Teaching notes and activities

Encourage creativity, scientific literacy and critical thinking skills with these teaching notes…

Teaching notes

Want everything in one document? This list of hands-on activities, brainstormed ideas and curriculum-linked teaching notes is an almost-all-in-one STEAM education resource for your classroom.

Check out my special Smoking hot VOLCANO activities: lava cakes, bicarb eruptions, volcano maths and explosive STEAM ideas

Want to explore? Just click the book cover 🙂
Encourage creativity, scientific literacy and critical thinking skills…

Japanese mythology and creative writing

Monster memory game
Illustrated with scary artwork from 18th Century artist Toriyama Sekien, this monster memory game will test your memory and introduce you to some of the more obscure mythical creatures in Japan.
Creative writing prompts
Can you write a new ending to these traditional Japanese ghost stories? Download worksheets for MUJINA and THE MIRROR AND THE BELL story starters, both from 1903 text Kwaidan.
Bilingual classroom activity: Monster self-introductions: in English or Japanese hiragana.
Invent and invent and introduce a monster to your friends.
Hiragana word search
Test your hiragana knowledge and find the demons. Download a PDF of the worksheet and separate answers.
Papier mache daruma
Make a papier mache daruma and learn about a daruma’s eyes.
Colouring in sheets
Colour in a watery kappa or a firey hannya.

Science writing and journalism

When I’m not writing fiction, I work as a journalist, science writer and magazine editor. You can check out some of my articles and encourage your kids to ask me anything about being a journalist.

Wow… You made it all the way down here! I’m thinking you’re the owner of a particularly inquisitive mind. Nice one! Want to spread the creativity-and-curiosity good vibes? Invite me to speak at your next event.