Here are 10 different teamwork-based scenarios which pupils (preferably in teams) can discuss, before teamwork gets underway. Each group is given a specific problem and has to discuss together how they would resolve the situation and encourage the team to work together. They then feedback and we discuss as a class. If I have time and students are keen to add some drama, I’ll ask them to act our their scenario and resolution as a role play. As a teacher of life-skills, I saw teamwork as a discreet skill-based subject, as well as linking this in throughout other subject areas. These scenarios are based on the situations that just seemed to happen again and again. I find it extremely useful to use something like this BEFORE teamwork begins - things seem to run a lot more smoothly afterwards. Inevitably, you may still have some problems within groups, but you can refer back to these scenarios and how the class chose to solve problems. I’ve also thrown in a ‘Top Ten Teamwork Tips’ sheet, which students can use alongside this activity and keep in sight to support any partner/group based task. For strategic advice, ideas, lesson plans related to Inclusive Teamwork - ideas that fit nicely with this discussion-based task, go to https://skillswithfrills.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Published-Optimus-magazine-pull-out-Inclusive-Teamwork.pdf for my 4-page pullout in Optimus Educations’ ‘Special Children’ magazine.

Two sheets including maps, enabling students to study the different geographical features using an atlas, coloured and labelled the sheets. Great for KS2 or KS3 students.

Big write task based on writing recounts, and giving pupils options to choose from, all relating to an imaginary school trip which they’re asked to recall. Planning frame for bullet points before they begin (I usually give 10 minutes for this.) A quick, engaging topic, for any kind of independent writing. Suitable for KS2 students. Works as a baseline assessment or as an end of unit test, to see how students’ writing skills have developed independently.

A behaviour and consequences flow chart that you can use after an event with pupils to discuss what they did and what they could have done. I find this useful in that it encourages SEND pupils, including children with Autism, a logical approach to explaining an emotional reaction. I allow children to draw their answers if they’re not comfortable in writing them. I have used this in detention so that pupils are at least thinking about why they’re suffering consequences - because of their own choices.

This is a fantastic lesson that I’ve used many times as part of a skill-based curriculum. The topic here is ‘Time’ and this lesson takes students on a journey through time and space, through the ‘Cosmic Calendar’. This topic and the clips included are super engaging and thought-provoking. I’ve had some brilliant lessons following this structure (including tricky classes!) The lesson begins with a clip and brief discussion, relating to how we (the average person) spends our time - e.g. 1 of every 5 minutes on social media. Eeeeek! Students are then given questions for the quiz ahead and have a few moments to look at this as a team - the idea is that they work together to note down and recall specific pieces of information… but I don’t tell them this! We then watch a clip - link included - of Neil DeGrasse Tyson presenting ‘The Cosmic Calendar’ as students jot down notes. Following this, there’s the quiz which they answer in teams. We then peer assess answers, before uncovering how the winning teams managed to remember the info (this is where we discuss team strategies!) After a little discussion - lots of opportunities for SMSC - we have an independent sketching plenary which allows students to demonstrate understanding of this complex concept at its base level. I’ve taught this lesson as a single hour with year 7 students, but I’ve also extended it as a teamwork project in two or three lessons, with students presenting their own alternative version of the Cosmic Calendar. It’s easy to differentiate as low down as year 5 students and as high as year 11, with only a few tweaks! Whether your goal is to learn about Science, Time and Space; to build up note-taking skills in Literacy; or to work on teamwork/retention skills, this lesson is an engaging way of doing them all.

This is a lesson that I created for all year 7 teachers upon our first meeting with students - it’s a great project to try out with KS2 or KS3 pupils. It will help you to really see who they are, how they think, what their team skills and confidence are like, across different subjects. In a nutshell: there’s a mix of speaking and listening tasks, amidst the introduction of P.M.I (plus, minus and interesting.) At the beginning of the lesson, we model a task, via the example: ‘what if money grew up on trees?’ - Pupils have to really consider the realistic positive, negative and interesting outcomes. This isn’t so much about getting the ‘right’ answers (though one laptop or ipad per group will certainly help with research), but more about engaging students in thought-provoking, curiosity-based discussion. The P.M.I topics here bring up some really interesting ideas and debate, whilst students develop their teamwork, research and presentation skills too. Included here is: ppt. slides for the full lesson, slides to hand out to groups (different scenarios for each group), a blank P.M.I grid to support note-taking and group research/ideas, an assessment grid to judge presentations and a full walkthrough of the lesson.

After many struggles in teaching persuasion and marking ‘persuasive’ writing, I developed this essay based on the need for teachers to have a free chocolate…all the time! The bad example is based on the mistakes that the kids were making. The good example highlights sentence openers etc. that they can use… I’ve used this examples with students at KS2 and KS3 - Modelling the poor example seems to really improve the quality of writing before we even begin.

