Rainy days can be fun when you’re being the rain yourself in a punchy action rhyme, and thinking up sounds and ‘doing-words’ to say and write - especially when writing them on an umbrella! Children who can’t write yet can colour the many-sectioned umbrella and contribute verbally. There are 2 short rhymes - actions provided - and 1 writing sheet with accompanying Guide for use/lesson plan. This resource supports Literacy, Expressive Arts & Design, Understanding the World (seasons and weather) and Physical Development. Rhymes are original, designs hand-drawn - home produced. PDFs. Here’s my poem ‘What is a Cloud’ (published): https://youtu.be/EOKVIktMh10

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.

This engagingly illustrated under-the-sea writing frame will prompt your Yr 2s and confident Yr1s to write down their ideas about that fascinating world, with fish and treasure to describe, and a line for extra contributions. The wavy line below that can also be written on, and the many under-water items around it will fire all sorts of creative possibilities. The sheet is a simpler version of my Under the Sea writing frame for Ys 2-4, also available here.

This resource comprises a picture-poem frame sheet and a one-page guide for teachers. The hand-drawn butterfly picture-poem is a Literature resource for young children. Its opening phrase invites describing words for butterflies, which can be written on the short, clear lines around the picture. There is also a simile to complete: 'They are as colourful as - ’ , and space for further ideas. There is plenty of scope for colouring too. The guidance notes (or Guide) offers word and simile suggestions to prompt for, and thoughts about the colouring aspect, as well as ideas for preparing children for the activity as a whole. The resource supports several aspects of the EYFS curriculum - Literacy, Expressive Arts & Design and Understanding the World, also providing opportunities for reading, spelling, fine motor skills and more.

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.

Seasonal fun activity to stretch language and creativity! Beautiful autumn leaf picture to write on, with prompts and writing lines. Colouring potential too. Great for wall display. Let children gather, inspect and play with leaves, then write these sheets freely. Prompt for colour words, textures, movements - gliding, spinning, twirling through the sky. (What sort of sky?) Similes invited. Lots of poetic and expressive scope. Promotes calm and joy.

Sea similes and free style creative writing are invited on this wavy-sea picture poem, entitled “Summer’s Day Sea”. Children in my workshops are keen to write on the waves, thinking up their own similes for the sea and sand, and details to follow ‘It goes…’ and ‘You may find…’ IDEAS: The sea might be as blue as the fresh, summer sky, as refreshing as a dripping, mouthwatering, mint ice lolly, and as lacy as a bride’s frilly wedding dress. Or it might be as curly as hair rollers, as fun as your dream birthday party, or as reflecting as a gleaming, polished mirror. Perhaps start children off with similes for sparkly, e.g. as a whirl of precious diamonds, as silver glitter on a Christmas card, or as the twinkling stars in the night sky. SEE ALSO Stormy Sea simile sheet:**** https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/stormy-sea-poetry-frame-guide-12043779**** and Treasure Map alliteration fun: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/treasure-map-alliteration-game-yr1-6-guide-for-use-11887395 - both very popular!

These 3 punchy rhymes bring the past alive. Their titles are: Who Lived in the Castle?, Bowing and Curtseying, and My Castle is Old. Each contain rhyme and rhythm, while offering scope for alternative words to be slotted in (notes below provide ideas for these). There is also scope for acting-out, adding sound effects and enhancing with percussion. Suggestions for all of these are provided. They serve to prepare children for writing about castles, also enriching their vocabulary, developing their sense of rhyme and rhythm, and providing a window on the past. In addition, they promote physical development: the actions involved are fun and imagination-triggering, encouraging creative expression and physical exertion. The rhymes and illustrations are my own. 3 sheets in total -PDF.

Bring fun and laughter into your space studies with this two-page, quick-fire roll of crazy, snappy rhymes about aliens, rockets, stars and more! Most are couplets, with a few 4-line verses too, and all are bonkers! They’ll inspire variations and brand new rhymes from your class, boosting their literacy skills. The rhymes are my own, and I’ve used some in my space poetry sessions. TIPS for class rhymes - I recommend starting with “space”, eliciting a list of single words that rhyme with it to write below. Then fill up the line leading up to “space”, e.g. I saw an alien up in space, and finally think up a line to end with your rhyming word, e.g. She was doing up her lace. Have fun! **SEE ALSO ** - PLANET poetry frame (Yrs 2-4) - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/planet-poetry-frame-ys-2-4-12018025 + Planet picture-poem frame (KS2) - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/planet-picture-poem-frame-ks2-guidance-sheet-11886984

Recipe for a Night Sky is a published poem by this author, offered here as a source of inspiration and example of a recipe poem. Supports Halloween celebrations as well as poetry appreciation, reading and writing. Published in ‘The School Magazine’, Australia. Copyright Kate Williams, author of this catalogue.

Exciting words-in-picture writing challenge for Fireworks or related topic, or Literacy starter sheet before extended writing. GUIDANCE SHEET included, with tips for helping students think up words and phrases of different kinds to fill the gaps, e.g. describing words, verbs, onomatopoeia, simile, kenning, with examples of each. Fires enthusiasm for writing, stretches active vocabulary, builds confidence in self-expression and literacy, and helps children focus minds on specific concepts. Use across year groups, from Yr2-Y6, adapting challenge levels as appropriate, e.g. describing words for youngest and kennings for oldest. Extra tip: similes can be reduced to metaphors (Yr 5+) by removing ‘as…as’ or ‘like a…’. Can also be inverted, e.g. ‘hot as lava’ = ‘laver-hot’. See my other Firework sheets, too; also, my other gap-filling activities.

