This resource includes 17 slides and a paper resource. There are examples from Rose Blanche and Carrie’s War as we were working on a WW2 topic; however, this lesson will work just as well in any other context. The lesson looks at the effect of different sentence lengths to begin with and then moves on to look at how effective - ing and -ed openers are in varying sentences. Pupils then write a descriptive paragraph about an image (I chose one from Rose Blanche but this could be any image) and try to incorporate sentences of varying lengths and use -ed and -ing openers. Pupils then up-level their passages by using connectives. To consolidate the learning there is a paper resource featuring a selection of different notes to the class asking for advice. Cut each of these notes up and put them in a hat or bowl. Have pupils select and read a note from the bowl and discuss as a class or groups what sort of sentence lengths and structures we would recommend to achieve the effect the writer is aiming for, e.g. lots of short simple sentences one after the other; long flowing complex sentences; start with short sentences and then gradually increase to build pace – use the conjunction ‘and’ repeatedly to give a sense of rushing.

This is a power point I made for a presentation I did to a group of Y6 Parents at the start of the year. The aim was to education the parents on the kind of questions they should be asking their children when reading with them at home and the kind of comments they should encourage their children to write in their reading journals. The model of reading on, between, behind and beyond the lines is used to link to the reading AFs and make them more accessible. The Powerpoint also includes examples of past Y6 SATs paper questions to give parents an idea of what their children will be faced with. There are activities throughout, which giving parents the opportunity to try asking, answering and marking reading comprehension questions. It also gives an example of a film clip to demonstrate to parents that they can help develop their child's reading comprehension skills when watching a film or TV programme, not just when reading. I worked through the powerpoint with my Y6 class and this was a great idea as both the Parents and children were then 'reading from the same page' (pardon the pun!). This powerpoint would work well with Parents of pupils from age 7-11. It could also be used equally well as a staff CPD session.

This was a mini topic that I did with a Year 5/6 class but it would work throughout Key Stage 2. It spanned two afternoon sessions and could easily be lengthened to create more of a topic. Pupils discover the key features of Aboriginal art and then go on to explore and record their own ideas before producing a final Aboriginal-style piece. Plenty of opportunity is given to evaluate their own and others work. The resource includes: Teaching plans for two lessons PowerPoint presentation (15 slides) Simple pupil planning sheet Aboriginal symbols reference sheet The topic provides good coverage of the 2013 National Curriculum for Art and Design (links are highlighted in bold on the planning). Planning and resource sheets are Word documents and fully editable. Makes for a lovely display at the end!

This PowerPoint is for a unit of work that took a week with my Year 6 class and looked at the features of discussion texts. Persuasive techniques are also revised. The texts are taken from The National Literacy Strategy ‘Argument Unit’. Children read and analyse a persuasive text ‘Should mobile phones be banned in schools?’ as a class and come to define the key features of discursive writing. Pupils then analyse a different text based on the circus and highlight the key features that they have previously identified. Pupils then prepare for a debate. Taking the story of the Pied Piper, pupils are assigned roles and have to prepare a persuasive speech to argue their point of the debate. We then hold debate and discuss the value of debates in real life. Pupils finish the week with two lessons to write a piece of discursive writing on whether pupils should be able to write on laptops in schools. Pupils are provided with the arguments for and against, but must do the rest of the work on their own. This then forms an assessment piece. National Curriculum Links: Year 5 & 6 Programmes of Study discuss and evaluate how authors use language, including figurative language, considering the impact on the reader plan their writing by: identifying the audience for and purpose of the writing, selecting the appropriate form and using other similar writing as models for their own. Through debate the pupils also hone their speaking and listening skills and this also provides a good opportunity for assessment.

