BEYOND WORDS: How to use Wordless Books in the Primary Classroom

Don’t miss this exclusive opportunity to enhance your teaching practice with a FREE teacher training event led by award-winning author Clare Helen Welsh! This unique session focuses on the power of wordless picture books in the primary classroom, offering creative strategies to inspire critical thinking, storytelling, and language development. To access this invaluable training, simply purchase Clare’s captivating book, Moon Bear, for £7.99 plus £1.99 P&P. This offer is exclusively for book buyers, so secure your copy today and unlock a world of learning and engagement for your students.

What educators can expect?

Unleash the power of wordless picture books in your primary classroom! In this engaging and interactive teacher training, Clare Helen Welsh, an award-winning author and former teacher, will guide you through creative and imaginative strategies for using wordless picture books to build critical thinking, storytelling, and language skills.

Discover how these visually rich books can inspire students, regardless of reading ability, to interpret stories, spark discussions, and create narratives. Leave feeling inspired to use a wordless text as a whole-school reading for pleasure project in your setting.

Includes chances to win a virtual visit from Clare based on her (almost!) wordless picture book with Carolina T Godina, Moon Bear.

Who is the event aimed at?

Perfect for Librarians, Support Staff, Primary Teachers (EYFS, KS1 & KS2), Literacy Leaders and Headteachers looking to expand literacy techniques and cultivate a love of reading.

About Clare Helen Welsh

Clare is a former primary school teacher turned writing tutor and children’s author, living in South West England with her husband and two children. Clare does her best writing by the sea (or on the sofa with a dog on her lap!), which is lucky because she lives close to many beautiful beaches and the salty sea air (and has a dog called Hope!)

When Clare isn’t writing stories, she is inspiring children to write their own. She loves visiting schools, libraries, bookshops and festivals in her authormobile, giving her an outlet for her BIG ideas. Once she helped a class make a giant rice crispy cake that was so wide it wouldn’t fit through the door!

But her best idea yet has been putting pen to paper. Clare loves writing wacky, funny books but is also passionate about writing stories that help children deal with big feelings and difficult issues, including dementia, divorce and serious heath issues. She has recently started writing books that are a mix of fact and fiction, interweaving non-fiction with brilliant storytelling.

Clare is the founder of Books That Help – an initiative that aims to celebrate picture books and how they can be used therapeutically to navigate life’s up and downs..

Clare Helen Welsh’s website clarehelenwelsh.com

Clare Helen Welsh on Instagram (@clarehelenwelsh) 

Clare Helen Welsh on X (@clarehelenwelsh)

Clare Helen Welsh on Facebook (@sneakymcsqueaky)

Focus Book

The session will focus on Clare’s new book, Moon Bear. (It will also feature other wordless books for use across the primary phases)

About the Book

Book title: Moon Bear

Illustrator:  Carolina T. Godina 

In this enchantingly illustrated, almost wordless picture book, a story of courage and creativity unfolds when a girl who is afraid of the dark meets a magical moon bear who is afraid of the light.

Ettie is afraid of the dark. Every night without fail her Mummy calls, ‘Time for bed, Ettie!’ The curtains pull shut, her bedside light blinks out and Ettie is surrounded by the deep inky cloak of the dark…

… Until one night, the bright moon shines through a crack in her curtains. Cautiously, Ettie reaches out a hand to touch the light and is surprised to find that it leaves a glittering mark on her hands. Overcome with curiosity and joy, Ettie dances around her room, drawing with this magical beam of moonlight. She pulls open her curtains and begins to connect the stars in the sky as if they were dots. A moon bear slowly appears in the sky, and when she connects the very last dot, he bursts into life, standing in Ettie’s very own bedroom.

The bear and Ettie begin to play and explore Ettie’s room. But when Ettie switches on her torch, the bear hides away in fear. Together, Ettie and the moon bear help each other face their fears. One is afraid of the dark and the other is afraid of the light.

This touching story encourages little ones to be brave, in the dark and beyond, empowering them to face their fears. This beautiful book also teaches them the power of visual communication – it’s a story that says so much with only a few words, and speaks instead with comforting illustrations to soothe and reassure.

Publisher: Quarto Publishing PLC