Fonts Fonts Fonts!




A new font has been released - Pond Font Junkie!

Can you tell I am having fun creating fonts? When I was in primary school and high school one of my all time favourite books was the very well worn 'lettering' book from the school book club sitting on my sister's book shelf. It was dark blue and was spiral bound. There was a copy in the school library too. It was ALWAYS out! It was one of those treasured books, that everyone wanted to borrow and when you got it, you felt very important. I was at primary school when we still had little yellow envelopes in the back of every book with cardboard index card to fill out when a book was borrowed..... oh how times have changed.

Try some of my free fonts too!

Premium Club


I have just sent out our first email for our Graphics Premium Club. Cute little 'shapies' with matching words in a scribble effect.

I am so excited about this new venture and the very encouraging support we have been shown already! Wow! I can't wait to see how this develops!

I am trying to track down three people that have purchased a membership, but have not emailed me yet. I really need your comtact details. You will not recieve teh graphics through TpT, but from me, so please contact me if you have got the membership but not heard from me yet!

Have a great day everyone!


 

Apple Classroom Door and Bulletin Board Display

Back to School Apple Bulletin Board

We did a huge makeover on one of our original products - our 'Apple Welcome Display'. A welcoming door display, bulletin board or window can give a warm and inviting entrance to your learning space and set the tone for your day (and year!).

Included is easy-to-cut-and-assemble pieces in full color and backline. Using the blackline version,  have your students color or paint them on their first day.

I have included a text-editable MS Powerpoint version of the student apples, so that you can type your names in if you prefer.

Included is:
  • decorative apple characters in 4 color options (red, pink, green, yellow)
  • plain apples in the 4 colors
  • students name apples in the 4 colors
  • text pieces that read "THIS CLASS is full of GOOD APPLES"
  • printable display letters that spell W-E-L-C-O-M-E in 3 color options (red, pink, yellow)
Use all the pieces, or just a selection to make it perfect for you. Teachers have told us that they have used the accent pieces around their classroom, on cubbies and tote trays too.


Carrie told us:
I had the best looking window the first week of school! Thank you!

Nicole said:
I received so many compliments on my classroom door! Adorable!
And the ESL Classroom said:
PERFECT! FABULOUS! thanks a lot! Completely recommend!


We were touched by these comments and are so glad our creations are making your life as a teacher happier and more exciting! 

For a touch of nostalgia, check out the first version of this very popular product of ours!


For more neat classroom ideas, be sure to follow our Classroom Pinterest Board

Classroom Needed + Getting Planned

Do you use a Day Planner? I LOVE mine and cannot function in the classroom without it! I created a very fancy version (Happy Garden theme) of my Day Planner last year and posted it on TpT and our website - in case you have not seen it, I have posted a few pictures at the end of this post. I custom made all the graphics and borders and just adore the colour scheme. I have included blackline pages for those on a limited print budget.

I print out all the pages for my Day Planner and get it bound (as I describe in the file). I quickly got tired of a big bulky folder and found that by having it bound, it was not as heavy to carry around. After a few years I now have my own binder... I went through a binding stage....everything got spiral bound! Seriously though, I do find it a very practical way to keep everthing together without using big heavy folders - it just takes a bit of organisation.

 Included pages in my file are:
- front cover page,
- 3 section title pages,
- 5 various Class Information grids,
- school event payment/note tracking grid,
- classroom helpers grid,
- classroom groups grid,
- classroom timetable and
- a weekly day overview



You can see my Happy Garden Day Planner HERE

Fonts for Commercial Use

A huge thank you to Teacher Tam who alerted me to a very cool app on the iPad that lets you create fonts! 

Well to say I am a little adicted interested in an understatement!

Here is one I made free for you. You can use it commercially if you are a small business teacher-author. If you're someone else - contact us for licensing details

free pond fonts


be Happy

be happy

I made this cute borders set this morning, and the combination of the colours and scribble effect made me very happy! It got me thinking about what makes us happy, and these are the top 3 things. I heard this list (or something very similar) on a morning TV show one day, and I have always remembered them. 

What makes you happy?

If you would like to see my Polka Scribble Borders, they are listed at TpT HERE They will add a splash of happiness to your next classroom or resource file project!


