A variety of worksheets with the main language focus being the past simple tense. There are suggested activities on each sheet. 'Holiday did you&' is a list of questions for pair work coming back from the summer holiday. &';Crystal is not a bully' and &'Things you should do before you die&'; might be of use in PHSCE.

We had some training on 'building curious minds' and were asked to think about it. Here are some ideas.

Quotes on various areas of life: happiness, success, family, technology in the classroom etc.... The students analyse, compare and contrast and make up their own. Each slide could be used as a starter to get your students thinking or to promote debate. They could end by producing an inspirational poster.

Get your students involved and thinking, right from the start of the lesson! Turn the objective/title/'learn&' - however you refer to it in your school, into an interactive exercise. Fifteen suggestions. I hope you find them useful.

For early learners or for a mixed ability EAL class. The beginners can count and practise 'There is a __&' &';There are __ s'. Also present continuous tense &'What is she doing?&';etc. More advanced students can write about it in the past simple 'The school trip&'. How did they get there? What did they do? etc. Also - good picture for Splat! and Hotseat activitiies. The picture is by Kait Eaton and copyrighted to Duck Egg Blue. I have permission to use it.

This is a series of contrasting pictures, with questions, for making comparisons. Good 'brain gym&' activity.

Some ideas on how to exploit pictures for teaching EAL. I also include a writing exercise to practise the past simple tense.

Two pages - follow the instructions to colour the figures in/ write up the personal profiles/true or false/choose the correct word.

A nice picture with some exercises.

A nice snow scene to colour in and some exercises. Might come in handy if we get some snow!

Two reading passages - this teacher's worst ever lesson and her best, with language exercises. It&'s good to let the kids know that we teachers are human too, occasionally vulnerable and also capable of doing silly things.

The first sheet is to practise past simple and to explain 'embarrassment&'. The second one is a follow up story, past simple or past continuous? After the exercise, you can cut the pictures out for sequencing. Ask the students to put the story together using time connectives, &';First, then, after that' etc.. You could practise making questions by having the students prepare qs for Jake, using the &'wh&'; words and build this into a hotseat activity.

Two pages on this picture by Melanie Hope Greenberg. The focus on page 2 is the past simple tense, but it could be adapted for the present continuous. Can be used with a mixed ability class: counting/colouring/recounting in the past tense.

I've re-jigged my writing mat for pupils. It&'s a step by step guide to help them check stories or recounts in the past tense. It helps student to be more independent - I ask them to go through it before I mark their work. Also, it looks beautiful! :)

A bit of colouring in fun for younger pupils.