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.
Celebrate #WorldBeeDay (20th May each year) 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 /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:
/teaching-resource/buzz-off-square-numbers-multistep-game-12521661
Note: updated March 2025 with two extra sheets (one each for tracing and cutting).
This resource has been selected twice by the TES Resource Team for handwriting and letter formation blogs (Septemebr 2024 and January 2025).
The classic tale of Sam’s Sandwich is fantastic for engaging students as they eagerly await to discover which creature will be added with each sandwich ingredient. This pack contains resources to accompany the book, including word and picture cards for participation in read-alouds and retellings, a fill the gaps activity focussed on rhyming words (with two levels) and reading comprehension questions.
Good for food and minibeasts topics.
You may also like the Teachers Telling Tales minibeasts resources: /teaching-resource/minibeasts-big-bug-bundle-12340248
This pack contains two formats, PowerPoint and PDF.
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’.
Get creative colouring these cool ice lollies. There are 4 character designs and 6 outlines of different shaped lollies to colour. Great for talking about flavours, colours, patterns and preferences.
As a challenge, children could think up a name for their ice lolly and maybe even design the packaging too.
Print or stick on card for creating textured lollies using collage with sequins, beads etc.
Check out the other ice lolly and ice cream resources by Teachers Telling Tales. This resource is included in 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: /teaching-resource/ice-lolly-symmetry-12355898
You can also purchase this resource with other ice lolly resources as part of the ‘Ice Ice Bundle’.
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 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.
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.
Activities to accompany ‘Flyaway Katie’ by Polly Dunbar
Good for:
Getting to know each other.
Talking about feelings.
Students learning English as an additional language.
Topics: feelings, colours, clothes, shapes, patterns.
Contents
Lesson plan with ideas for children to talk about what makes them happy.
Read and Record Sharing Sheet
Blank to enlarge for teacher to record children’s responses. Editable version for students to record with words or pictures.
Flyaway Self Portraits
Templates, blanks and with simple outline drawings to choose from. Display ideas.
Originally created for the IPC topic Sand and Water, this presentation is designed to stimulate children’s interest in sand, answer basic questions and inspire further exploration.
Aimed at young children it features large colourful pictures and simple text (generally one heading and a sentence on each slide, (with more detail and some links in the notes for presenters). Questions prompt children to say what they already know or think and there are a few questions for them to guess where the answer is revealed, keeping their attention.
It covers how sand is made and why it is different colours, animals that live or hide in sand, sand in the desert, how we use sand and sand art.
This presentation is great as an introduction to scientific or creative exploration of sand, for example whether dry or wet sand is best for sculpture, making patterns by sprinkling or creating texture with sand. It is also a good stimulus for researching sandy habitats and how plants and animals have adapted to living in them.
Read the poem and colour the pictures.
Good for reading comprehension, EAL, extending colours and animals vocabulary.
This poem is fantastic for introducing new colour words like ‘lavender’, ‘turquoise’, ‘lilac’. It gives students the opportunity to explore blending colours and creating lighter and darker shades using different pressure.
The worksheets with the poem allow teachers to assess students’ understanding. The blank sheet (with just the pictures) allows students to use their imagination and be encouraged to record their ideas by writing their own descriptions.
A resource guide gives suggestions for use and differentiation.
The worksheets are provided in PDF and Word (editable) formats.
Dyslexia-friendly versions are included.
Great for a space topic.
A fun alien poem for shared reading, worksheets with a copy of the poem for more careful reading and a space to draw the scene. A checklist is provided for students to work with a buddy and see how many of the descriptions they included in their drawing. (This could be printed on the back of the sheet). While they are challenged to include all the specified details, students can be encouraged to use their imagination to complete the scene.
The activity provides lots of opportunities for discussion and develops reading comprehension skills.
Worksheets provided in PDF and Word (editable) formats.
Dyslexia -friendly font versions are provided.
In ‘Quack! said the Billy Goat’, the silly poem by Charles Causley, the animal sounds are all mixed up. The poem is fantastic for learning about farm animals, the sounds they make and using speech bubbles.
Children enjoy making the sounds and exploring how to write them.
This resource comes with a guide with suggestions for introducing the poem, shared reading ideas to involve children and follow up games.
There are animal silhouette pictures, animal names and speech bubbles with sounds. These are in the form of a picture for retelling the poem and to make cards for games and activities.
This pack includes
Design Task Cards
Footwear outlines templates
Teacher’s guides with instructions and activity descriptions and ideas.
Design Task Cards (2 versions: A4 size UK spelling and letter with US spelling)
These cards are designed to spark ideas, with suggestions while being open ended for interpretation and exploration. Themes: Characters, friends and Family, Superheroes, Animals, My Hero, Occupations, Stories, Celebrations. The cards can be used for individual or collaborative tasks.
The cards could be used for other items of clothing such as hats or T shirts, homes, vehicles or anything else you can think of!
Templates
Outlines of footwear. Includes a range of socks, tights, leggings, shoes, sandals, boots.
These resources are great for awareness days:
#oddsocksday November 16th (part of Anti-bullying Week)
#LotsOfSocksDay 21st March (World Down Syndrome Day)
Related resources are available from Teachers Telling Tales, including an Odd Socks pack, sock-themed repeat patterns and Sock-topus and Friends’ animals love socks counting activities. Available as a bundle at a dis counted price.
Also see the blog post https://teacherstellingtales.com/socks-rock/
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.
These worksheets feature a selection of poems from Commotion in the Ocean and Rumble in the Jungle by Giles Andreae. Students are given the rhyming words to choose from to fill the gaps. There is space for drawing when the work is complete. There are greyscale (black and white) versions for saving on ink.
