Recipe for a Night Sky is a published poem by this author, offered here as a source of inspiration and example of a recipe poem. Supports Halloween celebrations as well as poetry appreciation, reading and writing.
Published in ‘The School Magazine’, Australia. Copyright Kate Williams, author of this catalogue.
Exciting words-in-picture writing challenge for Fireworks or related topic, or Literacy starter sheet before extended writing. GUIDANCE SHEET included, with tips for helping students think up words and phrases of different kinds to fill the gaps, e.g. describing words, verbs, onomatopoeia, simile, kenning, with examples of each.
Fires enthusiasm for writing, stretches active vocabulary, builds confidence in self-expression and literacy, and helps children focus minds on specific concepts.
Use across year groups, from Yr2-Y6, adapting challenge levels as appropriate, e.g. describing words for youngest and kennings for oldest.
Extra tip: similes can be reduced to metaphors (Yr 5+) by removing ‘as…as’ or ‘like a…’. Can also be inverted, e.g. ‘hot as lava’ = ‘laver-hot’.
See my other Firework sheets, too; also, my other gap-filling activities.
Poetry in haiku form, with trees as the theme, is taught here with an introduction to haiku and six examples to complete. Tips for preparation are also given.
Trees are familiar to all children, but each child will bring their own experiences, observations, thoughts and feelings to their writing.
Trees are fascinating things, providing us with a wealth of glories, services and vital resources. They offer ever-varying colours, shapes, sounds, expressions, silhouettes, textures, fruits, flowers, leaf patterns, and more. They mark the seasons for us, offering summer shade and winter shelter; they inspire us with their noble, statuesque figures against the ever-changing sky; they house wildlife, secure and enrich the soil, and feed the atmosphere with vital elements. Yet around the world, they are being chopped down and uprooted. What will your children decide to say about them, and how, in their 17 syllables?
Recommended for upper juniors and higher. 1 A4 page, black and white. Includes 3 haiku frames with gaps to fill, and 3 starter lines/phrases.
Pirate treasure from the sea bed could be beautiful, mouldy or smashed to bits. It could be flamboyant or faded, delicate or dangerous, and you might find it floating and drifting or submerged and water-logged. It’ll probably be secret, too - stolen, smuggled and concealed. All these words and many more are listed in this mind-stretching word bank. Either read out from it yourself or copy and distribute it around your class, for selecting and trying out, or to trigger other ideas. Encourage some of these words in conversation too.
VIDEO SUPPORT: me reading my published poem, ‘Treasure Chest Mystery’ - details on my website, poemsforfun.wordpress.com : https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMarEm9uVBDEGPTykSlkAfT6jdVArKlPen6X5lk1le7dqUc89gEztNjSO7V6qsxUQ?key=X0hIWmdaV1M0Q2lHYURKbDdIVFFPMTVBTWRUdkhn
SEE ALSO: **Under the Sea **poem frame: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/under-the-sea-poem-frame-example-y2-4-11922054 , Seabed Rhymes Y2-4: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/-seabed-rhymes-fun-rhyming-couplet-frames-ks2-11892578 . Seabed Mystery Poem Frame KS2: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/seabed-mystery-poem-frame-ks2-guide-11892739 and Treasure Map alliteration game: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/treasure-map-alliteration-game-yr1-6-guide-for-use-11887395
KS1 Reading, Spelling, Phonics support - 3 sheets, differentiated: Easy, Mid-Level, Hard, for assessment and practice of reading and spelling, in accordance with word types, phonics and spellings for KS1 National Curriculum. Decorated and coloured, child-friendly sheets, taking the fear out of testing and adding fun to learning.
Healthy eating becomes meaningful for children when thinking up healthy foods beginning with particular letters, e.g. Green beans for the last letter in “Healthy eating”. Adjectives, like Gorgeous, and phrases, like Good for you (for the G letter), are also fun and meaningful to select. The Ideas Sheet provides plenty of suggestions for each letter of the acrostic, to prompt for as needed.
Supports Literacy as well as healthy eating drives. Recommended for upper Juniors (9-11 approx.).
Is this a Land of Lollopops, Love, or something else beginning with L? Your class will love thinking up words to complete this and all the other alliterative place names, such as Forest of F, Iceberg of I and School of S. A fun learning activity and handy filler, developing literacy skills and creativity with ease and laughter.
Tip for use: start with a whole-class warm-up, eliciting ideas for the title and one other name, before leaving children to write their ideas on the sheet, individually or in pairs. Young classes will benefit from doing the whole activity together, teacher-led.
This simple illustrated poetry frame celebrates the beauty of birds in flight and the wonders of bird migration. The theme will inspire your children’s imagination and ignite their poetic powers, spurred on by the sketches and line-starters. They’ll love thinking up similes to describe how the birds look and other aspects of them, and also thinking up their own developments and rounding-off line. The accompanying Guide Sheet offers suggestions for each line, in case handy for reading out as examples or prompting for, while encouraging independent thinking and word choices. Recommended for KS2.
Supports Literacy, PSHE, mental wellbeing and physical exercise, as well as poetry, drama and all-round creative expression. This is a fun writing challenge, involving similes and action words, with scope for enrichment. A monster (s/he) can be any sort you like, with three heads and two tails perhaps, and this one has moods - happy, cross, excited, ?.. How does a monster behave when cross? Do they charge around the monster school, stamping on books like an angry giant? When happy, does s/he glide like an angel, or perform back-flips like a gymnast? The warm-up actions sheet will spur extended ideas. Hand-sketched illustrations.
