Gingerbread Handwriting House

Make some adorable gingerbread houses to display after your children have completed their morning handwriting fluency.

Here are the steps: 

After drawing, provide watercolors for painting and display them when dry.

If you love having a gingerbread theme in your lessons and classroom activities, welcome your children to the school day with a door display or interactive attendance board. Write student names on the gingerbread to be moved onto a board each morning when they arrive!

Here is one of my favorites:

I hope your students have fun making their gingerbread house! Join me on my newsletter so we can stay connected. 

You may also like:

• Gingerbread House Tracing Pages
• Sweet Batch Classroom Gingerbread Door Display
• More fluency practice for handwriting

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Drawing, Handwriting

Snowman Craft and a Math Warm Up

My Snowman craft now has more options for you! Your children can use a Quick Craft template or 2 Page Craft template to make a snowman for display. I hope you love these new additions and they make it easier for you to differentiate and prep for your lessons. 

 

Here is a snowman themed math warm up to engage your learners too!

Snowman Melting

Order 3 cards before the snowman melts! 

• use number cards (1-100) from the Math Kit
• place them face down
• children flip one card each to start building their snowman (a snowman is a 3 cards sequence from smallest to largest number)
• the next card they flip can only be added to their snowman if it is larger than the first (if not it is kept in a separate snow-pile)
• children keep flipping and attempting to build their 3 card sequence 
• if they have a snow-pile of 10 discarded numbers before their snowman is built, their snow has melted and they must start again

Remove the competitive element if it is not suitable for your class. 

As you can see below, a snowman was built with numbers 25-38-42 before a pile of 10 cards was created. 

Have fun with numbers today! if you'd like more math resources to engage your students, you'll love the Math Kit bundle.

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Math Kit, math warm up

Let's Draw an Arctic Hare

Let's draw an Arctic hare! 

You'll need:

• art paper
• crayons
• watercolor

Here are the steps:

Find some printable steps in my TPT store.

• here are some more Arctic Animal drawings
• join me more regularly on my newsletter

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Directed Drawing

Scribble an Evergreen Tree - A Winter Art Project

Practice skills for handwriting and create an art project for display in the classroom for winter with evergreen trees scribbled by your children. 

You'll  need:

• art paper
• crayons
• watercolors

Here are the steps:

I hope your learners enjoy creating their tree. They could also:

• draw a beach background, some crows in the branches and the sun in the sky (if you're in Australia)
• draw white stars in the background so they shine through (crayon resist) after applying the paint
• have more fun with another Christmas or winter tree learning activity

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Art Ideas for Kids, Christmas, Scribble Drawings

Snowmen Tracing Page Activities

Use the pages from my Snowmen Tracing Page Worksheets pack to make a delightful snowy display in your classroom or learning space. 

Have students:

• trace with crayon or marker
• add watercolor (we used just a hint of blue around the edge of the snow)
• glue on some soft cotton 

Having students gently. pinch and pull a ball of cotton apart is both a good sensory and fine motor activity. 

Let students choose one of the 20 snowmen in the pack so you have a good selection for the display.

After the display comes down, students can take them home or

• add them to an art/craft folder or journal
• attach them to craft sticks to make a puppet for language and story play
• glue them to a folded sheet of card to make a winter card for someone

Find this tracing pack and more over on my website page!

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Craft for Kids, Tracing, Winter

Square Paper Frog Craft

I love sharing folded-paper crafts with you - here is a cute little frog from our Pond Coloring Club! After creating them you can combine them for a classroom display on your bulletin board, hang them from a string line or sit them on a theme table for language games and play. 

Here is a short video for you to see it being made:

Crafts are a minimal-prep way to help support your students' fine motor skills, creativity and providing an experience for students to recount or to inspire their writing. 

You may also like:

• to get my email newsletter for more ideas
• additional paper folding and cutting crafts
• to find the template in the Coloring Club website

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frogs, Paper Folding Craft

More Ideas for Number Display Posters

A display of numbers can contribute to your kindergarten math activities as well as adding some color and fun to your classroom. Students can reference number order and counting skills, participate in daily counting and use them in games and warm ups.

I just added some Rainbow Trucks to the Number Display Bundle, available in my TPT store and would love to share with you a few ways to use them.  

Matching Mats

• have students make a set of objects (plastic math bears or hippos work well) to match the number on each truck

Comparing Numbers

• ask students to take 2 trucks and build each number with cubes
• ask students to talk about which has more/less
• ask students to add more blocks to one of the trucks so they become equal
• talk together about equality in numbers - making groups the same

Puzzles

• cut the trucks and make matching puzzles
• shuffle the sections and have students match the numeral to the dots

Addition

• for a challenge, create addition problems by placing 2 puzzle parts together (that do not match)
• ask students to find the total
• they can use equipment - like place value blocks - to support their addition
• this is a practical way to introduce 2 digit addition 

I hope your students love math and numbers a little more today after playing with the Rainbow Trucks!

If you receive my newsletter you'll get a free Gingerbread Man truck as a gift from me this week. Here is a fun math warm up to play to support subtraction fluency (taking away 2 quickly).

Be sure to check the Math Warm Up page on my website for more ideas and support.

Find the printable truck number display posters in my store HERE

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Addition, num

Sorting Leaves Math Warm Up

If you've had lovely of leaves up on display in your classroom (like these ones from our Pond Premium Coloring Club), when you take them down use them in your math games and warm ups before sending them home with students. 

