What's included in the Minibeasts Conversation Cards resource and why is it useful?

EYFS Minibeasts Conversation Cards give you a ready-made bank of open questions that get young children talking, listening and thinking aloud. Each card pairs a question with a photograph, so children who are not yet reading can choose a card that interests them and join the discussion. The content includes 18 picture cards and a printer-friendly version, plus an adult guidance page, covering ladybirds, spiders and cobwebs, ants, worms, bees, snails and butterflies. They make ideal minibeast talk prompts and speaking and listening activities, developing children's communication and language skills and oracy.

Every card supports the Early Learning Goals for Listening, Attention and Understanding and Speaking, and the questions also link to Understanding the World: The Natural World. Children's answers make useful observations to inform your ELG judgements.

The EEF Early Years Toolkit rates communication and language approaches at about +7 months' additional progress, at very low cost.

Bugs, Beetles and Butterflies

Questions about how different minibeasts look and behave, such as "Why are ladybirds brightly coloured?"

Homes and Habitats

Questions about where minibeasts live and how they get along, such as "Do some minibeasts like to live in groups and others alone?"

Wonder and Imagination

Playful questions that invite children to compare and imagine, such as "Could a grasshopper jump higher than a frog?"

Adult Guidance

An adult guidance page with teacher tips for encouraging deeper-level questioning, ideas for talk partner work, ways to adapt the discussion for your group, a challenge to extend children's thinking and suggestions for assessment.

How do our EYFS conversation cards work?

Our conversation cards work well as snack time conversation starters or as part of a designated time for group discussion. Every question is written for you, so they're ready to print, cut and use. Children pick a picture that interests them, you read the question aloud, and the group discusses it. The questions are open by design, so there's no right answer to find: the aim is talk, reasoning and vocabulary. You can also use them:

• as a carpet-time warm-up or a hook at the start of a new topic
• for small-group talk with a practitioner or TA, where quieter children get more turns
• with talk partners, who discuss a card and then share one idea with the group
• in continuous provision, placed in a themed area such as a minibeast hunt for adults to pick up during play
• for one-to-one language support or speech and language follow-up
• at home, as conversation starters for families

Stretch confident talkers with follow-up prompts such as "What makes you think that?" and "What would happen if...?", or simplify by narrowing an open question to a choice (e.g. "Caterpillar or butterfly?").

Supporting Children with EAL and SEND

The photographs give every child a visual hook, so children can point, gesture or use single words before building to sentences. Pair the cards with Makaton or visuals your setting already uses. These simple approaches can also help:

• Simplified question stems: break questions into smaller steps and use yes/no questions (e.g. "Can you see the ladybird?", "Is the spider hairy?").
• Reduce cognitive load: focus children's attention on the photo by pointing to key parts.
• Response scaffolds: provide sentence starters (e.g. "I think...", "My favourite is...") to support expressive language.

You can explore more of our conversation cards resources here.