Poetry & literacy resources by published children's poet.
I also lead poetry workshops for UK primary schools.
Website: katewilliamspoet.com
Book news - Squeak! Squawk! Roar! Animal poems - out 9th January '25. Publisher: Otter-Barry Books.
Poetry & literacy resources by published children's poet.
I also lead poetry workshops for UK primary schools.
Website: katewilliamspoet.com
Book news - Squeak! Squawk! Roar! Animal poems - out 9th January '25. Publisher: Otter-Barry Books.
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
Transport studies and Literacy development are combined in this attractive writing activity, with line starters:
Through the windscreen of my car, I can see -
Through the porthole of my boat,
Through the window of my submarine,
… the windscreen of my helicopter
… the porthole of my rocket…,
with a generous, wide-spaced line under each for description. Encourage rich, imaginative and relevant description for each one, e.g. for the view from the submarine, perhaps a list of sea creatures and features, with accompanying adjectives. Encourage further entries with views from other vehicles and transport means - crazy ones included - writing on the reverse or extra paper if necessary, firing imagination and creativity as well as interest in the subject.
Round off with illustrations on separate paper.
Best for Juniors (ages 7-11 approx.).
This pretty woodland picture will attract young children, and the big, bright, highlighted text will motivate them to read or sound out the ten animal words. These are all familiar, one- and two-syllable words, such as robin, frog, ants and rabbits. A handy resource for phonics and reading practice and monitoring, best used one-to-one or in small groups for most children, though able readers will enjoy working out the words independently. Also suitable for advanced EY and lower ability Yr 2 children. The resource will also support work on woods, countryside, animals, mini-beasts and nature generally.
Baby animals, birds and insects of springtime are celebrated in this stack of colouring and colour/writing sheets for Early Years and Yr 1 pupils, PLUS 3 Spring Rhymes to read, chant, clap and enact, written by the author.
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.
Shooting stars, planets & aliens feature in these space-themed Literacy activities. There are two action rhymes for EY/KS1 + 3 graded versions of a star picture-poem; for confident/older writers there are 2 fun, illustrated poetry frames of planet and alien respectively. Guidance notes for all.
These are my own designs and rhymes, home-produced, hand-illustrated, successfully tested in schools.
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.
This is an exciting, fascinating picture-poem frame, in 3 variations of graded difficulty. It will inspire your 5-7 year-olds to get dreaming and writing, drawing on passive vocabulary to express their buzzing imagination. Their castle might be dark, damp and gloomy, or grand, golden and magical, or ancient, crumbling and haunted. It’s as old as …, and as [__] as __ .
What will you find inside? Treasure? A sword? A secret message? Who lives there? A lonely ghost? A fiery dragon? A bossy king? And what does he/she like to do? There’s scope for drama, humour and mystery here. Recommended for Yrs 1-2.
Supports Poetry, Literacy and History.
See my other Castle-themed resources too.
I wrote this one-verse poem to help draw children’s attention to the process and problems of global warming, and the need to preserve our precious, beautiful planet. I’m offering it free, as with my other climate crisis poems.
Creative writing flows with a fun picture-poem frame, so your 5-7 year-old will be keen to think up words and similes to fill this fluffy cloud and the lines below. Prompt suggestions are provided on the Guide sheet, and your warm-up activities and real-life observations will inspire them further. See my Sun + Cloud resource for simpler writing and sunshine focus; also my Rain Rhymes resource.
YouTube recording of my poem ‘What is a Cloud?’
https://youtu.be/EOKVIktMh10
Writing inside a picture is great fun, and brings the words alive for children. This stack of picture-writing frames features clouds, stars, ladybirds, snakes, castles, leaves and seasides, some with graded variations. This bundle will inspire imagination, fire enthusiasm, develop skills and boost confidence.
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
Emergent and newly independent writers will enjoy thinking up describing words to write on the swirly, little lines on their cloud. Think up some together first, e.g. - fluffy, puffy, white, grey, floaty, soft, light, high, drifting, quiet, slow, pink, dark, stormy, woolly, silky, silver, whirly, swirly or candy floss.
Here’s a published poem of mine about clouds on YouTube: https://youtu.be/EOKVIktMh10
Let children sound out the words, whether or not correctly, to sustain flow and build confidence. See my other weather writing frames, including harder version of this: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/weather-poetry-bundle-ks1-11974784
My star is… This opening phrase below the star picture offers an infinite scope of possibilities. Prompt for describing words such as shiny, pointy, gold, silver, tiny, pretty, sparkly, glittery, twinkly, friendly, kind, far away, high up, twitchy, spiky, mysterious, magical, shooting, smiling, hot and cold. Colour words may also be popular - red, blue, yellow, etc. Colouring in could be presented as a reward for the writing effort. Children will learn about space as they work.
Bring castles to life for your Infants with this varied mix of fun rhymes, thought-provoking picture-poems, simple reading challenge (on a castle scene) and an atmospheric castle picture (also available separately). The 3 rhymes come with guidance and embellishment tips. The picture-poems comprise a castle picture with lines for describing words, and 3 graded versions of 'In the castle lives a … ghost, king, and other characters.
Doing Dragons at all? This demo video might be handy? https://youtu.be/1NLutDY2zVQ
This richly illustrated creative writing sheet will engage your Reception and Year 1 emergent writers, triggering ideas about what could be under the sea, and encouraging adventurous descriptive language.
See differentiated versions too - same price.
See my inspiring videos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/wkeZ8K6iCfcFQneZ9
reading of published poem - ‘Treasure Chest Mystery’ - https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMarEm9uVBDEGPTykSlkAfT6jdVArKlPen6X5lk1le7dqUc89gEztNjSO7V6qsxUQ?key=X0hIWmdaV1M0Q2lHYURKbDdIVFFPMTVBTWRUdkhn
Warm your class to the subject first, building ideas of what could be under the sea, and words for describing those items, including fish - the only given item here. Fish might be various colours and patterns (stripy, spotty), fast or slow, darting, dashing or twitching, scaly, shiny, twinkly, shimmering, or even quiet, peaceful, friendly or gentle.
3 Picture-Poem sheets for Early Years - Yr 1, representing a ladybird, a butterfly and a snail, respectively, with accompanying Guidance Notes for each. These resources promote Literacy, Creative Writing, Expressive Arts & Design and Understanding the World.