Count down to Christmas with this wonderful festive phonics advent calendar! Read a new phonetically accurate festive word each day and reveal the matching picture. This advent calendar uses graphemes up to the end of phase 5, including “alternative grapheme” “ow” for “snow”, or use the editable Word doc to change the pictures/words to fit the phonics phase of your class. This is ideal to differentiate for your children - choose the simpler, CVC / phase 3 sounds for those still practicing their early phonics. There are 3 layers to this advent calendar: 1. The numbers - cut these up and muddle them up! 2. The words - optional to include, put these above the pictures if you want the children to read the word before seeing the picture/without a picture clue. 3. The pictures and words - these are revealed last, did they read it correctly? The picture tables could be stuck together to make one big advent calendar (enlarge it on your printer to make a giant advent calendar!), or all cut out individually and hidden around a Christmas display board - the options are all yours! I would recommend laminating this resource and attaching small velcro dots or blu-tak, so it can better endure children’s eager hands and can be re-used year on year! Another option is to cut each number in half, to create “doors” to open and reveal the word/picture underneath. Image credit: Freepik (freepik.com)

LEARN TO WRITE INSTRUCTIONS! Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)/Reception, key stage 1 (KS1) key stage 2 (KS2) An editable template for children to record instructions. This is suitable for all activities, use it to… Write out a cooking recipe (festive baking, anyone?) Record the rules of a board game Give instructions for carving a pumpkin …and much much more! This template allows plenty of space to record instructions through drawing pictures/symbols, or writing words, easy to differentiate. First, draw or write the things they need - eg. ingredients, equipment Next, draw or write the steps to complete the activity. This resource can simply be enlarged and printed in A3 size for the teacher to model (or even more space for drawing pictures). It could even be edited directly into the Word doc on an interactive whiteboard. Also available as a PDF for accessibility.