**Update: I have recently changed the skeleton file as some people fed-back that it wasn’t printing as it should as a Publisher file. It is now an A4 PDF file, but can be enlarged to A3 in order to get the same size of skeleton that I used on my display (or it could be scaled down to A5 for cute mini skeletons!) This interactive display invites the pupils to arrange the skeleton and label each bone correctly. I enlarged the skeleton, cut out each bone, laminated it and then stuck a bit of blu-tac to the back; however, if you are lucky enough to have a skeleton in school you could just label that! The display also includes questions and answers about the skeleton and bones and fun facts. I have included a picture of the finished display once it was moved to the school corridor (and, therefore, wasn’t being used interactively any more). I have changed the font to Comic Sans as the one I used isn’t often installed as standard, but each file is provided in Word as well as PDF so you can fiddle with the font and wording.

This is a unit of work that I created for use with Years 3, 4, 5 & 6. It spans six sessions, although it can run for A LOT longer if desired! Although I am a musician, it requires no musical knowhow whatsoever to teach! I was very conscious of this as I was sharing the resource with teachers who lacked confidence in their musical knowledge and skills. This unit focuses predominately on listening, appraisal and understanding, but there are also opportunities for composition and performance included. KS2 Music Attainment Targets Covered: • Pupils should be taught to listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory. • Appreciate and understand a wide range of high quality music drawn from a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians. • Develop an understanding of the history of music. There are also optional links to Science within each lesson, which enable you to cover the statutory requirements for teaching sound: • Identify how sounds are made, associating some of them with something vibrating. • Recognise that vibrations from sounds travel through a medium to the ear. • Find patterns between the pitch of a sound and features of the object that produced it. • Find patterns between the volume of a sound and the strength of the vibrations that produced it. • Recognise that sounds get fainter as the distance from the sound source increases. As a Maths Specialist I also couldn’t resist throwing in a few sorting opportunities in the form of Venn and Carroll diagrams! Overview • The topic starts with an informal baseline assessment and ends with an informal end of unit assessment. • Each session focuses on a specific family of the orchestra. • Pupils enter the classroom each session to an example of music featuring that particular family, giving them the opportunity to appraise music and develop their own taste. • Pupils learn what each orchestral instrument is called, what it sounds like and how it produces sound. • Pupils become familiar with the terms pitch, timbre, vibration, dynamics and tempo. • Children conduct research and learn through activities; however, notes are included for classrooms where ICT/books are not readily available or where pupils lack sufficient research skills. • Activities are fun and active - with low entry and high ceiling for differentiation. • A wode range of activities, e.g. rapping, sorting, poster making, ‘Happy Families’, interactive whiteboard games, mind-maps and guessing games. • Very little marking is required, as the activities lend themselves to being carried out in a group and outcomes can often be photographed or filmed for evidence. Planning, powerpoint and all paper resources are included. I hope you enjoy!

Labels of thirteen prefixes and suffixes commonly used today, which were derived from the Ancient Greek language. Provided in PDF format and also Word so you can edit or add to. Ideas for use: Add to working wall (some could go on maths working wall) with slips of paper and challenge pupils to add words that include these suffixes and prefixes. Lesson starter - how may words with the prefix ‘geo’ or ‘tele’ can you think of in 1 minute? Use as part of a spelling lesson to introduce the concept of prefixes and suffixes and the meanings that they convey. Provide as a stimulus for pupils when writing their own Ancient Greek Myths and Legends - can they use these suffixes and prefixes to inspire their character or place names? Build on this to explore prefixes and suffixes derived from Ancient Rome or Latin. Words included (with translation): geo hex hydro mega micro octo pente phone photo poly scope techne tele

This was a PowerPoint presentation and handout that I put together for a staff meeting in my role as subject-leader. It introduces ideas from the Mathematics Specialist Teacher programme and aims to develop mathematical reasoning. It discusses the importance of reasoning, outlines the mathematical skills required to develop reasoning and provides ideas for activities to develop reasoning. The activities can be adapted to suit any age group and any mathematical concept. Many of the activities could also be adapted across the curriculum. They are self-differentiating, with a low entry point and high ceiling and are very quick and easy to set up. The activities are a great option for lesson starters, mental maths activities or time-fillers. The notes under each slide provide an explanation of the activity and some ideas on how it could be adapted. The handout is provided in both PDF and Microsoft Word format.

