Raising standards in KS1 and Special Needs: helping every child to succeed.
I have taught systematic phonics to all ages and abilities for over 30 years. My teaching degree was in Environmental Studies and I hate to see science reduced to box-ticking when there is so much to discover about the wonderful world we live in.
So, I produce Phonic resources that meet the real needs of children and teachers, along with science resources to engage children in learning about the natural world.
Raising standards in KS1 and Special Needs: helping every child to succeed.
I have taught systematic phonics to all ages and abilities for over 30 years. My teaching degree was in Environmental Studies and I hate to see science reduced to box-ticking when there is so much to discover about the wonderful world we live in.
So, I produce Phonic resources that meet the real needs of children and teachers, along with science resources to engage children in learning about the natural world.
This 34- page Y1 teaching resource pack, based on Blackbirds, will help children to use the local environment throughout the year to explore and answer questions about animals in their habitat. It can be used to teach both science and English: reading and writing non-fiction.
Contains:
Two lesson outlines (but material for more)
3 differentiated factual reading pages (print A 3 and fold into A4, or print 2x A4)
The story of Blackbirds nesting (4 A4 pages with text and drawings)
1 page mini black and white pictures of the nesting story for ordering/writing about)
2 colouring pages
3 differentiated Blackbird Facts worksheets
4 differentiated reading comprehension sheets (based on the factual reading pages and matched in ability
2 differentiated writing sheets for factual writing
5 Photographs
Helps children to ask questions and find answers, first through observation and then from other sources. Learn about
colour/identification
what Blackbirds eat
where they live,
how they move and
nesting behaviour.
The pack will:
Help you to fully embrace the non-statutory guidance for the Year 1 National Curriculum for Science as well as teaching the statutory requirements.
Bring Science alive and help you to deliver excellent lessons based on squirrels in the local environment.
Use with our 41-slide Blackbird PowerPoint!
Get more hints and tips about teaching your lesson at KS1 Nature:
https://ks1nature.weebly.com/science-lessons/blackbirds-a-complete-lesson-for-ks1
Designed to appeal to the Y1 child, gently introducing key vocabulary.
Written by an Environmental Education, Early Years specialist (ages 3 to 8) who understands how children learn.
Year 1: Science curriculum covered:
• identify and name a variety of common animals, including birds.
• describe and compare the structure of a variety of common animals (including birds).
Identify and name a variety of common animals that are …omnivores.
Once the Blackbird has been studied you can compare it to other birds, or even other animals in the local environment.
See our Squirrel Resources fro Y1 here:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12742537
Brought to you by KS1 Nature: Helping teachers teach science, naturally, through the local environment.
18 pages of ideas/activities for learning about clouds for KS1 (5-7): Science/geography/Language/Art plus supporting worksheets to record observations and learning. This short unit can be used alongside a project about weather.
See also our
Weather for KS1 Project Pack:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12616669
Our 20-slide Hedgehog PowerPoint for KS1 Science can help children to learn:
How seasons (in this case autumn) affect different animals, in this case, Hedgehogs.
Y1:
To identify and name Hedgehogs
To know that Hedgehogs are omnivores
Y2:
To identify and name Hedgehogs
About the hedgehogs’ diet and how they obtain food from other animals and plants
Why Hedgehogs hibernate (food and the need for survival)
That Hedgehogs are nocturnal
Full narration notes are provided in either PDF form, or under each slide that you can use in presenter mode.
Once your pupils have learnt about Hedgehogs, why not use our other PowerPoints to help them to compare them with other creatures - all in the local environment - and teach more of the UK National Science Curriculum?
Blackbirds: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12757848
Squirrels: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12742513
Frogs: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12410937
A first introduction to addition and subtraction for Reception children, or special needs. 32 pages.
Starting with completing the sets the workbook takes the pupil through, gradually replacing words with signs and pictures with numbers, so building confidence.
Once the concepts are secure we add further activities such as:
adding and subtracting with number lines
‘How many more’ problems
Find the difference
Adding doubles
This is old fashioned maths teaching that has been proven for years to work.
Reinforces classwork
Easy for parents to use
Start at the beginning and work through.
[(See also count 0 to 5]https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/free-count-0-to-5-number-workbook-for-reception-12270654) and
[(Count 6 to 10]https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/free-count-6-to-10-number-book-for-reception-12270636)
and Count 0 to 10.
A simple but effective spelling programme for Phase 5 of Letters and Sounds teaching the new graphemes.
Help children become good spellers, and help struggling readers and spellers make progress.
