Fiona, the founder of Teachers Telling Tales, has taught in the UK and international schools, trained teachers and worked as environmental educator. She is currently studying graphic design.
Teachers Telling Tales is a means 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. Many are inspired by stories to engage learners.
Fiona, the founder of Teachers Telling Tales, has taught in the UK and international schools, trained teachers and worked as environmental educator. She is currently studying graphic design.
Teachers Telling Tales is a means 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. Many are inspired by stories to engage learners.
20 favourite fairy tale character frames with speech bubbles and 6 dialogue frames with two characters. Single character frames can of course be linked with others to create conversation between different characters.
Great for students to demonstrate their knowledge of well-known stories by retelling famous quotes. Also useful as creative writing activity through encouraging children to use their imagination to make up speech of their own.
Completed frames can be coloured and used to create a class book or display.
Differentiation:
for younger/less able students an adult can scribe
older/more able students can create dialogue, conversation or follow up with converting to text using speech marks.
Further ‘Once said in a Fairytale’ resources are available in the Teachers Telling Tales tes shop and this item can also be purchased as part of a bundle.
Activities to accompany the storybook ‘Flyaway Katie’ by Polly Dunbar.
Good for:
Actively involving children during story time, developing listening skills, vocabulary, following instructions.
Students learning English as an additional language.
Topics: colours, clothes, body parts, feelings.
Contents and Ideas:
Story Elements cards with colours (8), body parts (4) and clothes (4) from the story.
Give out to children individually or in pairs and ask to hold up their card when they hear it mentioned in the story.
Follow-along Sheet.
Children colour the picture of Katie, then look at the checklist with an adult.
A giant collection of quizzes, games and activities on favourite fairy tales, characters and quotes. Perfect to use to introduce a fairytale topic, during the study and to and conclude / assess. The fun speech activities are a great stimulus for drama and discussion. Includes speaking, listening, reading and writing skills.
These card games are a fantastic way for children to become familiar with classic stories, characters and speech. 16 colourful fairy tale / traditional tale character cards and 16 corresponding quote cards to print and play. Games ideas and instructions are included.
Through playing games students learn in a fun way and also practise their social skills.
A collection of resources for a unit on Flyaway Katie by Polly Dunbar. Packed with ideas, templates, and activities.
The Follow-along cards engage children with the story, develop listening skills and introduce vocabulary.
The Feelings activities include sheets to record feelings and self portraits inspired by the story to develop children’s self awareness, speaking skills and Personal, Social and Emotional Development.
Creative colouring templates (blank and patterned) of Katie and the birds are provided with display ideas.
Creative activities based on the story book Flyaway Katie by Polly Dunbar.
Good for:
Exploring colours, shapes and patterns
Templates with patterns for mindful colouring. Outline-only templates for children to create their own patterns. Can be enlarged for painting or collage. Great for a colourful display.
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
International Sudoku Day is September 9th, but any day of the year is a great time to use logic and reasoning skills to complete these puzzles! Through the process of elimination children also develop language skills, enhanced with this pack through using a range of themes including:
colour (primary, secondary, rainbow, black, grey, white)
directions (left, right, up, down or North, South, East, West if you prefer!)
stars with differing numbers of points
playing cards (heart, diamond, club, spade)
dice (dots representing numbers 1-6)
The pack has a range of challenges including 3 x 3, 4 x 4, 6 x 6, 7 x 7 and 9 x 9 grids with different amounts of squares missing.
Answer sheets included.
Variations include UK and US English spellings (colour/color), ink saving, cut and stick or draw and colour.
If your children enjoyed these check out these other sudoku packs from Teachers Telling Tales:
Minibeasts www.tes.com/teaching-resource/minibeasts-patterns-sudoku-and-sequences-12340235
Pirates www.tes.com/teaching-resource/pirate-sudoku-games-12322372
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.
A cool collection of ice lolly and ice cream themed activities. Includes craft, colouring and design. Inspire creative ideas and develop vocabulary related to flavours, colours, toppings and discussion of preferences and opinions. Explore symmetry through completing pictures and creating designs.
Perfect for summer, holiday and food topics, parties or play dates.
Chill out this summer by making cool ice lollies! Outlines to print, colour or decorate using collage. Fold in half and paste with a lollipop stick (real or made from the template). Ten designs.
Ideas for use:
Design your own lolly - choose your shape, colour, pattern, flavour, toppings etc. Great as a stimulus for speaking or writing.
Use for role play, (no dripping unless you use a lot of glue!)
Use beads, sequins, pom poms etc. for sprinkles.
Create a cool character. Add eyes, arms, cool sunglasses etc. Googly eyes and pipe cleaners are great for this!
Make a puppet show with your characters.
At home: a great craft activity for a party or play date.
At school or play scheme: these make a fantastic display.
This is a good way to keep children occupied after making real ice lollies and waiting for them to freeze.
Check out the other ice lolly and ice cream resources by Teachers Telling Tales. You can also purchase this resources as part of the ‘Ice Ice Bundle’.
