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.
Young children will enjoy thinking up a word to complete the phrase - this robin is. Prompt for words such as - red, tiny, fluffy, happy, a baby, soft, hoppy, flappy, feathery, friendly. Encourage emergent writing and sounding out of letters, even if resulting in incorrect spelling. This will build confidence in writing. Present the colouring part of the activity as a reward for the writing, to ensure every child has a go at it.
This large and varied list of rhyming words will provide the backing you need for class dragon poems. See video for extra ideas + song!
Select your favourite words, or those best suited to your group, and read out some of the example verses on the next page, to build your class poem, or help children concoct their own, in pairs or individually. These words and examples offer funny, exciting, mysterious and crazy possibilities, opening up the potential for inspired creativity. Your pupils will love this activity. Watch your reluctant writers and hesitant speakers come alive as the activity takes off! With young children, make up your own, leaving a word gap for contributions, or concoct a simple couplet together. Clap the beat to ensure a punchy rhythm. Now, how about some illustrations?
Ocean poetry is exciting to write. This rhyme bank and the example verses on the next page will help you and your class to concoct fantastic poems about the wild and wonderful oceans, dangerous voyages, pirates, treasure and more. Supports literacy, as well as study of oceans, travel, history, geography and any class reading book with the theme. Recommended particularly for Yrs 4-7.
This guided **‘Stormy Sea’ writing sheet is an exciting!
With video How-to.
Children love writing their simile ideas for a stormy sea on these wavy lines, as confirmed time and again in my Stormy Sea poetry sessions.
Suggestions for teacher introduction and prompts are given in the accompanying guide sheet. the repeated phrase - The sea went… is followed by a wavy line for action words and description (rolling, roaring, wildly charging like an angry beast on the loose?). The poem ends calmly, inviting a simile for a peaceful sea. Yrs 3-6.
**SEE ALSO - ** TREASURE MAP alliteration game - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/treasure-map-alliteration-game-yr1-6-guide-for-use-11887395 (popular)
PLUS - SEA SIMILES (summer sea) -** https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/sea-similes-poem-frame-illustrated-12100413** .
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
Butterfly, Ladybird, Robin, Squirrel, Hedgehog, Frog + Rabbit colouring sheets for young children. Clear, attractive, black-and-white drawings, with natural settings and details, nurturing a love of nature and wild animals while also developing colour sense, pattern appreciation and fine motor control.
Do have a listen (free) to this gorgeous cat music, by a favourite composer of mine! The children will love it too!
An attractive picture of a ladybird with leaves and flowers, for colouring. Young children will enjoy colouring the spots red, and selecting colours for the other parts of this cheerful, natural picture. Develops fine motor control, colour sense, understanding of mini-beasts and the natural world, and more.
I also have a butterfly colouring sheet: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/butterfly-colouring-sheet-12043732
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.
Is this a Land of Lollopops, Love, or something else beginning with L? Your class will love thinking up words to complete this and all the other alliterative place names, such as Forest of F, Iceberg of I and School of S. A fun learning activity and handy filler, developing literacy skills and creativity with ease and laughter.
Tip for use: start with a whole-class warm-up, eliciting ideas for the title and one other name, before leaving children to write their ideas on the sheet, individually or in pairs. Young classes will benefit from doing the whole activity together, teacher-led.
Children can design their own planet in simile form, using the easier or harder picture-poem frames, then make up crazy features for the aliens who inhabit it, again using the easier or harder Alien poem frames. Great for learning through fun!
The Planet … is as bright as…, as hot as… and as spooky as… Each simile has a line for completion. There’s also a spare line for extras, and a follow-on verse about the aliens who live there - whatever features they may have. Children love this creative writing frame. Confident writers also enjoy the harder version, here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/planet-picture-poem-frame-ks2-guidance-sheet-11886984 See my other space writing resources too.
These 3 writing frames will help pupils of upper primary age and above to think out and express their thoughts and feelings. They are therapeutic activities , attractively set out, which develop personal and social skills as well as expressive writing. Examples for guidance are provided with each.
Being kind is - this opening phrase invites examples, which children can think up individually, following class discussion. The writing sheet rounds off with a simile: Kindness is like … - the more the better. An example of a completed version of the sheet is provided for teacher and pupil guidance. Recommended for Yrs 4-6 (ages 8-11).
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.
“Castle treasure can be -” is the lead-in phrase on this attractive picture-poem - or writing sheet, and the accompanying word bank supplies the teacher with easy and harder words to prompt for. Draw out the words from children’s passive vocabulary, rather than handing out this list. There are plenty of other words to contribute too - these are just suggestions.
The sheet can serve as a creative writing sheet for younger children, or a launch pad for extended writing, for older or more independent writers. Supports literacy and history.
Young children will love colouring in this lively dragon and its surroundings. Their ideas can fly like the creature, as they experiment with different colour combinations and pencil strokes. See also my dragon poetry worksheets for Early Years and KS1 and my Dragon’s Menu alliteration game.
Free-flow ideas for sci-fi fun!
Your class will love thinking up feature ideas for an alien, and independent writers will be keen to fill up the lines of this sheet with their descriptions. Are the alien’s eyes rolling, red, twinkly as stars, or different again? Could its skin be soggy, spiky, scorching as desert sand or covered in green hair, perhaps? Discuss possibilities with the class to unlock minds, and let each read out a line afterwards. See my other free alien writing sheet too, for a format variation - also my other space writing sheets, featuring planets, stars, and space rhymes.
Children love animals, so your emergent and newly independent writers will love thinking up words to describe robins and more here. The bundle contains 3 versions of the same basic writing frame, ‘simple’ being the lowest level, and 'mid-level- the hardest. See my 'hardest version for your able or older pupils. There’s plenty to colour here too. The resource supports work on animals, woods, environment, nature and seasons, as well as firing creativity and developing writing skills.
Literacy, Animals, Environment, Nature and Seasons supported in these 3 differentiated poetry writing sheets. Wild creatures abound in the lively, illustrated creative writing frames. The easier, mid-level and harder versions all invite describing words for a robin and another creature for writers to choose, harder versions eliciting more - an action word for squirrels, describing words for the trees and, in the hardest, a simile. This topic-rich resource fires imagination and creativity while developing writing skills. Successfully tested.
Robins, squirrels, hedgehogs and other woodland animals feature on this cheerfully-illustrated poem - or creative writing sheet, spurring young writers to think up describing words, action words and a simile to fill the gaps in the given verses. Recommended for Yrs 2-4 (UK), ages 6-8 approx. See my other two versions, mid-level and easier, for younger or less confident writers. This resource supports nature, animal and environmental studies, while developing writing skills and firing imagination and creativity.
