These creative writing structure strips are designed to help children with formulating creative writing pieces based on 10 different Greek Myths. They include content to include in each paragraph, questions to consider, and key language techniques. They are tried and tested in the classroom - they are loved by teachers and students, and have helped to enable some incredible compositions! Included are structure strips for aiding students’ creative writing about: -Daedalus and Icarus -Echo and Narcissus -Hades and Persephone -Hercules’ Labours -Hermes and Apollo -Odysseus and Cyclops -Pandora’s Box -Perseus and Medusa -Theseus and the Minotaur -The template to create your own structure strips! These structure strips were initially designed for KS2 children, however (perhaps with a tweak here and there) they could be used for lower KS3 or upper KS1. Provided in both PDF (to prevent formatting issues between computers) and Word (to allow for easy editing). Each A4 page contains 4 structure strips. Hope that they prove useful for you too - Enjoy!

This resource pack of 2 sequenced whole class reading sessions aims to develop children’s comprehension sessions through reading the opening extract from Michael Morpurgo’s version of ‘Beowulf.’ The lessons are provided as easy-to-follow, step-by-step PowerPoint presentations and the reading is included as a PDF. Each reading is followed by a series of activities aiming to develop children’s comprehension skills using VIPERS: vocabulary, inference, predicting, explaining, retrieval, summarising and sequencing. Each lesson contains a vocabulary check immediately after the extract is read to clarify any unfamiliar/ difficult language. Further tasks are comprised of quick-check questions, solo thinking, pair/ group discussions and deeper thinking activities. The sessions are best suited for children in years 5-6, although with minor adaptations they could feasibly be used with slightly younger and older year groups.

This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate and engaging comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of David Walliams’ 'Awful Auntie.’ Teachers have found them particularly useful in comprehension or guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of children towards meeting the KS2 expectations within the new National Curriculum framework. Children love learning from these resources, whilst they are also of great use to teachers, as there is explicit information within each task regarding which comprehension strands the task is designed to demonstrate. They also relate to key extracts, characters, and themes from the story, ensuring that children gain a deep understanding of the text. Activities within the booklet include: ‘An Interview with Stella’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Understand what is read by drawing on information from more than one paragraph, identifying key details that support the main ideas, and using quotations for illustration;’ ‘Walliams’ Description’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Explain meanings of words that they know and ask the meaning of new words. Link the meaning of new words to words that they already know;’ ‘Aunt Alberta’s and Gibbon’s Character Profiles!’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Understand what is read by drawing on information from more than one paragraph, identifying key details that support the main ideas, and using quotations for illustration;’ 'Figurative Language in ‘Awful Auntie’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Discuss and evaluate how authors use language, including figurative language, to create an impact on the reader.’ Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is 21 pages in length!) I’ve also added it as a PDF in case the formatting differs on your computer. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on a separate document (included).

This engaging and thought-provoking lesson is the last in a series lessons designed to accompany the reading and promote children’s comprehension of Roald Dahl’s ‘Esio Trot.’ It covers the end of the text (pages 50 to 63 in the Puffin version of the story). The lesson is guided by a comprehensive and colourful PowerPoint presentation, and enables students to understand the text through: -Retrieving information about the events and characters in this section of the story; -Inferring and deducing hidden meanings, including key inferences about Mr Hoppy and Mrs Silver’s marriage; -Summarising and sequencing the main events in the text. The sessions include a range of retrieval, vocabulary, inference, explanation and deeper thinking activities. A clear, colourful and comprehensive PowerPoint presentation guides students through the learning. A clear, well-designed template is also provided for the storyboarding activity. The lessons are most suitable for children in upper KS1 or lower KS2, depending upon the individual context of the class - they have been tried and tested in the classroom with both year 2 and year 3 children.