Here is one idea:

Leaf Litter

• put all the leaves in the middle of your play space and a stack of face-down number cards
• children take turns to flip a card and count the matching number of leaves, demonstrating 1:1 correspondence as they count
• the rest of your small group watch and listen to check the accuracy of the count
• keep taking leaves until they have all been gathered
• extension: flip 2 cards and find/count the difference (e.g. flip 5 and 9 - difference is 4) 

I hope your students are excited for math today and this warm up has you feeling supported and excited to teach. If you’d love more ideas for math and early-years learning be sure to join my newsletter so you don’t miss out!

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math warm up

Scribble Koala Craft

Today I'd love to show you how to make an adorable koala display for your classroom that features your students emergent handwriting, cutting and fine motor skills.  

With a few simple cuts and some crayon scribbles they can make a koala to add to a collaborative class display. 

• each student needs a piece of thin card or thick paper
• have them cut a curved line across the top, flip this and glue it on
• now have them shape the ears with two more curved lines
• provide crayons to have your students draw the koala's features - a face, some fluffy ears and downstroke lines for the fur

Watch this short video to see the steps:

Paper crafts like this one are ideal creative activities to help students learn fine motor skills for writing and to explore their own ideas by making something.

Although it can be challenging to help a whole class of students over time their confidence will grow and they will complete them independently and uniquely. Provide a box of paper scraps, scissor and glue and let them explore in free time!

You may also like:

• additional paper folding and cutting crafts
• to learn more about paper craft techniques
• a koala directed drawing activity with writing paper included

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fine motor, Paper Folding Craft

Hen Needs Ten Math Warm Up

In kindergarten your children will practice making ten from any number 1-9. Here is a math warm up to help you engage your students during that practice. 

It combines counting a set of counters and numeral cards. Before an activity like this, practice making ten without numerals (joining 2 groups of counters or blocks). After activities like this one, you could try practice with numeral cards only. 

If you are making hens or teaching a farm unit of work, this will link in nicely. 

Hen Needs Ten Math Warm Up

• give each child at your table a number card
• say Hen Needs Ten (if you have a hen toy or craft you can hold it up for engagement) as you make a number with counters or block
• students all look at their own number card and the students with a coordinating number says 'Hen, I can make ten' as they pass you the card
• this warm up also facilitates language, listening and speaking for your little learners

Paper folding crafts like this hen, are a great way to encourage creativity, imagination and play. Here you can incorporate it into your math activities too. 

I hope you have fun with numbers this week.

You may also like:

• Find more paper-folding activities
• To get my email newsletter for more ideas
• my Coloring Club website

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Making 10, math warm up, Paper Folding Craft

Handwriting Drawing and Art - A Rainy Day

Help your children get some essential fluency practice for handwriting while also creating an art project with this directed drawing project. You can follow along here on the video:

To create their rainy day picture, children will:

• draw from left to right across the page
• build strength and stamina for writing
• make line patterns - waves, zig zags and downstrokes as well as repeated curved lines 

As well as drawing and painting on big art paper you have the option to complete it on standard paper with this free page in our Pond Coloring Club! 

I hope you and your children enoy doing this creative project. If you're looking for more ways to support emerging writing skills, you may like to take a closer look at my new big shape tracing page pack which has a focus on zig-zags. As well as tracing with pencil or crayon your learners can paint or shade them with pencil before cutting them out for display.

A variety of zig-zags are included on the echidnas, porcupines and hedgehogs. Find them in my TPT store today.

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Directed Drawing, Handwriting

Quick Addition

Get your Fluent Five cards out from the Math Kit, I have a new math warm up idea for you that your students will love. It's fast, fun and supports them in their emerging ability to instantly recognize number pictures and can lead to more confidence in early addition.

You will:

• have your children look closely at 2 cards as you hole them up
• flash 2 cards briefly 
• encourage your children to total the number of black dots they see altogether

In the photo below, students would call 4 after quickly counting (or recignizing) the 4 black dots.

Play before your math lesson or workshop as a warm up. 

Math Warm Ups ideally focus on previous taught content or some finer aspect of a larger concept you are teaching that the students can grasp readily. The idea is lots of practice, engagement and opportunity for all students to be active in their learning. Find more ideas here on the blog to ignite you math time! 

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Addition, math warm up, Subitizing

Skip Counting Math Warm Up

Having students practice repeated addition as much as possible in math games and activities will support their future work in multiplication as well as build addition fluency. 

Here is a math warm up using my Bear 5 Cards that is fast to prep and will engage your students instantly.

 


They each have

• a bear card
• 5 dice

They roll each dice and upon getting a 5 add it to their game card - on one of the bear's circles. The aim is to get 5 fives. 

When the 5 have been rolled they can finish their activity by skip counting by 5s as they slide each dice down to the number line. 

I’m so glad you could be here with me on the blog to get some fun ideas for making math engaging and skill focused. Be sure to follow along on Facebook too so I can share more with you!

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math warm up, skip counting

2 Triangle Owl Handwriting Craft

Here is a paper craft for your children that provides an opportunity to practice essential handwriting fluency practice, early cutting skills and drawing.

Have your children draw line patterns from left to right across the page to support their emerging handwriting skills. You can model for them:

• a straight line
• a zig zag line
• a loopy line
• a jumping or hopping line
• a wave or dipping line

To make the owl, your children can:

• fill a page with pattern lines (or draw them on after the owl is made)
• snip two triangles from the sides
• glue the triangles on as ears
• draw a face

Once make the owls make a lovely classroom display or stimulus for writing. Students could:

• research and record some facts about an owl
• write a descriptive paragraph about an owl
• write a short poem about an owl

Thanks for stopping by my blog today, if you love this idea, please feel welcome to learn more about:

• other owl teaching ideas
• additional paper folding and cutting crafts
• my Coloring Club website

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Handwriting, Paper Folding Craft