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 2013, a new map of Pangaea, the supercontinent from 300 million years ago, shows where modern day countries would have been located in the ancient land mass. Included in this pack is a copy of the article and linking comprehension questions suitable for KS2. Enjoy!

This worksheet challenges children's atlas skills as they try to locate 8 major world rivers and then accurately draw them onto the map. Rivers: 1. Mississippi 4. Thames 7. Nile 2. Danube 5. Huang Ho 8. Niger 3. Ganges 6. Amazon

This lesson focuses on teaching children that forces can be transferred from being balanced to unbalanced using pushes and pulls. The activity involves completing a paragraph demonstrating their understanding of forces and identifying examples of balanced/unbalanced forces within the classroom. The success criteria includes: * I know what forces are measured in * I know that a force is a push or pull * I can explain the difference between a balanced and an unbalanced force * I can place a force on an object * I can draw and label a diagram explaining what a force looks like

As it is hot topic in the news at the moment, I took one of the articles about the poppy / FIFA debate from the BBC and made it into a reading comprehension exercise to give children a purposeful activity in their reading time and something that could later be discussed in PHSE/circle time. In this pack is a PDF copy of the article (which is still available online) and linked questions suitable and easily adaptable for all KS2.

This lesson recaps what materials are and different examples. It then focuses on why materials are chosen for specific purposes, the properties of materials to suit a particular purpose (e.g. why we wear clothes made out of cotton), and ultimately the lesson focus is to compare different materials and conduct experiments to select the best material for a bike seat. Included is a whole lesson presentation and worksheet for comparing the materials.

This activity develops children atlas skills with a focus on the UK. Not only does it require children to study a map and locate places so they can mark them on a blank map, but it will also require them to understand the best page(s) to use to find particular information or country, especially when a place is too small to spot and they need to use the index. This activity will require children to locate 8 cities, 4 rivers, 4 national parks, 3 mountain ranges and (as a challenge), one ancient monument using specified colours. I have included example blank maps, but others are readily available under a Google search. Enjoy!

This resource is the perfect ending to this half termly topic which I have used from years 3-5 to teach children about the human body, skeletons of both humans and animals, food groups and digestion. This particular lessons gets children to brainstorm what they have learnt about animals and humans since the start of the topic helpfully allowing you assess their understanding. The lesson objectives and success criteria include: LI: To be able to produce facts that state my new understanding LI: To be able to answer questions to demonstrate my new understanding Success Criteria I can state what I have learnt about a given topic I can try to answer questions I previously asked using my new learning

This resource is the perfect introduction to a half termly topic which I have used from years 3-5 to teach children about the human body, skeletons of both humans and animals, food groups and digestion. This particular lessons gets children to brainstorm what they already know about animals and humans, and what they would like to find out, helpfully allowing you to adapt your planning to match their subject knowledge.. Objectives and success criteria include: 1) LI: To be able to produce facts that state my current understanding 1) LI: To be able to ask questions which would develop my understanding Success Criteria I can state what I already know about a given topic I can ask questions linked to a given topic to develop my understanding I can use a range of question starters (what, who, how, when, do...)

This resource is a worksheet with a clear outline of a world map, on which children are challenged to draw key world rivers on. This can be used in a Water topic or to simply develop geographical knowledge / map reading skills. Using atlases and/or Google Maps, the children will locate each river, match it to the area on their map and try to accurately draw it on and label it. The rivers children are challenged to locate are: 1. Mississippi 4. Thames 7. Nile 2. Danube 5. Huang Ho 8. Niger 3. Ganges 6. Amazon

This lesson would be a good introduction to direction in either Geography or Maths. It introduces what a compass is and what it is used for, before focusing on NESW and the points in between. This could easily be demonstrated in the classroom by putting up NESW posters on each wall of your classroom, but my lesson uses a map of the counties of England to develop compass skills and direction. This is first modelled by the teacher, e.g. Cumbria is NW of North Yorkshire using the Notebook presentation, before the children have a go themselves, completing either missing compass directions or places in each statement. Suitable for KS2. Enjoy!

Is your next topic about adverts, specifically TV adverts? Then here is a worksheet which involves children watching 3 different adverts and then analysing/comparing their effectiveness, use of language, use of effects and how each could be improved to draw in/entertain the reader more.

I made this resource using a BBC article about Captain Tom’s achievements and subsequent recognition. I made up the questions based on the article, so it is more of a comprehension - but the children don’t need to know this!

May 17th 2020 commences British Sandwich Week! But, rather than think about traditional British sandwich fillings, why not research the most popular sandwiches from locations around the world? The resource is a simple grid consisting of countries, with gaps to name the sandwich and their fillings. There are just two spaces where the name of the sandwiches are given, but not the countries. This needs internet access in order for the research to be completed.

Carrot Crazy is a fun animation widely available on Youtube. This resource is made up of two worksheets; screenshots ordering events from the animation to guide children, and a planning sheet to help children recount the events of Carrot Crazy using lots of description.

A handy worksheet to help children to understand the concept of 'past' and 'to' when telling the time. It includes a blank analogue clock and times to cut out and place on the correct place on the clock. The instructions on the sheet are as follows: Step 1: Neatly cut out your clock Step 2: Stick it under your learning intention Step 3: Neatly cut out the times in the boxes Step 4: Can you match the times in the boxes to the numbers around the clock? Check with an adult before you stick them in!

This resource consists of various word problems themed around money which require knowledge of various mathematical skills, from calculating percentages to division. Additionally, it helps to introduce economic topics to primary pupils, such as mortgages. Suitable for UKS2 / Year 6 learners.

This resource was made to challenge higher UKS2 learners (mainly in Year 6) across a range of Maths topics in the form of word problems themed around different computer games, from Minecraft to Fortnight. This was made to appeal to boys using word problems in Mathematics.

This resource is taken from my Zoom online courses during COVID. The pack consists of 2 x Powerpoint presentations teaching how to add & subtract fractions, starting with common denominators and then moving through to unlike denominators (both Powerpoints are the same; one is annotated to show answers/how I taught each method). Includes worksheets (one PDF & Pages version - the latter making it editable). Suitable for Y5-6 with extra challenges included to push higher learners. As it’s from my courses my logo is included on the presentations and worksheets but you can obviously remove these to make them your own!

This resource is taken from my Zoom online courses during COVID. The pack consists of a Powerpoint presentation teaching about Algebra from the very beginning and building up into SATs questions. Includes worksheets matching the slides. Suitable for Y5-6 with extra challenges included to push higher learners. As it’s from my courses my logo is included on the presentations and worksheets but you can obviously remove these to make them your own!