A wonderful week of planning, resources and presentations to engage children in writing playscripts. As our topic was on Ancient Greece, the playscript that children will be writing will be based around Ancient Greek Gods. I found that this motivated the children more as they already had previous information on the topic. Children are introduced to playscipts by picking out the features in pairs and also gathering an understanding of what a 'myth' is. As the week progresses, children will then create a hero/heroine for their own playscipt by filling out a job application for that particular character. There is a planning/drafting day included also, with resources, to ensure children fully understand the layout of a playscript, along with using features of a Greek Myth. By the end of the week, children will produce an interesting Greek Myth play using the features correctly and effectively. This resource includes notebook presentation, differentiated resources, very detailed planning which points out explicitly what needs to be taught and how the lessons are to be differentiated, and also a success criteria for children to follow. I have tried these lessons myself, and my children really enjoyed them. Please leave a review and check out my other resources if you get the chance: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/Morrisr9

Differentiated hands-on building activities whilst identifying 3D shapes. A week's worth of clear, differentiated planning with explicit learning outcomes for different abilities. Lots of practical activities to encourage children to use the correct mathematical vocabulary.

This resource includes a detailed plan for a week on subtraction. The plan is differentiated and explicitly lays out what each group will do for their activity each day. Objectives covered are: Using column method accurately Using the inverse to check my answers Solving word problems involving subtraction I have also included levelled SATs questions as an extension to extend or assess children's application of subtraction. These lessons were taught by myself and my year 4 team, who found the outcomes to understanding subtraction were successful. I have attached a maths skill check also, which I have started to use for the first lesson each week to check children's understanding of a variety of mathematical concepts.

A comprehension based on the story of ‘Who killed King Tut’. (a report) Children are encouraged to use their inference skills and comment on why the author has used a certain structure to help the reader. Children will use a range of reading skills and strategies when answering this comprehension.

A Viking word bank giving some basic words and definitions needed for this topic. I laminate them and give them to the children at the beginning of the topic to refer to. Included is a PDF and a powerpoint if you need to edit.

6 challenge cards for children to solve upon finishing a comprehension task early or if looking to encourage them to think deeper. We have been trying to use the A.P.E (answer, prove, explain) technique for inference questions, which encourages children to PROVE their answers by looking at clues in the text/pictures. These challenge cards remind children to prove their answers.

My most recent class assembly was based on Theseus and the Minotaur (with a twist). We had covered this story during our topic of myths https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/myths-understanding-the-features-11943412 and the children LOVED it. I wrote this play script based on the myth however we added a little twist. The minotaur is known to be a FEARSOME, UGLY creature, but in our story he turns out to be nice once people get to know him. Moral: Don’t judge a book by its cover. The play script is editable to ensure that there is enough lines for the children in your class. I have 25 and there is 25 parts. However, it is an easy script to edit and adapt. To tie it all together, we sang ‘Eye of the Tiger’ in the middle of the performance which went down a treat with the parents and the school. Masks NOT included This resource contains the script ONLY and in total the play lasted about 15 minutes. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did and please let me know how you and your class got on.

Resources, plan, presentation and SPAG. This week of lessons really helped bring on the children's descriptive writing. The video clips help them to imagine things clearer and bring great life to their writing. I found it really successful. It focuses on getting the children to use their sense to imagine what a scene looks like. SPAG lesson is on prepositions and this presentation was accumulated from TES website also. Check out my other resources also: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/Morrisr9

My class assembly that I did today as we have been studying fairy tales for the last 2 weeks. Cinderella can seem a bit babyish for Year 4 students, however we made it a funny version and the audience were in tears laughing. This script is funny, modern and is easily adaptable. I made one of the stepsisters a boy (wears the wig etc) and the audience loved it. My prince was also a girl and she as fantastic, put on the deep voice and all. Included is: The script (which is easy to follow and has stage directions included) The layout in which I sat the children The downloads of the music I used An invitation to give to the parents. Both the children and the parents adored the assembly. A personal highlight of mine is that the children sing working 9-5 by Dolly Parton- amazing.

