From the Pond

31 March 2023

Snowdrop Art Project

Challenge your students to draw a snowdrop as a spring art project! I have the steps provided for you as a free page in the Pond Coloring Club this week!

Spring flowers was a request from one of you on Instagram -thank you! Please always remember to let me know if there is something you'd like to see. I was thinking next week I will make a page for my Australian classroom friends - perhaps a Snowflake Melaleuca that I know is flowering for Autumn here at the moment.

Your students can draw and color directly on the page or make an enlarged version on big art paper.

After drawing they could:

draw more spring flowers to help create a classroom bulletin board garden
help you chart some compound words - like snowdrop
discuss signs of spring with you as a class talking lesson

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

Directed Drawing, Spring

30 March 2023

Spring Chick Craft

Do you have our Spring Chick craft? I've just revised it to give you more options to cater for your range of learners. As well as the original template version you can prep an activity in minutes with the One Page Craft page!

The Quick Craft page will help you easily combine writing and creativity. Students can color and write before cutting the single outline. Display them together and encourage students to read each others' writing.

To encourage even more fine motor practice, ask your students to fringe cut the edge of their chicken. Using the tip of their scissors they will snip while turning their craft with the other hand.

Find the updates along with the original options in our TPT store!

Craft for Kids, Easter, fine motor, Spring

28 March 2023

Butterfly Place Value

Get your students excited for place value to 100 with our Hop to It pack - perfect for spring!

5 engaging hands-on activities are included for working with tens and ones!

Here is a sneak peek at the butterfly puzzles:

Students find 2 wing pieces for each 2 digit number that make the butterfly's number.

Ideas for extension:

ask students to build with real blocks too
find the total of the 'double' (number made by combining the picture and the objects - e.g. student would discover 58 with the 29 puzzle)
encourage students to 'round' to the nearest ten (make 30 with the 29 puzzle)
find the difference (early subtraction) between this number and the next ten

If you're in our Pond Coloring Club your students make also like to make a shape butterfly. Along with their paper craft skills you can play a math warm up!

Butterfly's Shape Wings

Tell students that a hexagon block (like the top wing) is worth 10 when they hear it drop into a cup. A circle (counter) is worth one.

Now make some 2 digit numbers by dropping the shapes into cups and have your students call the total by calculating the tens and ones!

I hope your students love these activities and have fun in math this week!

Find more warm ups for helping your students have fun in math!
Find more for place value
Find more for butterflies

math warm up, Place Value, Spring

27 March 2023

Mice Multiplication Warm Up

Help your students become confident with multiplication and division concepts by regularly having them make and calculate equal groups, rows and arrays!

Here is a warm-up activity you can use at the small group math activity table before your main lesson. It will encourage students to make equal rows and calculate the total.

By having them make several different arrays - and modifying it rather than clearing it completely before they start another - they may also begin to see connections and relationships between sets of numbers.

Mice Multiplication Math Warm Up

use the mouse craft from this post
students roll a dice to get a number for each row (or use number tiles or a spinner)
students make 5 equal rows of this number and find the total
option: record with words, numerals or a picture in your math journals

Let's take a look with an example:

Here the student has rolled a 3, so makes 5 rows of 3 and totals 15.

Now the student rolls a 4. The student modifies each row to now include 4 counters.

Encourage them to use a different color.
Ask them to say each row: e.g. 4 and 4 and 4 and 4 and 4 makes 20
Can they see that it is now just one extra 5 with the pink counters?

Observe and listen to see how students are working and thinking about numbers as the arrays change.

Find more math warm ups through the website!

math warm up, Multiplication

Plants Needs Craftivity

If you're learning about the seasons, living things, plants or spring in your classroom your students can combine their emerging fine motor skills with a creative craft!

Make some beautiful happy flowers for your classroom display along with a writing project to learn more about plants and what they need!

Print the template pieces on white or colored paper and ask your students to shade/paint them.