Supports the CPA approach to teaching mathematics (concrete, pictorial, abstract). Ready to go classroom display aimed at helping pupils to articulate what they have ‘done in their heads’ when adding and subtracting mentally. Encourages pupils to try different strategies and choose the most appropriate strategy for the calculation they are presented with. The resource includes nine thought bubbles with pictorial representations of the strategies and nine text boxes with the strategies in writing, as well as the title. PDF version is included and also fully editable Microsoft Word version (font is Sassoon Primary but can easily be changed). Suitable for use in both KS1 and KS2. This resource can also be bought as part of a package of mental addition and subtraction activities.

This resource has seven multi-step problems to solve. Some of the problems have two examples, so you can work through the first example as a class to develop strategies and then the pupils can have a go independently. Alternatively, let them have a go first and then demonstrate more efficient strategies. There is also a quick starter activity based on measures as this was a focus for my class at the time and some of the questions involve converting measures. The questions are provided in SMART Notebook and PowerPoint format for display on the interactive whiteboard, and in PDF and Word format as a paper resource. These were originally used in Year 4 as an end of term activity and are based on the NNS Puzzles and Problems for Years 3 & 4; however, they could be used across KS2 with different levels of support. Ideas for use: Time filler for stolen moments at the end of term. Developing problem / investigation solving. Stick the question onto a large piece of paper and solve as a group. Adult-led guided group activity/assessment opportunity. Part of a Travel Agent role play corner. Early finishers work Homework activity School work for pupils going on a long holiday during term time (if you dare!) More able or Upper KS2 pupils could devise their own problems in the same format to truly demonstrate their understanding.

This is a simple display that I put on the back of my classroom door. It consisted of an octopus in the middle with eight different ways of opening a sentence around it - one at each tentacle. One of my pupils drew and painted a octopus for me, but I have included an image of an octopus in the resource to save you time - just enlarge to A3. Of course, you could ditch the Octopus completely (especially for older children) and just display on the wall or laminate and add to a working wall. There is a PowerPoint to accompany the display, which is probably best if you focus on experimenting with one type of opener at a time to let it sink in! The PowerPoint is really plain and simple as it is intended to be annotated and used interactively as opposed to a presentation. Octopus picture credit: http://cliparts.co/octopus-clip-art

This resource looks at the three main types of sentence structure: simple, compound and complex. Opportunities are given for pupils to: Learn the features of each type of sentence structure. Use the terms noun and verb and consolidate their understanding of word classes. Use the terms main clause and subordinate clause (the idea of adult and child is given as a pictoral representation). Identify sentence structures within texts: a newspaper article and an extract from Roald Dahl’s ‘Matilda’. Up-level sentences by adding suborindate clauses to simple sentences before, after and in the middle of the main clause. Use commas correctly the mark clauses and clarify meaning. The presentation has little activities throughout, which you could build on to structure a mini unit of work or just dip into for ten minutes at a time. It would work well as an introduction earlier down the school, revision in upper KS2/KS3 or with a guided intervention group who have gaps in their understanding. I found it particularly useful for assessing the pupil’s understanding of the vocabulary associated with sentence level and word level work.

This display was used in a corridor between two Year 6 classrooms and was a real talking point amongst the pupils. It includes famous groups and duos that they will most probably be familiar with and descriptions of different types of relationships. It also has prompt questions to get pupils thinking and talking about their own relationships. Would also work well on display in the classroom, a quiet space or assembly hall. The pictures and questions could also be used as a prompt for discussing relationships during Circle Time or assembly.

