When developing my children's comprehension skills, I don't like using photocopies from text books and meaningless expectancy sheets. I prefer to use purposeful, educational and REAL LIFE examples to engage and inform them, while still challenging them and looking for those reading skills. Therefore a lot of my comprehension challenges are based around interesting newspaper articles. In this example, taken from the Telegraph in 2013, a new species of tarantula roughly the size of a dinner plate is discovered in a Sri Lankan village. Included in this pack is a copy of the article (still available online) and linking comprehension questions suitable for KS2. Enjoy!

When developing my children's comprehension skills, I don't like using photocopies from text books and meaningless expectancy sheets. I prefer to use purposeful, educational and REAL LIFE examples to engage and inform them, while still challenging them and looking for those reading skills. Therefore a lot of my comprehension challenges are based around interesting newspaper articles. In this example, taken from the BBC News website in 2013, a huge blizzard brought much of the north-eastern US and eastern Canada to a standstill, leaving about half a million homes without power. Included in this pack is a copy of the article and linking comprehension questions suitable for KS2. Enjoy!

I used this lesson to revisit time connectives to improve the flow of my class' writing. The lesson itself starts with a recap of what time connectives are, why writers use them, and the brainstorming of different examples. It then moves on to challenging the children to use time connectives when recounting the events from the funny short film, 'The Black Hole', before they go on to independently complete a piece of writing - either recounting the events of the film or by writing their own story featuring a mysterious black hole.

This worksheet allows children to thoroughly plan and design their own product that uses magnets, following this success criteria: I can list some ways in which magnets are used at home and school I can suggest other ways in which magnets could be used I can present ideas using labelled diagrams/notes This lesson would ideally be used after learning about forces and magnets, allowing children to creatively demonstrate and extended their understanding, cross-curricular with DT.

In this Art lesson, children compare different portrait artists by studying 6 examples (each with the artist given) and then using the internet to research the date that the portrait was completed and who it is a portrait of. As an extension, they can also describe the use of colour in each portrait to compare the different examples. Artists to be studied include; Yousuf Karsh, John Singer Sargant, David Hockney, Picasso, Da Vinci and Rembrandt.

These two worksheets allow children to describe (draw, feel, source) and compare (texture, size, durability, colour) different rock samples practically in the lesson. UPDATE 22/11/16: Resource now includes linking interactive lesson notebook presentation! Woo!

Having taught in an East London primary school, it was great to see Stratford change right in front of our eyes when the Olympic site and surrounding parkland was changed. Therefore, I wanted to use this experience in the teaching of human geography - comparing how East London changed before to after the 2012 Olympic Games through different photographs. I hope this resource can be enjoyed by classes all over the country - not just in London!

I used these lessons at the end of our Rocks topic in Science with my Year 3 class, but they were also used by Year 6 at their end of Evolution and Inheritance, so they are easily adaptable! The resource consists of a notebook of two lessons; one focusing on fossils, and the other on famous British fossil hunter Mary Anning. I used the latter lesson during a school inspection, and it went down well both with the visitor and the class! The lessons focus on develop children's understanding of fossils, how they link to rocks, and how fossil hunting is still important today. Luckily, at the time, Tiger stocked cheap fossil digging kits, so I bought some for the class to try in a third lesson and it was brilliant! I've seen them in other shops since and I'm sure they're available on the internet - photos are included of the children delicately chipping and brushing away.

These two worksheets can expand to form a Science topic over four to five lessons. Using their prior knowledge of materials and wind power, children independently design their own boat powered by wind either on paper or in their Science books. Existing examples could be shown. Then, at the start of the next lesson, children would use the first worksheet in this resource to evaluate each others designs using the following criteria: • Shape – How will this affect how it moves and balances on the water? • Size – How will this affect how the boat floats and balances? • Materials – Are they waterproof? How will you join them securely? • Sail – How will it steadily stay up and move the boat forwards? Following this, either in the same or next lesson, groups would then choose the best design or combination of design ideas from those on their table, to form a final group design of a boat with a sail. On the second sheet in this resource, they would then work together to plan their final design, using the following criteria: * I can consider the effect of water resistance in my boat design * I can make a sail that will catch wind * I can consider suitable materials to make my boat * I can annotate my design to explain material and shape choices Each group would draw their final boat design and list the materials needed to make it, before going on to make their boat in the following lesson, and then test them the lesson after that in a suitable outdoor location! (...we used a paddling pool!)

I made this resource based on the 2016 Sainsbury Christmas advert. It is about a man called Dave who is a busy Dad struggling to find time to spend with his family because of work commitments and commuting. Being a toy maker, he comes up with the idea on Christmas Eve to disguise the toys he makes to look like him, so that come Christmas Day, he could be at home with his family while work didn’t notice he was away. It’s got great graphics and a catchy song by James Corden, but most importantly the advert has a very real life, human element that many children and families can relate to. I wanted to use this advert, not only because Sainsburys Christmas adverts are now right up there in quality with John Lewis, with children finding them very entertaining and engaging, but also to develop children’s description, focusing especially on the point of view of a character. Included is a story plan for children to note their ideas and a Notebook presentation or Powerpoint for teaching the lesson. This can easily be adapted to develop a different Literacy skill or to suit a particular year group. Enjoy! And also see other Literacy recount lessons inspired by Christmas adverts in my TES shop! UPDATED 05/11/18 TO INCLUDE A POWERPOINT VERSION OF THE LESSON PRESENTATION

These three worksheets would be perfect for children's independent work when learning about / understanding the difference between human and physical geographical features of locations. In this example, I chose a task involving the whole of the UK, a task focusing on London and another focusing on Edinburgh (these cities due to their visual differences and geographical distance, which could then lead to good plenary discussion when evaluating outcomes.) Children cut out pictures from each location, try to stick them by the matching place name in the table, then decide whether it is a physical or human feature. The London/Edinburgh sheets can both be used either in one or two lessons. The UK sheet will require atlases or Google Maps for children to look up key locations.

