I used this as a warmer - the children had to name my 6 nieces and nephews by using their pictures and the classification chart/decision tree. Once they understood how it worked I had them make their own classification chart based on identifying 6 chosen members of their class.

My Grade 3 children love checking each other's writing using this 'detective checker chart'. They have a chart each (laminated) and a marker pen. When checking a classmate's writing they check boxes whenever they find a good piece of writing (e.g. a correctly written sentence) or something that needs improvement (e.g. an incorrectly used apostrophe). They draw a small respective smiley/straight face in pencil on the piece of writing so it is clear where the great writing/mistake was found. I challenge them to try and find 6 positives and 6 needs improvements to earn themselves a class point for each.

A great activity to have children practice listening and using rhyme and rhythm in poems. This was used as an activity during a magic-themed day. It is also an ideal activity during Halloween. The challenge of making a powerful potion combined with using ingredients such a mice and spiders' legs really engaged my G2 and G4 classes. Students need to use the words given to make the poem rhyme (so need to really read and sound out each word). They also need to think by creating their own magic word, choosing the quantity of ingredients, and ensuring one of the lines has 'rhythm' by writing a sentence that keeps with the rhythm of the poem. This activity really challenged my classes without being too difficult.

These differentiated worksheets give children the opportunity to create potions using addition. Have them pick and choose 2, 3, or 4 ingredients for their own individual potions and then add up the total number of litres used. I had my class cut out four ingredients of their choosing and put them into a cauldron they had drawn as part of a 'Potion Poster'. After writing what their potion was for (e.g. an potion to make you invisible) and giving it a creative title, they added the contents to make sure their potions had the desired effect. Afterwards, the children presented their potion posters to the class while their classmates checked their numbers added up. This was a lesson that really engaged all students and gave them the opportunity to practice their addition skills, as well as working with units of measurement (litres and for the HA millilitres too). I have included the smart board file I used when teaching this lesson, it contains work from other lessons - though the first few slides are related to this. The guess the amount of litres/millimetres in the coke bottles was a whiteboard carpet warmer activity that the children really enjoyed.

Short and sweet intro to fairy tales - excellent to use to introduce the topic. Have children guess the name of the 5 fairy tales before answers revealed. Good to start discussions about fairy tales - especially when teaching children from overseas who often have their own versions of or endings to famous fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood.

A PowerPoint I made as part of a quiz based on Famous World Monuments. Each monument has a number of clues - students earn more teams points for using fewer clues.