write about. 

After writing your students could combine their pages for a class book about bears or put them on display to celebrate their developing writing skills. 



Also in the Coloring Club today we have a quick craft template for integrating with your work work. Your students will write words in the bear's den.

Focus on words that include the -en family and make a class chart or sound-them-out on your board. 



Encourage your learners to find more words for bear to put in his den!



Here is a little no-prep game to play with your en words:

Bear's Noisy Den

• tell your students that bear is getting ready for a big sleep in the den
• because Bear will be in the den all winter long, he needs to finish eating all the food and tidy up, so it's cosy and neat for a peaceful sleep
• bear has found lots of letters in the den that are making sounds
• listen for the letter sounds and say the word, helping Bear to tidy them up
• (now sound out words for your students to listen and say):
• d-e-n
• h-e-n
• m-e-n
• p-e-n
• t-e-n
• y-e-n
• z-e-n
• th-e-n

I hope your students have fun learning about bears or other animals in the All About pages - if you have a request for a new page, be sure to let me know!

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Writing