This fun descriptive writing task includes everything you need to support your less able students and stretch your gifted ones.
First, students explore ideas for describing a turkey, pumpkin or pumpkin pie as individuals, or in pairs or as a class, using the visual prompts on the first sheet.
Some students might wish to express some of their ideas through color as well as words.
Next, share the differentiated word bank of sensory words to support and stretch your students as needed.
Included are banks for sight, sound, smell and touch - taste is not included, but you could always do this as a separate bank or as another collaboration project. There is also a vocabulary bank for verbs, and space in each section for students to add ideas of their own.
The outcome will be interesting and vivid descriptions of the humble turkey or pumpkin pie. Enjoy!
Support social-emotional learning or start a conversation about mental health by prompting your students to explore their negative thoughts and emotions through the metaphor of trees.
Use in:
one-to-one counselling sessions
smaller nurture groups
with classes to help students share their experiences
This resource includes step by step instructions, interactive trees activity, and an optional reflection task in both US letter and UK A4 document sizes.
Decorate your classroom with this pack of nine posters showing nine different reading strategies. Each poster has the name of the strategy, a description, and visual prompts. The strategies are…
Reading back and forth
Close reading
Empathising
Inferring
Predicting
Questioning
Scanning
Skimming
Visualising
These posters come in both US letter and UK A4 size documents, and there are black and white versions for printing onto plain or colour paper, and versions with a pop of colour in the borders.
Engage your class with a pre-reading task by presenting the climax or outcome of the plot as a crime scene. Use this editable Word template to organise the victims, statements, evidence locker timeline, and any other information you wish to include. Add or remove sections to suit the text or your students.
This starting task allows students to work in groups to work out the plot before you read the text; it also gives you a chance to flip the classroom and get them to engage themselves. It is adaptable so that you can plan for the task to last fifteen minutes or a whole lesson. You choose!
Please note: This template is not for commercial use.
A challenging but differentiated grid-style frame to guide and support pupils in planning 5 paragraphs for a sophisticated close study of any literary character.
Each row represents a paragraph, and each column represents a layer of understanding which boosts their understanding of a quotation or point. Simply use the pre-populated guide questions, or insert your own to tailor the essay focus to your needs. Fully editable Google App included. This resource is provided in both US letter and UK A4 size documents.
Students use the stages of the planning grid to analyse:
Precise quotations
Character impressions
Impactful words
Tone
Sentence structure
Punctuation effects
Both aspirational and differentiated - make achieving easy!
No-Prep Group Work!
Just print, pass and problem-solve! A set of desk placemats to encourage groups of students to discuss and share information about quotations, characters and context linked to specific m the novel. This can either be an oracy task alone, or discussion alongside the creation of a revision map on A4 or A3 paper.
Includes a double-sided ‘Thoughtpad’ sheet for students to log ideas along the way.
Includes five characters, six tasks per sheet, and works well with groups of 4-8 students. Laminate for multiple use!
Support your students in structuring a story with this pre-made editable frame. This resource works as a mat or handout, and is available in A4 size format. It can also be given to older students for them to plan their own stories.
The frame coaches students through five paragraphs with suggestions for content, sentence starters, vocabulary and punctuation.
Want some pre-populated, ready to go frames? Check out the pre-filled versions:
Primary | The Perfect Story | Narrative Frame | Guided Writing
Secondary | The Perfect Narrative | Story Frame | Guided Writing
If you liked the look of this, check out…
Writing with Alliteration
Writing with Onomatopoeia
Writing with Personification
Writing with Similes
Help your students to analyse the themes in any text using these printable sticky note sheets. Print prompts and questions to distribute among the class, or give full sets to students for them to evaluate and apply as individual or group work.
This product includes…
Base template to ensure that your sticky notes go in the right place
12 themes to be printed onto 12 sticky notes (2 pages, 6 per page)
12 themes to be printed onto full page sets of sticky notes (12 pages, 6 per page)
Blank editable boxes for you to create your own information (1 page, 6 per page)
All materials included are provided in US letter and UK A4 size documents.
Seven tasks on seven double-sided worksheets. Each task focuses on a quotation about loneliness, and features four points or ideas about the quotation. Students must evaluate how much they agree with the points, rank them, and explain their reasoning… but beware - one point in each four is totally inaccurate!
Use individually as bell-ringers, brain breaks, or give groups of students different quotations for a more developed discussion lesson.
These worksheets are double-sided and come with answer keys to show the inaccurate points. I have also provided US letter and UK A4 size documents, and spellings for both the US and the UK.
Analyse the figurative language and literary devices from eight Tiktok sound trends and viral songs seen during April 2021! Use either as a full lesson in preparation for a bigger analysis task, as individual recap tasks for skills, or as a series of engaging starters for figurative language and device lessons. Best suited to upper KS3 and KS4.
This resource comes in both US and UK document sizes (letter and A4), features eight sets of lyrics (recognisable to many students who use Tiktok), colour-coded answer keys, and an additional PowerPoint version for class collaboration.
If you love this resource, follow me for an update when I release the sound trend tasks for May 2021 and beyond!
Perfect for classes reading Robert Cormier��s WWII novel Heroes. This pack of questions provides 20 comprehension questions and 20 analysis questions for chapter 1 of the novel. Differentiated to four levels, set work to support learners at every access stage!
Level 1 is Easy, Level 2 is Moderate, Level 3 is challenging and Level 4 is Expert.