Take one sound a week, study the word list and practice the new sound and the following week do a dictation for that sound. It is that SIMPLE!
Just a few minutes a day for 16 weeks!
This programme works because:
Each sound is studied for a whole week. This gives time for the new knowledge to be assimilated - time that the middle to lower ability groups desperately need to succeed and for whom most programmes go way too fast.
The child is NEVER asked to spell a word that has not yet been systematically taught. This develops confidence and works for ALL children regardless of ability. The programme is** truly systematic**.
Each dictation builds on the one before and is carefully worked out to revise the sounds.
There is no SPELLING TEST that the child can fail - the dictation is the test, while also teaching children to apply their new knowledge. The child finds his/her own errors and corrects them by using phonics. It WORKS!
Can be used with a whole class (where appropriate) or groups, or even individually by special needs teachers or TA’s.
Note: Progress is dependent on the quality of teaching.
Please ensure children can spell confidently words with the Phase 4 sounds before starting this programme.
Worksheets to go with this programme can be found here:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/phonic-worksheets-for-phase-5-of-letters-and-sounds-12456406
28 slides. This presentation presents the text of the Early Reader Series 1: Clouds for the purposes of guided reading activities. However it can be used on its own.
It covers:
How clouds are formed
Why clouds float
How clouds move
The three main types of clouds: cirrus, cumulus and stratus
It includes several slides of different cloud formations to stimulate scientific/geographical/language/art observations.
It can also be used alongside our Clouds Project Pack for KS1 available through TES.
An A5 booklet containing 21 fun, pre-writing patterns for the young learner or special needs child. Take animals and insects for a walk, finish trees, copy patterns and more.
Sure to delight young children as they start to use a pencil.
This document has been set to print as a booklet - please set your printer to flip on the short edge.
This is a pack of 12 ‘ee’ digraph, phonic worksheets.
They were written for children who need a slower pace and more instruction but will equally suit the young child learning phonics.
They can be used with any systematic phonic programme - including RWI, Jolly Phonics and Letters and Sounds, or Reading Made Simple.
They are designed to be used as a workbook, but can be used individually as needed.
They take the child from aurally hearing the new sound in word, to gradually reading and writing words with the ‘ee’ sound.
They particularly suit those with dyslexia, or suspected dyslexia, who have failed with other approaches to learning phonics.
They are highly systematic, and have a limited amount on each page as young/special needs pupils tire easily.
These ‘ee’ phonic worksheets work on my ‘sound-it-out’ principal for special needs: See it! Sound-it-out! Write it! Thye utilise ‘sound-it-out’ boxes (Orton Gillingham style) to group sounds in each word to visually guide the pupil to sound out the new words.
Lots of repetition builds confidence and success and culminates in the reading of two passages, with reading comprehension activities alongside.
For more help, see Reading Made Simple, a 100% FREE systematic Reading and Writing programme for all ages and abilities.
This book is one of a series. See also:
ar Phonic Worksheets
or Phonic Worksheets
This is a pack of 12 ‘ar’ digraph, phonic worksheets.
They were written for children who need a slower pace and more instruction but will equally suit the young child learning phonics.
They can be used with any systematic phonic programme - including RWI, Jolly Phonics and Letters and Sounds, or Reading Made Simple.
They are designed to be used as a workbook, but can be used individually as needed.
They take the child from aurally hearing the new sound in word, to gradually reading and writing words with the ‘ar’ sound.
They particularly suit those with dyslexia, or suspected dyslexia, who have failed with other approaches to learning phonics.
They are highly systematic, and have a limited amount on each page as young/special needs pupils tire easily.
These ‘ar’ phonic worksheets work on my ‘sound-it-out’ principal for special needs: See it! Sound-it-out! Write it! Thye utilise ‘sound-it-out’ boxes (Orton Gillingham style) to group sounds in each word to visually guide the pupil to sound out the new words.
Lots of repetition builds confidence and success and culminates in the reading of two passages, with reading comprehension activities alongside.
For more help, see Reading Made Simple, a 100% FREE systematic Reading and Writing programme for all ages and abilities.
This book is one of a series. See also:
or Phonic Worksheets
ee Phonic Worksheets
a-e Phonic Worksheets
This is a pack of 12 phonic worksheets to teach ‘U-E’ (silent ‘e’, Magic ‘e’, long vowels, split digraphs) words.
These ‘U-E’ Phonic Worksheets can be used with very young children, although I made them for children who have processing difficulties and need more systematic teaching.
They are:
highly systematic
have a limited amount on each page as these pupils tire easily.
