A complete lesson for Y3/4 to enable pupils to plan a ‘new’ Roman (or Greek) myth. This could be ideal if your topic is the Romans or Ancient Greece and you are looking at myth writing in English. The resources comprise a step-by-step powerpoint, an ‘ideas mat’ (with possible plots that pupils can use or adapt as they see fit) a ‘quick planning’ template that pupils can use as you guide them through the presentation and a writing frame for them to record their plan in full.

This is a complete writing lesson for lower KS2 during which pupils will write a biography of Mo Farrah. It is structured as an assessment piece that could take place either before the start or at the end of a unit on biographies. However, it is adaptable if you wish to use it in another way. The resources comprise a step-by-step powerpoint with embedded videos, a list of the major facts in Mo’s life and a word bank to assist pupils’ writing.

This is a complete writing lesson for lower KS2 during which pupils will write a biography of Harry Potter. It is structured as an assessment piece that could take place either before the start or at the end of a unit on biographies. However, it is adaptable if you wish to use it in another way. The resources comprise a step-by-step powerpoint with embedded videos, a list of the major facts in Harry’s life (for pupils to order), an example text (WAGOLL) and a word bank to assist pupils’ writing.

If you happen to be looking at the Stone Age to Iron Age in your topic and you need to teach fronted adverbials to Y3/4 this could be the lesson for you! The powerpoint explains step-by-step what an adverbial is, what the different types of adverbial are and how and when to start sentences with them. The examples are all in the context of a descriptive setting of a Bronze/Iron Age village. The activities (differentiated 3 ways) allow pupils to create sentences with fronted adverbials, whilst also demonstrating their knowledge of the underlying grammatical theory.

A complete lesson for Y4-6 (adaptable for Y3) about how to identify and write effective similes. This lesson is intended to take pupils right back to what the point of similes is: to create vivid imagery in the reader’s mind. From there, various ‘good’ and ‘not so good’ examples show pupils how to build that imagery most effectively. Pupils then generate the ‘success criteria’ for effective similes (the powerpoint refines these down to 3 ‘golden guidelines’). Finally, there are 3 differentiated activities ranging from quite heavily scaffolded (‘Challenge 1’) to freer writing. For higher year groups, you could make ‘Challenge 2’ the easiest and then challenge your most able writers to apply the ‘golden guidelines’ in their own similes ‘from scratch’. Please note: this lesson frames similes through the context of writing descriptive settings of a forest. You can of course edit the powerpoint directly and copy/paste, then edit the wording from the activities.

A complete lesson for teaching Alan Peat’s ‘tell: show 3’ sentence type - a very useful device for instantly making setting and character descriptions more interesting. This lesson is in the context of describing a forest setting. However, both the files are editable should you want to change this. The resources comprise a powerpoint with detailed explanations and examples of the sentence type, along with three differentiated sheets to get pupils writing their own t:s3 sentences by the end of the lesson!

This powerpoint contains 82 literacy starters, each one differentiated three ways and most also including an extension challenge - a total of over 300 activities! With the exception of the ‘lipograms’, these activities are all ‘open-ended’, i.e, pupils do not ‘finish’ them. This makes them ideal for morning ‘welcome’ time (for schools that do this), where pupils arrive at different times. Equally, they can be used as regular lesson starters. Nothing needs printing for any of the activities, you literally just put the slide up on your smartboard and off you go! The file comprises the following challenges: Slides 2-18: ‘Word Chains’ (Y1-6) This can be good practice for pupils’ dictionary use skills - can they find a word that begins with the last letter(s) of the previous word? How long can they then make this word chain before they run out of words? Slide 19: ‘Alphabet Sentences’ (Y1-6) A great activity for assessing how well pupils grasp what constitutes a sentence, as well as extending their vocabulary. This activity challenges pupils to create sentences where the words start with consecutive letters of the alphabet. Slides 20-46: ‘Lipograms’ (Y4-6) Ideal for practice in using a thesaurus and extending pupils’ vocabulary, as well as assessing their sense of poetic rhythm and word choice. These activities provide a short poem with a particular theme (e.g ‘water’, ‘Spring’, ‘The Future’, etc.) and challenge pupils to re-write it with the rule that one letter is ‘forbidden’! Note: some of these are harder than others, so choose carefully when first introducing the idea! Slides 47-62: ‘Starts and Ends’ (Y2-6) A chance for pupils to build vocabulary and practice dictionary use, this time in a slightly more competitive way! The starting and ending letters of words are provided, pupils need to think of and write down the longest words they can find/think of with those starting and ending letters. Slides 63-74: ‘9 Letter Challenge’ (Y1-3) Useful for practicing phonics for spelling with simpler words. This activity challenges pupils to make as many words as they can using the provided letters. Note: These only have 2-way differentiation (plus an extension challenge) Slides 75-83: Christmas Specials! These are versions of the above challenges for the festive season, complete with suitably cheesy xmas graphics!