Supports the CPA approach to teaching mathematics (concrete, pictorial, abstract). Ready to go classroom display aimed at helping pupils to articulate what they have ‘done in their heads’ when adding and subtracting mentally. Encourages pupils to try different strategies and choose the most appropriate strategy for the calculation they are presented with. The resource includes nine thought bubbles with pictorial representations of the strategies and nine text boxes with the strategies in writing, as well as the title. PDF version is included and also fully editable Microsoft Word version (font is Sassoon Primary but can easily be changed). Suitable for use in both KS1 and KS2. This resource can also be bought as part of a package of mental addition and subtraction activities.

This resource has seven multi-step problems to solve. Some of the problems have two examples, so you can work through the first example as a class to develop strategies and then the pupils can have a go independently. Alternatively, let them have a go first and then demonstrate more efficient strategies. There is also a quick starter activity based on measures as this was a focus for my class at the time and some of the questions involve converting measures. The questions are provided in SMART Notebook and PowerPoint format for display on the interactive whiteboard, and in PDF and Word format as a paper resource. These were originally used in Year 4 as an end of term activity and are based on the NNS Puzzles and Problems for Years 3 & 4; however, they could be used across KS2 with different levels of support. Ideas for use: Time filler for stolen moments at the end of term. Developing problem / investigation solving. Stick the question onto a large piece of paper and solve as a group. Adult-led guided group activity/assessment opportunity. Part of a Travel Agent role play corner. Early finishers work Homework activity School work for pupils going on a long holiday during term time (if you dare!) More able or Upper KS2 pupils could devise their own problems in the same format to truly demonstrate their understanding.

Ready-to-go ideas for developing pupils’ ability to add and subtract mentally and to reason about number. These activities link strongly with the CPA (concrete, pictorial, abstract) approach to teaching maths. I created these activities for a research project I was conducting in school as part of my Maths Specialist Teacher qualification. They are all aimed at improving children’s mental addition and subtraction by developing a broad range of strategies and encouraging them to reason about number. We had found that children were entering KS2 with only a handful of (often cumbersome) mental strategies, e.g. partitioning into tens and units, using number bonds to ten only or counting on/back in ones, and weren’t always applying them appropriately. We used the activities with Y3 and Y4 children, but it can be used from Y2 upwards as it links very strongly with the Y2 curriculum. The resource includes differentiated activities with written descriptions and accompanying interactive whiteboard slides and paper resources where applicable. Slides were originally in SMARTboard format and this is perhaps the best software to use if you have it as the slides can be interacted with this way; however, I have also copied the slides over to a PowerPoint presentation for those without SMARTboard software. Also included is a wall display, which shows visual representations of different strategies for mental addition and subtraction. The activities can be adapted for all year groups and abilities and you will find a lot more mileage in this resource once you get started and the impact on the classes studied in terms of both their confidence and ability in mental maths was phenomenal. National Curriculum Links Pupils should partition numbers in different ways (for example, 23 = 20 + 3 and 23 = 10 + 13) to support subtraction. Recall and use addition and subtraction facts to 20 fluently, and derive and use related facts up to 100 Add and subtract numbers using concrete objects, pictorial representations, and mentally, including: a two-digit number and ones; a two-digit number and tens; two two-digit numbers; adding three one-digit numbers. Show that addition of two numbers can be done in any order (commutative) and subtraction of one number from another cannot Recognise and use the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction and use this to check calculations and solve missing number problems. Pupils practise addition and subtraction to 20 to become increasingly fluent in deriving facts such as using 3 + 7 = 10; 10 – 7 = 3 and 7 = 10 – 3 to calculate 30 + 70 = 100; 100 – 70 = 30 and 70 = 100 – 30. They check their calculations, including by adding to check subtraction and adding numbers in a different order to check addition (for example, 5 + 2 + 1 = 1 + 5 + 2 = 1 + 2 + 5). This establishes commutativity and associativity of addition.

