All our teaching resources

Full lesson plans for picture books, from disabled authors

For teachers – from us. Lesson plans for our books at the top. Book lists, colouring etc below.

Looking for teaching tips for Disability Pride, Disability History Month or IDPWD1? We’ve got you covered – and from actual disabled people, too. — Lucy and James Catchpole

Owning It Lesson Plan jpgs, Owning It - a thick middle-grade book - in the middle. A4 sheets - lesson plan and slideshow - surround it. Bio photos of some of the authors are just visible.

Owning It: Anthology

age 9 and up

Older non-fiction for 9-14, with disability 101 slides, KS2 and KS3 comprehension questions.

Owning It plans

Disability rep: MANY! Autism, amputees, dwarfism, blind, deaf etc.

Mama Car lesson plans: A4 pages spread out on a wooden background. On the left: titled 'Learning Resources Key Stage 1, 2 and above' with 5 pages behind it. On the right, titled 'Learning Resources EYFS-Year1 (ages 3-6), with 9 pages behind. Pages are fanned out, contents is not visible. In the centre, picture book Mama Car. Text below reads: 'Mama Car lesson plans'

Mama Car | lesson plans

age 3 and up

Our youngest book, but plans cover age 3 to 12. From vehicle spotting in EYFS, to disability & media.

Mama Car plans

Disability rep: mother uses a wheelchair, father has one leg.

What Happened to You? lesson plans. A4 pages spread out on a wooden background. Pages are fanned out, contents is not visible. In the centre, picture book What Happened to You?. Text below reads: 'What Happened to You? lesson plans'

What Happened to You? plans

age 4 to 9

Plans for our most popular picture book – UK and US. For ages 4 to 9 – very effective with KS1.

WHTY plans

Disability rep: one-legged child without a prosthetic leg.

You're So Amazing - UK and US editions, with the two lesson plans (EYFS and Year 1, and Years 2, 3 and 4.

You’re So Amazing! plans

age 4 to 10

For slightly older primary children, age 6+. Poses questions like: is ‘amazing’ always positive?

YSA lesson plans

Disability rep: as WHTY, but with crutches & amputee football.

More about our books, instead? Click here.
Mama Car colouring sheets - 2 colouring sheets from the picture book Mama Car on a wooden surface, next to a copy of the book. Sheet 1: Mama Car - a colouring sheet. The child sits on her mother's lap, in her manual wheelchair. Both look happy. Sheet 2: Colouring sheet. Expedition list - from Mama Car. Text reads 'expedition list' at the top, and 'banana! grapes! flowery bowl. bun! milk cup' next to each illustrated item.

Mama Car colouring pages

Two colouring sheets.

Colouring
Text reads: 'A big list of children's books by disabled authors / Selected list - by disabled reviewers'. Image behind: a collage of jpgs of most of the books in this list.

Disabled authors – a big list

Many children’s books!

Big list!
Millions of schoolchildren mark Children in Need every year - and Disability History Month? Very few.

Children in Need?

Disability History Month vs charity.

Disability history
Disability in picture books / Our top 6 / A list by disabled reviewers. Photo: a book stack

Disability – 6 great picture books

Our favourite six.

6 great books
Book announcement! Lucy and James - a white disabled couple - sit in their kitchen holding a large postcard with the title ‘Owning It: Tales From Our Disabled Childhoods’. Text reads ‘Announcement!’ on cream torn paper. It’s a cosy room with teacups and crockery on shelves. James is wearing a linen shirt and the new brown waistcoat, Lucy is wearing a dark brown cardigan and matching beret - we’re both smiling. We’re holding books by some of the contributors.

Owning It

22 disabled authors’ true childhood stories. Age 10+. Co-edited by us.

Owning It
Don't Just Ask! Disabled reviewers critique picture book 'Just Ask!'

Don’t Just Ask!

A negative review of bestselling picture book Just Ask! (Our only one.)

Don’t Just Ask!
Lucy and James Catchpole - a full length photo

Kids’ books in class?

How to negotiate disabled characters in kids’ books?

Kidlit in the classroom
Justice not charity - sound a bit too radical?

‘Justice not Charity’: a bit too radical?

Disability, charity & history. It’s murky.

Justice not Charity?
All books by Lucy & James Catchpole - What Happened to You? You're So Amazing! Mama Car, Owning It: Our disabled childhoods, We've Got This: Essays by Disabled Parents, Going Viral.

Download Owning It: Our Disabled Childhoods lesson plans & slideshow

These new plans for our middle-grade anthology are for much older children – age 9 plus. They includes a disability 101 slideshow, KS2 (age 9 to 11) comprehension, and questions for KS3 (age 11 plus). With US specific thoughts from Rebekah Taussig – teacher and author of Sitting Pretty. There’s a wide range of disability representation, from autism to blindness, as all 24 authors are disabled.

Lesson Plan & Teaching Resources

Owning It Disabled Childhoods Teaching Resources 3MBDownload pdf lesson plan | 3 MB

Slides: to accompany the lesson plan

Owning-It-Slides-For-TeachersDownload Slides pdf | 3 MB

Download You’re So Amazing! lesson plans here

We hope these lesson plans will be useful wherever you are in the world. But the plan just below is from Little Brown, with the US school system in mind. Under that are the UK plans from Faber – particularly geared to UK schools.

Little Brown’s Educator Guide – North America, ages 4 to 9

YoureSoAmazing_EducatorGuide – USADownload US educator guide | 3.97 MB

Age 4 to 6 – EYFS and Year 1

You’re So Amazing resources – EYFS Y1 – 1.28 MB pdfDownload pdf EYFS Y1 | 1.28 MB

Age 6 to 10 – Years 2, 3 and 4

You’re So Amazing resources – Years 234 – 1.31 MB pdfDownload pdf Y2, Y3, Y4 | 1.31 MB

Download Mama Car teaching tips, lesson plans & colouring pages

Just below: teaching tips, colouring pages, and full lesson plans for Mama Car. Teaching tips are from the North American publisher, while lesson plans are designed particularly with UK curricula in mind (England, Wales, Scotland). Colouring pages are anyone’s!

Colouring Pages

Mama Car – colouring sheets – Lucy Catchpole – Karen GeorgeDownload pdf Y2, Y3, Y4 | 1.31 MB

Teaching Tips

MamaCar_TeachingTipsDownload pdf EYFS Y1 | 1.28 MB

Lesson plan age 4 to 6 – EYFS and Year 1

Mama Car EYFS Resources – Lucy CatchpoleDownload pdf EYFS Y1 | 1.28 MB

Lesson plan Age 6 to 9 – Years 2, 3 and 4

Mama Car KS1 to 4 – Learning Resources – Lucy Catchpole – with K Renker pdfDownload pdf Y2, Y3, Y4 | 1.31 MB

England – EYFS

English EYFS curriculum for Mama Car – Lucy Catchpole, K RenkerDownload

Welsh Curriculum

Welsh curriculum – Mama Car – Lucy CatchpoleDownload

Scottish Curriculum

Scottish curriculum – Mama Car – Lucy CatchpoleDownload
  1. I was sure IDPWD was correct – but actually IDPD seems to be used widely. Or is it IDPwD? Anyway, it stands for International Day of Persons with Disabilities. BUT – International Day of People With Disabilities is out there in the ether too. Also International Day of People with Disability. Then there’s the rather snappier International Disability Day. Or the Nina Tame version – Day of the Disabled. (I think. Don’t quote me. But I like it.) ↩︎