This engaging and thought-provoking lesson is the third in a sequence of four lessons designed to accompany the reading and promote children’s comprehension of Roald Dahl’s ‘Esio Trot.’ This lesson covers the section of the text in which Mr Hoppy carries out his plot to create the appearance of Alfie ‘growing’ in an attempt to win Mrs Silver’s affection. It covers pages 34 to 49 in the Puffin version of the story. The lesson is guided by a comprehensive and colourful PowerPoint presentation, and enables students to understand the text through: -Retrieving information about the events and characters in this section of the story; -Inferring and deducing hidden meanings, including key inferences about how Mr Hoppy carefully carries out his plan; -Identifying and understanding Roald Dahl’s use of different types of vocabulary. The sessions include a range of retrieval, vocabulary, inference, explanation and deeper thinking activities. A clear, colourful and comprehensive PowerPoint presentation guides students through the learning. The lessons are most suitable for children in upper KS1 or lower KS2, depending upon the individual context of the class - they have been tried and tested in the classroom with both year 2 and year 3 children.

This engaging and thought-provoking lesson is the first in a sequence of lessons designed to accompany the reading and promote children’s comprehension of Roald Dahl’s ‘Esio Trot.’ This lesson covers the beginning of the story (up to the end of page 15 in the Puffin version of the text). The lessons are guided by a comprehensive and colourful PowerPoint presentation, and enables students to understand the text through: -Making predictions about the story; -Retrieving information about the events and characters in the story opening; -Inferring and deducing hidden meanings, including what they have learnt about Mr Hoppy’s character from the opening section of the text. The sessions include a range of retrieval, vocabulary, inference, explanation and deeper thinking activities. A clear, colourful and comprehensive PowerPoint presentation guides students through the learning. A worksheet/ template is also provided for the creative character profile activity (in both Word and PDF format). The lessons are most suitable for children in upper KS1 or lower KS2, depending upon the individual context of the class - they have been tried and tested in the classroom with both year 2 and year 3 children.

This engaging and thought-provoking lesson resource aids students in developing a secure understanding of the chapters 17 to 21 of Roald Dahl’s ‘The Twits.’ The chapters covered in these lessons are ‘The Great Upside-Down Monkey Circus’, ‘The Roly-Poly Bird to the Rescue’, ‘No Bird Pie for Mr Twit’, ‘Still No Bird Pie for Mr Twit’ and ‘Mr and Mrs Twit Go Off to Buy Guns.’ The lessons are guided by a comprehensive and colourful PowerPoint presentation, and enables students to understand the text through: -Retrieving information; -Inferring and deducing hidden meanings; -Empathising with characters. The sessions include a range of retrieval, vocabulary, inference, explanation and deeper thinking activities. A clear, colourful and comprehensive PowerPoint presentation guides students through the learning. The session ends with a hot-seating activity, for which example questions are provided. There’s a lot in the session (17 slides in total) so I would recommend breaking into two lessons. The lessons are most suitable for children in lower key stage 2, (they were originally made for children in year 3) but they could also be adapted for slightly older and younger year groups.

These whole class reading sessions aim to develop students’ comprehension skills through reading and interpreting the opening three chapters of Anna Sewell’s ‘Black Beauty.’ The resource pack includes the extracts needed (as a PDF) and both clear and well-presented PowerPoint presentations, guiding the teacher and learners through the various activities. Each reading is followed by a series of activities aiming to develop students’ retrieval, explanation, inference, sequencing and summarising skills. A vocabulary check helps to secure students’ understanding of any new or unfamiliar language. The tasks are comprised of quick-check questions, solo thinking, pair/ group discussions and deeper thinking activities. There is everything here needed to teach both comprehension lessons. The resources are tried and tested with learners upper KS2, although with minor adaptations they could feasibly be used with slightly younger and older year groups.

This whole class reading session aims to develop children’s fluency and comprehension skills through reading an informative text introducing them to the Aztecs (the text is a National Geographic information text - link and PDF included). The reading is followed by a series of activities aiming to develop children’s VIPERS skills: vocabulary, inference, prediction, explanation, retrieval, sequencing and summarising. It also contains a vocabulary check immediately after the extract is read to clarify any unfamiliar/ difficult language. The tasks are comprised of quick-check questions, solo thinking, pair/ group discussions and deeper thinking activities. The extract needed is provided as a PDF and a link to a web-based version is also included on the first slide. The session is best suited for children in upper KS2, although with minor adaptations it could feasibly be used with slightly younger and older age groups.