I've included lots of options for you to make it perfect for your learners. Choose from:

with a face
without a face
with a plant pot
without a plant pot
complete version (minimal cutting)
all on one page (one page per student)
traditional template version (each piece can be copied on a different color)

As well as the mini-flip book, there are other writing options:

describing words for flowers/plants
labelling a flower/plant

Find it all ready for you to do with your class today, over in our store!

Craft for Kids, Spring

26 March 2023

First Folding for Paper Craft

If you're helping your students with paper craft techniques, folding is a great place to start. Concertina folding can help them make some interesting and creative projects.

A practical activity is to encourage them to fold their paper scraps when cutting something in class. A long thin rectangle can be made into a mouse!

Just add come circle ears, some whiskers and draw a face!

Demonstrate for your students how to cut a circle from scrap paper.

first show them how to make a small piece to hold
remind them how to safely hold scissors and have them pointing forward
show them how to slowly turn the paper with one hand and keep the scissors forward with the other
encourage them to keep trying

If you'd prefer to have your students use a guideline for cutting - I made a printable template for you - it's free today over in the Pond Coloring Club! Students can trace the numbers to five, color, cut and fold!

learn more about paper craft techniques
find more mouse teaching ideas
your students will love our number crafts

counting, numbers to five, Paper Folding Craft

25 March 2023

Strawberries with Handwriting

Incorporate some essential pre-writing or handwriting practice when your children make a strawberry using our printable page from the Pond Coloring Club!

They can:

count the ten seeds
put counters or blocks on the seeds to practice 1:1 correspondence
crayon before they paint or color with pencils

The patterns they can practice are:

on the seeds, clockwise and anticlockwise spirals
on the leaves - downstroke slanted lines and then back the other way to make a crosshatch (upstroke slanted lines)
a left to right jumping pattern over the seeds

Once they're all completed you can also use them for a counting-by-tens number line. Each strawberry has ten seeds so count to discover how many seeds for the whole strawberry patch!

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

Craft for Kids, Handwriting

22 March 2023

Place Value with Tens and Ones

Do you have this page ready for your children to explore and color? They may discover all the 3s!

3 clouds
3 windows
3 hearts on each side of the house
a plant sectioned into 3
3 birds
3 parts to the roof
3 on the rainbow

Maybe they could draw some more 3s?

Here is a game you can play with it before they draw or color. They will build 3 tens to make 30!

provide some dice and let your students roll and add counters to the garden to they have 10

as soon as they score 10 they can trade for a window (use a square pattern block or similar)
keep rolling and building tens

when they have 30 they win - and can color!

I hope your learners love integrating some place value with their page!

House 30

I added a bright set of number posters for a Little House Math Display to the growing bundle today! Here is a game you can play with one (or a few) of the posters. Use them as game mats along with:

dice (9-12 sided)
counters

Make 20 House

challenge students to roll 2 more numbers to complete a perfect 20
for example, they may first roll a 5
ask them to show each of their additional numbers with counters

You can ask your students to record the addition they discovered if you like - on a whiteboard or in their math journal.

Find more low-prep ideas for math HERE
Find the number house printables HERE
here is another engaging activity with an embedded visual for making-20

Addition, Making 20, math warm up

20 March 2023

Strawberry Patch

$MATH WARM UP STRAWBERRY$

Encourage your students to draw a picture or write a story on the strawberry patch themed paper in the free coloring club library today!

Before they start, you could also have a math warm-up or mini lesson on equal groups for multiplication.

Strawberry Patch

roll 2 dice and generate a 'rows of' sentence - e.g. 4 rows of 3
use red counters as strawberries and make the arrangement/array
ask students to find the total
introduce skip counting if appropriate for your learners (3, 6, 9, 12)

If you're not yet a member of our Pond Coloring Club - I'd love to have you - it's free!

Some time today your students may also like to find the odd strawberry out:

Find more activities for arrays in our store as well!

