Rhyming couplets to celebrate the end of the school year with your class. Pick and build together, perhaps adding in your own contributions too. Set to music? Perform in assembly? Lots of fun and food for thought as well in these two pages of specially crafted rhymes. I’m a well-published children’s poet, and use my rhymes with children in my school workshops. They bring lessons and learning alive for children, also building self-confidence and PSHE skills. Please note: rhymes presented in random order. Here’s a summery video-poem, with music & pictures: https://youtu.be/wdQJtlPJpeQ

Let your class fly with these inspiring picture poems! Able writers can set their ideas sailing round a winding, looping line, developing ideas about the mat and its moods on the follow-on sheet. Younger or less confident writers can express their flying and floating concepts on straight lines, with structure to prompt and encourage. A 2-page teacher’s guide, with example poems to read out, is also included. This resource will melt away anxieties about writing, especially with the recommended warm-up discussion and enactments. Able writers, meanwhile, can use the light-touch frames to explore poetic techniques and approaches, letting their talents fly too! The sheets are hand-drawn and home-produced, so please expect spontaneity rather than computer-perfect lines.

Haiku poems are easy and fun to write when you know how, and your class will love the syllable-counting fun, too. This 2-page, 10-step guide will see you through the process of introducing the format, practising it with the class and helping them produce their own haiku. There are also suggestions for topic, approach and follow-on poetry-writing. I use the process myself in my workshops, and am always amazed by the fascinating and powerful lines produced. Recommended for Year 5 upwards - ideally Year 6 and above.

These 5 simple, rhythmic rhymes focus on everyday concepts. Their titles are: Busy Street, In the Park, Windy Day, Taller and Smaller, and School is for Me. Each rhyme sheet includes guidance notes. Suitable for clapping, enacting, word-swapping and performing with embellishments (such as percussion, a tune, or extra actions). They support the learning areas Understanding the World, Expressive Arts & Design, Literacy, Communication & Language, and Physical Development. The rhymes (and illustrations) are my own.

These larger-than-life spider pictures are fun to write on, and the Guide offers word prompt ideas for each section. Both writing sheets invite describing words and action words for spiders, though the pictures are different. On the ‘Spider’ sheet, words can be written on the eight legs; on the ‘Speeding Spider’ sheet, they can be written along the zigzag line of its route over the… floor/grass/path/step? That’s for the child to decide. The first offers colouring opportunities; the second, space for imaginative drawing or shading. Both sheets are hand-drawn and home-produced, and have been successfully tried out in my workshops.

Inspiring spring writing frames, illustrated, in 5 grades. Opportunities to describe different young animals, as well as daffodils and more, with similes invited and space for individual input. Prepare by taking children outside on a fine spring day and sharing experiences and observations. Talk about the soft, fresh, fragrant air, the bright, cheerful daffodils, the busy, nesting birds, the budding leaves and crisp, green grass. Look out for buds, insects, squirrels, birds of all kinds, and any other flora or fauna around. Be the different young animals yourselves, and the budding trees, swaying gently in the breeze. Be birds, butterflies, squirrels and frogs. Have fun! Invite similes when helping children describe spring features. Lambs are as white as what? Wedding lace? Fluffy clouds? Snowdrops? Daffodils are as yellow as the sun, sunspots, corn, buttercups, lemons. SEE MY OTHER SPRING SHEETS TOO.

Children will be motivated to sharpen up their own spelling with these fun quizzes. They involve differentiating between words that sound the same but are spelt differently, and words the rhyme - or look as though they rhyme. The 2-page resource includes a checking/sorting challenge and an odd-one-out challenge, with opportunities for children to think up their own spelling quiz questions too. Ideal for spelling reinforcement, revision and enrichment, and handy for time-fillers and lesson enhancers.

Sunshine and clouds are the focus of this 4-sheet pack. The illustrated writing sheets - or picture poems - provide attractive and accessible means for children to develop their writing and phonics skills, also spurring creativity and stretching active vocabulary. There are colouring opportunities too. The accompanying rhymes can be chanted, clapped, swayed to or enacted, and are recommended (on the Guidance Sheet) as warm-up activities. The Guidance Sheet offers lists of prompt ideas for each writing sheet, with development suggestions for the cloud one. Suggested preparatory activities are also included. The sheets are hand-illustrated and home-produced, rather than machine-perfect. All sheets are black-and-white, PDF. YouTube recording of my poem: ‘What is a Cloud?’ - https://youtu.be/EOKVIktMh10

Seaside Creative Writing Sheets - easier/harder: Seaside writing on wavy lines is fun! Children love using these sheets in my poetry workshops. The sea is __ and __. It is as sparkly as __. You might find , My sandcastle is as big as a - and more on the harder sheet. These line-starters open up exciting possibilities for young writers. See my very simple version too. Many other sea-themed writing sheets here too.

These two poetry frame sheets have lively, idea-triggering illustrations, and are designed to be fun and accessible to use. Both invite creative input, in terms of ideas and choice of words. ‘Watch Out for the Giant’ is easier, being shorter and simpler, with the chief focus on description and some giant meal possibilities at the end - suitable for Yr2-3, or as a starter-sheet for older writers to build ideas. ‘The Giant Went…’ sheet is more challenging, though clearly structured, requiring action-words and accompanying similes, as well as description and settings. Onomatopoeias, alliteration, rhymes within lines, and other poetic techniques can also be employed, and there is scope for all sorts of crazy, giant-themed possibilities in each frame. The Examples for Use (one sheet per poetry frame) provide whole-poem examples for teachers’ and pupils’ guidance. Suggestions for extending the activities are provided at the end of each.

Summer Sea Word Bank + Summer Sea Simile Bank, on two separate sheets, each backed with beautiful seaside photo panorama. Useful for reference and prompts in creative writing lessons and ocean studies. Words and similes selected by published children’s poet. I have many other seaside and ocean writing resources here.