Free Teacher Guide & Printables for Kids

For teachers and homeschoolers

Cover of the Sammy Star Teacher's and Homeschool Guide

A Teacher’s & Homeschool Guide to the Sammy Star Books

12 pages · ages 3–8 · free to photocopy

Two pages for each of the four books. What the story is doing underneath, three places to stop while you read with the question to ask at each, four discussion questions that ladder from the page outwards to the child, and one low-preparation activity using things you already have in a drawer.

It also includes a four-week unit plan, CASEL social-emotional focus and Common Core reading and speaking standards for each book, and the one habit that makes read-aloud questions actually work: ask, then stop talking and count to ten.

Download the guide (PDF)

Three sheets, ready to print

Moon phases coloring sheet showing eight phases of the moon to color in

The Moon Changes Its Face

Ages 5–10 · 1 page

All eight moon phases in order, drawn correctly for the northern hemisphere, with the dark part left blank to colour in. Underneath there is a seven-night Moon Watch log, so your child can go outside, look up, and draw what they actually see. Quietly teaches that the Moon never changes shape — we just see it from a different angle.

Download the moon sheet (PDF)

Help Sammy Get Home to Mama Moon

Ages 4–9 · 2 pages

A proper maze with exactly one way through, so nobody ends up stuck in a puzzle that was never solvable. Page two is the answer key, in gold, for settling arguments. Good for a restaurant table, a waiting room, or the twenty minutes before everyone melts down.

Download the maze (PDF)

What Makes YOU Shine?

Ages 5–10 · 1 page

A big star to draw yourself inside, and five questions with room to write: something I am good at, something kind I did, something I am still learning, something that makes me laugh, something only I can do. It ends by asking the child to read their five answers out loud — and to notice that nobody else would have written the same five.

Download the worksheet (PDF)

Teachers, homeschoolers and grandparents: please copy these as many times as you like. Use them in a classroom, a co-op, a library session or a Sunday school room — you do not need to ask me. If you would like to link to this page from a blog or a resource list, that is very welcome too. All I ask is that you do not sell them.

Printing tip: choose Actual size rather than Fit to page in your printer dialog, or the margins shift. Plain paper and black ink are fine — these were drawn as line art on purpose so they do not drink a whole cartridge.

Where Sammy came from

Sammy Star is a small glowing star growing up in a world of moons. The books are about being brave, telling the truth, and shining exactly as you are — the kind of lesson a child gets to arrive at themselves, rather than having it handed to them on the last page.