Based on the popular game show ‘Pointless’, this resource is perfect for use as a whole lesson resource, enrichment option, or revision tool. Editable, so that you can change to any other topic or change questions. (I’ve also added a blank template so that you can make your own games from scratch). Containing almost 30 slides of sound clips, interesting tasks, and suitably challenging questions, this resource is effective at both promoting engagement and enhancing learning. There are several full rounds of questions to build or revisit knowledge of characters, plot, and themes in ‘Private Peaceful.’ Round 1. The characters in Private Peaceful Round 2. Quotations from the text Round 3. Settings and Objects Round 4. Themes in Private Peaceful The nature of this game ensures that the resource can challenge students of all levels. A blank template has also been added, so that you can create your own games!

This engaging and thought-provoking double-lesson resource aids students in developing a secure understanding of the chapters 10 to 13 of Roald Dahl’s ‘Boy: Tales of Childhood.’ This section of the text details his initial experiences at St. Peter’s School, including his run-ins with the Matron and his feelings of homesickness. The comprehensive and colourful PowerPoint presentation enables students to understand the text through: -Retrieving information; -Inferring and deducing hidden meanings; -Summarising the key events. The session begins with a brief knowledge recall quiz based on the prior chapters. Students then read and understand the chapters, utilising retrieval, vocabulary, inference, explanation and deeper thinking activities. A clear, colourful and comprehensive PowerPoint presentation guides students through the learning activities. There is easily enough material for two lessons here (21 slides in total). The lessons are suitable for students in either KS3 or upper KS2 (for advanced classes), depending upon the individual context of the school and students.

This detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students learning or revising John Boyne’s ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.’ It contains comprehensive sections on: Context; Chapter by Chapter Summary (with quotes); Main Characters; Themes; Language Devices; Features of Historical Fiction. The resource is designed to be printed onto A3, and is provided as both a PDF and a Word version (so that you can edit if you want to). All images used are licensed for commercial use and are cited on a separate document (included).

This lesson aims to help students to build their skill at inferring and deducing the hidden meanings in texts, whilst also providing students with valuable SMSC messages about the horror of the Holocaust. Students also hone their skills of writing to argue, utilising information that they gain from reading extracts of John Boyne’s ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.’ Informative and engaging, this lesson follows a clear and logical learning journey. Students learn to: - Define key terms related to reading between the lines of a text; - Consider the concepts of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ using the poem ‘Vultures.’ Use this knowledge to consider the actions of those involved in the Holocaust; - Read extracts from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas; - Answer a range of questions designed to demonstrate students’ ability to infer and deduce the hidden meanings in texts; - Write an argumentative letter from Bruno’s Grandma to his father, using a writing to argue help-sheet; - Peer-assess each others’ learning attempts. Included in this resource pack: A comprehensive, whole-lesson, visually engaging PowerPoint presentation, which guides the teacher and learners through the lesson, a writing to argue help-sheet, a copy of the poem ‘Vultures,’ extracts from ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ and teacher guidance notes. All images are cited at the end of the PowerPoint presentation, and 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 Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice.’ Teachers have found them particularly useful for exam revision, comprehension tasks, or guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of students towards meeting the KS4 expectations within the new National Curriculum framework - this makes the tasks suitable for all examining bodies. Students have found these resources extremely engaging, and for teachers 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 students gain a deep understanding of the text. Activities within the booklet include: - ‘Context: Regency England’ - to aid students with ‘Drawing on knowledge of the purpose, audience and context of the writing, including its social, historical and cultural context and the literary tradition to which it belongs, to inform evaluation;’ - ‘Austen’s Description’ - to aid students with ‘Analysing a writer’s choice of vocabulary, form, grammatical and structural features, and evaluating their effectiveness and impact;’ - ‘Mr Darcy’ - to aid students with ‘Seeking evidence in the text to support a point of view, including justifying inferences with evidence;’ - ‘Editing the Novel’ - to aid students with ‘Making an informed personal response, recognising that other responses to a text are possible and evaluating these.’ Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is almost 30 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 interesting task provides students with an opportunity to track Elizabeth and Darcy’s relationship throughout ‘Pride and Prejudice.’ Students first rate Elizabeth and Darcy’s feelings for one another at different points in the text on a 1-10 scale, plotting their rating on the graph. They then justify the rating with an explanation and textual evidence, in the table beneath. It’s great for helping them to see how the relationship develops over the course of the text, and also offers a novel cross-curricular link with maths. Shameless plug - if you like this resource, please take a look at my paid ‘Pride and Prejudice’ resources, available as single lessons or in the lesson bundle. Thanks!