This is a unit of work for music originally planned for Year 4, but I have used to great effect across KS2. It focuses on teaching pupils how to record their ideas more formally on paper, but also provides ample opportunity for children to listen carefully to well known pieces of music - mostly classical. It was originally planned in 2011, but has been updated to cover all aspects of the current musical curriculum. • Use and understand staff and other musical notations • Play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression. • Improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the interrelated dimensions of music. • Appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians. • Develop an understanding of the history of music. • Listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory. Key musical vocabulary covered includes: timbre; pitch; tempo; dynamics; rhythm and pulse. This resource includes: • Planning – linked to the current Music National Curriculum. • Presentation – in both Smart Notebook and Powerpoint format. • Videos – hyperlinked within the presentations. I was unable to upload this as a zipped folder so I am hoping that the hyperlinks work despite the fact I have had to upload the files separately. If not they will be quite quick to switch to manually. • Example of a simple graphic score produced by my class. • Blank 16 bar graphic grid for pupils (ideally photocopied onto A3). • Lesson 1 acts as a baseline assessment. In order to add a cross-curricular element, Session One can be easily adapted to suit current affairs or class topic, and Sessions Four and Five can be adapted to suit a text being studied in Literacy or Guided Reading (details given in planning). NOTE: Once downloaded, please save the video clips/music extracts and the PowerPoint in one folder together so that the hyperlinks on the PowerPoint can find the clips! **Musical instrument cards mentioned in Lesson 1 are not included in this resource and are not essential for the lesson (instruments can be allocated by the teacher or chosen by pupils rather than using the cards for random selection). Instrument cards are available to purchase separately from my shop if it is something you would like. ** Thank you for looking :)

A set of 30 cards, each featuring the name of a percussion instrument and an image of it. I printed these on card and laminated them and I have used them in many different ways; here are some examples: Sorting activities: encourage children to become more familiar with the instruments and calling them by the correct name by inviting them to sort them according to their own or pre-defined criteria, e.g. tuned/untuned, metal/wooden… Children select a card at the start of a lesson…this is the instrument they will be using (saves arguments and also prevents against six sets of cymbals crashing all lesson!) Use as labels for instruments in your music room or instrument store - great for music subject-leaders who are struggling to keep the cupboard tidy! Separate the names from the images and invite children to match the name to the correct instrument. Give children different themes for compositions and ask them to select the instruments that they think would be most suited to that theme and explain why, e.g. drums and cymbals for a storm composition.

Originally used in my Y6 classroom, this simple and clear resource consists of eight different ways of opening sentences with an example underneath each. I laminated these and displayed them permanently on my working wall for pupils to refer to when they were struggling to vary their sentence openers - particularly in narrative writing. Could be used across KS2 - particularly if each type of opener was introduced one at a time, or challenge pupils to include a particular kind of opener in their writing for that lesson. Both PDF and Word formats included. If this resources isn’t for you then maybe take a look at my octopus opener display and PowerPoint or Sentence Openers Display Bundle.

This was a bank of ideas that I put together for a very able Year 4 writer. It includes lots of techniques that pupils can use in their narrative writing to make their fictional characters more believable and three-dimensional. Perhaps most suitable for Upper Key Stage 2, but could be used with talented younger writers and with pupils in KS3 also. Resource is provided in PDF format and also Word format so that you can edit it. I have also provided it in black and white and full colour. Ideas for use: Provide pupils with a black and white A4 version to stick in their exercise books; when they have tried a technique in their writing they can colour in the bubble. At the beginning of a piece of writing encourage pupils to decide on a characterisation technique that they will try to include. Enlarge to A3 an display on working wall. Laminate and position in literacy toolkit or table trays; encourage pupils to go and grab it when they want to improve their writing or are struggling for ideas. Provide pupils with a black and white A4 version in their reading journal; when they spot that an author has used a particular characterisation technique they can colour in that bubble.

Guided reading planning for Y5/Y6 more able readers based on the text ‘Journey to the River Sea’. Six sessions of planning are included, although in reality it could spread over a much longer period of time if you wanted! The other files included are pictures of the Amazon used in lesson one. The planning includes teacher discussion prompts (each linked to AFs) and a follow up reading activity. In my class I had four groups and ran guided reading over four days. Each group had one session with me and three independent days. The pupils followed this cycle over the four days: Pre-reading in preparation for Book Club. Preparing answers for Book Club. Children had a preview of some of the more complex questions and wrote their answers in their reading journals. This had the benefit of me being able to ‘pick on’ any child without them being flustered, but also meant I had some written evidence for all pupils every week (I was finding that some weeks I hadn’t written any notes for some pupils during the Book Club session). Book Club with teacher. Follow-up task. Each group knew which day of the week was their follow-up/Book Club/prep day. On the fifth day I heard individual readers and the pupils did free reading of their own books/magazines. I sometimes used this day to catch up if we had missed a guided reading session earlier in the week due to special assemblies etc. (often the case!).