This funny, lively space rhyme supports all-round literacy. It’s simple, four-line verse can be varied to allow for different ideas, and each can be enacted or expressed with gestures, sounds or mime. Children will enjoy its catchy rhythm and be interested in the rhyme (space/face), also finding the tone cheerful and humorous. The resource offers embellishment for space topics, too, and encourages physical movement and expression. The tips below the rhyme include handy prompts for enacting, line by line, and also for eliciting alternative alien features. Using a simple, familiar tune, this verse could also be set to music.

Poetry in haiku form, with trees as the theme, is taught here with an introduction to haiku and six examples to complete. Tips for preparation are also given. Trees are familiar to all children, but each child will bring their own experiences, observations, thoughts and feelings to their writing. Trees are fascinating things, providing us with a wealth of glories, services and vital resources. They offer ever-varying colours, shapes, sounds, expressions, silhouettes, textures, fruits, flowers, leaf patterns, and more. They mark the seasons for us, offering summer shade and winter shelter; they inspire us with their noble, statuesque figures against the ever-changing sky; they house wildlife, secure and enrich the soil, and feed the atmosphere with vital elements. Yet around the world, they are being chopped down and uprooted. What will your children decide to say about them, and how, in their 17 syllables? Recommended for upper juniors and higher. 1 A4 page, black and white. Includes 3 haiku frames with gaps to fill, and 3 starter lines/phrases.

Pirate treasure from the sea bed could be beautiful, mouldy or smashed to bits. It could be flamboyant or faded, delicate or dangerous, and you might find it floating and drifting or submerged and water-logged. It’ll probably be secret, too - stolen, smuggled and concealed. All these words and many more are listed in this mind-stretching word bank. Either read out from it yourself or copy and distribute it around your class, for selecting and trying out, or to trigger other ideas. Encourage some of these words in conversation too. VIDEO SUPPORT: me reading my published poem, ‘Treasure Chest Mystery’ - details on my website, poemsforfun.wordpress.com : https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMarEm9uVBDEGPTykSlkAfT6jdVArKlPen6X5lk1le7dqUc89gEztNjSO7V6qsxUQ?key=X0hIWmdaV1M0Q2lHYURKbDdIVFFPMTVBTWRUdkhn SEE ALSO: **Under the Sea **poem frame: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/under-the-sea-poem-frame-example-y2-4-11922054 , Seabed Rhymes Y2-4: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/-seabed-rhymes-fun-rhyming-couplet-frames-ks2-11892578 . Seabed Mystery Poem Frame KS2: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/seabed-mystery-poem-frame-ks2-guide-11892739 and Treasure Map alliteration game: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/treasure-map-alliteration-game-yr1-6-guide-for-use-11887395

Healthy eating becomes meaningful for children when thinking up healthy foods beginning with particular letters, e.g. Green beans for the last letter in “Healthy eating”. Adjectives, like Gorgeous, and phrases, like Good for you (for the G letter), are also fun and meaningful to select. The Ideas Sheet provides plenty of suggestions for each letter of the acrostic, to prompt for as needed. Supports Literacy as well as healthy eating drives. Recommended for upper Juniors (9-11 approx.).

This FREE resource is a fun and simple rhyme to chant, clap and enact with your young class. Its words will inform, thrill, amuse and inspire, also spurring creative responses through physical actions and sounds. The punchy verses evoke the vastness of the jungle, its varied flora and fauna, its vibrancy, mystery danger, with warnings of tails, wings, bites, stings, a swinging monkey and a springing tiger. Tips for use and development are provided below the four rhyming couplets. See my other jungle resources too, sprinkled through my catalogue.

Birds in flight is a fascinating, exhilarating theme, ideal for the evocative mini-poem, the haiku. This sheet provides 3 haiku frames, three haiku starter-lines, information about haiku and how they work, inspirational commentary on the theme, and tips for preparing your children to compose them. Birds may sweep and swoop, tip and tilt, glide and cruise through skies of all sorts, perhaps catching the sun on their wings. What do they look like, up there against that crystal blue, peachy sunset or leaden cloud? Are they like darts, bullets, a swarm of bees, dancing butterflies or some other image? Where are they heading, how long is their journey and how do they know the route? Young, fluffy chicks are fun to write about, too, hop-skip-flapping off on their first, bumpy flight. More haiku sheets here, on other topics.

FREE: Meadow words and similes are invited for the ten writing gaps in this vibrant, flowery meadow picture - an engaging writing task, stretching vocabulary and building literacy confidence while developing appreciation of nature. A gap-clear version of the photo is included for inspiration. A Guide Sheet for teachers provides handy ideas for word and similes to give as prompts and examples. Supports poetry and descriptive writing, all-round literacy, nature study, global warming discussion, plant, colour, outdoor world and other topics. A great gap-filler, too, for any time, any class (approx. Yrs 2-6). See my other word-gaps in topical pictures too.