Here’s a simple task I use with Y7 SEND students to reinforce and consolidate learning based on SPaG terminology. This would work as a pre-SATs revision task for SPAG - Spelling, punctuation and grammar. Children have the option to work in same-ability pairs and research at the computer if needed. I find that this makes follow-up slow writing tasks easier, as pupils can refer back to definitions when asked to include a word type etc. in their sentences.

This is a powerpoint showing different pictures of 3D shapes around the world (toblerones and pyramids etc.) Great for a starter or plenary on shapes - ask kids to write down names of shapes on wipeboards to support AFL. I’ve used this with lower ability/SEND maths classes in year 6, as well as with year 9 SEND pupils. Suitable for KS1 and KS2 as well as LA mathematicians at KS3.

These slow writing prompt cards provide your KS2/KS3 writers with an opportunity to be independent, whilst also using a scaffolded approach. Children can shuffle and select from the 16 cards before including this in their writing, leading to a much more structured piece of work. Examples are included with each card to support understanding. I’ve used these cards with a range of different topics and I’ve had a lot of success with this approach, particularly with struggling writers, SEND students, and those who just generally lack confidence in their own skills and techniques. Slow Writing does take time and patience, but what students lack in speed, they more than make up for in the quality and progress of writing. See my blog from a while ago discussing successes with the Slow Writing approach and SEND students - https://wordpress.com/post/skillswithfrills.com/1340

This is a year 6 unit based on Belief - What is it? What’s the difference between belief and fact? Why/who believes? Do beliefs change? and so on. There&‘s a couple of resources that aren&’;t on here thought bubbles: I just write in class on paper. World Religions various beliefs to sort and answer sheet (this is on TES: author - missjulieclark) It’s a good juicy PSHE/SEAL topic - lots of interesting discussion to be had. Easily adapted for KS3 students to use in RE lessons or PSHE.

I did this with year 4 in the final week before christmas holidays. They loved it! It was very structured groupwork - pupils in country teams researching how christmas is celebrated in their country, then presented this at the end. Our main learning outcome was to develop teamwork skills and we did this through a structured approach. But we also worked on our research and writing skills, creativity, speaking, listening and confidence. The kids were really fascinated by the different cultures and customs from around the world too.

A four-week long literacy unit, complete with a few worksheets. The resources we used were photocopies from various books. The Scholastic ‘Hot Topics’ Pirates book proved to be very useful and I recommend spending on that too! Pupils really enjoyed creating their pirate instruction manuals. The topic ensured that they were very engaged, especially the boys.

I created this as a homework sheet for SEND pupils in secondary, who were working at KS1/2 level. We had been working on different sentence types and adjectives/adverbs, so this allowed them to put this into practise and gave them examples also so they had a really clear structure to follow. As this group had issues with retaining information and skills, I also made the home learning helper sheet, just to provide more scaffolding. This could be used with lower ability/SEND pupils in KS3 or pupils at KS1/2. It can be used as home learning task, as a lesson, or as a scaffolded assessment at the end a unit incorporating these skills.

I used this with my SEND group who were in year 8, but working at KS1/2 level. We watched a clip from Youtube (Just search: Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire: Hungarian Horntail Task.) Then we worked in pairs to put the pictures in order at first, and then match the correct sentence below and stick this in. One higher ability pair had to change their sentences as an extra challenge. This became the plan of our Harry Potter diary - we were completing a topic about Dragons - so students had all the events and information, and only needed to transform this into a diary style. This topic is suitable for KS2 and KS3 pupils and is easily adapted for different ages, abilities and needs. It’s very simple just to take out the sentences either in part or altogether and ask students to create their own from scratch.

A creative writing task, based on the XBox/Playstation game, Ark: Evolution. I've found this is a great task for KS2 students, though it's definitely suitable for KS3 English also. Great for inspiring those uninspired students (especially boys) by bringing their love of gaming into literacy lessons. See my blog - link at the bottom - for more details as to how I've used this in the past. https://skillswithfrills.com/2018/02/07/teaching-students-with-an-xbox-imagination-bring-the-game-to-them/

This is a revised History topic plan for the Tudors - Key skills match those taken from the New curriculum as of 2013. I’ve not included any resources because none are my own - all taken from searching TES and finding bits and pieces to match!

In celebration of Shakespeare’s birthday, here’s the play script from my class assembly whereby pupils perform a Midsummer Night’s Dream. Nice and easy to understand, and it worked a treat!

Unit plan for an Ancient Greeks topic, in which we challenged pupils to create their own museum exhibit based on Ancient Greeks. This was a big undertaking, but we pulled it off and the children in all classes were incredibly motivated and engaged. They worked tirelessly to create resources for the opening of the museum exhibit - parents and staff were very proud of the end results!

This is the plan - with extra cast sheet, resources list and invites - for a Roman Castleford assembly. It lasted about 15 minutes, and the kids absolutely loved it. The bits about castleford could easily be adapted so that you keep the rest about Roman britain and change it to suit your local area.