This lesson models to children how to read the time on an analogue clock using the following Success Criteria: * I know how many minutes are in an hour * I know the minutes that each number on a clock face represents * I know when the time is at quarter past / half past / quarter to the hour * I can identify what hour the time is currently in Challenge: I can say times according to the approaching hour (e.g. ten mins to six = 5:50) It is contains a balanced mixture of partner talk questions, teacher modelling and independent activities, along with helpful links to resources to support the objective. It even has a challenge plenary at the end, asking pupils what is wrong with the given analogue time (answer: the small hand is too close to the next hour when the minute hand is only on quarter past). I cannot include worksheets for this lesson as I would be copyrighting other people's resources, but I have included links on one page to analogue clock resources. Or you could just Google it - plenty of free ones come up! Enjoy!

This resource helps children to consider the progression of time chronologically and the duration of different events. The lesson objective is to be able to create a daily routine using time facts Success Criteria: * I can order events chronologically * I can use vocabulary linked to the time of day * I can identify what time activities start and end * I represent times on an analogue clock Challenge: I can state how long activities last The lesson starts with a discussion about what key events would be included in a daily routine, with children thinking of their own personal examples. It then moves on to a teacher model of how time would be considered in a daily routine, from the start and end times to knowing the approximate duration of activities (i.e. they would know that brushing your teeth takes 5 minutes rather than 50 minutes). Children then independently create their own daily routine plan on the worksheet provided, which has been differentiated to challenge different learners. This lesson would suit KS1 and LKS2 classes and is easily adaptable. Enjoy!

This lesson pack includes a Notebook presentation and linking worksheets, getting children to investigate how different materials can affect the movement of an object. First, they recap what forces are, such as push/pulls, then move on to understanding gravity. A push force is not needed to make a car go down a ramp, because gravity acts upon the car, moving it to the flat surface. However the material on the flat surface can affect how far the car travels, and therefore affects the force upon the car. The children will investigate which materials will impact most on the force of the car (i.e. which material will allow the car to go furthest/not as far) using the following objective and criteria: Objective: To investigate how materials affect forces Success Criteria I can make predictions using prior knowledge I can carry out an enquiry to test a prediction I can take and record accurate measurements I can use my results to draw simple conclusions

This resource nicely extends children learning about World War II by comparing London's post-war infrastructure to modern day. It compares various images from post-war to modern day (which children find particularly intriguing!) and uses engaging BBC short video clips to examine how housing infrastructure has changed since the war. As the main activity, children will identify key London landmarks by their pictures, stick and label them in their books, read an information text about how London has changed since WWII and see if they can find any information about their landmarks, noting facts next to the relevant pictures. The resource includes a full lesson Notebook presentation, the full information text, the images comparing post-war and modern day London, along with the activity resource sheet and instructions. Enjoy!

This resource is part of a whole half term of engaging lessons which I have used from years 3-5 to teach children about the Humans including Animals. This lesson recaps children's knowledge of the human skeleton and then moves on to focus on animal skeletons, comparing different types, identifying well known animals by their skeleton and comparing human and animal skeletons. The resource includes questions to stimulate children's ideas and understanding, links to various video clips and interactive websites to engage and support, and both group and independent tasks to allow children to demonstrate and challenge their understanding. The lesson objective and success criteria include: LI: To compare the skeletons of different animals Success Criteria I can use first hand observations to find out about skeletons I can use secondary sources to find out about skeletons I can use observations to make predictions I can identify similarities and differences between human/animal skeletons

This task, linked to Ancient Greek topic work, gets children to study different examples of Ancient Greek pottery, before they design their own pot shape outline in their books. They would then use this as a plan for when they make their pot from clay, following the instructions on the sheet.

As a new supply teacher, I wanted to have a blank document to hand which I could take note of key school information, so that if I returned to provide cover again, I would have all the important information in advance. The sheet allows notes to be taken for the following: School Name: Address: Phone: Email: Head Teacher: Key Contact: Uniform: Computer log-in: Additional Notes: (which I would use to note which class(es) I covered, whether I used my own resources to avoid future repetition, what computer programmes they had - incase my SMART presentations couldn't be used etc etc)

When I make a good display (and I do like displays!) I like to take photos of it to remember it, to include in my personal profile and to share with others. Why take so much time over something and then take it down, never to be seen again?! A free resource to share as inspiration to others. UPDATED 13/12/16 to include extra Rivers and WII display ideas! UPDATED 09/02/18 to include extra Science display ideas!