Lots of fun activities to explore where minibeasts are found. Good for learning new vocabulary related to insects and small creatures, the natural world and prepositions. Can be used for games and classroom display. Contains a set of habitat cards and minibeast cards for sorting and matching activities. which way home activity, choose and follow the lines tracing lines, great for emerging writing and fine motor skills mazes for more of a challenge The minibeasts cards are perfect for creating class pictographs, of favourite minibeasts. Try sorting minibeasts into groups, e.g. things that fly, nocturnal, etc. Check out the other minbeasts resources in the Teachers Telling Tales shop, you can bundle and save.

In ‘Quack! said the Billy Goat’, the silly poem by Charles Causley, the animal sounds are all mixed up. The poem is fantastic for learning about farm animals, the sounds they make and using speech bubbles. Children enjoy making the sounds and exploring how to write them. This resource comes with a guide with suggestions for introducing the poem, shared reading ideas to involve children and follow up games. There are animal silhouette pictures, animal names and speech bubbles with sounds. These are in the form of a picture for retelling the poem and to make cards for games and activities.

Great for a space topic. A fun alien poem for shared reading, worksheets with a copy of the poem for more careful reading and a space to draw the scene. A checklist is provided for students to work with a buddy and see how many of the descriptions they included in their drawing. (This could be printed on the back of the sheet). While they are challenged to include all the specified details, students can be encouraged to use their imagination to complete the scene. The activity provides lots of opportunities for discussion and develops reading comprehension skills. Worksheets provided in PDF and Word (editable) formats. Dyslexia -friendly font versions are provided.

A game featuring words with the long ‘o’ sound. Includes ‘o’, ‘oe’, ‘o_e’, ‘ow’, ‘oa’. Can be adapted according to ability, students can say, spell, write or draw the answer. Also useful for vocabulary work with English language learners. Contents: Game board (A4 size will work for 2 players, enlarge for more) Word and picture cards, (24 of each). Yo ho ho cards for reverse, colour or ink saving. Guide with instructions and ideas for further games with the cards in the pack. For further consolidation of this sound, Yo ho ho Bingo is can also be purchased and there are similar ‘Talk like a Pirate’ games featuring the ‘ar’ sound in the Teachers Telling Tales shop. For pirate topics, check out the Teachers telling Tales packs with sudoku, mazes, position and anagrams. https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/pirates-pack-12183976

Logic and reasoning skills with a minibeasts theme. Featuring cute cartoon creepy crawlies, these activities are a fun way to develop thinking skills. Students cut and paste pictures to complete the sequences and sudoku squares. Easy, medium and hard versions for different levels of challenge. Ink saving variations included (different puzzles to the colour ones). Perfect for a minibeasts topic, a challenge for early finishers or a discrete lesson in problem solving. For related minibeasts resources, check out the Teachers Telling Tales shop, there are bundle and save options.

Chill out this summer by making cool ice lollies! Outlines to print, colour or decorate using collage. Fold in half and paste with a lollipop stick (real or made from the template). Ten designs. Ideas for use: Design your own lolly - choose your shape, colour, pattern, flavour, toppings etc. Great as a stimulus for speaking or writing. Use for role play, (no dripping unless you use a lot of glue!) Use beads, sequins, pom poms etc. for sprinkles. Create a cool character. Add eyes, arms, cool sunglasses etc. Googly eyes and pipe cleaners are great for this! Make a puppet show with your characters. At home: a great craft activity for a party or play date. At school or play scheme: these make a fantastic display. This is a good way to keep children occupied after making real ice lollies and waiting for them to freeze. Check out the other ice lolly and ice cream resources by Teachers Telling Tales. You can also purchase this resources as part of the ‘Ice Ice Bundle’.

Creating these cute ice lolly characters is a fun activity for learning about symmetry. The challenge is to draw the missing side of the picture so it is the same on both sides. A grid over the image helps with drawing shapes and placing details in the correct place. You could also use a mirror, place it along the middle line to check in the reflection. There are 3 character designs to complete, two ice lolly shapes with no detail and a blank grid for creating your own designs. Colour and ink saving versions included. Children love to create a name for their finished lolly and for an extra challenge can design the wrapper using the blank grid. Check out the ice cream symmetry resources and other ice lolly activities by Teachers Telling Tales for summer topics or parties. This resource can also be purchased as part of the ‘Ice Ice Bundle’.

