Develop phonics and reading skills with this Bingo game. Featuring 28 ‘ar’ words, there is a clue for each, for example, “The opposite of blunt”. There are 6 colour coded game boards, each with 16 words. Players must try to get 4 in a row. Good for listening skills and consolidating vocabulary with English learners. For more fun with the ‘ar’ sound, check out the board game: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/ar-talk-like-a-pirate-phonics-board-game-12403169 Teachers Telling Tales also have Pirate phonics packs with the long ‘o’ sound. Pirate fans, check out the pack with position activities, mazes, anagrams and sudoku.

A compilation of thirty dice games, presented in an easy to follow document with suggestions for adaptations to meet learners’ needs. The document can be trimmed to produce cards featuring simple instructions, perfect for support staff working with small groups. Mathematics skills covered include: calculation using all four operations, comparing numbers, place value, doubling, odd and even numbers, times tables, square numbers, number bonds, probability, rounding, power of 10, negative numbers, fractions, sequences, area and perimeter.

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.)

A Bingo game featuring pictures of things with the long ‘o’ sound, for example, rhino, rainbow, soap, window etc. 4 color coded boards each with 16 pictures, students cover the pictures as they are called out and see if they can get 4 in a row. Includes a list of the words, 24 in total, (can be cut into cards/slips of paper). For a fun game featuring words and pictures with this sound check out this board game:https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/yo-ho-ho-talk-like-a-pirate-games-12403172 Other Talk like a Pirate phonics resources feature the ‘ar’ sound. Further pirate themed resources by Teachers Telling Tales include positional language activities, mazes, anagrams and sudoku. Get them all in a value bundle: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/pirates-pack-12183976

Updated November 2024 with six new characters and improved templates. These mug shots were taken at the Fairy Tale Police Department! The fairy tale characters are suspects of crimes. Did they do something wrong? Did they commit a crime? Are they innocent or guilty? There are thirteen mug shot pictures featuring well-known characters from favourite stories and blank templates for students to create their own. The pictures are a versatile resource that can be used for guessing games, discussion, drama and writing prompts. Activity ideas are included in the download. Good for a fairy tale or crime topic, English including oracy and Citizenship. This resource is part of a ‘Once upon a Crime’ series by Teachers Telling Tales and accompanies the Fairytale Forensics unit of study. You can also ‘bundle and save’ on this series.

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.

An engaging activity to develop reading comprehension skills linked to The Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl. Focus on retrieval and summarising the main idea or events. Use the templates to create a newspaper, newsflash or breaking news on the television. Guidelines for students include: headline, caption and story characteristics of news texts is included such as punctuation, alliteration, rhyme The television (old and new style) templates can be used for other topics too. Powerpoint and PDF versions allow for adapting the resource for your needs. Includes educator’s notes and examples of work by students using the templates. You may also like the Teachers Telling Tales resource Revolting Crimes and Sublime Rhymes, (available as a Revolting Rhymes bundle).

Creating a Wanted poster or a Missing Poster is a great way to follow up reading The Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl. These templates provide a framework for students to demonstrate their reading comprehension skills through character description and fact retrieval (listing the crimes, stating the place last seen etc.). There are educator’s notes and student notes with instructions to guide through the text characteristics as well as examples of students’ work using the templates. Provided in Powerpoint and PDF format for flexibility, the activity can be printed or completed digitally. Other Revolting Rhymes resources are available from Teachers Telling Tales, including Revolting Times (a news summarising pack) and Sublime Rhymes (with examples of idioms). If your students are motivated by the crime theme, they may also enjoy the Once Upon a Crime resources: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/fairytale-forensics-learning-unit-12222954

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 pirate themed board game to learn the ‘ar’ sound and have fun talking like a pirate! Good for phonics, vocabulary, pirate topics. Contents: Game board (A4 size will work for 2 players, enlarge for more) 20 Clue cards with short riddles to answer, e.g. “the opposite of near”. Answer sheet Guide with instructions Colour or ink saving versions. As well as phonics this game is good for vocabulary with English learners. Talk like a Pirate ‘ar’ bingo is also available. This board game can be purchased as part of a bundle with ‘Yo ho ho’ pirate resources with a focus on the long ‘o’ sound.

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.

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.

This resource pack features a board game and a set of cards with ten minibeasts and corresponding movements. The cards are great for brain breaks and circle times. With the board game children perform the action when they land on the minibeast, for example, spin when they land on a spider. There are variation prompts on the game such as saying a fact about the animal, saying how many legs it has or saying where it lives. The board also features pictures of where minibeasts are commonly found, for example, logs, flowers, a pond. There are minibeast habitats resources (as well as a range of other minibeast activities) in the Teachers Telling Tales shop.

Originally created for the IPC topic Sand and Water, this presentation is designed to stimulate children’s interest in sand, answer basic questions and inspire further exploration. Aimed at young children it features large colourful pictures and simple text (generally one heading and a sentence on each slide, (with more detail and some links in the notes for presenters). Questions prompt children to say what they already know or think and there are a few questions for them to guess where the answer is revealed, keeping their attention. It covers how sand is made and why it is different colours, animals that live or hide in sand, sand in the desert, how we use sand and sand art. This presentation is great as an introduction to scientific or creative exploration of sand, for example whether dry or wet sand is best for sculpture, making patterns by sprinkling or creating texture with sand. It is also a good stimulus for researching sandy habitats and how plants and animals have adapted to living in them.

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.

Using all four operations, these multi step maths games are excellent for consolidating calculation skills. This pack contains three variations with different times tables, doubling and halving and multiples of 100. There are two games with 2 digit numbers and one with 4 digit numbers. The cute caterpillars and branch design also features on blank sheets to add your own numbers and questions, or for students to create their own as an extension activity. There is a colour and ink saving version, (that students can colour themselves). If working with a partner students can pick a caterpillar each, see who gets the highest answer and check each other’s answers. It also works well as an individual activity. Answers and guide included. The game can be printed, projected on a screen or completed digitally. as students record their answers on paper or a whiteboard, the game can be used over and over. There are similar packs available from Teachers Telling Tales with different designs and skills and the option to bundle and save.

Sudoku is a fun way to develop concentration and reasoning skills. The challenge is to enter numbers (or in this case pictures) into grids so none are repeated in each row or column. These games feature pirate themed pictures, students cut and paste to complete the grids. This gives them the option of moving the pictures around before sticking them down. There are 3 by 3 and 4 by 4 grids and three levels of challenge: easy, tricky and deadly. As well as improving thinking skills, the games are good for consolidating pirate topic vocabulary.

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.

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/