Guided reading planning for Y5/Y6 Middle to Higher ability readers based on the text ‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’. Five sessions of planning are included, although in reality it could spread over a much longer period of time as I must admit that I struggled to fit it all in to five 30 minute sessions! The planning includes teacher discussion prompts (each linked to AFs) and a follow up reading activity. In my class I had four groups and ran guided reading over four days. Each group had one session with me and three independent days. The pupils followed this cycle over the four days: • Pre-reading in preparation for Book Club. • Preparing answers for Book Club. Children had a preview of some of the more complex questions and wrote their answers in their reading journals. This had the benefit of me being able to ‘pick on’ any child, but also meant I had some written evidence for all pupils every week (I was finding that some weeks I hadn’t written any notes for some pupils during the Book Club session). • Book Club with teacher. • Follow-up Task. Each group knew which day of the week was their follow-up/Book Club/prep day. On the fifth day I heard individual readers and the pupils did free reading of their own books/magazines. I sometimes used this day to catch up if we had missed a guided reading session earlier in the week.

This is a power point I made for a presentation I did to a group of Y6 Parents at the start of the year. The aim was to education the parents on the kind of questions they should be asking their children when reading with them at home and the kind of comments they should encourage their children to write in their reading journals. The model of reading on, between, behind and beyond the lines is used to link to the reading AFs and make them more accessible. The Powerpoint also includes examples of past Y6 SATs paper questions to give parents an idea of what their children will be faced with. There are activities throughout, which giving parents the opportunity to try asking, answering and marking reading comprehension questions. It also gives an example of a film clip to demonstrate to parents that they can help develop their child's reading comprehension skills when watching a film or TV programme, not just when reading. I worked through the powerpoint with my Y6 class and this was a great idea as both the Parents and children were then 'reading from the same page' (pardon the pun!). This powerpoint would work well with Parents of pupils from age 7-11. It could also be used equally well as a staff CPD session.

This resource is best suited to KS2 and features key vocabulary to help with setting up a science working wall. I have included it in Word format as well as PDF so you can edit to suit your favourite colours and fonts. It includes: Scientific skills, e.g. comparing results, using equipment. Types of scientific investigation with an example scientific question for each, e.g. observation, fair test (kids love a fair test!) Ways of presenting data with a picture of each, e.g. table, line graph. 18 scientific questions for pupils to match with the most appropriate type of enquiry. Uses: Print and laminate several copies for pupils to use as a toolkit to help with planning their investigations. Give pupils the selection of scientific questions provided and ask them to decide which type of investigation best suits each question. Similarly, give pupils scientific questions and ask them to consider what the data would look like and the most effective way to present it. Print and laminate these labels and keep them on your science working wall permanently or select a few to display as the focus of each unit. As a class, consider which scientific skills we are good at and which we need to work more on. Ask pupils to consider ‘What’s the same? What’s different?’ between different types of investigation and data presentation. Pose the scientific question for the lesson and ask pupils to rule out each type of investigation in turn until they find the best way of answering the question. Or flip this around and give the pupils a type of investigation and they must come up with a question that they would like to investigate. Hope this save a bit of time for you and also helps to keep the transferable scientific skills in the forefront of pupil’s minds whilst they enjoy exploring the subject knowledge of plants, humans, materials etc.

This display was used whilst teaching the IPC ‘Brainwave’ topic to a Y6 class. It covers: The different kinds of intelligence. Interesting facts about the brain. Labels for different parts of the brain. I painted a large brain and put it in the middle of the display with the text added around it. For those that don’t have time to paint (!) I have added an image of the brain to the last page of the resource that can be scaled up to A3 or you could ask your pupils to draw one.

I created these ‘Odd One Out’ activities as part of a maths corridor display. It was designed for use by the whole school (Foundation to Y6) and the aim was the develop reasoning and raise the profile of maths in the school. This could also be used alongside my Developing Reasoning Powerpoint as an activity for staff to try during the session. As well as PDF, resource is provided in Word format for easy editing.

This display was used in a corridor between two Year 6 classrooms and was a real talking point amongst the pupils. It includes famous groups and duos that they will most probably be familiar with and descriptions of different types of relationships. It also has prompt questions to get pupils thinking and talking about their own relationships. Would also work well on display in the classroom, a quiet space or assembly hall. The pictures and questions could also be used as a prompt for discussing relationships during Circle Time or assembly.

