From the Pond

27 September 2023

Leaf Crafts for Autumn

If you're looking to add some autumn activities to your learning program that incorporate essential fine motor practice and help decorate your classroom, my new One Page Craft Pack is just what you need!

It is the third set in the My First series is suitable for students who are just beginning to engage in fine motor, drawing and creative activities.

5 leaves are included in this pack - all different shapes and perfect for a unit of leaves falling or the weather
each has one big clear shape to cut
ideal for kindergarten - no glue assembly - simply draw, trace, color, paint and cut the craft
2 options are included for each craft - one with tracing and detail, one plain (students draw and add detail)

Find this new pack over in my store, as well as

Free Cloud and Wind Craft

With so many leaves on display in your classroom, some wind would be the perfect extra touch. You can have a talk to your students about weather too.

I've made a special one page craft of a cloud with wind. Students can:

edge the cloud and wind with blue crayon
practice drawing spiralled lines
add some cotton to the cloud

Find the wind one page craft here on the blog today, find it in Google Drive: Wind One Page Craft

Scratchy Cat

Today I wanted to share with you an art idea for your learners who are new to drawing and creating. They can scribble a scratchy pattern to make their cat patchy or use the technique on any drawing or art project they're working on.

Here I've used the Kitty Cat craft page from the Pond Coloring Club. It has a simple shape to cut, a spiral to trace and your students can use contrasting colors to create their scratchy scribbles.

cat craft

Show them how to scribble back and forth in one direction and then turn their art work to scribble across the other way.

An easy way to add some creative detail to their project!

if you're not yet in the Pond Coloring Club, we'd love to have you
be sure to join my free newsletter so you don't miss out on all my resource updates, ideas and freebies
draw scribble kids too

Art Ideas for Kids, Scribble Drawings

22 September 2023

Crazy Apple Craft

A teacher reached out to me to make some more crafts similar to the Crazy Christmas Tree because her students loved it so much. Here is the apple ready for your students to complete too.

with clear simple shapes to cut it's ideal for kindergarten
once completed they make a fun, happy banner or display

As well as bringing you news of this new resource I wanted to encourage you to reach out with feedback and ideas for new resources for your classroom. I love helping you save time and creating activities that I know will engage your students.

Ideas for this apple craft:

choose the format that best suits your students - a complete version is included that has no assembly or gluing components - perfect for Friday!
encourage students to draw or paint patterns too
make the face optional and let students either design their own or draw one
attach it to a craft stick for a mask in language and talking activities
use red, green and yellow paint
have students write about their apple craft to reflect on their making-experience (a worksheet is included)

Be sure to join my free newsletter, I have some special goodies planned for you next week and would love you to be the first to have news of them.

Apples, Craft for Kids

Loop the Leaves - Warm Up With Numbers

There's a lovely big Autumn tree to color in the Pond Coloring Club. It features lots of dots. You can have your children combine some work with numbers and drawing to create leaves to color.

Use some dice to guide them in making a leaf shape of a specific number.

Counting

Using a standard six sided die they can simply roll and count a set of dots to match

Difference

Use a 9 or 12 sided die and a standard die to roll together. They loop a leaf that shows the difference - e.g. a roll of 12 and 8 would create a leaf of 4 dots.

Adding

Use a numeral dice and dot doce to encougae counting-on for addition. Students count forward from the numeral, adding the extra dots - e.g. 6 and 3, students will count 6, 7, 8, 9.

You may also like to tell addition and subtraction stories as you math lesson along with this page, having students loop dots to match. Learn more about that activity on this blog post!

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

Maths Game

20 September 2023

Apple Friend Drawing

Help your students to write creatively about a little apple character by first drawing one on art or dedicated writing paper. They can combine a few simple lines to create their Apple Friend and then write a list of describing words before telling a story.

Here is one I share with you each year.

You can find the printable pack of directed drawing papers over in my TPT store or follow along here with the video:

For these I used:

big art paper
crayons
watercolors

Your students can do the same or simply use pencil and the paper in their writing books or on the printable pages from my pack.

