Cloud Craft - a display for the New Year

Have your children do some handwriting fluency practice today. They can do

• 2 rows of hops from left to right
• 2 rows of forward and backward curls
• 2 rows of the dive pattern

They can paint it too - practicing the movements again by going over their crayon or pencil lines.  

After painting encourage them to cut it into a cloud shape for display with some hot air balloons! Here on this display I've used just one page from the 4 included in the New Year Craft to make it in less time. 

Over in the Pond Coloring Club you can find a cloud craft if you'd like your learners to have a shape to trace. They can make two and paste them back-to-back. pop some cotton in the middle to make it soft and squishy. 

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3 in a Row Math Warm Up

Use the 0 to 100 number cards from my Math Kit for a quick warm up. The focus will be ordering 3 numbers. 

• shuffle the number cards (all to 100, or just a selection - e.g. 1-30)
• flip the first card
• this number is the first in the sequence - tell students the number 
• ask students to say the numbers (numeral identification) as you flip more and identify when you get the next in sequence (26)

• keep flipping and saying numbers until you get 3 in a row
• to finish give each of your students are small set of cards and ask them to put them in order from smallest to biggest while you gather your things for your mini math lesson etc

I hope your students have fun with numbers today!

• find these cards and more for your Math Kit
• find more math warm up ideas
• play an extended 5 in a Row game after this warm up

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New Year Door Display

Refresh your classroom door, bulletin board or interactive attendance display with some soaring hot air balloons for the new year.

The balloons are provided in two color options and each in three sizes. You can type your student names or write them on in pen. 

The message board is ready for you to insert your own uniques welcome message or classroom name. You could write or type:

• welcome to our classroom
• let's soar in 2024
• the sky is the limit
• soaring into 2024
• soaring into school

Having a display of student names is a lovely way to welcome your students to their classroom each day. Find this one and more in our growing collection. 

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Door Displays

Star Points Math Warm Up for Numbers to 5

 

If you have the star cards from my Math Kit resource, here are some quick math warm up ideas for numeral identification.

Point and Say

• make a pointer from a craft stick and sticker
• point to numbers around the star in random order and have your children call the number

Point and Say 2 More

• play as above and have children call the number that is 2 more

Star Cover

• cover a number on the star and have your children tell you the missing number
• increase the speed to make it more challenging as they progress

I hope you have fun with numbers and math play today! You can:

• find the Math kit in my store
• find more ideas for teaching numbers to five  

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Math Kit, math warm up

Bear Pair Coloring Page

Do your children love to color, be creative and make things? Find these new pages in my Pond Coloring Club - I drew them recently and they're ready to print!

In premium club you can find:

• a puppy who paints
• some bears to match
• a rhinoceros beetle to draw 
• some lines to practice
• a happy sunny beach for penguin and polar bear

As well, you'll find a shape snowman. Encourage your children to think about shapes and make a different design before they glue it together or make some more creations with pattern blocks.

If they love creating pictures with pattern blocks, these activity cards will help engage and support them.  

If you'd like to find more information about the Pond Coloring Club, pop over to the website and you're welcome to contact me with your questions. 


At this time of year, your children may also like:

• to fold a paper Santa
• to make a 2024 hot air balloon
• to scribble sketch some winter birds

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Coloring Page

Fold a Santa

Paper folding is a wonderful fine motor activity and your children's work can  make beautiful classroom displays! If you have students new to folding, here is a Santa they can make with just 4 folds. 

You'll need a square of paper to start.



Fold it in half.

Fold one corner down and over the base for the beard.

Fold the corners in from the sides.

Glue these folds down at the back.

Flip it over and decorate! Color a red hat, draw 5 circles - 2 eyes, 3 cheeks and a nose. Finish with a pom pom on top.

If your children need more practice cutting circles, they may like to make a Christmas tree too! Just cut a long rectangle from green and then circles from scrap colored paper for decoration.

Find more paper folding activities here on the blog!

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Christmas, Paper Folding Craft

Missing Numbers Math Activity ideas

Support your kindergarten students in math by helping them learn to count forward beginning from a given number within 1-10 using my fun Numberpillar cards! They will write the missing number by counting forward and reviewing the number before and after. 

Here are two more ideas to use them:

Addition Cards

• have students find the total of the two numbers shown on the cards
• use counters to further help 'counting on' and other addition strategies

Missing Number Warm Up

• use as flashcards for a warm up or review
• have students call the missing number to you instead of writing it

The cards are fast to prep - just print, laminate and cut. Use them with dry erase markers - here students will get valuable practice writing numerals. 