A simple worksheet that I used to help children in years 2 and 3 to secure their understanding of word classes. It uses an opening extract of ‘The Twits’ in which Mr Twit is first introduced to the reader. The worksheet provides children with a series of tasks in which they identify, understand, replace and create nouns, verbs and adjectives. Provided in both PDF (to protect formatting) and Word (so that you can edit as needed). Hope that this helps!

This engaging and thought-provoking lesson resource aids students in developing a secure understanding of the chapters 9 to 12 of Roald Dahl’s ‘The Twits.’ The chapters covered in these lessons are ‘Mrs Twit has the Shrinks’, ‘Mrs Twit gets a Stretching’, 'Mrs Twit goes Ballooning up’ and ‘Mrs Twit comes Ballooning down.’ 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; -Sequencing events from the story. 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 creative activity in which students write Mr Twit’s diary entry after pulling off his greatest trick yet. There’s a lot in the session (19 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.

This detailed and visually-appealing resource offers a complete reference point for students learning or revising Roald Dahl’s ‘The Twits.’ It contains comprehensive sections on: Context; Chapter by Chapter Summary; Main Characters; Themes; Dahl’s Language Devices; Important Vocabulary. Key words and ideas are underlined for easy reference. The resource is designed to be printed onto 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 used are licensed for commercial use and are cited on a separate document (included).

This engaging and thought-provoking lesson aids students in developing a secure understanding of Chapter 3 of Clive King’s 'Stig of the Dump.’ This chapter is entitled ‘It Warms You Twice.’ The resources guide the children along a learning journey in which they understand the text through: -Retrieving information; -Inferring and deducing hidden meanings; -Explaining key ideas; -Comparing and contrasting characters. Children are guided through the lesson via a colourful and comprehensive PowerPoint presentation, which includes a range of thought-provoking activities and model examples/ answers. The tasks are comprised of retrieval, vocabulary, inference, summarising, explaining and deeper thinking activities. Children also get the opportunity to partake in a creative activity at the end of the lesson. There’s a lot in the session (17 slides in total) so you may wish to either select the content that is pertinent to you/ your class or spread the lesson resource over two sessions. The resource is ideally pitched for children in lower KS2, but could feasibly be used with slightly older or younger children, depending upon the individual context of the school and students.

This engaging and thought-provoking double-lesson resource aids students in developing a secure understanding of the final chapters (20 and 21) of Roald Dahl’s 'Matilda.’ The chapters covered in these lessons are entitled ‘The Third Miracle’ and ‘A New Home.’ 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; -Sequencing and summarising key events. 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 book review template is also included for the main creative task (in both Word and PDF). There’s a lot in the session (18 slides in total) so I would recommend breaking into two lessons. The lessons are most suitable for children in key stage 2, (they were originally used for those in years 4 and 5).

This engaging and thought-provoking double-lesson resource aids students in developing a secure understanding of the chapters 5 to 6 of Roald Dahl’s 'Matilda.’ The chapters covered in these lessons are ‘Arithmetic’ and ‘The Platinum-Blond Man.’ The lessons are guided by a comprehensive and colourful PowerPoint presentation, and enables students to understand the text through: -Retrieving information; -Explaining key ideas; -Sequencing events from 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. There’s a lot in the session (18 slides in total) so I would recommend breaking into two lessons. The lessons are most suitable for children in key stage 2, (they were originally used for those in years 4 and 5).

This engaging and thought-provoking double-lesson resource aids students in developing a secure understanding of the chapters 16 and 17 of Roald Dahl’s 'Matilda.’ The chapters covered in these lessons are ‘Miss Honey’s Cottage’ and ‘Miss Honey’s Story.’ 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; -Summarising key events. 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. 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 key stage 2, (they were originally used for those in years 4 and 5).