Selection of key vocabulary originally used for Literacy working wall with a Y6 class.

These can be printed and laminated to label up resource trays for your pupils. They fit standard school trays and can of course be edited to say whatever you like! Not ground breaking, but might save you a bit of time!

This effective interactive display was used in a Year 4 classroom for assessment to save marking! I used it as a baseline assessment and again at the end of the unit of work and simply took a photograph of each pupil’s effort as evidence and noted down anything they may have said whilst doing the activity. Unfortunately I don’t have a photograph of this display, but here is a rough description of how I arranged it: Headings ‘soluble’ and ‘insoluble’ for pupils to organise substances such as flour, salt, rice & sand underneath. Headings ‘Reversible’ and ‘Irreversible’ for pupils to organise descriptions of different changes under, e.g. ‘freezing orange juice to make lollies’. Matching the vocabulary to the correct definition (these could also be used as flash cards as another form of assessment), e.g. dissolve, filter, sieving. Gas, solid and liquid with their properties and a simple particle diagram. I also provided the children with post-it notes and they added their own examples of gases, solids and liquids; irreversible and reversible changes; and soluble and insoluble materials to the display as the unit progressed. I mounted the text on black card and laminated it as I knew they would be handled a lot. I just put blu-tac on the back, but Velcro would be another option. My display is quite plain as I didn’t want to distract pupils when assessing them, but the display is provided in Word format as well as PDF so it can be glammed up with colour if you like. There are many ways that this display could be used. One activity that I did later on in the year was to bring out the cards and use them as headings on a giant Carroll Diagram (the assessment was for maths data handling but it was good to revise the vocabulary). Pupils placed items under headings ‘soluble’ and ‘insoluble’ and other criteria such as ‘edible’ or ‘inedible’. I also used a Venn diagram for solids and liquids and children placed food items and other items in two qiant PE hoops with an overlap in the middle. I hope you enjoy using this resource and I hope that it saves you some time!

**Update: I have recently changed the skeleton file as some people fed-back that it wasn’t printing as it should as a Publisher file. It is now an A4 PDF file, but can be enlarged to A3 in order to get the same size of skeleton that I used on my display (or it could be scaled down to A5 for cute mini skeletons!) This interactive display invites the pupils to arrange the skeleton and label each bone correctly. I enlarged the skeleton, cut out each bone, laminated it and then stuck a bit of blu-tac to the back; however, if you are lucky enough to have a skeleton in school you could just label that! The display also includes questions and answers about the skeleton and bones and fun facts. I have included a picture of the finished display once it was moved to the school corridor (and, therefore, wasn’t being used interactively any more). I have changed the font to Comic Sans as the one I used isn’t often installed as standard, but each file is provided in Word as well as PDF so you can fiddle with the font and wording.

Labels of thirteen prefixes and suffixes commonly used today, which were derived from the Ancient Greek language. Provided in PDF format and also Word so you can edit or add to. Ideas for use: Add to working wall (some could go on maths working wall) with slips of paper and challenge pupils to add words that include these suffixes and prefixes. Lesson starter - how may words with the prefix ‘geo’ or ‘tele’ can you think of in 1 minute? Use as part of a spelling lesson to introduce the concept of prefixes and suffixes and the meanings that they convey. Provide as a stimulus for pupils when writing their own Ancient Greek Myths and Legends - can they use these suffixes and prefixes to inspire their character or place names? Build on this to explore prefixes and suffixes derived from Ancient Rome or Latin. Words included (with translation): geo hex hydro mega micro octo pente phone photo poly scope techne tele

This was a PowerPoint presentation and handout that I put together for a staff meeting in my role as subject-leader. It introduces ideas from the Mathematics Specialist Teacher programme and aims to develop mathematical reasoning. It discusses the importance of reasoning, outlines the mathematical skills required to develop reasoning and provides ideas for activities to develop reasoning. The activities can be adapted to suit any age group and any mathematical concept. Many of the activities could also be adapted across the curriculum. They are self-differentiating, with a low entry point and high ceiling and are very quick and easy to set up. The activities are a great option for lesson starters, mental maths activities or time-fillers. The notes under each slide provide an explanation of the activity and some ideas on how it could be adapted. The handout is provided in both PDF and Microsoft Word format.