Dreading a dull lesson on how to create a classification key? Look no further because here your children will be super engaged by creating a classification key for different types of sweets! Included: An activity to allow children to try classify animals in pairs. & An editable Power Point which explains: What ‘classifying’ is. How to create your first question for a key. How to use a classification key. Allows children to work collaboratively by encouraging them to engage in ‘partner talk’. It encourages them to JUSTIFY their choice of groups. Heightening their reasoning skills is very important, especially in Science. I completed this lesson this week as an introduction to classification keys. Next week we will be classifying vertebrates and invertebrates. Please leave a comment to let me know your thoughts.

A week's worth of planning focusing on 2D shape. The planning is extremely detailed and well differentiated to ensure each learner can access the content. It involves fun lessons that can be carried out outside (weather permitted) and also introduces children to irregular shapes also. The week is full activities that contain lots of useful, topical Mathematical language, while encouraging children to explain 'why'. My Year 1 class thoroughly enjoyed these lessons. Please leave a review and check out my other resources: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/Morrisr9

This week is on Explanation Texts. As we were doing the Ancient Greeks as our topic, these lessons are based on the Battle of Marathon. Children begin the week by discovering the meaning of an explanation text and its features. There is a lot of engaging lessons in discovering details about the Battle of Marathon- well differentiated also to allow the access of all learners. By the end of the week, children write a successful explanation on the Battle of Marathon, using the correct features. As well as that, there is a strong SPAG focus on relative clauses, which children are expected to use in their ‘big write’ on Friday. Included is lots of differentiated resources, detailed planning, very detailed notebook presentation and VCOP resources. I have tried this resource and it was very successful. Please leave a review and check out my other resources: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/Morrisr9 UPDATED: powerpoint version of the notebook added.

Needing some inspiration for my reading corner, I created this display in order to show case the children’s reading books. The idea behind it is that the book templates will be printed out for children to fill in whenever they complete a book. They can draw the front cover and fill in the blurb on the back and the teacher can laminate the books and hang them from a string underneath the heading. It’s a super cute idea to show off all the books that you’re class have read and let’s face it, it looks really colorful in your reading area. Included: *The display name: “Books we’ve Read” *Book templates to print out. (See cover photo for a clearer idea).

A fun lesson which allows children to practically lay out the distance from each planet to the sun by using toilet paper. It is a whole class activity, and it allows children to see what each distance looks like in a creative way. Learning from the previous lesson is reinforced also.

Time to move away from the guided reading carousel and onto whole class guided reading! This lesson plan is FREE to show you step-by-step how you can carry out a whole class guided reading lesson in your class too. Outline: 10 mins teacher/student/chorus read 5 mins quick fire questions (to check understanding) 5 mins modeling the task 15 minutes task and feedback This way your whole class are being guided in their reading daily, as opposed to once a week in a teacher led group. It’s a free resource, so give it a try, let me know your thoughts, and check back later to see more resources like this! Good luck!

This resource was put together as a test for my year 4 class at the end of the year to check their knowledge of SPAG. I have attached the SPAG curriculum to ensure that I have included lots of different areas of this subject. Children are tested on: * their knowledge of punctuation (commas, question marks, speech marks and apostrophes plural and possessive). * their knowledge of SPAG terminology (main/subordinate clause, frontal adverbial, determiner, adverb, suffix, preposition, contractions). This test gave me a great insight into the progress they’ve made, but also which areas that they are still not so sure on. Please leave a review and check out some of my other resources: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/Morrisr9

An introduction into the Vikings. It’s very exciting lesson as it involves role-play and physical moving around the classroom to “spy” on the Vikings. My class got a lot out of it.

BACK TO SCHOOL!!! (Already?) One of my main goals on day one is to build relationships with the children and leave them go home on the first day feeling happy and safe in their new classroom environment. The idea behind this resource is that each child write a nice comment on their peers’ jigsaw pieces, so that by the end of the lesson, each child has a nice comment from everyone in the class. I then plan to cut the jigsaw pieces out and display them in the classroom for the year, for children to refer to anytime they wish. It also gives you an opportunity to set expectations for a more “busy” lesson, i.e. silent when walking around the room/no running/no pushing etc. Included is: The activity sheet A short powerpoint explaining how to engage in this activity! Please leave a review and let me know how you got on

I created this playscript for my Year 5 class to perform this year. We spent a number of weeks on persuasive writing, so I thought it would be a fantastic way to show off the techniques they had learned in persuasive techniques. I based it around the TV show Dragon's Den. The Assembly has 4 dragons in which the contestants must persuade to buy their products using persuasive techniques. There is a narrator role also, which explains what's going on throughout the play. This playscipt is easy to adapt and was really funny to watch as well as show off what the children had learned. Please leave a review and check out my other resources: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/Morrisr9

A weeks worth of planning and resources for kennings. This weeks plan involves immersing children into poetry by getting them to identify the features of a kenning and to create their own by the end of the week. To make it more interesting, I have included a research day for children to collect facts for their kenning about one of Africa's top 5 animals. (lion, buffalo, leopard, elephant and rhino). At the end of the week when they are writing their kenning, they will write it on a background of their chosen animal. I have included powerpoint presentations also. These lessons also touch on alliteration. The kennings produced at the end of the week are beautiful and colourful also, they make a great display! Please review this resource and also check out my other resources if you get a chance: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/Morrisr9

