Fiona, of Teachers Telling Tales, has taught in the UK and international schools, trained teachers, worked as environmental educator, in a range of learning support roles and she is currently a tutor.
Through Teachers Telling Tales she aspires to share this experience through creating high quality and affordable resources. While most are targeted at the primary age range, the aim is to provide versatile and adaptable resources to suit a range of ages and abilities.
Fiona, of Teachers Telling Tales, has taught in the UK and international schools, trained teachers, worked as environmental educator, in a range of learning support roles and she is currently a tutor.
Through Teachers Telling Tales she aspires to share this experience through creating high quality and affordable resources. While most are targeted at the primary age range, the aim is to provide versatile and adaptable resources to suit a range of ages and abilities.
Everything you need for engaging lessons that will help students remember how to spell homophones. Includes quizzes, games and mnemonic activities.
Differentiation through separate presentations and resource variations (word, picture, word and picture). Colour, black and white and ink saving versions.
Suitable for in class or remote teaching / home learning.
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
Introduce Pirates vocabulary and consolidate positional language through Spot-the-Difference activity and draw and colour activity (with text or pictorial instructions). Great for differing abilities, students with EAL. Consolidate vocabulary with anagrams worksheet. Deepen thinking skills with pirate themed sudoku, cut and paste the pictures with three levels of challenge. Fun mazes to keep early finishers engaged.
Poems are a wonderful way to inspire a love of language in children. This pack features poems across a range of themes including animals, ocean, jungle, garden, farm and space and are great for enriching cross curricular topics. The activities inspired by the poems are designed for a range of abilities and learning needs with differentiation embedded. Activities include listen/read and draw/colour, checklists, card games, scavenger hunts, sequencing and matching.
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
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).
Using all four operations, these multi step maths games are excellent for consolidating calculation skills.
This pack contains three variations with different times tables, power of 10 and some doubling and halving too. They have a combination of 2 and 3 digit numbers.
The cute frogs and pond 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 frog 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.
Using all four operations, these multi step maths games are excellent for consolidating calculation skills.
This pack contains three variations with different times tables, power of 10, some doubling and halving and square numbers too. They have a combination of 2 and 3 digit numbers.
The cute chimps and palm trees 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 chimp 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.
This cute and colourful presentation is designed to engage even the most reluctant mathematicians! With 4 different scenarios involving ice lollies and ice creams, there are word problems involving mixed operations and multi-steps.
In Powerpoint presentation so easy to adapt, however with a UK and US version and three levels for each problem, you should not need to spend time on preparation. Includes a guide and answers in the notes for each slide.
Suitable for classroom and distance / home learning.
Works well as a whole class starter when projected or small group activity when printed.
For more ice cream / ice lolly themed resources check out https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/ice-ice-bundle-12355950 or ‘Delicious Description’, a complete lesson with a creative challenge.
PowerPoint / PDF with 16 pages. Guidance, answers and ideas in notes.
5 engaging games featuring cute monsters and balloons and a range of number facts and skills. Alternative versions of games and editable presentation, so the possibilities are endless!
Perfect for lesson starters, plenaries and fill in activities. Initially created as a remote teaching activity, suitable for distance learning.
Includes printable pages for follow-up consolidation.
Skills: 2 digit numbers, place value, one more / less, addition and subtraction, 2, 5 and 10 x tables, odd and even, doubles, number bonds.
Games: Who has the winning balloon? Pop the Balloons, Colour the Balloons, Multiplication Monsters, Make 10 Monsters.
UK spelling (colour) and US (color) versions.
You may also like the Teachers Telling Tales My Amazing Monster Literacy Lesson https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/my-amazing-monster-literacy-lesson-12564858 and Monster Balloon Party https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/monster-balloon-party-maths-games-12564895 for older / more able students. Buy two packs together as a bundle with a discount.
Packed with lots of editable games, the balloon party numeracy pack is perfect for consolidating number facts and skills. Dip into games as starters or time- fillers throughout the year.
The literacy pack can be used as a lesson or extended over time as a project. It includes differentiated phonics, vocabulary and creative writing activities. Using dice games to generate word part and detail for sentences, it is great for keeping students engaged.
If you teach a wide range of ages and abilities then this pack is for you!
Covering number facts and skills across the primary age range these fun games are great lesson starters or time-fillers. Editable presentations allow for endless variation.
Also suitable for remote teaching, includes presentations and printables.
PowerPoint / PDF with 19 pages. Guidance, answers and ideas in notes.
5 engaging games featuring cute monsters and balloons and a range of number facts and skills. Alternative versions of games and editable so the possibilities are endless!