Polka Scribble Borders Graphics From the Pond

Sticky Note Secret Number

I have an idea to share with you today that you can use for math in:
  • whole group
  • math workshop 
  • guided math or
  • as a fast-finisher activity.
It will help your students think about numbers flexibly and creatively. 

As you can use it with any number, it is very easy to differentiate. 

How to Play Secret Number

The goal if for students to guess the number of the house. It is a secret. 
Before you play, laminate the game mat (available for free at the bottom of this post).

free number game
  • write a number on the door - keep it concealed from the other players
  • cover it with a sticky note (or two if they are thin cheap ones)
free secret number game
  • write 'clues' on the windows
  • clues could be number facts that have the secret number as the answer
number facts
  • other players guess the secret number by solving the clues
  • the owner of the house reveals the secret number by opening the door (lifting the sticky note)
  • change roles and allow another player to be the owner of the house
guess my number

You can download it for FREE from Google Drive:
Secret Number Sticky Note House Printable


I hope your students have fun with Secret Number and am so glad you stopped by our blog today!

You may also like:

Blending cvc Words


One of the many resources I have on-the-go at the moment is a cvc word work packet. Seriously, I am not sure where my parents failed me, but I am not happy until I have about 20 projects happening all at once....at least 20....it is a bad habit I cannot seem to break.....

There are three different ways to blend a cvc word when reading (and writing). A cvc word is a word that is in a consonant-vowel-consonant combination.

I always teach the c-v-c way first, but once my students have that under control, I quickly move onto the other two. Being confident in recognising instantly the word family clusters like ab, ad, id, ix, eg, et, op.... will really help with reading fluency.

Today, I worked with my daughter on some of the vowel-consonant word families.

We have been working with this Phonics Flipper for the last few weeks. I have to be honest and admit that I was initially more excited with this purchase than my daughter.... my kindergarten teacher blog friends will understand! You flip the pictures and letter cards around to make words.

word family flowers flip flap

We then made these word family flowers that come from one of newest resource packets. My daughter had valuable practise in cutting, folding, sound recognition, word blending and writing.

First we cut and folded the petals.

 We opened the petals out, and read each beginning sound first.
Then once all opened, we went around the flower from petal to petal blending the initial sound, with the word family centre.
 

We then cut out the stalk and petal shape, that we had printed on green paper.



We pasted the green flower stem onto a blue piece of paper.


We then glued the flower to the stem.


To finish, we wrote all the words from the flower, onto the lines on the leaves - in a very special new silver sparkly sharpie.


We finished our word work by matching some frog and lily pad puzzle cards. As my daughter is just beginning to learn to read these word families, I only gave her five to match up. I put five frogs in the pocket chart (on the fridge with magnets) and gave her the lily pads one at a time. We talked about the sounds, and I helped her for the first two - she quickly got the idea.

If you would like to see these products in my Teachers Pay Teachers store, click on the images below:



Treasure Chest Tens


I created this game to help my daughter start using ten frames. Her knowledge of counting and numerals is good, but I would like her to start developing some more advanced number concepts. The aim of the game is to fill ten frames and be the first to get to 100.

I love ten frames, because they help children to develop sight recognition of numbers from 1 to 10. This sight recognition will create a solid foundation for visualising addition and subtraction and working with numbers.

I have plain ten frames and a few commercially produced games, but additional theme-based resources like this one, help to keep little learners engaged. Some students I have taught over the years have needed to practise number work with ten frames for almost the entire year, so having quite a selection will make learning fun for these sorts of students.


The digital file I created comes with both small and large treasure chests. I suggest playing this game with groups of 2 students. Each student will need ten treasure chests - but this can be modified. I played 'first to 50' with my daughter, so we only needed 5 each.
I have also included a blackline version of the treasure chest, so you can print and photocopy to save on ink costs.
In the photo above you can see that I have cut the treasure chests, and then put them in a laminating sheet. Do you cut then laminate, or laminate then cut?
If you have the time, it is worth cutting first. If you cut your paper first, then laminate the shapes, you will ensure a complete seal around all edges of the shape. The only down side is that you will have to do another cut, after the shapes have been laminated. When the shapes have a completely sealed edge, they will last a lot longer.