September art and writing for kindergarten and first grade

Apple Friend Word Warm Up

On the day after you have completed your apple drawings, have a word-based language warm up before you reading or writing lessons. Have students contribute to a class collaborative word bank. As they suggest words you can scribe them and have the students read them back to you once you've finished. Display the chart for reference in creative writing and other lessons over the week. Ask them to suggest verbs or adjectives for Apple Friend: e.g. grow, drop, fall, sit, crunch, shine, red, shiny, happy, healthy, crisp, sweet

You may also like to see our full Directed Drawing collection over at TpT including this one that is especially made for back-to-school!

Apples, Directed Drawing, Language and Listening Games

19 September 2023

Cute Cupcake Drawing

Using the directed drawing coloring page we added to the Pond Coloring Club recently, your children can make these giant cake art projects to make a decorative or birthday banner for the classroom!

As well as painting, have your students practice a range of lines perfect for pre-writing practice:

zig zag line
downstrokes
left to write horizontal lines
circles
spirals

Find the steps to print over in the Pond Coloring Club, or you're welcome to follow the steps here:

Back-to-School Fun: A Quick and Easy Number Ordering Game for Young Learners

Fun and Easy Number Ordering Game for Back-to-School!

As we head into September and gear up for a new school year, I have a fantastic math game that’s perfect for kindergartners and first graders! This engaging and active game will help your students practice ordering numbers and is a great way to add some fun to your back-to-school routines.

What You Need:

Craft sticks:

Write numbers on them with a marker. Start with numbers 1-10 for younger students, or 1-20 for those ready for a bit more of a challenge.

A soft toy:

I used a cute apple toy, but feel free to get creative! You could use a friendly fox, a playful dragon, or any small, fun toy to make the game more exciting.

How to Play:

Prepare the Sticks:

Write numbers on the craft sticks and mix them up.

Distribute the Sticks:

Give each student or small group a set of sticks.

Start the Game:

On “go,” students flip their sticks, look at the numbers, and quickly put them in order—either from the smallest to the largest or from the largest to the smallest.

Grab the Toy:

The first student to correctly order their numbers gets to “grab” the toy (apple or whichever toy you’re using).

Check Accuracy:

Encourage the class to review and check the winner’s order to make sure everything is correct.

Reset and Play Again:

Put the toy back in the middle, shuffle the sticks, and play again.

Tips for an Extra Challenge:

Backward Counting:

As your students get more confident, you can add a twist by asking them to order the numbers from highest to lowest.

Increase the Range:

Gradually introduce higher numbers to keep the game fresh and challenging.

This game is perfect for a quick math warm-up before your main lesson or as a fun review activity at the end of the day. It’s easy to set up, can be prepped in seconds, and will quickly become a classroom favorite. Enjoy the game and have a fantastic back-to-school season!

Apples, math warm up, Ordering Numbers

18 September 2023

Bears on the Bus

Here are a few extra ways to use the bus game mats from Bears on the Bus (numbers to 20) and Ten Bears on the Bus.

Double Bears

roll a 1-3 dice (this happy face dice is from our Pond Coloring Club)
students make the number on one side of the bus
students make another equal group on the other side of teh bus, to show the double and find the total

bears on th ebus number game for kindergarten

Making Numbers in Rows of 5

students use the 20 frame bus
roll a 20 sided dice
make the number, adding bears or counters to the bus
make the number using sets of 5 of the same color
challenge students to say the number is rows of 5 - e.g. I made 12, it's 2 rows of 5 and 2 more

I hope your children have fun with numbers this week! You may also like:

Ten Frames

14 September 2023

Apple Classroom Door Display

Create a beautiful, bright happy welcome to your learning space with our apple themed display pieces. They can be used flexibly on classroom doors, windows, bulletin boards, drab wall spaces and more!

You can use all the included pieces or just a few. Make your display purely decorative or use the apples as name tags to help build classroom community.

More ideas:

write positive words or encouragement on the apples instead of student names
print 2 sets of name cards and create a name-choosing cup (see below)
use the blackline version to have students crayon, paint or color with pencils

If you're looking for more apple themed teaching resources and creative ideas, find them over on our website.

Apples, Door Displays

11 September 2023

House Count Cards - Some Warm Up Ideas

If you're teaching children to become fluent with numbers, addition and subtraction within 5 our House Count cards are here to help! The pack includes 30 activity cards and a math craft!