A 6 day plan on formal arguments, encouraging children to think about moral dilemmas. Children will be introduced to the idea of moral dilemmas and arguing for and against both in a balanced argument. This resource involves teaching children how to write a balanced argument in a progressive manner. Children will initially watch clips on how to argue in a balanced style. As the week progresses, children will be gathering information needed in order to write a balanced argument for themselves. There is a planning period as well (with resources) to allow children to properly plan their argument, as to ensure it’s balanced. This also gives children the opportunity to edit and correct their small errors. There is elements of arguing/debating orally also, which taps into speaking and listening. By the end of the week, my class were excited to write a balanced argument on whether it is a good idea or not to keep a giant bag of cash that you found at the bottom of your garden. They were even more excited about turning it into a debate, which can easily be achieved. This resource is saved within a ZIP file. INCLUDED: *A 6 day detailed lesson plan, explaining how to carry out each lesson. *A detailed, colourful notebook file to encourage discussion and to show expectations. *A powerpoint to show the structure of a balanced argument. *A success criteria to allow children to self-assess and peer-assess the written task. *2 differentiated planning sheets. *Moral dilemma scenarios to cut and distribute for discussion. *A notebook file on how to use connectives. Please leave a comment on your thoughts of my resource and check out some of my others: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/Morrisr9

After hours of reading and PD on Pie Corbett’s Talk4Writing, I decided to plan my English lessons around his style of teaching. The idea behind it is fun filled, active and different so my children and I absolutely love it! Included: 4 day, detailed lesson plan (differentiation included). Power Point of the features of a report. ‘Who killed King Tut’ text resource (colour coded). ‘Boxing it up’ plan Report starters- which allow the children to get into the mind of writing report style sentences. Text mapping opportunities- which allow children to act out and DRAW the entire report so they can recite it, thus learning the sentence structure orally. I have put a lot of detail into the lesson plan, so it can be easily followed to apply this style of teaching to your English lessons. The idea behind it is: Week 1= Imitation Phase. In this week, children need to learn off a text to fully immerse themselves in the style of writing, structure, language etc. This is done through actions and also text mapping (drawing pictures). Only when children fully understand a text type, should they begin to write. The writing of a report will be done at the end of week 2. (This resource is only week 1). By the end of the week, your children should fully understand the features of a report, and should be able to recite the whole thing using their text map. It’s lots of fun and a fantastic scaffolding for children to understand before they write. Give it a try!

10 higher level thinking questions for deepening understanding and developing mathematical language Having studied in a course based on AFL strategies, I have a new found love (so to speak) for asking higher level questions during lessons to evoke discussion between students. The more they discuss concepts, the deeper their understanding will grow. With this in mind, I created these colourful cards to be cut, laminated and given to my year 4 class once a week to create ‘colourful’, intentional discussion. As we are all aware, there are many different types of learners, and children remember 90% of the information that teach someone else. Therefore, by engaging in critical thinking in maths, they will essentially be “teaching” their partner why their reasoning is correct through having to “prove” it to them. My class adored this and the intentional discussion kept them engaged in the task for much longer as they had to get their personal opinions across. If you have any questions or would like to see more of these resources, please leave a review.

A mathematical activity to engage children with the upcoming world cup in Russia. Lesson Plan included. I have included a map of Russia with the football stadiums. Children must measure the distance between a letter and a stadium. Then because 1cm=35 minutes, they must then calculate how long it would take to get to said stadium. For example: How long will it take A to get to Kazan stadium? Using your ruler, measure the distance from A to Krazan stadium. If it’s 7.6 cm- round to the nearest whole number which is 8cm. 1cm = 35 minutes so 35 x 8 = 280 minutes =4 hours 40 minutes Children must then fill in a table with their findings.