This effective interactive display was used in a Year 4 classroom for assessment to save marking! I used it as a baseline assessment and again at the end of the unit of work and simply took a photograph of each pupil’s effort as evidence and noted down anything they may have said whilst doing the activity. Unfortunately I don’t have a photograph of this display, but here is a rough description of how I arranged it: Headings ‘soluble’ and ‘insoluble’ for pupils to organise substances such as flour, salt, rice & sand underneath. Headings ‘Reversible’ and ‘Irreversible’ for pupils to organise descriptions of different changes under, e.g. ‘freezing orange juice to make lollies’. Matching the vocabulary to the correct definition (these could also be used as flash cards as another form of assessment), e.g. dissolve, filter, sieving. Gas, solid and liquid with their properties and a simple particle diagram. I also provided the children with post-it notes and they added their own examples of gases, solids and liquids; irreversible and reversible changes; and soluble and insoluble materials to the display as the unit progressed. I mounted the text on black card and laminated it as I knew they would be handled a lot. I just put blu-tac on the back, but Velcro would be another option. My display is quite plain as I didn’t want to distract pupils when assessing them, but the display is provided in Word format as well as PDF so it can be glammed up with colour if you like. There are many ways that this display could be used. One activity that I did later on in the year was to bring out the cards and use them as headings on a giant Carroll Diagram (the assessment was for maths data handling but it was good to revise the vocabulary). Pupils placed items under headings ‘soluble’ and ‘insoluble’ and other criteria such as ‘edible’ or ‘inedible’. I also used a Venn diagram for solids and liquids and children placed food items and other items in two qiant PE hoops with an overlap in the middle. I hope you enjoy using this resource and I hope that it saves you some time!

Guided reading planning for Y5/Y6 Middle to Higher ability readers based on the text ‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’. Five sessions of planning are included, although in reality it could spread over a much longer period of time as I must admit that I struggled to fit it all in to five 30 minute sessions! The planning includes teacher discussion prompts (each linked to AFs) and a follow up reading activity. In my class I had four groups and ran guided reading over four days. Each group had one session with me and three independent days. The pupils followed this cycle over the four days: • Pre-reading in preparation for Book Club. • Preparing answers for Book Club. Children had a preview of some of the more complex questions and wrote their answers in their reading journals. This had the benefit of me being able to ‘pick on’ any child, but also meant I had some written evidence for all pupils every week (I was finding that some weeks I hadn’t written any notes for some pupils during the Book Club session). • Book Club with teacher. • Follow-up Task. Each group knew which day of the week was their follow-up/Book Club/prep day. On the fifth day I heard individual readers and the pupils did free reading of their own books/magazines. I sometimes used this day to catch up if we had missed a guided reading session earlier in the week.

This resource is really useful for a fun end of term or Christmas maths or Enterprise activity related to planning a party. This is also great for honing team work skills as the pupils may have a strong difference of opinion and need to compromise. Simply choose a budget and send groups off to plan the best whole class party for their money. Pupils have to figure out whether the special offers are really that special and if the branded products are really worth the extra money. There are many ways that you could assess this activity, but I went round and talked to the children, asking them to justify why they had made certain choices. Maths Coverage Adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing decimals, Ratio Measures Money Problem Solving Reasoning Using a calculator (if desired) I followed this up with a discussion on healthy eating: what foods do we normal eat at parties? Are there healthier alternatives? This proved to be a really interesting and extremely worthwhile activity and resulted in a healthy end of term party. As well as PDF, the resource is provided in Word format to give you the opportunity to edit.

These can be printed and laminated to label up resource trays for your pupils. They fit standard school trays and can of course be edited to say whatever you like! Not ground breaking, but might save you a bit of time!

This is the sales particulars that I created for a lesson on persuasive writing. It gives pupils and idea of layout and what is included in a persuasive house brochure, but can they write their own so that it is a bit more persuasive?

Selection of key vocabulary originally used for Literacy working wall with a Y6 class.