With 20+ years of teaching experience across Europe, I bring extensive expertise as a Reception Teacher and Forest School Practitioner. Passionate about play-based learning and the outdoors, I've developed a dynamic environment that fosters children's exploration and connection with nature. Here you'll find some of my outstanding resources to support your own teaching and learning!
With 20+ years of teaching experience across Europe, I bring extensive expertise as a Reception Teacher and Forest School Practitioner. Passionate about play-based learning and the outdoors, I've developed a dynamic environment that fosters children's exploration and connection with nature. Here you'll find some of my outstanding resources to support your own teaching and learning!
6 Lesson Plans/Activities including Art with Natural Resources, Bug Hunt, Building a Bug Hotel, An Introduction to Fire, Cooking on an Open Fire, and Small World Story Making with Faries (Fairy World). Also included is a Risk Assessment for having a fire and an Introduction to Forest School.
This is an ideal introduction to get you on your way to confidently leading a group of children outside.
The activities are designed for children from Reception up to Year 2 but they can easily be adapted for Nursery and older year groups.
Please be aware, these are designed for teachers and are there to be interpreted. True Forest School does not follow lesson plans. These resources are designed to give ideas and act as a back up for the practitioner to deliver a catalyst and prompts for learning whilst being prepared to follow the children in their learning journey! Forest School should be led by the children.
An introduction to gardening through a forest school ethos. This lesson plan contains games (warm up activities) to promote language, literacy and confidence. It contains challenges to promote resilience and confidence and an activity to develop an awareness and respect of/for nature. The lesson/activity is planned for around 2 hours.
A 4-page leaflet comprising a bank of activities for teachers, support staff, childminders and parents to engage with their child to help their learning. The activities all involve using playdough to help the child develop in the key areas of learning such as Speaking & Listening, Mathematics, Personal, Social and Emotional Development etc. The leaflet is extremely useful for parents of children in EYFS and Year 1. The leaflet also serves to assist planning in the classroom and can be particularly useful for teaching assistants when leading intervention groups.
A complete lesson plan for to develop creative story writing through small world play outside.
This lesson plan will guide you to setting up your environment in a way that will inspire the children and develop their imagination.
This lesson plan is for an approximate 2 hour session but has the possibility to be extended to a second session. Ideas for extension are included.
This lesson plan fosters creativity, independence, confidence building and autonomy and is excellent for developing friendships and settling children in at the beginning of term.
Fairy World is an exciting and magical lesson for all the children and adults and the introduction of the dragon at the end just makes everyone want more!
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This complete intervention pack includes activities for finger gym, numeracy, and writing. It is designed for support staff (LSAs and TAs) to grab and deliver targeted support without the stress of them having to plan it. It is also great for NQTs or new to Early Years teachers! This complete pack is organized in such a way to allow the person delivering the interventions to list the children involved and annotate notes to support further development including the children’s next steps.
These activities are designed for children in Nursery, Reception and Year 1.
An observation sheet especially tailored to reading. With this sheet, you can observe the child during an adult led guided reading session or during independent child-led reading. The sheets contain an extensive range of prompts to guide the observer which makes observing quick and easy!
A sheet to record your assessment of the children in phonics/literacy. Print this sheet twice (there are enough rows for 15 names) and use it for on-entry, term 2 and term 3 assessment. Simply fill in beside each child's name their results for the number of phonemes, graphemes tricky words and so forth that the child knows. Each term's entry is on the same page to allow for progression to be seen easily.
Included in this bundle is:
A long Observation Proforma with key prompts to make observing simple.
A Reading Observation Proforma with key prompts to make observing reading simple.
Numeracy Assessment Grid for recording on-entry baseline and termly progress in Numeracy
Phonics/Literacy Assessment grid for recording on-entry baseline and termly progress in phonics
A shape assessment grid for recording children's knowledge of simple 2d shapes.
A simple writing challenge for your Reception children. This independent activity challenges the child to first locate the items on the sheet, which they have great fun doing with their friends, and then write down their name. There is guidance for letter formation included.
For best results, provide a clipboard with interesting fancy pens!