Arrays, math warm up

19 March 2023

Bird Pairs

Can you find the odd bird out? I thought you might like a puzzle to start your weekend! You can also project this page on your board for your students to find too.

If they have fun with the puzzle, support their visual discrimination skills and ave them find all the matching bird pairs on this page. It's in the Pond Coloring Club ready for you to print!

I hope you're having a lovely big rest this weekend - if you'd like to hear more from me through the week be sure to hop on the email newsletter list - and select Super Fan!

You may also like:

Visual Discrimination

18 March 2023

Repeated Subtraction for Early Division

Here is an idea for your Monday math warm up - especially if you've made 4 leaf (or even 3 leaf) clovers for St Patrick's Day.

Have students work with numbers by distributing counters or clips around their clover bit-by-bit to make equal groups. Model repeated subtraction as early division and revise your work on equality (groups of the same quantity).

You can choose to give your students a set number of clips to work with or use a dice. If using a dice, talk about leftovers and how we can't use them as it must be a fair-share.

Students:

roll a 10 sided dice (or similar)
count a matching number of equipment pieces
distribute the materials by repeated subtraction around the leaves

As it is a warm up, there is no need to write down numbers, instead encourage yoru students to talk about what they found: 8 counters shared on 4 leaves is 2 counters each.

16 March 2023

4 Leaf Clover from a Paper Circle

Make a four leaf clover cutie with just a paper circle! This craft will help students with fine motor skills for craft:

paper folding
cutting a curved line
free cutting some paper scrap circles

Start with a green circle and fold in half.

Fold again into quarters.

And once again into eighths.

Draw a curved line for students to cut. Keep the scrap for the stem of the clover.

Open and voila! A four leaf clover ready to decorate.
Use the scraps from the edge to make a stem and glue on.
Free cut some pink paper cheeks if you like.
Draw a face!

If you're looking for more creative, fun and skill based activities for St Patrick's Day - take a peek over here!

fine motor, Paper Folding Craft, St Patricks Day

15 March 2023

Finding difference in Numbers to 5

A teacher reached out for support with teaching fluency within 5. After teaching a few lessons from a textbook curriculum, assessment revealed that some students had no retention of number combinations within 5.

You can assess your students too. When your class is busy at work ask students to visit your desk one at a time. Have some counters out. Ask them a few verbal questions and note your observations:

Something like:

tell me the numbers that go with these to make 5: (3, 4, 2 - choose at random), or
how many more to make 5 (4, 2, 1)
what goes with (4, 3, 2 etc) to make 5

Note if your students

understand the question
count on fingers
start counting at one
take a while to think about it
tap their foot or the desk
reach for the counters on your desk
know the answers instantly

It your students lack confidence, strategies or have not developed fluency you will need to do more daily activities with numbers 1-5. Integrate math warm-ups and brain-breaks into your day to make time for this essential practice.

Dice Grid Games

Do you have our Dice Grid Games? As well as playing to the original instructions, make a matching puzzle-style game to help support students' visual memory of numbers in dot pattern arrangements. This visual memory will give them confidence to work mentally with numbers.
Today I added a page of the dot tiles to make it easier for you to create the square pieces.

If you don't have the panda game mat - it's still freely available back on this blog post.

Here is another idea for using the panda game mats:

Panda Roll

students will find the difference in numbers to 5
use the blank game mat
print and make this special dice (with includes visual support)
ask students to look at the dark dots when they roll and find the difference to 5 (the white dots)
e.g the difference between 2 and 5 as shown on the dice below is 3
the student takes 3 dice and places them on their panda mat
option: have them say 2 and 3 make 5

on the example below, the students rolls a 4 (difference of 1) and takes 1 counter
students keep rolling and adding numbers to their mat until one student fills their mat

I hope this game gives you some additional use for the activity mats you may already have printed ready to play!

Find the special dice in Google Drive: Panda Dice

Dice Grid Games, math warm up, number sense