5 Great lesson starter activities that can be adapted for ANY subject or curriculum. Activities are fun and focus on pupil choice for theory and literacy recap! Download the PowerPoint to use or adapt to suit your subject area. Brightly coloured with a simple layout: Knowledge Wheel: Students have to get from A-B by answering the questions correctly. However, if they want to get the most points, the must take the long route around, answering the more difficult coloured questions. This method gives students a choice and is differentiated for different levels of ability. Target Practice: Using 3 darts, students must select 3 questions to answer to try to get the most points. Question difficulty varies based on the number of points each colour is worth. Again, this method gives students a choice and is differentiated for different levels of ability. Keyword Scrabble: Students must figure out each of the keywords by answering the clues and matching the letters to the total number of points. This activity is a great way to check student understanding and correct spellings. Connect 4 Analysis: Students must connect 4 in a row, either vertically, horizontally or diagonally. At the top of each column there is a product analysis heading. Student can only connect 4 if they correctly analyse the product based on the heading. For example: Analysis the function of the torch, iPhone, fidget spinner and washing machine. Analysing the aesthetics of the watch, consumer of the baby toy, function of the fidget spinner and material of the Xbox pad. The gives students a choice from a range of analysis categories. Vocab Snap: Students have 2 minutes to match the vocabulary word to its definition. Using a mini whiteboard they can write, 5E…1C etc. This is a great way of embedding keywords and literacy easily.

How are you challenging your most able students? Challenge Cards are a great way to embed high level learning activities into every lesson and more importantly… Students love completing them! Ofsted regularly report that more able students are not being challenged enough in most subjects. Some leave primary school with high SATS results, yet fail to leave secondary school with top GCSE grades. Challenge Cards have been created as an alternative to ‘more of the same’ extension tasks. Cards have been developed for individual year groups and contain either theory or design related activities - activities relate to the scheme of work but are always topics that students have not studied yet. Each card includes a checklist which allows students to tick off success criteria as they work through the activity. Challenge Cards also include house point rewards which are dependant on how well the student has completed the challenge. There is also a space for a teacher comment. Staple the cards to the corner of student booklets so that challenge activities are evident in work scrutiny. Students also enjoy finding these in their books once work has been marked and handed back to them in fix-it time. Cards should be printed in black and white on bright green A4 card. This makes them stand out in class books and look appealing to students. (Includes: Six different KS3 cards as examples) This resource is fully editable using Microsoft PowerPoint

Its Sunday evening… you’ve already got the Monday morning blues and the last thing you want to do is mark a class set of books! What could improve the dreaded challenge ahead? …Fix-it Time Bookmarks! Guaranteed to half your marking time! These handy little bookmarks have been created as an alternative to whole class mark sheets. They are easily adaptable to suit any subject, year group or specific scheme of work. The ‘Fix-it Time’ (green) side of the bookmark includes ten commonly used student targets with letter codes, that can be written in pupil books, instead of the actual comment itself - ensuring faster marking time. There is also a star shaped target which is a ‘take it further’ activity, such as our challenge cards, aimed at high level learners. The ‘SPAG’ (purple) side of the bookmark, includes common subject specific spelling mistakes, punctuation and grammar reminders. Print double sided A4, laminate and reuse consistently with every class! This resource is fully editable via Microsoft PowerPoint

Literacy - Christmas 'Word Wreath’ Its Christmas! So here’s a festive literacy starter to add into your lesson PP slides if you feel like getting into the Christmas spirit… Choose (or Google) a 9 letter word and type the letters into the wreath (the middle letter must be a vowel to work). Students complete the differentiated snowflake challenge tasks on a mini whiteboard - focusing on whole school literacy, specifically keywords.