After hours of reading and PD on Pie Corbett’s Talk4Writing, I decided to plan my English lessons around his style of teaching. The idea behind it is fun filled, active and different so my children and I absolutely love it! Included: *4 day, detailed lesson plan. *Power Point of the story. *‘Theseus and the Minotaur’ text resource (color coded). *‘Box-it up’ planning frame. *Hot Seating Questions which allow the children to get into the mind of the Minotaur. I have put a lot of detail into the lesson plan, so it can be easily followed to apply this style of teaching to your ENglish lessons. The idea behind it is: Week 1= Imitation Phase. In this week, children need to learn off a text to fully immerse themselves in the style of writing, structure, language etc. This is done through actions and also text mapping (drawing pictures). Only when children fully understand a text type, should they begin to write. The writing of a myth will be done in week 3. (This resource is only week 1). By the end of the week, your children should fully understand the features of a myth, and should be able to recite a whole myth using their text map. It’s lots of fun and a fantastic scaffolding for children to understand before they write. Give it a try!

An editable powerpoint presentation for a workshop to give to parents in supporting their children’s reading at home. It’s 20 pages long and covers: *How to support your child in comprehension *Activities to engage with while reading *How long to spend reading with your child *Links to websites for further help It can be used from 5 y/o to 12 y/o children.

I used this as a class assembly this week and have made the necessary changes to the script that I made throughout rehearsals. This script shows what we learned as a class through story-telling and acting out the myth of Icarus and Daedalus and the legend of the Loch Ness monster. (Scottish Accents included). It is done in the form of Myths and Legends X Factor with judges and a presenter. Both parents and children adored it.

Want to teach your children how to write a postcard but cannot stomach writing about a ‘summer holiday’? Look no further. This resource is jam packed with a range of activities to inspire and motivate children to write a postcard to a friend about a mysterious creature they found. This is a 4 day series of lessons, where children will learn: the difference and importance of using informal and formal language. how to edit and plan their own work. *the style and structure in which a postcard is written. INCLUDED: *Detailed 4 day lesson plan. *Detailed and colourful notebook file AND powerpoint for your convenience. *Postcard Planning Sheet. *BFG passage to inspire writing. *Sample Postcard for annotating. *Role play formal/informal sorting cards. *Informal/Formal people sorting cards. *Success Criteria- for children to self assess and peer assess. *Postcard template for children to write their postcard on day 4. It’s attached as a zip file so that I could organise the activities into folders for you. Please let me know your thoughts on this resource :)

20 philosophical thought cards to encourage children to discuss deep ideas and justify the reasons for their choice. These cards can be used as a display, or as a lesson in itself to engage children in paired discussion. Philosophy for Children (P4C) has been proven to improve: Critical reasoning skills. Creative thinking skills. Concentration skills. Listening skills. Communication skills. Social skills. Once a week for a lesson, give it a try!

OBSERVATION LESSON: Today was my observation and it was day 1 for us, engaging with Persuasive Writing. The children had to identify the features of a persuasive text using the AFOREST technique. (We used this support mat and it was EXCELLENT! This resource includes: a very detailed, differentiated lesson plan, which allows you to follow it step-by-step (just like I did). Links to the texts I used. Key for annotating. Advertisements for Lower Ability pupils. To start: children will try to persuade their teacher to allow them to go for break 5 minutes early. To you (and the observer, this will show their prior knowledge of persuasion, which should be little at this stage). Main: Using a key, children will highlight and annotate a piece of persuasive writing using a key to spot the different features. There are 3 different persuasive texts for high, middle and low ability children so that they can all access the content. Plenary: Children will be placed into mixed ability groups of 4/6 and asked to SELL you a random object from the class (e.g. a pencil case) in a dragon’s den type fashion. This will show the observer (and you) the progress made since the start of the lesson as the children apply the techniques that they have learned. Please let me know your thoughts on this lesson plan.

Graded: Outstanding This is a lesson that I did for an observation today with the English coordinator. It's a lesson on Tanka poetry. Children learned what a Tanka was the day before, but today they needed to create a bank of similes, metaphors and adjectives to enhance their descriptions that they will use in their poem later in the week. I have differentiated this activity, by providing scaffolding support for the SEN/EAL children in my class. The lesson, as a whole, was intended to be a mixed ability lesson. However, as it was an observation, I needed to include some form of extra support/ scaffolding for some children. This lesson is linked to the Vikings and children need to describe what it would be like to leave their lovely homeland with the beautiful scenery. The resource includes: *a clear, detailed lesson plan, *picture to annotate *powerpoint to explain the meaning of a Tanka (if needed prior to the lesson) *basic flipchart for referall as a class *simile and metaphor sort *simile and metaphor sort (EAL/SEN).

FREEBIE! This freebie contains a book review for both fiction and non-fiction texts. It’s a sample from my recent resource: [https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/the-super-book-of-guided-reading-activities-11926213] Check it out for 25 pages of superhero themed activities.

A simple 10 X 10 multiplication resource to help children with their times tables. I often allow my lower groups to use it so that I can test their knowledge of the column method and not just of the times tables.