Perfect for lesson starters, plenaries and fill in activities. Initially created as a remote teaching activity, suitable for distance learning.
Includes printable pages for follow-up consolidation.
Skills: addition and subtraction, times tables, fractions of amounts, rounding to nearest 10, double and half, number bonds
Vocabulary: multiple, factor, square number, square root, prime, odd and even, dozen, score, gross, sum, product
Games: Who has the winning balloon? Pop the Balloons, Colour the Balloons, Vocabulary Monsters, Make 100 Monsters.
UK spelling (colour) and US (color) versions.
You may also like the Teachers Telling Tales My Amazing Monster Literacy Lesson https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/my-amazing-monster-literacy-lesson-12564858 and Little Monster Balloon Party for younger / less able students. https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/little-monster-balloon-party-maths-games-12564875
Buy two packs together as a bundle with a discount.
Monsters is such a rich and engaging topic! Included in this monster bundle are lots of games and activities to develop and consolidate skills in literacy and numeracy.
Monster Match, Guess Who Games is great for vocabulary, describing, comparing and sorting according to color and characteristics.
My Amazing Monster includes Spot the Difference, phonics name creation and speaking / creative writing frames.
Monster Balloon Party packs cover a wide range of number facts and skills with different ability levels.
Contains presentations, printables, card games and worksheets.
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.
Jar and bottle templates, blank and with lines for Word Collector activities and display. Inspired by the short story in Eren by Simon P. Clark about a man who collected words, locking the ones he liked in special jars so that no-one could ever use them again.
Ideas:
A ‘jar’ for each student to put their words in. This is a good use for those plastic food and drink containers that collect in cupboards! Foil packaging (such as crisp packets) can be used to write words with a permanent marker, or use glitter glue for sparkle. Displayed in a dark corner with fairy lights this will look really special. Whenever a new word is found it can be added to the jar which then become a resource at creative writing time.
Sensory jar creations. Add oil, water, glitter, cubes or Lego with letters on to build the words inside the jar.
A Word Collection notebook to add to and refer to.
A display of The Greatest Words. Each student adds their favourite word to a jar (2D or 3D) on the shelf.
See https://teacherstellingtales.com/word-collectors/ for more.
Socks are a great topic for exploring patterns. This pack contains resources to explore repeat patterns.
Contents:
Complete the stripes.
There are striped socks to complete, two with a 2 colour AB pattern and two with a 3 colour ABC patterns to complete. The socks are included in PDF and PNG form so the size is flexible. A blank sock is included for pattern creation.
Complete the sock sequence.
Pairs of socks repeated with a range of colour patterns. Includes a blank line for pattern creation.
A teacher’s guide
Read more ideas for sock topics here https://teacherstellingtales.com/socks-rock/
Related resources are available from Teachers Telling Tales, including an Odd Socks pack, sock-topus counting activities and Fantastic Footwear which includes templates for socks and a variety of shoes and themed design challenge task cards.
These resources are great for awareness days:
#oddsocksday November 16th (part of Anti-bullying Week)
#LotsOfSocksDay 21st March (World Down Syndrome Day)
Having a set of stages to work through is a really useful support for students when solving problems. There are lots of acronyms used to help remember stages, this resource features four of the most popular. While some schools or classes adopt one, they can be even more meaningful when a student has selected the one they find most useful to them.
A lesson comparing and evaluating different strategies is helpful in getting to know students’ preferred learning style, for example, using visuals like drawing or underlining. It also encourages students to think more deeply about essential steps such as checking answers. Investigate whether different strategies work better for different kinds of problems.
Contents:
4 small pictures to compare and contrast / stick in books.
4 large posters to display.
4 bookmarks, useful for maths exercise books.
The Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl have some good examples of figurative speech. This short presentation gives a few examples of idioms, for example: the cat’s pyjamas, he’s had his chips, up my street
There are links to videos of the Revolting Rhymes on YouTube in the notes.
Perfect as a follow up to reading The Revolting Rhymes or as part of a study of figurative language such as idioms.
Check out the other Revolting Rhymes resources by Teachers Telling Tales with a focus on reading comprehension skills: Revolting Times and Revolting Crimes.
Through this interactive story students learn about different sources of water pollution and consider their impacts on marine life. They follow Finn the fish as he travels through different ecosystems encountering different problems along the way. Immersing a sponge fish in a container of water and adding substances to mimic the different kinds of pollution is a powerful visual way to demonstrate the problems. Follow up ideas including matching cards are included along with editable story scripts to adapt for different learners / contexts.