This engaging and thought-provoking lesson aids students in developing a secure understanding of Chapter 6 of Clive King’s 'Stig of the Dump.’ This chapter is entitled 'Skinned and Buried.’ The resources guide the children along a learning journey in which they understand the text through: -Retrieving information; -Inferring and deducing hidden meanings; -Explaining key ideas; -Sequencing events from the text. Children are guided through the lesson via a colourful and comprehensive PowerPoint presentation, which includes a range of thought-provoking activities and model examples/ answers. The tasks are comprised of retrieval, vocabulary, inference, summarising, explaining and deeper thinking activities. Children also get the opportunity to partake in a creative activity at the end of the lesson - the newspaper report template is provided for this. There’s a lot in the session (16 slides in total) so you may wish to either select the content that is pertinent to you/ your class or spread the lesson resource over two sessions. The resource is ideally pitched for children in lower KS2, but could feasibly be used with slightly older or younger children, depending upon the individual context of the school and students.

This engaging and thought-provoking double-lesson resource aids students in developing a secure understanding of the chapters 11, 12 and 13 of Roald Dahl’s 'Matilda.’ The chapters covered in these lessons are ‘Bruce Bogtrotter and the Cake’, ‘Lavender’ and ‘The Weekly Test.’ 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; -Explaining key ideas. 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. There’s a lot in the session (20 slides in total) so I would recommend breaking into two or three separate lessons. The lessons are most suitable for children in key stage 2, (they were originally used for those in years 4 and 5).

This engaging and thought-provoking lesson aids students in developing a secure understanding of Chapter 8 of Clive King’s 'Stig of the Dump.’ This chapter is entitled 'Midsummer Night.’ The resources guide the children along a learning journey in which they understand the text through: -Retrieving information; -Inferring and deducing hidden meanings; -Explaining key ideas; -Predicting future text events. Children are guided through the lesson via a colourful and comprehensive PowerPoint presentation, which includes a range of thought-provoking activities and model examples/ answers. The tasks are comprised of retrieval, vocabulary, inference, summarising, explaining and deeper thinking activities. Children also get the opportunity to partake in a creative activity at the end of the lesson. There’s a lot in the session (16 slides in total) so you may wish to either select the content that is pertinent to you/ your class or spread the lesson resource over two sessions. The resource is ideally pitched for children in lower KS2, but could feasibly be used with slightly older or younger children, depending upon the individual context of the school and students.

This whole class reading session aims to develop children’s fluency and comprehension skills through reading the opening extract of Richard Adams’ ‘Watership Down.’ 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 years 4-6, although with minor adaptations it could feasibly be used with slightly younger and older age groups.

Based on the popular game show ‘Pointless’, this resource is perfect for use as a whole lesson resource, enrichment option, or revision tool. Editable, so that you can change to any other topic or change questions. (I’ve also added a blank template so that you can make your own games from scratch). Containing almost 30 slides of sound clips, interesting tasks, and suitably challenging questions, this resource is effective at both promoting engagement and enhancing learning. There are several full rounds of questions to build or revisit knowledge of characters, plot, and themes in ‘Pride and Prejudice.’ Round 1. The characters in Pride and Prejudice Round 2. Quotations from the text Round 3. Settings and Objects Round 4. Themes in Pride and Prejudice The nature of this game ensures that the resource can challenge students of all levels. A blank template has also been added, so that you can create your own games!

This engaging and thought-provoking double-lesson resource aids students in developing a secure understanding of the chapter 8 of Anne Holm’s ‘I Am David.’ In this final chapter of the text, David almost runs into trouble but is aided by King the Dog. He then completes the final leg of his miraculous journey. The comprehensive and colourful PowerPoint presentation enables students to understand the text through: -Retrieving information; -Inferring and deducing hidden meanings; -Summarising events from 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. The lesson also includes an answer key for the retrieval questions, and model answer ideas for the more detailed responses. A storyboard template is also provided (in both Word and PDF) to support the main deeper thinking task. There’s a lot here (18 slides filled with questions and activities) so I would recommend breaking into two lessons. The lessons are suitable for students in either upper KS2 or lower KS3, depending upon the individual context of the school and students. I originally used them with year 6 children.

This whole class reading session aims to develop children’s fluency and comprehension skills, whilst enabling them to gain a deeper understanding of the Russia-Ukraine War, through reading an informative and age-appropriate non-fiction text. 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 text has been heavily adapted from a from a web article (cited) to ensure that it is clear and age-appropriate. It is provided in both PDF and Word, so that you can make any additional alterations should you wish to. The session is best suited for children in upper KS2 or lower KS3, although with minor adaptations it could feasibly be used with slightly younger and older year groups.