• after using them in a guided-math situation, leave them in a bin or caddy for independent and free math play
• be sure to have students clean them of dry-erase marker at the end of your math session so they are ready for the next day
• use my Missing Number Snake Cards for numbers to 50

Have fun in math today! You may also like:

• find the caterpillar cards in my store
• more Math Warm Ups
• find out about my free newsletter

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math warm up, numbers to ten

Christmas Pudding Drawing

Help your children draw a Christmas pudding with the lines they've been practicing for handwriting fluency. After drawing they can paint or color for a bulletin board or classroom display. 

Here are the steps to draw a Christmas Pudding:

To support your emerging writers and drawers you may also like my new Christmas Pudding tracing page pack. It includes 3 different project styles.

• each page features simple lines to trace and master - circles, zig zags, curves
• practice numbers 1-10 by counting the fruit
• draw-more pages included which encourage students to draw as well as trace

I hope your students love drawing and being creative today! 

Find:

• Christmas Pudding tracing pages
• More drawing projects
• More activities and ideas for Christmas 

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Scribble Drawings

Santa Name Craft

Have Santa visit your classroom with some happy and bright name crafts. Each student in your class can make their name for a class collaborative display.

I've included upper and lower case chunky-letter parts to add to one of 6 Santa options, including an Australian Santa with beach hat! 

These pieces can be printed on colored paper, or print them on white paper and have your students paint or color before assembling their craft.

Find all the templates ready to print, over in our TPT store.

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Christmas, name craft

Little Winter Bird Art Project

Draw some sweet little birds for a creative winter art project. Once your students can scribble or sketch the basic shape they can draw more to create their own winter scene. 

Here are some simple steps to follow (or a printable page is available in our Pond Coloring Club - see base of this post).

Once drawn your children can color with crayon and then watercolor some extra detail too. Gently pull some cotton apart to glue and make a soft snow detail.

I hope your children enjoy their creative time today! After completing the art project:

• ask them to describe their bird 
• support their verbal description with additional adjectives etc
• record some of the descriptive words as your students talk and discuss their art and make a class chart for a writing project to come back to on another day

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Art Ideas for Kids

One More Than Snowman Math Warm Ups

Here are 2 math warm up ideas to help your children practice the one more than strategy for beginning addition. You can use the snowman dot cards from my Math Kit resource or any dot cards you have. 

Making Numbers

• use the plain snowman as a number mat
• students flip a card and make a number that is one more than the number shown
• use counters, blocks, cubes or a dry erase marker

Flip to Find

• turn one card over from a face-down pile
• the aim is to find the number that is one more than this number
• students keep flipping and saying numbers until the card is found

I hope your children have fun with numbers and counting today! Find out more about the Math Kit and Math Warm Ups over on my website!

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Addition, math warm up

Keep Reading on the Holidays

Encourage your children to keep a love of books over the holidays with an encouraging bookmark. 

They can color, fold and glue their bookmark to take home and keep track of their page and book count. 

Find it in the premium library of my Pond Coloring Club ready to print and decorate along with more creative and happy pages for hours of fun!

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Coloring Page

Crazy Christmas Trees

If you're looking for a way to engage your children in an afternoon fine motor activity - this craft is ideal! The Crazy Christmas Tree has simple shapes to cut and it can be assembled independently. 

Your children will enjoy using bright, happy crayons to first color and then  contribute to a vibrant classroom display.



It's available to print right away from my TPT store - everything one child needs will fit on a single sheet of paper.

More options

• leave the star off for a winter tree
• leave the face off for a plain Christmas tree
• let students press stickers, finger-paint or dab the dot decorations

• you may also like these Christmas tree activities 
• here is an action rhyme to learn along with the craft
• join my newsletter for more creative learning ideas

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Christmas

Handwriting Fluency Practice and a Reindeer

Big paper and crayons are great for your children to use for their daily fluency practice and handwriting. You can turn some of them into drawings, backgrounds and art projects too.

Here is reindeer to draw from some fluency practice patterns. 

At this special time of year, your children may also like:

• 2D Shape reindeer pages to color
• more directed drawing activities

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Handwriting

Missing Number Snowman

Are your children learning to count forward from a given number? My Missing Number Snowmen activity cards will support them to count, count-on and write numbers. They will order of numbers, thinking about numbers before and after, next and before.

The set covers numbers up to 120. If you're working with kindergarten or PreK you could print a smaller set for students to work with - e.g. numbers to 20. 



After completing the cards, put them together to create a giant number line. This is a fun way to conclude your math learning and also review and extend the skills you've been practicing. Students can work together as a small group of learners to do this cooperatively - encourage math talk and discussion as they put the cards together. 



As well as writing numbers directly onto each card with a dry-erase marker, students can use them as task cards, writing on a mini-whiteboard or in their math journal. This can create a faster activity with less time cleaning the cards. 



Use the activity cards for a counting math warm up (with numbers written or not). Point to each number or snowball and have students count. 



Here are some more ideas:

I hope you children have fun with numbers today. Find the snowmen ready for math fun over in my TPT store!

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Counting to 120, math warm up