***THE SPOOKY, MYSTERIOUS SANTA CLAUSE*** I don't know about you, but I struggle to think of things to keep the children busy on the last week of term. So I can up with this this week to try and bring some interesting writing together. It's basically suspense and mystery planning based on creating a spooky Santa Clause. A 4 day series of lessons on suspense and mystery. These lessons allow children to write in a suspense style by using ellipses, short sentences and making the reader think that there is something hidden. These lessons involve video clips and setting a spooky scene my turning off the lights during the reading of these paragraphs. A powerpoint, plan and resources are included.

A 5 day lesson plan based on instructions. Three of the days are based on children evaluating and creating instructions through video clips and practical activities (making paper airplanes and origami fortune tellers). Two of the days are focused on comprehension and handwriting. The children will be taught how to write successful instructions by understanding that they need to use clear, simple English for their reader to understand clearly what they are directing them to do.

A 3 day series of lessons on suspense and mystery. These lessons allow children to write in a suspense style by using ellipses, short sentences and making the reader think that there is something hidden. These lessons involve video clips and setting a spooky scene my turning off the lights during the reading of these paragraphs. Included: A powerpoint Detailed, differentiated lesson plan Spooky pictures to spark writing Sample of mysterious writing for WAGOLL (What A Good One Looks Like) Picture of the finished product from two Year 4 girls.

These playscripts allow children to create their own play while learning the features of the play-script also. I have attached fairy tales that are turned into playscripts. The features that they will learn how to use are: *Cast list * Scene Headings * Character name and : * Stage Directions The first lesson allows children to create their own list of the features of a playscript by finding them themselves. This exploratory, paired learning works best when it comes to the end product at the end of the week. Children are encouraged to choose a fairytale that they already know to alter slightly, to make the actual story part easier. There is a SPAG lesson included also on adverbs. This will help children to use them for the stage directions also.

This is a weeks worth of planning, resources and presentations based on imaginary settings. Children will be creating their own imaginary world in which they will need to know inside out to write about. To make it more interesting, children will need to pretend that they are Horrid Henry entering their own imaginary land. I taught these lessons this week and they worked very well. Children loved creating their own worlds in which they could bring Horrid Henry into it. There is planning stages to these lessons also which allow children time to edit their worlds for the ‘big write’ at the end of the week. Included is: Powerpoint on Frontal Adverbials Planning sheet Model Plan Powerpoint for reference Scaffolding sheet Success Criteria for stick in (checklist for children while writing). Detailed, differentiated plan.

Shared/Guided Reading lesson based on the story ‘Journey to Jo’Burg’. This was used to inspire these kids and completely engage them with the story. My idea is for the starter, display three questions (see planning) and get them to write their answers in groups on post-it notes. Then stick them up on the IWB on a picture of South Africa (also in resources). This will engage them straight away with the text and what’ll happen. Then you’ll move on to explaining that the idea is to focus on what a dilemma is and what it is in this chapter. (The chapter is linked on the planning and you can download it as a pdf). The children should have a hard copy in front of them and together you will make a success criteria of what a good, interesting reader sounds like. Get them to critique you reading in a boring way. Children to sort pre-made laminated statements into positives and negatives about going to Jo’Berg. In groups children will then engage in a conscience alley (role-play) to thrash out both sides of a dilemma. You can do it as a whole class or small groups either. Children really get into the story this way and feel they’re helping Naledi choose her dilemma. Great, engaging lesson. Really enjoyed it!

In my class, I got really fed up of using the carousel for teaching guided reading. I felt only 1-2 groups benefited from it, while the others were in engaging in monotonous activities. The idea behind this is to engage in whole class reading/discussion about a picture or text and answer only 3 questions in the CAR format: C- Choice of the Author A- Always Infer R- Retrieval Included in this pack is: 6 different activities to use CAR technique How to use page Display of CAR to remind children what the different letters stand for.

This is a follow on lesson from:Non-Chronological Reports: Understanding the features. Children cannot and should not be writing their own report without first of all familiarising themselves with the text type. Having completed that step, they can then begin to think about planning their very own report. This resource includes: *4 day detailed lesson plan with a step-by-step guide on how to deliver these lessons. *Report adaption sheet for drawing their new idea to change. *Pictures to caption- this confirms children’s ability to order the report. *‘Who murdered King Tut’ text for reference. *Comprehension on the text used to ensure understanding. *Success Criteria for children to self and peer assess their report writing. *Drama ideas: such as text tennis, hot seating etc. The idea behind this week of teaching is that children are reciting/acting out the text each day, confirming their understanding of the report structure/sentence structure orally. Once children can do this, they will be able to write their very own version. They are encouraged this week to change one part of the report in order to write their very own version. For example: instead of ‘Who killed King Tut?’, it could be ‘Who killed King Thor the Viking’ children will have to adapt the report they know so well to make it their own. Now that they have a basis to go off, their report will be much more successful.