Here you can see I have cut the treasure chest, then laminated it and now I am going to cut it our again.


I am teaching my daughter the correct way to use a ten frame - from the top right hand corner first.


Filling the frame from left to right.


After five squares are filled, we fill from left to right on the bottom row. I have engaged my daughter in lots of discussion about numbers to encourage her to develop higher level counting strategies. For example, as she made this arrangement I asked her how many more she needed to make ten. I asked he how many she had (6) and how many more that was than 5. Lots of discussion to encourage her to use the frames as a reference point in her counting and getting her to visualise the combinations that make ten. This will be a gradual development for her, and we will need to play this game quite a few times to help her internalise these counting strategies.


We had a family game of Treasure Chest Tens again this evening. We used the small game boards and used a collection of buttons for counters. The buttons are smaller than regular counters and my daughter enjoyed calling them 'treasure' - as she dug around the box of buttons, she really felt like she was digging for treasure.


I have a box of buttons like this one in my classroom for counting games and activities. As well as buying bags of buttons at the craft shops, I also keep all the little spare buttons that come with new clothes - ask your classroom parents to save some for you!

To motivate my students in the classroom, or if doing a pirate theme, I would put all the game pieces and counters in a treasure box like this one, ready to play. I think I purchased this treasure chest from Scholastic. It has been used for so many things in my classroom. It is made of cardboard, can be easily folded and assembled. It was a very worthwhile and versatile purchase.

Stars and Stripes Classroom Set

free classroom decor

I just listed this new classroom decor theme pack on TpT. Use it to create posters, signs, labels, name tags, calendars and more for your students. You can type your own content or just print and write!

We have a huge range of classroom decor theme packs in our store and love providing you with fast prep ways to create a gorgeous, engaging and student focused learning environment!

The editable Powerpoint file allows you to type your own text and customise the fonts you wish to use. Make all your classroom decor coordinated and differentiated for your learners.

Included is:
  • long rectangle labels
  • page size labels/posters
  • small square labels
  • small rectangle labels
  • half-page rectangle frames
  • bunting/garland style frames
  • large circle frames
  • small circle frames
  • long thin rectangle frames
Please take a peek at our growing collection of template themes and let me know if you have a request!

Happy decorating your beautiful classroom!

Ladybug, Ladybug......


I have just listed a very cute alphabet set in my TpT graphics store. It is the result of my procrastination. I have a few tricky projects on the go at the moment, and this was a distraction for me. I just LOVE how they turned out, and think I will do a bee and butterfly set as well....stay tuned.


They will work well with my classroom theme set, or create your own theme set!



Download this cutie by clicking HERE
This ladybug graphic can be used on your personal and commercial projects, but cannot be redistributed as-is or as another graphics file.
Please credit: Graphics From the Pond http://frompond.blogspot.com



If you have not done so already, you may like to check out the 'Pin it to Win it' Linky Party!





Motivating Boys (& Girls) to Write with the Writing Wizard


A random purchase quite a few years back was one of my best 'teaching purchases'. This cute (very well worn now) wizard's cloak was a bargain for around $5. It came with a big pointy hat (still in mint condition - I decided it was too distracting for the classroom).

I hang it up on a display in the room and encourage my little kinders to be 'The Writing Wizard'. I tell them that the writing wizard is someone that has tried very hard with their writing and made their story (or scribble for some) better than the last time we wrote. I walk around the room and give individual advice for each student. Some need to remember to leave spaces between words, hold their pencil correctly, write more than a few words, sit up in a good writing position..... As I am saying these individualised comments, all the students hear, and the whole class takes them on board (just in case it helps them to become the wizard). It really helps to focus the children's attention on the behavious and strategies that make a 'good writer'. 

The Writing Wizard is chosen at the end of the session, and this student gets to wear the cloak for the remainder of our time in class. It is a big hit - particularly with the boys, who often find writing lessons a challenge.

I write a certificate out for the student and also write their name on a poster that both serves as an attractive way of promoting the writing wizard in the classroom (hang it with the cloak) and also a way of remembering which little lovely has already had a turn.... ;)

I have put together a packet of printables so that you too can have a writing wizard in your classroom - I promise you, your students will be itching to get the cloak on ( and do great writing)!