A cool creative pack of ice cream goodies, ideal for summer topics or parties. Contains 3 activities: Ice cream cone symmetry. complete the pictures so the delicious dessert is the same on both sides (3 designs). ‘I dream of ice cream’ design your perfect ice cream template, single and double cone versions. Ice cream creative colouring sheets (4 designs). Great for talking about colours, flavours, toppings, preferences. There are similar symmetry resources featuring ice lollies in the Teachers Telling Tales shop: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/ice-lolly-symmetry-12355898 You can also purchase this resource with other ice lolly resources as part of the ‘Ice Ice Bundle’.

Turtles in Danger is an active chase and tag game suitable for primary / middle school children. The game teaches children about sea turtle life cycles, natural and human threats, endangered animals and survival strategies. The game can be played outdoors or indoors in a large space, a netball or basketball court is ideal. There are two rounds, one where some children are hatchlings making their way to the sea while avoiding the other children who are threats. For the second round the remaining children are turtles trying to survive in the sea and return to the beach to lay eggs while avoiding threats. The game can be played again removing the human threats to see how this affects the survival rate. This pack contains a guide to the game, a printable instruction sheet with pictures, labels and headbands to identify the children who are threats. There are 14 threats in total and they are colour-coded for dangers on the beach (sand colour) and for in the sea (blue). The labels and headbands have silhouette pictures for quick identification alongside the word and a short explanation of the threat. Through playing the game students gain an understanding of why many reptiles and fish lay so many eggs in order to survive as a species. Through discussion they learn how the impact of extra pressure such as threats from humans can lead to a threat of extinction. Related Resources: An interactive story about turtle life cycles, turtles in Trouble, https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/turtles-in-trouble-an-interactive-story-12240371 A Sea Turtle quiz can be downloaded for free from https://teacherstellingtales.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Sea-Turtle-Quiz.pdf Turtle book recommendations (fiction and non fiction) https://teacherstellingtales.com/turtle-tales-and-truths/

A mini story and quiz presentation with pattern colouring and treasure hunt activities. Good for Follow up to reading The Mixed-up Chameleon by Eric Carle. Topics : Animals, Colour, Pattern, Camouflage. Observation Skills: looking carefully at pattern and colour. Contents and Ideas: (a resource guide is also included) The Content Chameleon presentation. A mini story and quiz about the no-longer-Mixed-up Chameleon returning to the zoo. He has lots of fun trying out animal patterns. The children guess the animal from the chameleon’s pattern. (All background photos are free to use and links are provided in the notes.) Pattern Colouring Sheets. An outline of the chameleon filled with an animal pattern. Children continue the pattern to hide the chameleon. Nine animal patterns and a blank outline are provided. Blank chameleon outlines. A portrait and landscape version. These can be used as colouring sheets or traced onto plastic pockets to explore inserting different colours and patterns. The traced chameleons can be placed around the classroom or playground for a chameleon treasure hunt. A few photos of ideas are included in the resource guide. Free Chameleons presentation with interesting facts, free images with links, YouTube and child-friendly website links for further exploration.

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.

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.

Read the poem and colour the pictures. Good for reading comprehension, EAL, extending colours and animals vocabulary. This poem is fantastic for introducing new colour words like ‘lavender’, ‘turquoise’, ‘lilac’. It gives students the opportunity to explore blending colours and creating lighter and darker shades using different pressure. The worksheets with the poem allow teachers to assess students’ understanding. The blank sheet (with just the pictures) allows students to use their imagination and be encouraged to record their ideas by writing their own descriptions. A resource guide gives suggestions for use and differentiation. The worksheets are provided in PDF and Word (editable) formats. Dyslexia-friendly versions are included.

Celebrate #WorldBeeDay with some bee-themed handwriting patterns and cutting skills! For more minibeast-themed resources including card and board games, mazes, sudoku and book making check out https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/minibeasts-big-bug-bundle-12340248 Teachers Telling Tales also have a free bee-themed maths activity here which can be adapted for different ages and abilities: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/buzz-off-square-numbers-multistep-game-12521661

A maze to solve and colour featuring a chameleon and grasshopper. Linked to activities based on The Mixed-Up Chameleon by Eric Carle.

Get creative colouring these cool ice lollies. There are 4 character designs and 6 outlines of different shaped lollies to colour. Great for talking about flavours, colours, patterns and preferences. As a challenge, children could think up a name for their ice lolly and maybe even design the packaging too. Print or stick on card for creating textured lollies using collage with sequins, beads etc. Check out the other ice lolly and ice cream resources by Teachers Telling Tales. This resource is included in the ‘Ice Ice Bundle’.