Pupils should be confident blending with consonant blends (Phase 4 Letters and Sounds for example).
I use ‘Sound-it-out boxes’ for new words, where digraphs are grouped together to give the child the visual reminder to make one sound.
The worksheets include activities to:
Develop blending and segmenting
Give needed repetition to to develop word recognition
Develop phonemic awareness - much needed by early learners
Tracking activities - to see and recognise the new sound in words
Comprehension activities
Writing practice
Reading of longer passages
Fluency triangles
Lots of repetition builds confidence and success! Help a struggling reader today.
You will find it hard to find such a comprehensive programme of systematic phonic instruction for a special needs child for such a price.
A bumper pack of 72 Short A CVC worksheets for all abilities in your class, fully differentiated helping every child progress in their phonic journey:
Whether you require worksheets for word families or activities with mixed families, we have you covered.
Suitable for use with Letters and Sounds Phase 2, Read, Write Inc Set 1 and all UK Gov. approved phonic programmes.
These CVC Short A worksheets take pupils from the early stages of blending and segmenting, helping them to gain confidence, to reading short phrases made up of purely decodable Short A words. Only two more advanced worksheets include the words ‘the’ and ‘is’.
They are particularly helpful for the child who needs intentional and consistent practice with Short A words.
These short A worksheets focus particularly on the most common short vowel a endings: at/an/ap, with other endings included in mixed/non-picture sheets.
See a FREE sample of 5 worksheets from this pack here!
Use them for independent work, classwork homework: various activities for variety, with enough similarities to enable children to work independently. Here you will find ample material even for the slower learners, who can progress from the simplest sheets to the more complex as their confidence grows.
The plain design of these worksheets means that those with dyslexia or another learning difficulty will not be overwhelmed.
The realistic pictures mean that older ESL/EFL pupils do not think they are doing babyish work.
The worksheets are fully differentiated so that you can find the perfect activity for each child.
The worksheets are multisensory, utilising the power of the hand in learning phonics requiring children to trace and write as much as possible, alongside using the eyes in seeing, the ears in hearing and the lips in sounding out.
Pupils will develop phonemic awareness by blending and segmenting words and finding the beginning, middle and final sounds.
Exercises include:
Trace, cut and stick words under pictures
Trace, read and write words under pictures
Read a set of words and circle the one that matches the picture
Cut and stick: find the initial or final sound
Write the initial and final sounds
Activities working with rhymes
Change a letter and make a new word
Write the words under the pictures
Fill in the vowel, read and stick pictures next to the correct words.
Unscramble the letters
100% decodable reading comprehension; short phrases, read and draw
The following words are used (I only use words that will make sense to the majority of children as at this early stage reading must be meaningful and not just for the sake of decoding):
an: can, fan, man, pan, ran, van, nan
at: bat, cat, hat, mat, rat, sat, fat, pat
ap: cap, gap, map, nap, tap, zap
am: jam, ham, Pam, Sam, dam
plus:
bag, sad, lad
Here are 12, FREE to download, Consonant Blends decodable, phonic reading books to support the blending of consonant blends words with a short vowel sound, for the very earliest stages of learning to read with phonics, WITH MATCHING WORKBOOKS to consolidate learning.
Suitable for use with all phonic programmes.
These books follow our FREE CVC words reading books, and are followed by our Graded Decodable readers, introducing common digraphs.
Together they form a FREE phonic reading scheme. Give your child a head start in reading, or help your struggling reader to succeed!
Suitable for home-education, parents, teachers, private tutors and all else who need them!
The focus is purely on sounding out with only the key words
** I, and no, go, to**
being gradually introduced.
Pictures are minimal to encourage the child to gain meaning from the text and not to guess.
Phonic words are introduced and then met again in subsequent readers, to help develop confidence and fluency.
The highly structured nature of these books helps every child to succeed.
The stories are based around farmer Tom with his animals, his wife, his son Sam and daughter, Pam, dog Jiff and the cat.
Highly suitable for special needs children who have failed with other programmes.
Many parents have told me they wished they had found these books sooner, or had found them at all, as they would have been ideal for their struggling reader.
They have been thoroughly tested by my current pupils all of whom are boys. Even my nine-year old boy pupil loves them.
Teachers can find my consonant blends worksheets here:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12653569
164 fully differentiated Phonic Worksheets to teach the Special Friends: sh, ch, th, ng and ck. Meeting the needs of the average class and special needs, including dyslexia and EFL/ESL.
