A writing lesson for Y3/4 giving pupils an opportunity to write a section of an adventure story with a polar/Arctic/Canadian/Inuit theme. The pupils are challenged to write the ending to a story they are introduced to (‘Nukilik and the Bear’) about an Inuit boy and an orphaned polar bear. This lesson can be used as an assessment piece at the start or end of a unit on adventure story writing. The resources comprise: a planning template, wordbank, story introduction to follow on from and a step-by-step powerpoint.

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!

A Series of 3 lessons to guide lower KS2 pupils through learning their Roman numerals thoroughly from 1-50. The powerpoint covers all necessary input and includes whiteboard AfL activites, starters and plenaries. There are main activities for each day, differentiated two ways with additional challenges for early finishers. Also included is a pack of ‘snap’ cards comprising both Roman numerals from 1-50 and corresponding cards with the Arabic numeral representation on. The pupils can then pair up and play ‘snap’ to test their new knowledge of Roman numerals. For a slightly less competitive plenary/starter, you could simply use it as a matching activity for individuals, pairs or groups.

A complete lesson for lower KS2 to deepen understanding around the process of multiplication and the fact that it is not commutative. The lesson comprises a ‘diamond 9 starter’ that could be completed in pairs/groups. There are then some worked examples in the powerpoint using ‘Singapore bar’ representations and arrays to allow two different multiplication statements to be shown. The worksheets are differentiated 3 ways, with the ‘3 chillies’ sheet including a reasoning challenge at the end.

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.

An assembly to last approximately 15-20 minutes on mental awareness. The ‘way in’ is via a focus on loneliness, which was the theme of 2022’s Mental Health Awareness Week. However, this could be changed according to your specidic requirements. The format is designed to allow for two pupil volunteers to assist but this could be changed to allow for one single presenter. The assembly includes a story ‘Lionel the Lonely Monster’ and an introduction to the ‘Five Ways to Wellbeing’.

A lesson for KS1 on Christian places of worship. Features a video, tasks differentiated three ways, an extra challenge for fast finishers and a short plenary quiz.

A lesson for KS1 exploring the meaning behind the Easter Sunday story. Lesson includes a video that explains the key events of the story, as told in the Bible. The pupil 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.

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!)

A lesson prompting pupils to reflect on the messages in two important stories about the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH): Muhammad and the Old Woman The Rich Man and the Poor Man The main task prompts pupils to think about how to apply the lessons in these stories to their own lives. There is an extension for those who require a further challenge.

A lesson for Y1/2 on the last supper and the Christian practices around Maundy Thursday. Lesson includes a video recounting the key events of Maunday Thursday as told in the Bible. The pupil activity is differentiated three ways.

Following on from the Roman/Greek myths planning lesson (https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/plan-a-new-roman-myth-y3-4-11911035?theme=0), here are two days’ worth of writing lesson resources to allow pupils to turn their plans into the opening, build up, ‘problem’ and resolution of a ‘new’ Roman/Greek myth. Differentiated word banks are included as well as a basic powerpoint with checklists to support the teacher in modelling the sections of the writing in a way that includes the success criteria.

A complete lesson for Y4-6 (adaptable for Y3) about how to identify and write effective similes. This lesson is intended to take pupils right back to what the point of similes is: to create vivid imagery in the reader’s mind. From there, various ‘good’ and ‘not so good’ examples show pupils how to build that imagery most effectively. Pupils then generate the ‘success criteria’ for effective similes (the powerpoint refines these down to 3 ‘golden guidelines’). Finally, there are 3 differentiated activities ranging from quite heavily scaffolded (‘Challenge 1’) to freer writing. For higher year groups, you could make ‘Challenge 2’ the easiest and then challenge your most able writers to apply the ‘golden guidelines’ in their own similes ‘from scratch’. Please note: this lesson frames similes through the context of writing descriptive settings of a forest. You can of course edit the powerpoint directly and copy/paste, then edit the wording from the activities.

A complete lesson for Y3/4 on haikus. The context for the poetry here is water - perfect if your topic is ‘Rivers and the Water Cycle’ or similar. The lesson begins by introducing the concept of syllables, before explaining what haikus are and how they work. The activity is differentiated 3 ways with a word bank to support pupils at all 3 levels of challenge.

A lesson for Y3/4 all about rhythm in poetry and the syllables in words. The context is water-themed poems constructed with rhyming couplets. The activities are differentiated three ways with an extension challenge. Challenge 1 requires pupils to count the syllables in each line of a poem and then choose the best line to finish it off. Challenge 2 requires pupils to write their own additional lines, as does Challenge 3 but a syllabic limit is imposed for them to work within.

A complete lesson on reading retrieval for Y3/4 with a Greek myth as the text. The powerpoint introduces the characters, pre-teaches tricky vocab and outlines the strategy pupils should use. There is then an example question before the pupils answer the questions themselves. The questions are differentiated 3 ways but all are retrieval questions as this is the target skill.

A lesson for KS1 (best suited to Y2) to introduce the topic of Islam. Covers the story of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the revelations of the Angel Gabriel (Jibril) that were given to him, which later became the writings in the Quran.

A debate lesson for Y5 English at the beginning of a unit on writing balanced arguments, to complement a geography topic on Global Trade. The motion is ‘globalisation is a force for good in the world’, with eight fictional characters who stand on different sides of the argument. Through hot-seating and diamond four activities, this should help get some in-depth discussion going in your classrooms about the hidden costs of our cheap and plentiful consumer goods in the West, whilst acknowledging that standards of living would probably be worse across the board without worldwide commerce. Happy teaching and please do leave your feedback.