EYFS Assessment pack including:
A long Observation Proforma with key prompts to make observing simple.
A Reading Observation Proforma with key prompts to make observing reading simple.
Numeracy Assessment Grid for recording on-entry baseline and termly progress in Numeracy
Phonics/Literacy Assessment grid for recording on-entry baseline and termly progress in phonics
A shape assessment grid for recording children's knowledge of simple 2d shapes.
Characteristics of Effective Learning: Bank of Statements
Complete your characteristics of effective learning easily with these ready-made statements which have been differentiated for the low, medium and high attaining child. Simply copy and paste the statements which most resemble the child in question and edit accordingly.
These statements will also prompt you with ideas for completing your more 'personal' report.
Outdoor Learning Forest School (Complete set of Activities)
6 Lesson Plans/Activities including Art with Natural Resources, Bug Hunt, Building a Bug Hotel, An Introduction to Fire, Cooking on an Open Fire, and Small World Story Making with Faries (Fairy World). Also included is a Risk Assessment for having a fire and an Introduction to Forest School.
This is an ideal introduction to get you on your way to confidently leading a group of children outside.
The activities are designed for children from Reception up to Year 2 but they can easily be adapted for Nursery and older year groups.
Please be aware, these are designed for teachers and are there to be interpreted. True Forest School does not follow lesson plans. These resources are designed to give ideas and act as a back up for the practitioner to deliver a catalyst and prompts for learning whilst being prepared to follow the children in their learning journey! Forest School should be led by the children.
Intervention Planning for Early Years. Targeted Support for Finger Gym, Numeracy and Writing:
This complete intervention pack includes activities for finger gym, numeracy, and writing. It is designed for support staff (LSAs and TAs) to grab and deliver targeted support without the stress of them having to plan it. It is also great for NQTs or new to Early Years teachers! This complete pack is organized in such a way to allow the person delivering the interventions to list the children involved and anno
Early Years Classroom Design (Setting up your Classroom)
This resources will suggest ideas for resources in curriculum areas around your classroom. With a focus on continuous provision and aimed especially to support NQTs and new to reception teachers, this resource will save you heaps of time planning what resources are needed where.
FREE: An 'All About Me' booklet to send home to your parents for the children to complete and return.
Playdough Leaflet: Ideas for parents
Complete Pumpkin Bundle which includes The Pumpkin Life Cycle Resource Pack, Measuring Pumpkins and Pumpkin Pancakes.
This complete pack includes lesson plans, presentations and resources ready to use for Kindergarten and 1st grade children.
The lessons in this pack can also be purchased seperatly.
Life Cycle:
A complete lesson plan including resources for teaching your pre-schoolers, Kindergarten and Nursery and Reception children about the life cycle of a pumpkin.
The lesson plan guides you with teaching the life cycle of a pumpkin and the PowerPoint aids this. There are also worksheets included which are differentiated into 3 abilities.
Learning Objectives are included to show what the children are learning from this plan. The Areas of Learning are taken from Development Matters, England.
Measuring Pumpkins for Halloween:
A complete lesson plan and activity for teaching your pre-schoolers, Kindergarten and Nursery and Reception children about measurement.
The lesson plan guides you with teaching how to estimate and find out by measuring with interlocking cubes (ideal units for young children). It also teaches children positional and mathematical language when, for example, identifying position and comparing in relation to the other (bigger than, the same as, next to)
Areas of Learning/ Learning Objectives are included to show what the children are learning from this plan. The Areas of Learning are taken from Development Matters, England.
Pumpkin Pancakes:
A complete lesson plan and activity for baking Pumpkin Pancakes!
This is suitable for Kindergarten, First Grade, Nursery, Reception and Year 1children.
The lesson plan first guides you with teaching a carpet session on baking, discussing the ingredients and process with the children.
Areas of Learning/ Learning Objectives are included to show what the children are learning from this plan. However, these are just examples as there are many Learning Objectives which could be applicable. The Areas of Learning are taken from Development Matters, England.