SEE MY SEA-MONSTER FOOD sheet too!
Peeping, creeping; chattering, pattering; barging, charging; flapping, snapping - these are a few of the 24 rhyming action verbs suggested here for rainforest or jungle poems. Examples of completed couplets are also provided. Select, build and edit with your pupils, to create your own vibrant, action-packed class poem! It’ll bring your topic to life, enhancing literacy skills along the way.
Junior pupils will enjoy writing tree-focused poems inside this tree outline. The summery, countryside setting will inspire ideas, while the short lines encourage careful choice of words and a swinging rhythm. Perhaps encourage similes, alliteration and other poetic techniques, while leaving the general approach and content open.
Questions to pose in your for warm-up discussion: is the tree a sunshade for a hot day, a statue, standing against the sky, or a reminder that we need to protect our precious natural world, perhaps? Or is the tree a den, hiding place, or climbing-frame in the writer’s mind? Is it as green as fresh lettuce leaves, glittering emeralds or the tall, silky grass?
Healthy eating poem, with fun, celebrating bananas.
This fun, snappy little rhyme is presented attractively over a photo of bananas in a bowl. The writing is in a curve, just like the fruits!
Poem and photo are both by this author, Kate Williams.
See also my other healthy eating resources.
Autumn leaves to write in and colour, with similes invited -
as red as, as yellow as, as gold as, etc.
5 leaf similes to complete + a line of description.
Recommended for Yrs 2-5 approx.
Inspiring, fun, calming, nature-themed poetry and art resource.
See also my other Autumn Leaves sheets.
This simple, punchy poem clarifies and celebrates the main colours - blue, red, green, yellow, orange, silver and gold, black and white, grey and brown. Pink can be added as a class contribution, following the poem’s pattern. It can be clapped, chanted, and presented with a display of colours, to help young children learn them.
Here’s a fun colour riddle for your class to watch and hear (also by me):
‘What Colour am I?’ https://youtu.be/JGKvOUDyXmk
My poem ‘Dragon in the Sky’ is a simple yet exciting and atmospheric poem, published in The School Magazine, Australia, who have also made a highly popular YouTube video of the poem.
19 lines. Upbeat ending. Offers inspiration and poetry-writing ideas for young writers. Supports dragon topic too.
This guided **‘Stormy Sea’ writing sheet is an exciting!
With video How-to.
Children love writing their simile ideas for a stormy sea on these wavy lines, as confirmed time and again in my Stormy Sea poetry sessions.
Suggestions for teacher introduction and prompts are given in the accompanying guide sheet. the repeated phrase - The sea went… is followed by a wavy line for action words and description (rolling, roaring, wildly charging like an angry beast on the loose?). The poem ends calmly, inviting a simile for a peaceful sea. Yrs 3-6.
**SEE ALSO - ** TREASURE MAP alliteration game - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/treasure-map-alliteration-game-yr1-6-guide-for-use-11887395 (popular)
PLUS - SEA SIMILES (summer sea) -** https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/sea-similes-poem-frame-illustrated-12100413** .
Firework writing frames, excitingly illustrated, for all ages - Reception to top Juniors - able writers using sheets as launch pads to independent poetry or descriptive writing.
Five writing sheets altogether:
2 graded ones for EY/KS1, 2 graded ones for Y2 upwards, and one for all ages - word gaps within an image of fireworks, inspiring expressive words and onward creative development.
This bundle supports: poetry, literacy, seasonal studies, celebrations, night and day, outdoors, colour, creativity, PSHE, and more.
Windy Day poetry-writing sheet.
Creative writing frame on wild, blustery day theme, illustrated, with** teacher’s guide sheet.**
Format: poem in 4 verses, with gaps for action words, onomatopoeia and similes. Rhymes incorporated. Guide sheet provides completed example poem, with word and simile bank below, handy for quick reference when guiding and prompting students.
Able writers can develop the poem with follow-on verses, introducing their own approaches if wished, while those needing support will enjoy the simplicity of inserting their word and simile ideas into the gaps to make a flowing, rhyming poem.
More weather poem frames available in my catalogue too.
**What jungle creature am I? ** this poem asks, with prompts for all sorts of clues and poetic techniques.
Children forget they’re writing poems when there’s an exciting, exotic riddle to present and a whole class of others to guess. Jungle offers a wealth of possibilities, not just for creatures, but for creativity too. There’s also an anagram riddle suggestion below, to write on the sheet. Best for Yrs 3-6.
Birds in flight is a fascinating, exhilarating theme, ideal for the evocative mini-poem, the haiku.
This sheet provides 3 haiku frames, three haiku starter-lines, information about haiku and how they work, inspirational commentary on the theme, and tips for preparing your children to compose them.
Birds may sweep and swoop, tip and tilt, glide and cruise through skies of all sorts, perhaps catching the sun on their wings. What do they look like, up there against that crystal blue, peachy sunset or leaden cloud? Are they like darts, bullets, a swarm of bees, dancing butterflies or some other image? Where are they heading, how long is their journey and how do they know the route? Young, fluffy chicks are fun to write about, too, hop-skip-flapping off on their first, bumpy flight.
More haiku sheets here, on other topics.