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.
Mazes are great for concentration and perfect for sneaking some fine motor skills in with older students!
This pack was updated in April 2025 and now has four mazes, each with an added joke (fold the bottom edge of the sheet and open when the maze is complete to reveal the punchline!
Answers to the mazes are also included and links to other pirate-themed resources.
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.
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.
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 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.
An interactive Powerpoint Presentation
Can be used on interactive whiteboards, computers or individual devices.
NOTE: there was an issue with opening the previous version, it has now been updated (20/10/24) apologies for any inconvenience
Good for
ICT skills: using a pen or mouse to click, drag and drop, using arrow keys to move an object. The activity challenges students to make the chameleon disappear by matching it exactly to the background, encouraging accuracy.
Observation Skills: looking carefully at detail, pattern, texture and colour.
Topics: Colour, Pattern, Camouflage.
Can be used as a follow up to reading The Mixed-up Chameleon by Eric Carle and The Content Chameleon resource by Teachers Telling Tales.
Contents:
Chameleon Camouflage PPT (make sure you keep a master copy in case students save the changes). All background photos are free to use and links are provided in the notes.
Free Chameleons PPT with interesting facts, free images with links, YouTube and children’s website links for further exploration.
This engaging presentation features interesting facts about chameleons with colourful photographs and links to short videos as illustration. (All photos are free to use and share, links provided in the notes).
It aims to answer common questions and stimulate new ones. A link at the end to a children’s website enables further research.
Aimed at younger children, text is simple and minimal.
Great as a follow-up to reading The Mixed-up Chameleon by Eric Carle or as part of topics on animals, patterns and colours.
(This resource is included free with other chameleon resources from Teachers Telling Tales.)
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.
Fun pirate-themed activities to consolidate positional language / introduce pirate topic vocabulary. Great for English language learners.
Starter - Spot the difference posters to get students talking and using positional language.
The same poster but in outline so students can add the objects in the correct place and colour their completed picture.
Instructions are provided in picture and text form. making the activity accessible to a range of ages and abilities.
A guide to using the resource with vocabulary lists is included.
Updated April 2025 in one pack for ease of use.
Related Resources A free pirate vocabulary anagrams sheet can be downloaded here: /teaching-resource/pirate-anagrams-12322262 There are pirate-themed mazes, sudoku and phonics games in the Teachers telling Tales shop with options to bundle and save. /teaching-resource/talk-like-a-pirate-phonics-bundle-12403177