This engaging and highly-purposeful double lesson has been designed to enable children to understand, identify and use different types of verbs. They learn about active, stative, modal and auxiliary verbs through a range of interesting and logically-sequenced activities. Children learn through: -Defining each of the different types of verbs, and thinking of examples of each; -Identfying different types of verbs within sentences; -Explaining how they know what type of verb is being used; -Employing different types of verb to describe interesting and humerous picture stimulus; -Creating their own creative texts, applying the knowledge that they have gained throughout the lesson; -Evaluating their own writing attempts, endeavouring to find further appropriate opportunities for uplevelling their use of verbs. The resource pack is comprised of a colourful and comprehensive PowerPoint presentation, which offers a step-by-step guide through the entirety of the lesson. Also included is the Bloom’s Taxonomy activity sheet, which guides children through defining, identifying and explaining different types of verbs (provided in both PDF and Word, with an additional teacher answer sheet). This is best taught either in one double lesson period, or over the course of two lessons (there are approx 2-2.5 hours of materials). The lesson was originally created for children in both upper KS2 and lower KS3, however with minor adaptations could easily be suitable for those in lower KS2.

This whole class reading session aims to develop children’s comprehension skills through a reading of the opening chapter of Michael Morpurgo’s ‘Shadow.’ The resource pack includes the extract and all of the activities for the session, which the class are guided through via a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation. The reading is followed by a series of activities aiming to develop children’s retrieval, explanation, inference, prediction and summarising skills. It also contains a vocabulary check immediately after the extract is read to clarify any unfamiliar/ difficult language. The tasks are comprised of quick-check questions, solo thinking, pair/ group discussions and deeper thinking activities. The session is best suited for children in Years 3 to 5, but it could feasibly be used with slightly younger and older year groups. The session is also suitable for home/ remote learning.

This clear, detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for children learning about Lewis Carroll, particularly those studying his works in English or completing a history study of ‘Significant Individuals.’ It contains comprehensive sections entitled: Overview; Times in His Life; Important Vocabulary; Lewis Carroll Timeline; Answers to the Important Questions; Top Ten Facts. The resource is designed to be printed onto either A4 or A3, and is provided as both a PDF and a Word version (so that you can edit if you want to). All images are licensed for commercial use.

This clear, detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for children learning about William Wordsworth, particularly those studying his works in English or completing a history study of ‘Significant Individuals.’ It contains comprehensive sections entitled: Overview; Times in His Life; Important Vocabulary; William Wordsworth Timeline; Answers to the Important Questions; Top Ten Facts. The resource is designed to be printed onto either A4 or A3, and is provided as both a PDF and a Word version (so that you can edit if you want to). All images are licensed for commercial use.

This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Anne Holm’s 'I am David.’ Teachers have found them particularly useful in comprehension or guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of children towards meeting the KS2 expectations within the National Curriculum framework. Children love learning from these resources, whilst they are also of great use to teachers, as there is explicit information within each task regarding which comprehension strands the task is designed to demonstrate. They also relate to key extracts, characters, and themes from the story, ensuring that children gain a deep understanding of the text. Activities within the booklet include: ‘Holm’s Language Techniques’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Explain meanings of words that they know and ask the meaning of new words. Link the meaning of new words to words that they already know;’ ‘Character Analysis of David and Maria’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Understand what is read by drawing on information from more than one paragraph, identifying key details that support the main ideas, and using quotations for illustration;’ ‘An Interview with Sophie Bang’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Understand what is read by drawing on information from more than one paragraph, identifying key details that support the main ideas, and using quotations for illustration;’ ‘Storyboarders’ - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ‘Read books that are structured in different ways and for a range of purposes.’ Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is over 20 pages in length!) I’ve also added it as a PDF in case the formatting differs on your computer. The resource is suitable for home/ remote learning.

This whole class reading session aims to develop students’ comprehension skills through reading and interpreting chapters 1-2 of 'Black Beauty.’ The resource pack includes the extract needed (as a PDF) and a clear and well-presented PowerPoint, guiding the teacher and learners through the various activities. The reading is followed by a series of activities aiming to develop students’ retrieval, explanation, inference, sequencing and summarising skills. A vocabulary check helps to secure students’ understanding of any new or unfamiliar language. The tasks are comprised of quick-check questions, solo thinking, pair/ group discussions and deeper thinking activities. There is everything here needed to teach one (selecting some of the activities) or two (using all of the activities) comprehension lessons. The resources are tried and tested with learners upper KS2, although with minor adaptations they could feasibly be used with slightly younger and older year groups.