If you are teaching your class about myths or simply just want a comprehension activity that is SLIGHTLY different from the norm, then this resource is for you. Included: *Text *Questions to check understanding (inc ordering events, decoding meaning etc) *Creation Station- where children create their own labyrinth. *Adjective Alley- children create amazing adjectives and phrases to describe the minotaur. *The New Minotaur- children will get their creative juices flowing and create a Minotaur of their own, perhaps even half human, half unicorn. An enjoyable, creative way to check and extend children’s understanding of what they’ve read. Also an excellent addition to your myths topic, if you’re teaching it. Check out: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/myths-understanding-the-features-11943412

Making Connections is a very valuable skill to teach in Guided Reading. Children learn to connect what they read to themselves, another text and the wider world, helping them to understand the text on a deeper level. Most of us tell the children that a good reader “makes connections”, but for the most part, only a handful of the children actually know what this means. This resource will explicitly teach your children how to make connections with what their reading to themselves, another text and the wider world. This resource can be used with ANY text. It teaches the SKILL of making connections and that can be applied to fiction, non-fiction and poetry. What’s included A detailed daily PowerPoint to structure the lessons and encourage children to engage in child talk/cooperative learning. Making Connections support cards- to provide children with the sentence stems in order to be successful when structuring a connection. Summarising Tweet template- to ensure children have understood the text read on a basic level before engaging in making connections. Children are challenged to include the main events, main characters etc in 280 characters. Making Connection activity Sheets. I hope this resource is useful for you. Please leave some feedback and let me know how these lessons went. I’d love to hear from you.

Philosophy 4 Children is being taught across the UK to teach children fundamental skills such as: critical thinking. reasoning skills. empathy. team work. In this pack, I have included: Philosophy Display Cards Philosophy lesson plan: recycling Philosophy lesson plan: friendships Philosophy Powerpoint: recycling Philosophy Powerpoint: friendships A document on how to teach philosophy. I have been teaching Philosophy lessons for a whole term now and the difference it has made in children’s problem solving skills in friendship issues, aswell as mathematical problems is amazing! We spend an hour a week on P4C and it’s the children’s favourite lesson. Some of them have come out with some cracking conclusions too: “Crying is an expression of your truest emotions. The body takes over from the mind”. I mean WOW!

A mathematical activity to engage children with converting units of measure (Christmas Theme). I have included a map of the world with different parts labelled for children to measure the distances between. Children must measure the distance between 2 different parts of the world. Then because 1cm=35 minutes, they must then calculate how long it would take to get to said part. For example: How long will it take Santa to get from house A to house B? Using your ruler, measure the distance from A to B. If it’s 7.6 cm- round to the nearest whole number which is 8cm. 1cm = 35 minutes so 35 x 8 = 280 minutes =4 hours 40 minutes Fill in the table below of your findings. This example has been done for you. Children must then fill in a table with their findings. Included also is two different design opportunities. Children can design their own Christmas jumper and Christmas cookies.

A fun filled ‘back to school’ activity centered around children applying for classroom jobs! Children will be shown (by powerpoint) what each job entails and what type of characteristics they need to have for each job. The aim here is to get to know children’s personalities: Who is a leader: who is shy: who is outspoken: who is a decent writer etc. Plus it beats a ‘my summer holiday recount’ right? Also another way to reinforce classroom expectations at the beginning of the year, i.e. what each child is expected to do as a responsibility to their classroom. Included is: 14 page PPT outlining each job and explaining the activity Job application form with scaffolding and images Class Jobs posters (as seen in the cover image) Please do leave a review to let me know how you got on

This lesson involves an exciting experiment to understand the terms: *dissolve *solute *solution *solvent *soluble Children will work in mixed ability groups and conduct 3 different experiments to see which factors have an influence on dissolving. It worked fantastically in the use and understanding of the scientific terms listed above. Children will then feedback to the class about what they discovered from their investigation and as a class we will conclude as to which factors effect dissolving most. This lesson comes well resourced with: *a step-by-step guide, for each group, in how to conduct their experiment along with the equipment needed. *Key Vocabulary for reference or display purposes. *Flash cards explaining the terms for low ability or visual learners. *A detailed lesson plan *An interactive notebook file *Post/prior assessment tool Overall, a very enjoyable lesson which allows the children to learn and understand the scientific terms in a practical way. Please leave a review and let me know how you and your class liked this resource.

A broad selection of morning challenges to keep your children busy when they come in in the morning. Included are: VCOP morning challenges Maths morning challenges Improving sentences Vocabulary Enough to keep them busy for months.