These inspiring and attractive writing sheets of birds in flight (3 graded versions) will enthuse your independent and emergent writers. After a stimulating input - watching birds, flying like birds yourselves and building a word-bank of action and describing words for them, they’ll love choosing their favourites to write on the flowing, wavy lines. There’s plenty of colouring to do, too. The Guide sheet offers handy ideas to bring in. Supports bird migration, autumn and journeys themes.

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 intriguing poetry-writing theme, and the accessible, attractive worksheets, will motivate writers of all ability to think up imaginative description and similes. The Ideas Sheet, titled ‘City Lights’, is fun to use, with a spider diagram and scattered lines for adjectives and images. The poem frame, titled ‘Night Lights’, has plentiful space for writing, with clear, supporting structure, though able writers may prefer to use it as a launch pad for an individual approach. Both sheets are excitingly illustrated, with details to spark ideas. The Guide provides prompt suggestions for each and development ideas for the poem. The resource is home-produced and has been successfully used with Yr 3-6 classes. Black and white, PDF.

Rhyming couplets to celebrate the end of the school year with your class. Pick and build together, perhaps adding in your own contributions too. Set to music? Perform in assembly? Lots of fun and food for thought as well in these two pages of specially crafted rhymes. I’m a well-published children’s poet, and use my rhymes with children in my school workshops. They bring lessons and learning alive for children, also building self-confidence and PSHE skills. Please note: rhymes presented in random order. Here’s a summery video-poem, with music & pictures: https://youtu.be/wdQJtlPJpeQ

Let your class fly with these inspiring picture poems! Able writers can set their ideas sailing round a winding, looping line, developing ideas about the mat and its moods on the follow-on sheet. Younger or less confident writers can express their flying and floating concepts on straight lines, with structure to prompt and encourage. A 2-page teacher’s guide, with example poems to read out, is also included. This resource will melt away anxieties about writing, especially with the recommended warm-up discussion and enactments. Able writers, meanwhile, can use the light-touch frames to explore poetic techniques and approaches, letting their talents fly too! The sheets are hand-drawn and home-produced, so please expect spontaneity rather than computer-perfect lines.

This ghost, in its spooky castle poetry frame, will get your young writers hooked, and the 2 graded versions cater for different ability levels. The clear and spacious gaps for description, and the atmospheric illustrations, will inspire expressive language, as they describe the ghost’s movements through a castle’s passages, dungeon and stairs - and further perhaps. The accompanying Guide Sheet provides an example version of the poem to read out or refer to for prompts. Preparation suggestions for the activity are also given. Tried and tested with success in many schools. NB: 2 differentiated frames; guidance notes.

These 5 simple, rhythmic rhymes focus on everyday concepts. Their titles are: Busy Street, In the Park, Windy Day, Taller and Smaller, and School is for Me. Each rhyme sheet includes guidance notes. Suitable for clapping, enacting, word-swapping and performing with embellishments (such as percussion, a tune, or extra actions). They support the learning areas Understanding the World, Expressive Arts & Design, Literacy, Communication & Language, and Physical Development. The rhymes (and illustrations) are my own.

These larger-than-life spider pictures are fun to write on, and the Guide offers word prompt ideas for each section. Both writing sheets invite describing words and action words for spiders, though the pictures are different. On the ‘Spider’ sheet, words can be written on the eight legs; on the ‘Speeding Spider’ sheet, they can be written along the zigzag line of its route over the… floor/grass/path/step? That’s for the child to decide. The first offers colouring opportunities; the second, space for imaginative drawing or shading. Both sheets are hand-drawn and home-produced, and have been successfully tried out in my workshops.

Haiku poems are easy and fun to write when you know how, and your class will love the syllable-counting fun, too. This 2-page, 10-step guide will see you through the process of introducing the format, practising it with the class and helping them produce their own haiku. There are also suggestions for topic, approach and follow-on poetry-writing. I use the process myself in my workshops, and am always amazed by the fascinating and powerful lines produced. Recommended for Year 5 upwards - ideally Year 6 and above.

Inspiring spring writing frames, illustrated, in 5 grades. Opportunities to describe different young animals, as well as daffodils and more, with similes invited and space for individual input. Prepare by taking children outside on a fine spring day and sharing experiences and observations. Talk about the soft, fresh, fragrant air, the bright, cheerful daffodils, the busy, nesting birds, the budding leaves and crisp, green grass. Look out for buds, insects, squirrels, birds of all kinds, and any other flora or fauna around. Be the different young animals yourselves, and the budding trees, swaying gently in the breeze. Be birds, butterflies, squirrels and frogs. Have fun! Invite similes when helping children describe spring features. Lambs are as white as what? Wedding lace? Fluffy clouds? Snowdrops? Daffodils are as yellow as the sun, sunspots, corn, buttercups, lemons. SEE MY OTHER SPRING SHEETS TOO.

Children will be motivated to sharpen up their own spelling with these fun quizzes. They involve differentiating between words that sound the same but are spelt differently, and words the rhyme - or look as though they rhyme. The 2-page resource includes a checking/sorting challenge and an odd-one-out challenge, with opportunities for children to think up their own spelling quiz questions too. Ideal for spelling reinforcement, revision and enrichment, and handy for time-fillers and lesson enhancers.

Seaside Creative Writing Sheets - easier/harder: Seaside writing on wavy lines is fun! Children love using these sheets in my poetry workshops. The sea is __ and __. It is as sparkly as __. You might find , My sandcastle is as big as a - and more on the harder sheet. These line-starters open up exciting possibilities for young writers. See my very simple version too. Many other sea-themed writing sheets here too.

These two poetry frame sheets have lively, idea-triggering illustrations, and are designed to be fun and accessible to use. Both invite creative input, in terms of ideas and choice of words. ‘Watch Out for the Giant’ is easier, being shorter and simpler, with the chief focus on description and some giant meal possibilities at the end - suitable for Yr2-3, or as a starter-sheet for older writers to build ideas. ‘The Giant Went…’ sheet is more challenging, though clearly structured, requiring action-words and accompanying similes, as well as description and settings. Onomatopoeias, alliteration, rhymes within lines, and other poetic techniques can also be employed, and there is scope for all sorts of crazy, giant-themed possibilities in each frame. The Examples for Use (one sheet per poetry frame) provide whole-poem examples for teachers’ and pupils’ guidance. Suggestions for extending the activities are provided at the end of each.