Nature Kids — Grade One Literacy Workbook

Client

Private client — online English tutor

The problem

An English tutor running live online literacy sessions for Grade One students needed something the children could work on at home between lessons. Two constraints shaped everything: many of the families had no reliable tablet access, so it had to work printed on paper, and these children needed handwriting practice, so the activities had to be done by hand rather than tapped. The real problem underneath was simpler. How do you hold the attention of six-year-olds who would rather be outside?

What I made

A 7-page illustrated workbook — written, illustrated and laid out end to end. If they would rather be outside, bring the outside in. Reading Raccoon guides the book, and Pacific Northwest wildlife carries every lesson: a bear standing and eating a fish for the verbs, a cougar clearing a school bus in one jump, a snow owl, a rattlesnake, a porcupine with three blueberries, a tortoise walking slowly for the adverbs. Every animal drawn for the page it teaches. Colour does actual work rather than decorating. Each part of speech gets its own colour — blue for nouns, red for verbs, orange for pronouns, green for adjectives, pink for adverbs — so the exercise becomes circling and underlining in colour. Grammar practice that behaves like a colouring activity. The palette was set against research on how children in this age group respond to colour, and the type was chosen for early readers rather than for looks. Content covers parts of speech, syllable trees and combinations, capital letters, and connect-the-dots letter matching, pitched at what a child needs coming into Grade One but expanded so the exercises aren't intimidating.

Images

The outcome

Delivered as a free download the tutor offers on her website and gives to every current client — reaching families beyond the ones already paying for sessions. Designed to be printed at the kitchen table with no device, no login and no adult sitting alongside for every question.