I am an Assistant Headteacher at an outstanding North London primary school. Throughout all my teaching career, I have strongly believed that we make the best learning happen when we inspire pupils. The resources I publish are therefore intended to do exactly that and to offer a challenging and engaging learning experience to pupils of all abilities. I hope you will find something here that inspires you!
I am an Assistant Headteacher at an outstanding North London primary school. Throughout all my teaching career, I have strongly believed that we make the best learning happen when we inspire pupils. The resources I publish are therefore intended to do exactly that and to offer a challenging and engaging learning experience to pupils of all abilities. I hope you will find something here that inspires you!
A lesson for Y1/2 on Jewish places of worship. Powerpoint links to a video that gives a tour of the New London Synagogue. The main task is differentiated three ways and there is an extension task for fast finishers. The plenary is a short quickfire quiz.
A lesson on mapwork for Y3/4 in which pupils locate and name the major rivers of the UK and some of the major towns and cities that lie along their courses. 4 river/waterway maps are included but it is highly recommended you put out a class set of good quality atlases with detailed mapping of the UK in them. Pupils will need to use their skills of comparing features across different maps in order to label the major UK rivers and answer the questions below. The activity is differentiated three ways.
A lesson for lower KS2 on poetic metaphor and personification, using poetry about water as the context. The powerpoint introduces the idea via the concept of similes (so pupils should understand similes before teaching this content). The differences and similarities between metaphor and personification are then explained. The lesson then gets pupils to discuss ‘good’ and ‘not so good’ examples of metaphors and uses this to draw out ‘success criteria’ (guidelines) for writing good metaphors. The main activities are then differentiated 3 ways.
This is a complete lesson for lower KS2 pupils who are studying Hinduism in RE and have already had a basic introduction to the concepts of Ahimsa, Karma and Dharma. There is a starter intended to ‘hook’ the children in by getting them to ask the questions - these questions could then be used in an alternative plenary in which pupils can answer their original questions.
The reading activity could be completed in groups of four (one card each) or pairs (two cards each). There are comprehension questions at the bottom for the pupils to ask each there peers after reading each section.
Finally, the main written activity is differentiated three ways to allow children to apply their new understanding of Ghandi and his beliefs.
A complete lesson for lower KS2 on telling the time to the nearest minute. The resources comprise a step-by-step powerpoint presentation, a laminatable sheet of blank clocks for pupils to use to represent the times given in the guided activities and three differentiated worksheets for the main activity. There is also a discussion-based plenary.
Please note: pupils should already be able to read time to the nearest 5 minutes (lesson available at this link: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/tell-the-time-from-an-analogue-clock-nearest-5-mins-11909819?theme=0) before you teach this lesson and should know how many minutes are in one hour. It’s also recommended that you have teaching clocks with moveable hands for both the pupils and a larger one for you and/or your TA.
This differentiated resource is intended for lower KS2 children learning about parallel and perpendicular lines.
There is a template that starts pupils off at the ‘1 chilli’ (i.e. easiest) level and allows them to choose how their level of challenge progresses from there.
Ask your TA to trim the activities along the black lines into rectangles and pupils can come up to collect the one they want when ready!
This powerpoint contains 82 literacy starters, each one differentiated three ways and most also including an extension challenge - a total of over 300 activities! With the exception of the ‘lipograms’, these activities are all ‘open-ended’, i.e, pupils do not ‘finish’ them. This makes them ideal for morning ‘welcome’ time (for schools that do this), where pupils arrive at different times. Equally, they can be used as regular lesson starters. Nothing needs printing for any of the activities, you literally just put the slide up on your smartboard and off you go!
The file comprises the following challenges:
Slides 2-18: ‘Word Chains’ (Y1-6) This can be good practice for pupils’ dictionary use skills - can they find a word that begins with the last letter(s) of the previous word? How long can they then make this word chain before they run out of words?
Slide 19: ‘Alphabet Sentences’ (Y1-6) A great activity for assessing how well pupils grasp what constitutes a sentence, as well as extending their vocabulary. This activity challenges pupils to create sentences where the words start with consecutive letters of the alphabet.
Slides 20-46: ‘Lipograms’ (Y4-6) Ideal for practice in using a thesaurus and extending pupils’ vocabulary, as well as assessing their sense of poetic rhythm and word choice. These activities provide a short poem with a particular theme (e.g ‘water’, ‘Spring’, ‘The Future’, etc.) and challenge pupils to re-write it with the rule that one letter is ‘forbidden’! Note: some of these are harder than others, so choose carefully when first introducing the idea!
Slides 47-62: ‘Starts and Ends’ (Y2-6) A chance for pupils to build vocabulary and practice dictionary use, this time in a slightly more competitive way! The starting and ending letters of words are provided, pupils need to think of and write down the longest words they can find/think of with those starting and ending letters.