6 Guided Reading Assessment/Guidance Sheets to use with your younger readers. These sheets can be printed for each child to keep track of their reading abilities/areas needed to improve. How to use this product: Each week, I use a new assessment focus (AF). They are marked as *AF1- decoding of the text. *AF2- retrieving information. *AF3- deducing and inferring information. *AF4- structure and organisation of the text. *AF5- comment on the writer’s use of language. *AF6- to identify the purpose. *AF7- to relate the story to others. Each sheet contains 4-5 ‘I can’ statements in which you can shade in to mark where each child is at in terms of reading. By using one assessment focus per week of guided reading, you can see real progression in the children’s understanding of the particular questions you’re asking. Beside each ‘I can’ statement, I have put a heart shape in which the teacher shades: Green: if the child is secure in that area. Orange: if the child is emerging in that area. Red: if the child is un-secure in that particular area.

FUN, COLORFUL and SUPERHERO THEMED! This resource is 25 pages of superhero themed guided reading activities to cover lots of objectives from the curriculum. Children will engage with activities such such: *Sorting fiction and non-fiction book titles. *Feature spotting in a non-fiction text. *Adding an appropriate sub-heading. *Adding captions to pictures. *Book review *Designing book covers *Designing blurbs *Identifying what makes a book cover attractive in fiction books. *Identifying what makes a book cover attractive in non-fiction books. *Dictionary work. *Alphabetical ordering and why it’s important… And much more! Just PRINT and TEACH!

If you are teaching your class about myths or simply just want a comprehension activity that is SLIGHTLY different from the norm, then this resource is for you. Included: *Text *Questions to check understanding (inc ordering events, decoding meaning etc) *Creation Station- where children create their own labyrinth. *Adjective Alley- children create amazing adjectives and phrases to describe the minotaur. *The New Minotaur- children will get their creative juices flowing and create a Minotaur of their own, perhaps even half human, half unicorn. An enjoyable, creative way to check and extend children’s understanding of what they’ve read. Also an excellent addition to your myths topic, if you’re teaching it. Check out: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/myths-understanding-the-features-11943412

Making Connections is a very valuable skill to teach in Guided Reading. Children learn to connect what they read to themselves, another text and the wider world, helping them to understand the text on a deeper level. Most of us tell the children that a good reader “makes connections”, but for the most part, only a handful of the children actually know what this means. This resource will explicitly teach your children how to make connections with what their reading to themselves, another text and the wider world. This resource can be used with ANY text. It teaches the SKILL of making connections and that can be applied to fiction, non-fiction and poetry. What’s included A detailed daily PowerPoint to structure the lessons and encourage children to engage in child talk/cooperative learning. Making Connections support cards- to provide children with the sentence stems in order to be successful when structuring a connection. Summarising Tweet template- to ensure children have understood the text read on a basic level before engaging in making connections. Children are challenged to include the main events, main characters etc in 280 characters. Making Connection activity Sheets. I hope this resource is useful for you. Please leave some feedback and let me know how these lessons went. I’d love to hear from you.

4 reading skills graphic organizers and 5 support cards to structure children’s answers for comprehension questions. These post-it note graphic organizers are engaging and encourage children to discuss what they have read to arrive at the correct answer. They can be printed in Black and White or can be printed on colored paper to make them nice and colorful. I love to use them during my guided reading sessions as it encourages children to engage in paired work, extending and elaborating on their own ideas. See how I use them over on my blog: rebeccatheirishteacher.com Reading skills/strategies included: -Main Idea/Details -Making Connections -Theme -Summary Support Cards include: -Making Connections Support -Evaluating -Author’s Choice -Characters -Vocabulary Follow my Instagram to see these products and more in action. The whole idea behind this resource is to structure and build on children’s understanding, by giving them the scaffolding to write their own answers. Reading lessons have become much more ‘talk based’ and fun as a result.

A broad selection of morning challenges to keep your children busy when they come in in the morning. Included are: VCOP morning challenges Maths morning challenges Improving sentences Vocabulary Enough to keep them busy for months.