This whole class reading session aims to develop students’ comprehension skills through reading and interpreting chapter 3 of ‘Black Beauty.’ The resource pack includes the extract needed (as a PDF) and a clear and well-presented PowerPoint, guiding the teacher and learners through the various activities. The reading is followed by a series of activities aiming to develop students’ retrieval, explanation, inference, sequencing and summarising skills. A vocabulary check helps to secure students’ understanding of any new or unfamiliar language. The tasks are comprised of quick-check questions, solo thinking, pair/ group discussions and deeper thinking activities. There is everything here needed to teach one (selecting some of the activities) or two (using all of the activities) comprehension lessons. The resources are tried and tested with learners upper KS2, although with minor adaptations they could feasibly be used with slightly younger and older year groups.

This engaging and thought-provoking lesson is the second in a sequence of lessons designed to accompany the reading and promote children’s comprehension of Roald Dahl’s ‘Esio Trot.’ This lesson covers the section of the text in which Mr Hoppy has an idea to help Alfie the tortoise to ‘grow’ and win Mrs Silver’s heart. It covers pages 16 to 33 in the Puffin version of the story. The lesson is guided by a comprehensive and colourful PowerPoint presentation, and enables students to understand the text through: -Retrieving information about the events and characters in this section of the story; -Inferring and deducing hidden meanings, including key inferences about the sincerity of Mr Hoppy’s plan; -Explaining key ideas, including how they think Mr Hoppy’s plan will work. The sessions include a range of retrieval, vocabulary, inference, explanation and deeper thinking activities. A clear, colourful and comprehensive PowerPoint presentation guides students through the learning. The lessons are most suitable for children in upper KS1 or lower KS2, depending upon the individual context of the class - they have been tried and tested in the classroom with both year 2 and year 3 children.

This whole class reading session aims to develop children’s comprehension skills through a reading of John Agard’s poem ‘Checking Out Me History.’ I initially used this with a year 5 and 6 class as a part of whole class reading programme during Black History Month. The resource pack includes the poem, background information and all of the activities for the session, which the class are guided through via a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation. This is followed by a series of activities aiming to develop children’s retrieval, explanation, inference, prediction and summarising skills. It also contains a vocabulary check immediately after the extract is read to clarify any unfamiliar/ difficult language. The tasks are comprised of quick-check questions, solo thinking, pair/ group discussions and deeper thinking activities. The session is best suited for children in upper KS2/ lower KS3, although with minor adaptations it could feasibly be used with slightly younger and older year groups.

This 16-page resource booklet contains a wide range of challenging and engaging comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of Elizabeth Bishop’s poem 'One Art.’ They are perfect for aiding the progress of students learning poetry either in KS3 and KS4 in preparation for poetry/unseen poetry at GCSE, as the tasks draw on English Literature assessment objectives - suitable for all examining bodies - it is clearly highlighted within each task regarding which assessment strands the task is designed to demonstrate. The booklet is provided in both Word (to allow for easy editing) and PDF (to ensure for consistency of formatting between computers). Activities within the booklet include (amongst many others): ‘Analysing Context’ - helping students to ‘Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written.’ ‘Analysing Subject Matter, Language and Structure’ - to help students to ‘Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate.’ ‘Diary Entry’ - to help students to ‘Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation. Make an informed personal response, recognising that other responses to a text are possible and evaluating these.’ ‘The Speaker’ - to help students to ‘Read, understand and respond to texts. Students should be able to: maintain a critical style and develop an informed personal response use textual references, including quotations, to support and illustrate interpretations.’

This whole class reading session aims to build their understanding of the life of Queen Elizabeth II, whilst simultaneously developing their reading comprehension skills. The resource pack includes the full text and all of the activities for the session, which the class are guided through via a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation. The reading is followed by a series of activities aiming to develop children’s retrieval, explanation, inference, prediction and summarising skills. It also contains a vocabulary check immediately after the text is read to clarify any unfamiliar/ difficult language. The tasks are comprised of quick-check questions, solo thinking, pair/ group discussions and deeper thinking activities. The session is best suited for children in years 3-4, although with minor adaptations it could feasibly be used with slightly older or younger year groups. This resource is suitable for home/ remote learning. These resources are also suitable for home/ remote learning.