Slides 63-74: ‘9 Letter Challenge’ (Y1-3) Useful for practicing phonics for spelling with simpler words. This activity challenges pupils to make as many words as they can using the provided letters. Note: These only have 2-way differentiation (plus an extension challenge)
Slides 75-83: Christmas Specials! These are versions of the above challenges for the festive season, complete with suitably cheesy xmas graphics!
A lesson for KS1 explaining the creation story of the Bible/Torah/Quran. Includes a diamond 9 starter activity encouraging pupils to think about all living things and which is most important, and a matching activity they can complete while watching the video. The main pupil activity is differentiated three ways.
A lesson for KS1 about what goes on and what can be found in a Mosque. Powerpoint contains a link to a video that gives a tour by Muslims of the East London Mosque in Shadwell.
Three differentiated activities for pupils to choose between plus an extension and plenary mini quiz .
This lesson is intended for lower KS2 pupils who have already learned what the three states of matter are and who are ready to learn the processes of evaporation, condensation and dissolving.
The initial teacher demonstration can be done with a kettle and glass (mind your hands!), then show pupils ice melting and sugar/salt dissolving in water. There are then three differentiated worksheets for pupils to demonstrate their understanding of the three processes.
A 5 lesson sequence for KS1 on Islam, covering the following:
Who the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was and how he started the faith
Two stories about the prophet that influence how Muslims live their lives
The five pillars of Islam
Ramadan and Eid
Muslim places of worship
A lesson for KS1 about the importance of stewardship of the world and what some of the major world religions say about looking after the planet. Includes two videos. Activity (to produce poster about what we should and should not do to be good stewards of the world) is differentiated three ways.
A lesson for Y3/4 focussing on the skill of historical interpretation. This lesson provides primary and secondary sources (in picture format) that pupils interpret to decide why the Roman army was such a successful fighting force and why they enjoyed such success against the Celts when they invaded Britain. The resources comprise a powerpoint, a sheet with information on the sources (it is suggested you enlarge this to A3), images of the sources to cut and stick (if desired) and the worksheets themselves, differentiated 2 ways.
A lesson for Y3/4 on poetic kennings. The context for this lesson is water, but editable resources are included should you need to change this. The activities are differentiated two ways: lower achieving writers can use the word bank to write simple ‘adjective’+‘verb’ kennings, while other children can make their kennings more varied in structure (in your shared writing you can make these as simple or complex as you choose!)
This is a complete (short: 30-40 mins) lesson on the practices of worshipers in Muslim places of worship and the beliefs behind them. There is powerpoint that includes links to short BBC video clips of Muslims worshiping at the mosque, explaining what they do and why. There are then two differentiated worksheets, both of which include a further challenge for ‘fast finishers’.
A complete lesson for Y3/4 to enable pupils to plan a ‘new’ Roman (or Greek) myth. This could be ideal if your topic is the Romans or Ancient Greece and you are looking at myth writing in English. The resources comprise a step-by-step powerpoint, an ‘ideas mat’ (with possible plots that pupils can use or adapt as they see fit) a ‘quick planning’ template that pupils can use as you guide them through the presentation and a writing frame for them to record their plan in full.
A geography lesson for Y2/3 in which pupils make some basic comparisons between the UK and a neighbouring European country (France), relating to both environmental, physical and human aspects of their geographies.
Main activity involves a venn diagram, differentiated two ways plus an added extension.
A tarsia puzzle for practice with telling time from an analogue clock. The challenges comprise “o’clock”, “half-past”, “quarter to/past” times, as well as times to the nearest 5 minutes and nearest minute. In addition, there are added challenges that test pupils’ knowledge of certain ‘time facts’ (e.g that there are 24 hours in a day and 12 months in a year) that are on the LKS2 curriculum but best taught through continuous provision rather than discrete lessons. Can be used in pairs or individually. Includes missing number problems to challenge pupils’ reasoning. As an extension, why not challenge pupils to create their own puzzle with similar calculation problems? **Note: This puzzle works best when enlarged to A3 **
An example Newspaper Article about the Norman victory at the Battle of Hastings and the death of Harold Godwinson. Suitable for Lower KS2 and ideal if you happen to be studying newspaper articles in English and the Anglo Saxons/Normans/Early Middle Ages/Kings and Queens in topic! Could be used for guided reading or as model text (WAGOLL) as a stimulus for writing.
An ideal end-of-unit quiz for upper KS2 to put their knowledge of the Sikh religion to the test in a fun and accessible way.
No need to print anything - just put the slides on-screen and click through!
Note: the combination of questions and answers takes approximately 1 hour to work through with a class.