A Shape Craft and Popcorn Words

I thought I would do quite a random post with a few things we have been busy with over the last week... it has been quite a 'random' week in our house, with winter colds and flus starting to creep in to upset our peaceful routine.

Last weekend we were getting very excited about the arrival of Hootabelle in ABC shops, so we had a great time creating some owls from paper squares and circles. My daughter has followed up this activity through week with some amazing drawings and her own cut-and-paste designs. I am 'so over' the view that art and craft with a specified end product is bad for children and learning. I have seen that it has done nothing but inspire my daughter and give her the confidence to do some amazing projects of her own design. But I won't get started on that debate...... Of course, I had to whip up a file for From the Pond that incorporated our fun - and the end-of-year themed writing craftivity "I had a hoot of a time" was born. You can see it here at TpT. Is there nothing I cannot weave the owl theme or word 'hoot' into? These are very practical for little hands, as the shapes are easy to cut!

Hoot Owl - A Shape Craft


Owl Craft


Storing laminated games and centers

I have started a long overdue job and am so excited that I am almost done. I have had this bag of printed games and centre activities to laminate for 4 years. Yes you heard that right....4 years. I am ashamed. Its been on the to-do list for 4 that long! I have spent so many hours laminating for other people I have neglected my own collection. I have had the laminator on the kitchen bench all week, and in between everything else I do, I have managed to get through at least two thirds. I do make games and activities for my classroom....but these were clearly non-urgent ones!

Here is my champion laminator, she'll get a really workout next week as well, as I am going to empty that bag! I plan to have everything laminated, organized, labelled and sequenced before I return to the classroom full time. It has been a plan for the last 12 years.... Over that time I have been adding to my collection and trying out all different sorts of systems for organisation. The one I settled on about 5 years ago, was to keep the instructions, game pieces and master copy of any associated worksheets together in a Marbig Clear Plastic Document Wallet. I love these wallets, as they are available at Woolworths, so I just throw a packet in the trolley with the weekly grocery shop. They do not have any buttons or zips (which always end up breaking anyway) so they lat flat for easy, compact storage.


I then group all my wallets into file boxes or cabinets. They fit nicely without putting them in an actual hanging file (that the boxes can accommodate). What I like about these boxes is they are big enough to hold around 20 games, but not too big that they get too heavy. After a few years of using the big file boxes, I quickly learnt that I needed to be able to lift and carry them around the classroom easily. Here are some of my file boxes.

Olivia Craft

My daughter, niece and I made Olivia pictures! Just for fun - we watch Olivia every Friday and I thought this would be good for scissor practise. I got the idea and templates from TpT - you can find them HERE 

Speaking of Olivia, have you heard John Mayer's song Something About Olivia - I am IN LOVE! Although I am sure he was not thinking about this cute little pink Olivia.


Teaching my daughter to read

My daughter is getting vvvveeeeeerrrrrrryyyyyyyyyy ready for school! I thought I would indulge her interest in words and reading by starting her on some word recognition. She is getting a good handle on sounding-out phonetically regular words and a couple of sights words, is showing interest in learning to read, has conventions of print down pat....so I think widening her sight word vocab will help. Instead of plunging directly into some boring common sight words, I thought I would teach her some games first, using words of her choice.....then gradually mix in some sight words of my choice.

I could have predicted her choice - 'unicorn', 'dinosaur', 'octopus' and why didn't I think of it 'tree'..... because 'tree' really goes with the animal words ;)

Popcorn words

I printed out some popcorn pictures, wrote each word on two cards, and laminated them. We keep them in a plastic popcorn bucket I purchased at Woolworths. Each night this week we have played a few games with the words:


A simple game of snap.


"Memory" - matching two cards with the same word


We then made the words with lego letters - this my daughter really enjoyed. I have had these lego letters packed away for a few years and just got them out for her to start using. For my Australian friends - keep your eyes open when you get the Aldi catalogue delivered. They have these letter bricks every year usually, and they are very reasonable priced.


I have sorted the letters into a 26 segment box - I LOVE these boxes and have quite a few of them. One with magnetic letters, one with letter cards and now these bricks.



Find some more resources and ideas for Popcorn Words here on the blog!