Creating these cute ice lolly characters is a fun activity for learning about symmetry. The challenge is to draw the missing side of the picture so it is the same on both sides. A grid over the image helps with drawing shapes and placing details in the correct place. You could also use a mirror, place it along the middle line to check in the reflection. There are 3 character designs to complete, two ice lolly shapes with no detail and a blank grid for creating your own designs. Colour and ink saving versions included.
Children love to create a name for their finished lolly and for an extra challenge can design the wrapper using the blank grid.
Check out the ice cream symmetry resources and other ice lolly activities by Teachers Telling Tales for summer topics or parties.
This resource can also be purchased as part of the ‘Ice Ice Bundle’.
A cool creative pack of ice cream goodies, ideal for summer topics or parties. Contains 3 activities:
Ice cream cone symmetry. complete the pictures so the delicious dessert is the same on both sides (3 designs).
‘I dream of ice cream’ design your perfect ice cream template, single and double cone versions.
Ice cream creative colouring sheets (4 designs).
Great for talking about colours, flavours, toppings, preferences.
There are similar symmetry resources featuring ice lollies in the Teachers Telling Tales shop: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/ice-lolly-symmetry-12355898
You can also purchase this resource with other ice lolly resources as part of the ‘Ice Ice Bundle’.
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/
A mini story and quiz presentation with pattern colouring and treasure hunt activities.
Good for
Follow up to reading The Mixed-up Chameleon by Eric Carle.
Topics : Animals, Colour, Pattern, Camouflage.
Observation Skills: looking carefully at pattern and colour.
Contents and Ideas: (a resource guide is also included)
The Content Chameleon presentation. A mini story and quiz about the no-longer-Mixed-up Chameleon returning to the zoo. He has lots of fun trying out animal patterns. The children guess the animal from the chameleon’s pattern.
(All background photos are free to use and links are provided in the notes.)
Pattern Colouring Sheets. An outline of the chameleon filled with an animal pattern. Children continue the pattern to hide the chameleon. Nine animal patterns and a blank outline are provided.
Blank chameleon outlines. A portrait and landscape version. These can be used as colouring sheets or traced onto plastic pockets to explore inserting different colours and patterns. The traced chameleons can be placed around the classroom or playground for a chameleon treasure hunt. A few photos of ideas are included in the resource guide.
Free Chameleons presentation with interesting facts, free images with links, YouTube and child-friendly website links for further exploration.
A fun way to familiarise children with favourite fairy tale characters and well known quotes.
Contains 4 colour-coded Bingo boards featuring characters from well-known fairy tales and cards with quotes.
Fairy tales are a wonderful means to learn about speech in stories. Children love to join in with repeated phrases using different voices. This game is a great way to introduce or consolidate this. The quote cards can also be used for other guessing games.
Further ‘Once said in a Fairytale’ resources are available in the Teachers Telling Tales tes shop and this game can also be purchased as part of a bundle.
Celebrate #WorldBeeDay with some bee-themed handwriting patterns and cutting skills!
For more minibeast-themed resources including card and board games, mazes, sudoku and book making check out https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/minibeasts-big-bug-bundle-12340248
Teachers Telling Tales also have a free bee-themed maths activity here which can be adapted for different ages and abilities:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/buzz-off-square-numbers-multistep-game-12521661
This multi step maths game is excellent for consolidating square numbers knowledge. It features square numbers and square roots and familiarises students with the mathematical symbols.
The cute bees, flowers and hive 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 are colour and ink saving versions, (that students can colour themselves). If working with a partner students can pick a bee 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.
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/climb-the-trees-multistep-maths-games-12521644
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/cross-the-pond-multistep-maths-games-12521614
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/climb-the-branch-multistep-maths-games-12521653
Inspired by the magic mirror from Snow White that tells the truth about characters, these templates can be used as frames for portraits.
Heroes and villains are key feature of fairy tales. Characters tend to be represented in black and white terms, purely good or evil. This makes fairy tales a great vehicle for exploring character traits and discussing good and bad deeds. Children can decide who they think is the meanest (or kindest) fairy tale character and draw them. Depending on their age/developmental stage they can ‘show and tell’ their thoughts, perhaps scribed by an adult or write a few sentences to explain their choice. Some children may prefer to write in the frame instead of drawing.
The pack contains two colour images (useful for discussion/display/modelling) and six black and white versions for drawings of the ‘kindest’ and ‘meanest’ of them all. There are variations on the wording, for example, the ‘biggest villain’ and ‘most heroic’.
Did you know in the Disney film the evil queen says “Magic mirror” not “Mirror, mirror”? There is a magic mirror version too, in case you prefer this!
This resource is part of a ‘Once upon a crime’ series by Teachers Telling Tales. The activity is one of 12 in a Fairy Tale Forensics unit of study presentation which includes a police line-up of characters that could be used as a stimulus for mirror portraits. The Mug Shots resource would also complement this activity. You can ‘bundle and save’ on this series.
