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!

An example Newspaper Article about the Norman victory at the Battle of Hastings and the death of Harold Godwinson. Suitable for Lower KS2 and ideal if you happen to be studying newspaper articles in English and the Anglo Saxons/Normans/Early Middle Ages/Kings and Queens in topic! Could be used for guided reading or as model text (WAGOLL) as a stimulus for writing.

A lesson for KS1 (best suited to Y2) to introduce the topic of Islam. Covers the story of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the revelations of the Angel Gabriel (Jibril) that were given to him, which later became the writings in the Quran.

A set of 16 ‘top trumps’ cards with three sets of four-digit numbers describing the vital stats of a number of modern cars. Can be used in number of ways when learning about place value with 4-digit numbers: playing the traditional ‘top trumps’ game in pairs as a lesson starter, using one set of numbers (e.g ‘wheelbase’) to order the cards, comparing and ordering the numbers for one particular car, etc. The context is intended to engage those pupils who may not always see the relevance of mathematical concepts - hence the set includes plenty of luxury and sports cars as well as those more modest motors we teachers are likely to be spotted in!

A lesson for Y3/4 all about rhythm in poetry and the syllables in words. The context is water-themed poems constructed with rhyming couplets. The activities are differentiated three ways with an extension challenge. Challenge 1 requires pupils to count the syllables in each line of a poem and then choose the best line to finish it off. Challenge 2 requires pupils to write their own additional lines, as does Challenge 3 but a syllabic limit is imposed for them to work within.

A geography lesson for Y2/3 in which pupils make some basic comparisons between the UK and a neighbouring European country (France), relating to both environmental, physical and human aspects of their geographies. Main activity involves a venn diagram, differentiated two ways plus an added extension.

A tarsia puzzle for practice with mentally adding/subtracting multiples of 1, 10, 100 and 1000. Can be used in pairs or individually. Includes missing number problems to challenge pupils’ reasoning. As an extension, why not challenge pupils to create their own puzzle with similar calculation problems?

This lesson is intended for lower KS2 pupils who have already learned what the three states of matter are and who are ready to learn the processes of evaporation, condensation and dissolving. The initial teacher demonstration can be done with a kettle and glass (mind your hands!), then show pupils ice melting and sugar/salt dissolving in water. There are then three differentiated worksheets for pupils to demonstrate their understanding of the three processes.

A lesson for KS1 explaining Hindu beliefs about God and the creation of the universe and Earth. Includes a video explaining the Hindu creation story in child-friendly language. The main activity is differentiated three ways.

A lesson for KS1 explaining the creation story of the Bible/Torah/Quran. Includes a diamond 9 starter activity encouraging pupils to think about all living things and which is most important, and a matching activity they can complete while watching the video. The main pupil activity is differentiated three ways.

This is a lesson for KS1 on what science tells us about how the universe and world was made, including the theories of the ‘big bang’ and evolution. The lesson features a video of the book ‘Grandmother Fish’ and is followed by a pupil activity that is differentiated three ways.

A lesson for Y3/4 on poetic kennings. The context for this lesson is water, but editable resources are included should you need to change this. The activities are differentiated two ways: lower achieving writers can use the word bank to write simple ‘adjective’+‘verb’ kennings, while other children can make their kennings more varied in structure (in your shared writing you can make these as simple or complex as you choose!)

A lesson to introduce the topic of ‘creation stories’ for Y1/2 that focuses on encouraging pupils to see the complexity and variety of nature in comparison to the man-made world and prompting them to think about how it may have been created. This then prepares them to hear various religions’ creation stories in the following weeks as well as the scientific theory. The main activity in the lesson is a chance to leave the classroom and go to the school field/Forest Schools area/nearby park/garden to look for examples of complexity and beauty in nature. This is followed by a ‘follow-up’ activity to evidence the learning in the lesson input, which is differentiated three ways.

These differentiated resources are ideal for lower KS2 children when you are teaching how to apply knowledge of rounding and using the inverse to check calculations. For each question, the numbers involved are represented pictorially and the line between green and yellow backgrounds helps pupils to see if they need to round up or down. Each question has these steps: Round the two numbers to the nearest 10 Add/subtract these rounded numbers in the space below (‘estimate’) Do the calculation using the actual numbers and see if the estimate was close Put the three numbers in the calculation into the ‘Singapore bar’ template in the third cell (largest number in the top cell). Do an inverse calculation to check For the ‘2 Chillies’ resource, there is no scaffolding for the children’s calculations.

An ideal end-of-unit quiz for upper KS2 to put their knowledge of the Muslim religion to the test in a fun and accessible way. No need to print anything - just put the slides on-screen and click through! Note: the combination of questions and answers takes approximately 1 hour to work through with a class.

A complete lesson for Y3/4 to help teach atlas skills and develop pupils’ knowledge of the larger countries of Europe and their capital cities. You will need a class set of atlases to teach this lesson, though there is a simple political map of Europe included with all of the key information as well. The main task is differentiated three ways, with a challenge for fast finishers.

This resource works best when enlarged to A3 and/or printed on card rather than paper. You then cut along the lines (or ask your TA very nicely!) to create a reasoning puzzle for your pupils. This puzzle can be done in mixed ability pairs or set as an extension. A great way to assess your pupils’ grasp of fraction-related content near the end of a unit, I’ve found tarsia puzzles to be great for engagement - and for those who complete it, perhaps they can create their own!

This resource is ideal for use when teaching lower KS2 pupils how to find fractions of a number. The ‘1chilli’ and ‘2 chillies’ activities are intended to be trimmed into three rectangles and stuck onto the template when completed. For example, a pupil may start with the ‘1 chilli - A’ activity, find they are ready to move onto harder work and so do the ‘two chillies - A’ activity next. The template has space for up to 3 activities. Additionally there are a pair of ‘chilli challenge’ cards that you could trim and laminate for use as an extension or to go in a ‘challenge area’ within your classroom. These challenges are ‘open-ended’ - there are a range of solutions and therefore should keep able Y3/4 pupils busy for some time!

A complete lesson for lower KS2 on recognising and describing unit fractions. The starter is based on using ‘playdough’ to give pupils a concrete reference for a ‘whole’ object and how dividing it into parts gives rise to fractions. If, however, you have access to other concrete manipulatives for teaching fractions you may prefer these as a way to keep mess to a minimum! The worksheets are differentiated two ways and both have an additional challenge for ‘fast finishers’. The plenary is discussion based and is an AfL opportunity to see how well your pupils understand that fractions must be equally-sized parts of a whole.