The visual support on each card (2 sets of dots 2-5, in non-standard arrangements within a 6 frame) provides an opportunity to support a range of foundational concepts while focusing on addition.

Use the houses as activity cards

Students will take a card and record the addition using a dry erase marker.
Before recording the addition they can cover each dot with a plastic math counter for hands-on counting.

Use the houses in a class listening math warm up

put 3 cards on display
clap-click a pattern to match the addition (pink=claps, blue=clicks)
e.g. the teacher performs clap, clap, clap, click - the students identify the house with 3 pink and one blue dot

Use the house cards for a comparing number warm up

put 2 cards up on display - one clearly to the left, one to the right
students quickly identify the house that has more, raising their matching hand to indicate

If you're teaching numbers to 5 in kindergarten, you'll love our bundle of games, activities, worksheets and crafts!

It includes this House Count pack and many more to engage and support your students.

numbers to five

09 September 2023

Apple 25 Math Warm Up

Engage your students at the small group learning table before your math lesson with a quick warm up. I just added these fun Apple 25 Grid Cards to the Math Kit bundle for you and they will help your students learn to count in arrays.

Play 25 Apples with your students!

students have their own apple card
they roll a standard dice and make equal rows
e.g. if they roll a 3, they make 3 rows of 5
encourage students to find the total
model how to skip count to find the total too

There are lots of other ways to use these apple cards, I'll share some more here with you soon. Keep the math warm up page on your favorites to find them quickly too.

08 September 2023

Fine Motor Detail on Art Projects

Transform any art project with some detail and fine motor skills using spots!

Students can add spots as a pattern on any art project they're working on - let's take a look at some ideas with the leopard!

This leopard (tracing page in the Pond Coloring Club) was first:

traced with crayon
watercolored
cut

Your children can add the spot detail by:

sponge painting with a special brush
coloring with marker (have them use a spiral stroke - making sure they've had lots of practice with big spirals on large pieces of paper or the ground using chalk, first)
stickers - using the thumb and index finger to peel the sticker off and put it into position on the circle
fingerprinting - watercolor will work fine here too and is very quick and easy to clean up

Once completed the leopards can be added to a classroom display too! I'd love to send you more ideas for creative learning - join my free newsletter over on the website.

Find more:

Art Ideas for Kids, fine motor

07 September 2023

Big Bus Roll and Color

Help your students learn to recognize non-standard dot patterns for numbers 1 to 6 with our new Big Bus Roll and Color page. It's in the Pond Coloring Club ready for you now.

Your children can roll a standard dice and color a window.

Other ideas:

as a teacher you clap a number, the children listen and count - they find a window to color
call a sequence of numbers and then stop - the next number the children say loudly (it's noisy on the bus) and then find it to color - e.g. you say 1, 2 3 - they say 4 and find a four
they roll 2 dice, find the difference and color it - e.g. roll a 6 and 2, color a 4

Challenge your students to trace around a set of windows that totals 10 with a marker after they have colored all the windows - e.g. 5, 4 and 1

And of course, they can color or paint their bus once the math fun is complete!

If you're not in the Pond Coloring Club yet, we'd love to have you - find out all about it HERE

You may also like:

Back to School, Coloring Page, Subitizing

05 September 2023

How to Fold a Paper Apple

Encourage your students to be creative, practice paper folding skills and help create a classroom display with this fun apple craft project!

You'll need:

a square of paper (yellow, red, green, pink or patterned)
paper craps
glue and scissors
black crayons or markers

Once completed you can attach them to a bulletin board, classroom door or string line display.

I hope your students love making their apple! Here are the steps so you can teach them:

Apples, Paper Folding Craft

04 September 2023

Curved Line Caterpillar

Using the drawing page from the coloring club you can encourage your children to draw curved lines to create a fun rainbow caterpillar!

Draw it directly on the page or on a big sheet of art paper.

Here are the steps:

After drawing, spend some time making more crayon lines and patterns, engaging in essential practice for handwriting - downstrokes, spirals, loops and more!

Finish with a light layer of watercolor to enhance the crayon lines and add more vibrant color!

If you're not yet in our Pond Coloring Club - what are you waiting for?! We'd love to have you with us. Find out more over on the website.

Directed Drawing