A homework sheet for children to fill in the missing ar sound in words. The illustrations guide the child and the writing frames assist with their independent segmentation of CVC words and beyond. This sheet can be used as a homework or classroom activity and suits as an additional activity to Letters and Sounds, Jolly Phonics, Read Write Inc. (RWI) etc. Suitable for EYFS Reception and/or Year 1.
This complete intervention pack includes over 40 NEW activities for finger gym, numeracy, and writing ready-planned to boost learning. It is designed for support staff (LSAs and TAs) to grab and deliver targeted support without the stress of them having to plan it. It is also great for NQTs or new to Early Years teachers! This complete pack is organized in such a way to allow the person delivering the interventions to list the children involved and annotate notes to support further development including the children’s next steps.
These activities are designed for children in Nursery, Reception and Year 1.
The NEW Digital Phonics Assessment Tracker 2 (2020) is designed to assess children in Phonics across Phases 2-6.
It is a digital file which opens on any tablet (for example iPad or Galaxy) with an installed pdf reader. Simply tap the screen to enter a ‘tick’ beside each phoneme/ word/ sentence to signify that the child is secure in that area.
The file is editable which not only allows the user to tick each box as the child demonstrates competence in the required task, but should a child regress and need further support then ticks can be undone.
The document can easily be saved, emailed and recalled again and again to edit as the child’s knowledge and understanding develops throughout the term. There is no need to type up paper assessments to the school server anymore! With the Digital Phonics Assessment Tracker, workload is cut in half and the whole assessment procedure simplified!
Choose from Autumn, Spring or Summer to enter the data using red, yellow or green ticks respectively. This allows the progression of each child to be clearly visible.
A booklet to send home to your parents during the first week of school. This booklet will serve as a great transition between the home and school for the child as it will allow them to draw pictures and (with help from an adult) answer the questions about themselves such as what they can do and what they like to play with. This All About Me booklet serves September well as generally, EYFS classrooms focus on learning about ourselves and each other. This gives each child a great opportunity to stand up and present their completed booklet and talk about it (themselves)
A homework sheet for children to identify the sound and write CVC and CCVC words. The illustrations guide the child and the writing frames assist with their independent segmentation of the words. This sheet can be used as a homework or classroom activity and suits as an additional activity to Letters and Sounds, Jolly Phonics, Read Write Inc. (RWI) etc. Suitable for EYFS Reception and/or Year 1.
UPDATED TO INCLUDE DIFFERENTIATION. DOWNLOAD AGAIN FOR FREE!
Homework sheet for children to identify the sound and write CVC, CVCC and CCVC words. The illustrations guide the child and the writing frames assist with their independent segmentation of the words. This sheet can be used as a homework or classroom activity and suits as an additional activity to Letters and Sounds, Jolly Phonics, Read Write Inc. (RWI) etc. Suitable for EYFS Reception and/or Year 1.
BACK TO SCHOOL. Homework sheets for children to identify the sound and write CVC and CVCC words. The illustrations guide the child and the writing frames assist with their independent segmentation of the words. This sheet can be used as a homework or classroom activity and suits as an additional activity to Letters and Sounds, Jolly Phonics, Read Write Inc. (RWI) etc. Each sounds is differentiated for a lower and higher attainer.
Suitable for EYFS Reception and/or Year 1. BACK TO SCHOOL
UPDATED TO INCLUDE DIFFERENTIATION. DOWNLOAD AGAIN FOR FREE!
Homework sheet for children to identify the sound and write CVC and CCVC words. The illustrations guide the child and the writing frames assist with their independent segmentation of the words. This sheet can be used as a homework or classroom activity and suits as an additional activity to Letters and Sounds, Jolly Phonics, Read Write Inc. (RWI) etc. Suitable for EYFS Reception and/or Year 1.
A homework sheet for children to identify the sound and write CVC and CVVC words. The illustrations guide the child and the writing frames assist with their independent segmentation of the words. This sheet can be used as a homework or classroom activity and suits as an additional activity to Letters and Sounds, Jolly Phonics, Read Write Inc. (RWI) etc. Suitable for EYFS Reception and/or Year 1.