Includes:
Level 1 Comprehension - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 2 Comprehension - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 3 Comprehension - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 4 Comprehension - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 1 Analysis - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 2 Analysis - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 3 Analysis - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 4 Analysis - 5 questions and answer guide
Perfect for classes reading Robert Cormier’s WWII novel Heroes. This pack of questions provides 20 comprehension questions and 20 analysis questions for chapter 2 of the novel. Differentiated to four levels, set work to support learners at every access stage!
Level 1 is Easy, Level 2 is Moderate, Level 3 is challenging and Level 4 is Expert.
Includes:
Level 1 Comprehension - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 2 Comprehension - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 3 Comprehension - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 4 Comprehension - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 1 Analysis - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 2 Analysis - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 3 Analysis - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 4 Analysis - 5 questions and answer guide
Perfect for classes reading Robert Cormier’s WWII novel Heroes. This pack of questions provides 20 comprehension questions and 20 analysis questions for chapter 3 of the novel. Differentiated to four levels, set work to support learners at every access stage!
Level 1 is Easy, Level 2 is Moderate, Level 3 is challenging and Level 4 is Expert.
Includes:
Level 1 Comprehension - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 2 Comprehension - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 3 Comprehension - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 4 Comprehension - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 1 Analysis - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 2 Analysis - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 3 Analysis - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 4 Analysis - 5 questions and answer guide
Perfect for classes reading Robert Cormier’s WWII novel Heroes. This pack of questions provides 20 comprehension questions and 20 analysis questions for chapter 4 of the novel. Differentiated to four levels, set work to support learners at every access stage!
Level 1 is Easy, Level 2 is Moderate, Level 3 is challenging and Level 4 is Expert.
Includes:
Level 1 Comprehension - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 2 Comprehension - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 3 Comprehension - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 4 Comprehension - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 1 Analysis - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 2 Analysis - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 3 Analysis - 5 questions and answer guide
Level 4 Analysis - 5 questions and answer guide
This Silent Discussion pre-reading activity for Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men prompts students to collaborate on vintage book covers and movie posters with their thoughts, opinions, interpretations and predictions. Resources include two lesson formats with instructive slideshows.
Includes:
10 pages of cover and poster prompts for a seated silent discussion
10 pages of cover and poster prompts for a gallery walk silent discussion
Duplicate of the gallery version in A3 size for ease of writing
Slideshow with instructions for seated silent discussion
Slideshow with instructions for gallery walk silent discussion
This Silent Discussion pre-reading activity for F Scott Fitzgerald’s novel Of The Great Gatsby prompts students to collaborate on vintage book covers images with their thoughts, opinions, interpretations and predictions. Resources include two lesson formats with instructive slideshows.
Includes:
18 pages of cover image prompts for a seated silent discussion
18 pages of cover image prompts for a gallery walk silent discussion
Duplicate of the gallery version in A3 size for ease of writing
Slideshow with instructions for seated silent discussion
Slideshow with instructions for gallery walk silent discussion
Follow up activity - do your students think that any of the covers belong to the same novel? Why?
Prepare to read Sharon M Draper’s timely novel Tears of a Tiger with this printable pre-reading activity. Silent Discussion, Collaborative Predictions, Written Debate… whatever you call it, these image prompts and instructions have you covered!
Simply print and go - includes 15 image prompts connected to the plot. Students move around a gallery of the images or pass the sheets from person to person leaving annotations, comments and observations on every sheet.
Includes:
15 US letter size printable prompt sheets
15 A3 size printable prompt sheets
7 slides of instructions for classroom and lesson use
2 slides of holistic follow-up activities
Challenge your high school students to study with a wider range of revision and test prep methods with these five puzzles and activities based on the definitions of over 20 revision activities and styles!
This definitions and puzzle set is designed to encourage students to step out of their comfort zones. Many rely on simply reading notes, or one repetitive method of revising which does not always help the content to stand out in their minds.
This pack includes the following printables:
Definitions of 22 revision methods
Follow-up reflection activity
Word scramble activity
Letter shapes puzzle
Matching definitions activity
Word search puzzle
Answer Keys
Gingerbread house for sale! Students step into an estate agent role and use their persuasive and descriptive writing skills to sell a gingerbread house.
19 differentiated versions of the sheet allow you to mix and match fronts and backs to make custom worksheets for your students.
Blank versions allow students to design their gingerbread houses from scratch, whilst versions with images give your students a springboard.
More able students may opt to design a floor plan, whilst other students might choose to bring humor to the pros and cons of their ‘property’.
Printable sticker labels to help you give fast, individualised feedback based on the needs of each student. Save time and give higher-quality feedback in one go!
Each sticker explains the punctuation or grammar error, outlines the rules for use, models the correct usage and suggests an improvement task. The stickers are laid out in printable sheets of 8, with colourful headings and dyslexia-friendly font. Four sets included to give a choice of colour backgrounds to meet your school’s marking policy or your marking style. Choose from pink, blue, green or yellow!
This pack now includes feedback sticker sheets for:
Possessive apostrophes
Omissive apostrophes
Capitalisation of the word I
Capital letters
Single commas
Parenthetic commas
Connectives
Conjunctions
Full stops
Semi colons
Speech marks
Question marks
Improving vocabulary choices
Ellipses
Here/Hear
It’s/Its
There/Their/They’re
Too/To/Two
Where/Were/Wear/We’re
Whose/Who’s
Your/You’re
Paragraphing
Synonyms
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