The first set of activities I designed for my year 4 class who do 'reading response.&' This means after / during reading a book they take on one of the following tasks.

Originally written for year 4 but easily used for older children. Explanation text resource using the 1999 Animated Tarzan Film as a stimulus. I have included the explanation as a video file. Children watch how the animation process 'Deep Canvas' works and then describe it themselves. Also included a display I produced from this lesson, within a rainforest topic and using the lesson cross-curricularly, the writing children produce is often outstanding when given the prompts as they get so engrossed in it. I have now included an extra 'how to draw Tarzan step-by step' as an excellent art activity and a planning sheet and extensive word bank where children can describe Tarzan.

This lesson is aimed at using descriptive vocabulary to create an atmosphere with a seaside / beach theme. This was used as part of an Ofsted lesson observation with excellent feedback. Delivered to a Year 4/5 mixed age group class. Includes… Introductory text to explore Lesson Plan Powerpoint Planning Sheet Word Bank

Newspaper Headlines Homework. Useful activity to set fro homework when doing this topic.

A good notebook file I made to use in a lesson teaching about writing adventure and mystery stories.

A massive bank of resources based around Nelson Mandela and Black History. Features an incredibly effective lesson leading onto an assembly to show how soul destroying racism really can be with links to Nelson Mandela. Is VERY powerful if done properly. Right to education, poverty, quotes and web-links also included. I have also included lots of additional resources on Nelson Mandela and a Teachers TV video and the video file and notebook file I used to try and illustrate drawing portraits. Powerpoints, worksheets, videos, plans etc. enjoy!

Completely ORIGINAL and works fantastically. Developed in collaboration with an esteemed colleague. These are some of the resources I used and created when the children were doing fantasy stories, we linked it to the Thundercat cartoon, did character descriptions and settings. I always do this topic with the children in year 3/4, the short episodes of the series all offer a clear beginning, middle and end which lends itself very well to some excellent short stories by the children. The ‘cave of time’ is an especially good episode with a clear problem, build up and solution etc Included a weekly plan and a map that can be printed over 2 pieces of paper for display. I have also included a set of Top Trump example attributes for this resource which really gets the boys extremely motivated and could be used as an additional activity to be played later on in Golden Time. This is very comprehensive and I have used this many times successfully with years 3-5. The boys especially don’t stop talking about it!

Resources to support the teaching of commas. Notebook, Powerpoint and a couple of worksheets I made.

Peppa Pig Comprehension - Peppa Pig Family Set to Welcome a New Baby! A fun activity for guided reading or a brief morning activity centred around the recent announcement that Peppa Pig’s mum is about to have a baby! Includes… A one sheet of A4 text i’ve written about Peppa Pig’s family welcoming a new baby, a brief history of the program and what this means for Peppa and George. 10 questions based on the text (suitable for year 3/4.) A ‘when you finish’ suggestion (If you could introduce a new character to Peppa Pig, what would they be like and why? You might like to even draw your new character?) Answers to the 10 questions Could be used as a morning activity, comprehension text or as a fun discussion topical activity.

WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE ASSEMBLY ADDITION! A collection of unique resources about bonfire night. Includes… -Uniquely designed ‘Gunpowder Plot Story.’ -Uniquely designed by myself ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ that can be used for many other topics easily, all sounds effects etc included! -Uniquely designed article about how last year letters were discovered worth 60,000 -Powerpoint including fire safety points and fire safety advert. Also with a brief History of Bonfire night, all designed in the same sheet as the worksheets. Great as an assembly or for use in class. - Guy Fawkes poem -Task to alphabetically order key words -Highly detailed ‘fact file’ (4 page document) in which children are required to make their own simplified ‘profiles’ on the main conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot. In its current form a great activity for year 5/6 although very easily adapted for years 3/4. (Worksheet included.) -Simple Storyboard for younger / SEN children and a more complex one with space for more writing for older children. -The history of fireworks Powerpoint presentation -To try and help I have downloaded TWO videos from youtube, please note I do not claim to own these clips, just thought they may be useful if you were doing the topic. Another excellent video to watch with older pupils is the Nick Knowles ‘Gunpowder Plot.’

What is ‘Black Friday’ (shopping event.) How did it originate? Includes a text in Newspaper style about the event and comprehension questions based on this, ideal for a talking point and could lead into some excellent discussions in year 5/6 regarding marketing / advertising etc. I used this last year very successfully and it generated a great deal of valuable discussion.

A collection of connectives useful for general story writing as opposed to the usual humdrum words, For example... Without warning... With each step... When they looked back... and lots more!

How did Lego begin? Watch the video 'The Lego Story' on YouTube and then complete these activities with the children.

PowerPoints, Worksheets and lots lots more! I hope this helps someone out when teaching this fantastic topic! I have newly converted the Keynote I produced on mummification to PowerPoint format, this is especially good! I have also included my creative plans when this was the hub of our creative work one year.

Rounds... Whats that Logo? (Sheets Provided) Whats that Film? Whats that Song? (Included audio files) Whats that Chocolate (Answer sheet included) Knowledge Round (Answer sheet included) Also full question round worksheet for children included

PART ONE of TWO As this is the first time I have shared content in this format (Mac) this is what I use. Please note this is 15 YEARS worth of Keynotes made on the mac originally for years 3 and 4 although many have been used in older classes and are easily adaptable. INVALUABLE for anyone with a Mac that uses it for teaching as these are VERY hard to find. (Why I had to make them as I much prefer Keynote.) These took many many hours to make individually. Many incorporate videos and animations within them and some have been used to achieve outstanding observations. Thats why the file size is so big, For a MacBook user these are fantastic and many should work on iPad too with Keynote. (Although one or two of the animations may be different and I can't 100% promise all will be formatted perfectly from experience.) Keynotes year 3/4 - A Massive collection of all the presentations I have made ORIGINAL in Mac format. Most are self explanatory but have written a few notes of description for some them below to help. Will save Apple users absolutely tonnes of time as I myself use many of these when I go into schools. You really are getting a lot here believe me. (Some written on Keynote '09 so you may want to open on this to avoid conversion.) - Poetry Creating Images Keynote - Used for an outstanding observation 2 years ago, children went on to write their own beach poems based on the content shown. - Haunted house keynote - Fantastic for boys writing to get them enthralled. - Mummification Keynote - Includes video of the mummification process. - Parental Year 4, shows 'how we do things' in Maths. Includes an EXCELLENT countdown starter that can be used with the children also, (really really effective) but illustrates examples of how we teach in Mathematics at that age. Used in a Maths showcase evening at school. Please note these will NOT work on windows computers (PowerPoint) without conversion although an excellent site to convert these files is https://cloudconvert.com/key-to-ppt I have included this particular resource mainly for Apple users. Please VOTE on this resource if you find it useful

2018 Update. These resources were originally based on a specific lesson observation, I have since included a massive amount of extras. I have included a presentation file in BOTH Mac (Keynote) and Windows (Powerpoints) formats, this particular lesson was used in an observation highly sucessfully (outstanding) during my performance management 2 years ago. UPDATE: I have re-uploaded the ‘mummification pictures’ in pdf format as well as the original microsoft word format due to review comments, photos are now viewable in several formats.