Featuring the beloved little fish and his mum from the story by Lucy Cousins, these activities explore the opposites: big and little, fat and thin and happy and grumpy. This pack contains sets of picture, silhouette and word cards and simple worksheets with three levels of challenge. There are greyscale versions of resources for those who want to save ink or include colouring as part of the activity. Themes: opposites, fish, under the sea Skills: shape recognition, cut and sticking, colouring, beginning reading and writing skills. A guide is enclosed with the pack which includes ideas for card games. This resource is part of a Teachers Telling Tales series inspired by the Hooray for Fish story and can also be purchased as part of a bundle.

This engaging presentation features interesting facts about chameleons with colourful photographs and links to short videos as illustration. (All photos are free to use and share, links provided in the notes). It aims to answer common questions and stimulate new ones. A link at the end to a children’s website enables further research. Aimed at younger children, text is simple and minimal. Great as a follow-up to reading The Mixed-up Chameleon by Eric Carle or as part of topics on animals, patterns and colours. (This resource is included free with other chameleon resources from Teachers Telling Tales.)

These writing frames are designed to inspire young children to engage in purposeful recording through mark-making or emergent writing during their role play. Topics: Personal Social Health Education, People who help us, Keeping healthy, parts of the body, numbers 1-5. Skills development: speaking and listening, beginning writing. Depending on their developmental stage, children may enjoy mark-making as they see fit, or they may follow the invitation to write names, crosses, ticks and circles. The pictures are designed to prompt discussion and introduce and consolidate vocabulary. The frame introduces the concept of forms and tables and includes numbers 1-5. The writing frames can act as a guide for children role playing a visit to the doctor, prompting questions and responses such as “Where is the problem?” and “Take medicine three times a day.” The first time the frames are introduced, it would be good for an adult to model using them. Context and Linked Resources This resource pack was inspired by A Visit From the Nurse https://teacherstellingtales.com/a-visit-from-the-nurse/ an activity to help students overcome anxiety about visiting the school nurse (or other health care professionals). In that lesson students observe how a nurse cares for us by demonstrating with soft toys in a range of familiar scenarios, e.g. “I bumped my head, I feel sick, I feel itchy”. These are free to download here https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/a-visit-from-the-nurse-12174039. As a follow up, children then explore being a carer through role play. This could be with other children (as a patient or carer) or with toys and dolls. The role play area could be set up as a health centre, hospital, veterinary clinic etc. Includes Greyscale versions, as you may need to print lots if they are popular! These can be made into a notebook (perhaps a prescription pad) or attached to a clipboard. Colour versions could be laminated and used as examples displayed in the role play area, or used by the children with dry wipe pens.

Activities to accompany the storybook ‘Flyaway Katie’ by Polly Dunbar. Good for: Actively involving children during story time, developing listening skills, vocabulary, following instructions. Students learning English as an additional language. Topics: colours, clothes, body parts, feelings. Contents and Ideas: Story Elements cards with colours (8), body parts (4) and clothes (4) from the story. Give out to children individually or in pairs and ask to hold up their card when they hear it mentioned in the story. Follow-along Sheet. Children colour the picture of Katie, then look at the checklist with an adult.

Activities to accompany ‘Flyaway Katie’ by Polly Dunbar Good for: Getting to know each other. Talking about feelings. Students learning English as an additional language. Topics: feelings, colours, clothes, shapes, patterns. Contents Lesson plan with ideas for children to talk about what makes them happy. Read and Record Sharing Sheet Blank to enlarge for teacher to record children’s responses. Editable version for students to record with words or pictures. Flyaway Self Portraits Templates, blanks and with simple outline drawings to choose from. Display ideas.

Fairy tales and traditional tales are a great way to learn about speech in stories. Children love to join in with repeated phrases using different voices developing their language and drama skills. This Bingo game is a fun way to familiarise children with fairy tale characters and favourite quotes. Contains 4 colour-coded Bingo boards featuring characters from well-known fairy tales and sets of cards for different ways to play including character names, story titles and quotes. A resource guide with instructions is included in the pack. Ideal for younger children as boards have nine squares, including one ‘free’ space in the centre. Great for learning about fairy tales, traditional tales, speech, game playing and social skills. There are further ‘Once said in a fairytale’ resources available in the Teachers Telling Tales shop and this game pack can be purchased as part of a bundle.

Puzzles inspired by Little Fish’s quest to find his mum in the story Hooray For Fish! by Lucy Cousins. A colourful maze in the shape of a heart can be used to demonstrate how to solve a maze by projecting the image on an interactive whiteboard. It can also be printed and laminated for completing with dry wipe pens. The slightly more challenging circle maze encourages problem solving and pencil control skills. There’s lots of detail in the fish and background for colouring. A dot-to-dot picture for children to discover who Little Fish found also reinforces pencil control with the additional skill of following the numbers from 1-10. This resource is also good for colouring when complete. This resource can also be bought as part of a Hooray For Fish bundle.

Featuring the beloved little fish and his mum from the story by Lucy Cousins, these activities explore the rhyming words: tiny and spiny, hairy and scary, carrot and parrot, lime and time, heart and dart. This pack contains sets of picture, silhouette and word cards, Bingo cards and simple worksheets with three levels of challenge. There are greyscale versions of resources for those who want to save ink or include colouring as part of the activity. Themes: rhyming words, fish, under the sea Skills: shape recognition, cut and sticking, colouring, beginning reading and writing skills. A guide is enclosed with the pack which includes ideas for card games. These activities are a great springboard for creative work, inventing new rhyming fish. This resource is part of a Teachers Telling Tales series inspired by the Hooray for Fish story and can also be purchased as part of a bundle.

Fun pirate-themed activities to consolidate positional language / introduce pirate topic vocabulary. Great for English language learners. Starter - Spot the difference posters to get students talking and using positional language. The same poster but in outline so students can add the objects in the correct place and colour their completed picture. Instructions are provided in picture and text form. making the activity accessible to a range of ages and abilities. A guide to using the resource with vocabulary lists is included. Updated March 2021 to correct a typo on the written instruction sheet and add resources for remote teaching: PNG images to click and drag to complete the picture instead of drawing with updated instructions. Related Resources A free pirate vocabulary anagrams sheet can be downloaded here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/pirate-anagrams-12322262 There are pirate-themed mazes, sudoku and phonics games in the Teachers telling Tales shop with options to bundle and save. https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/talk-like-a-pirate-phonics-bundle-12403177

These sheets inspired by Hooray for Fish! by Lucy Cousins feature little fish and some new fishy friends created by Teachers Telling Tales. They are great for developing fine motor skills, awareness of shape and pattern and early writing skills. The fishy characters feature in a range of resources by Teachers Telling Tales on opposites, rhyming words and puzzles. They can be bought individually or you can bundle and save.