For all phonics programmes, especially:
Read, Write Inc. Set 1 Special Friends
Letters and Sounds Phase 3 Set 3
Can also be used with other phonic programmes.
See individual packs for details and to preview the worksheets.
In time I intend to add: qu and nk.
Learn to name common wildflowers and learn about their habitats.
Plenty of advice for teachers/parents as to how and why to teach children to recognise wild flowers as well as suggested activities.
Includes:
diagram of a flower so teachers/parents can learn the parts of a flower for themselves.
6 flowers to colour
Wildflower ID sheet
Parts of a flower explanation
A ‘My flower’ sheet on which finds can be recorded
A colour chart/mat to aid learning the names of some common wildflowers.
Photos for discussion/display
Newly updated with more photos and pictures to colour
This pack is meant to be used alongside the lesson aide which can be found at KS1 Nature where you can find a simple text that can be read to children alongside beautiful photos and drawings of six common late spring/summer wildflowers to be seen. This can be used as a stimulus to find flowers of your own and to examine them carefully.
3 differentiated worksheets to teach KS1 children to label the parts of a tree when they are visible in winter.
4 parts taught: branches, trunk, crown and twigs.
See our blogpost for more help to teach children to identify trees by their structure in winter. Become a Nature explorer yourself too!
https://ks1nature.weebly.com/free-science-lessons/trees-in-winter-for-kids
A simple phonemic awareness board game for 2 players to help children hear the sounds 'ar 'and ‘or’ in words.
Some children need more oral work before they can read and spell words with ‘or’ and ‘ar’ successfully, so this game can give vital help.
Note: children will not be expected to read any words. It is an oral game, based on pictures.
Very suitable for Special Needs/EFL/ESL learners.
Help your child/ren learn to count and write the numbers 6 to 10 - suitable for home or school use. 32 worksheets.
Each number is introduced and then practiced to build confidence and ensure success.
Includes:
Learning to write numbers
Matching 1 to 1
Ordering
Biggest/smallest
Number patterns
The easy, clear format is suitable for all ages and abilities - including those with learning difficulties.
Reinforces classwork - schools can print individual pages for home or school use.
Parents can download and print themselves as an early maths workbook.
Teachers can print out individual sheets as required.
See also
Count 0 to 5
Beginning addition and subtraction
Six phonic simple games to help children learn to blend and segment cvc words.
Suitable for use with Read, Write Inc. Learning to blend with set 1 sounds.
These games work wonderfully to help disillusioned readers succeed, but great for helping all children Pre K to 2nd grade and older special needs pupils.
These games have all been written by a special needs teacher, who knows exactly where children get stuck and what is needed to help them progress. The children will not know they are learning!
Make Phonics learning fun and help it to stick!
Perfect for teaching assistants, to send home in book bags and for the home-school.
Supplied in pdf format, all ready coloured in. Just print and play! These games are very simple, but effective. All you need is in the pack. Full instructions provided and tips on how to help your child/ren. Laminating them will help them to last longer, but iw not necessary.
Contents:
Short vowel games: ‘a’, ‘e’/‘i’ and ‘o’/‘u’ (three games) - reading games
All vowels Game - a reading game
Missing Vowel Game - a spelling game
Final sound Game - a spelling game
Five phonic games to help pupils read and spell words with consonant blends (short vowel sound only). Suitable for use with Read, Write Inc.
Make Phonics learning fun and help it to stick!
These games have all been written by a special needs teacher, who knows exactly where children get stuck and what is needed to help them progress. The children will not know they are learning!
These games work wonderfully to help disillusioned readers succeed, but great for helping all children Pre K to 2nd grade and older special needs pupils.
Great for book bags, for use by classroom assistants and for the home-school.
Supplied in pdf format, all ready coloured in. Just print and play! These games are very simple to play but very effective. Full instructions provided and tips on how to help your child/ren.
See our Games for teaching Initial Sounds and CVC words too!
Follow the life cycle of the Horse Chestnut tree through the seasons with this bright, engaging PowerPoint, starting with conkers.
Suitable for use all year, but especially in autumn when conkers are so appealing to children.
45 full-colour slides with easy-read text.
Teacher can control the speed of the slides to allow time for the reading of the text and discussion
Use as a stimulus for further study (see our Lesson Resource Pack for lesson ideas, worksheets and display pictures:
Stimulate the asking and answering of questions:
Where do conkers come from. What are conkers?
Take your learning to a new dimension by exploring the natural world out of doors with your pupils this autumn.
Bring learning to life!
Covers much of the National Curriculum for Science for Years 1 and 2.