This exciting jungle picture offers fun and learning combined, with wide open scope for colour choices, interesting shapes to shade in and a range of exotic flora and fauna to identify and focus on. This resource promotes development of fine motor skills, colour sense, shape and pattern awareness, creative expression, and an understanding of nature, wildlife and, in particular, jungle and rain forest. See my other wildlife colouring sheets for variation. **SEE ALSO - ** This snake is - writing inside a snake picture - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/-this-snake-is-picture-poem-frame-yr-1-11885174

‘My leaf’ is the title of this colouring sheet, but there are several extra leaves, of different shapes, floating and falling around the main one, reflecting the variety of leaf types to be found in our woods and parks. Some of the leaves are curling, perhaps representing autumn or just their natural tendency to curl and twist. **SEE ALSO - ** **Mini-beasts colouring sheet - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/minibeasts-colouring-sheet-12049563 + ** Butterfly colouring sheet - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/butterfly-colouring-sheet-12043732 + 3 colouring sheets with tints + hints (nature-themed) - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/colouring-sheets-with-tints-hints-3-11929704

These attractive star pictures are fun to write in, and there are plenty of straight lines to write on - shooting in all directions. The variations are graded in difficulty, with increasing opportunities for words and similes, the hardest having three descriptive lines to complete below, about stars, sky and space. Colouring possibilities are wide open. Recommended approach: first, in a wide space, ‘be’ stars with your group, pointing, shooting, whirling, glowing, winking, blinking, dancing, spinning. Then prompt for verbs like these, and adjectives, such as spiky, sharp, peaceful, gentle, high up, twinkly, pretty, delicate, dainty, tiny - and different colours. The similes are for sparkly stars and dark space. The 3-sheet resource has been used with rewarding results in my workshops. They are hand-drawn and home-produced, so don’t expect perfect symmetry!

This beautiful and fascinating picture of a lush, flowery meadow will inspire children to colour in the details with thought and imagination. It promotes understanding of the natural world, including mini-beasts and birds, and develops fine motor skills, colour sense and pattern and shape awareness, also offering a focus for discussion. See also my video-poem - ‘Summer Grass’ - https://youtu.be/WWBSjiBTDOg

Seaside writing resource for young children. “Shells can be…” with short, thick writing lines between shell representations for describing words. Supporting guide sheet for teacher also included. Start by handing round some shells, encouraging children to study, feel and listen to them. Discuss their properties, prompting for words like curly, light, hard, smooth, rough, shiny, hollow, round, twisty, pretty, patterned and delicate. Then present sheet, demonstrating how they can have a go at writing their word ideas on the lines. Perhaps try some together on the board first. After the activity, invite all to choose a word to read out or say. The shells can then be coloured or decorated.

A beautiful butterfly picture to colour. This clear but intricately patterned butterfly offers exciting colouring opportunities. An attractive activity for young children, helping development of colour sense, fine motor control, and understanding of the natural world. Supports work on seasons, mini-beasts, animals, colour and more.

This 5-sheet resource comprises a castle picture-poem, easier/harder, and a castle-characters picture-poem in 3 graded versions. These are attractive sheets with lively, hand-drawn illustrations of old, cobwebby, crumbling castles, the graded ones featuring characters such as a ghost, king and queen. Children have the fun of writing directly onto the castles - a particularly vivid experience in the ‘My castle is’ activity. Describing words are invited on each sheet. These writing frames are self-explanatory, having starter phrases followed by thick lines for writing, with increasing opportunities for imaginative, expressive input on the graded character sheets. For ‘My castle is’, prompt for describing words such as: old, crumbly, tall, spooky, dark, haunted, spidery, cold, windy, grand, royal, huge, hard, rat-infested, ghostly, scary, massive, golden, fine, splendid, stone, rich, ancient, mysterious, creepy, abandoned, damp, shadowy, candle-lit, and ruined. On the Castle Characters graded sheets, encourage a range of personality attributions for the ghost, king and queen, such as kind, mean, cruel, crazy, gentle, friendly, and various colours. The ghost might be see-through, floaty, spooky or dancing. This is principally a Literacy resource, though it also offers scope for expressive art through colouring, and an intriguing window onto the past.

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

Orange, yellow, purple and black/white/grey are the focus of these catchy, meaningful rhymes. I have written them to help young children identify colours and associate them with familiar items, also triggering ideas and inviting discussion. The rhythms and rhymes serve as introductions to poetry, too. Some of these are best for reading and listening, others for chanting, clapping and acting out.

This resource comprises a picture-poem frame and a one-page guide for the teacher’s use. Both are in PDF format. The picture-poem frame features a huge ladybird (hand-drawn). Above it is an opening phrase: ‘This ladybird is’, inviting describing words on the short, thick lines in and around the insect. Below it, there is a line for a simile, with the starting phrase ‘He is as red as’. The sheet is designed for emergent writers and newly independent ones, also providing colouring opportunities. The guidance notes offer tips for preparing children for the activity, followed by lists of words and simile ideas to prompt for. Some thoughts about the colouring aspect are also included. Although principally a Literacy activity, this resource supports other areas of the EYFS curriculum too, such as Understanding the World and Expressive Art & Design. It has been been successfully tried and tested in classrooms.

These 3 simple rhymes bring the mini-beast world alive for young children. Each offers rhyme, rhythm, descriptive words and scope for multiple activities: clapping, enacting, language-building, physical movement, performance, and preparation for any follow-on writing. The rhymes could also be set to music or percussion, or sung to a made-up tune. I made up the rhymes and have found them effective in my poetry workshops for Early Years and KS1. (Illustrations also mine.)

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.

Young children love colouring, and these ready-started sheets inspire critical and creative thinking as they work. The light dabs of colour provide spurs and guidance, drawing attention to detail, shape, pattern and colour-scope, as well as the interesting picture itself. The 3 sheets represent natural summer themes: a blooming, buzzing meadow, a beautiful butterfly, and a sailing boat on a wavy, fishy sea. Recommended for ages 4-7.