We do 'Surprise Writes&' in my school on Fridays, once every half term (usually we do &';Big Write'), where all year groups (Year 3 to 6) complete the same writing activity. The children and teachers do not know what it will be until that morning. This resource links to a TES video story start and there is a link on here. The children LOVED creating spooky stories from this! The idea is that they have very little help when they write so that it can be assessed.

This Smart board introduces The Globe theatre and includes photos and interesting facts about it. The children could do some writing afterwards, including some of the new facts they have found out. They could draw the outside or inside the theatre and label it. PLEASE LEAVE FEEDBACK!

This teaches children how to write 'spine' poems which I learned how to do on a Pie Corbett course. The Smart board explains exactly how to structure it and once you know how to write a spine poem it can be used to describe most things including animal and insects etc. PLEASE LEAVE FEEDBACK! I have included pictures of the scare crows to print out and stick in their books with the poem.

My 'Book Factor&' reading competition works best when it is whole school but individual teachers can also run it in their own classroom. Here is everything you need to start it straight away. There is a word doc that explains it all. It really does motivate children to read at home! PLEASE LEAVE FEEDBACK!

You will need a Smartboard. Follow the slides to create a factory poem based on pictures and photographs focusing on the outside features of the factory. The slides take you though how to teach it. Create 5 or more lines following a structure e.g. The + adjective + noun + verb e.g. 'The callous chimney smoked..&' Then complete the line with a simile (like or as) or something else. This encourages them to use alliteration and personification. Use the useful adjectives sheet to extend their vocabulary. Please leave feedback!

Ask the children to think of some questions to ask Malvolio, for example they could work with a partner to write at least 5 questions in their books. They need to understand the plot of the play.Teacher can hot seat as Malvolio. Use his 'thoughts&' below to help you answer as though you are him. Ask the children to draw him, use the pictures of Malvolio to help them, and write thought bubbles of what he is thinking.Give the vocabulary list (words that you have used) so they can magpie these and reward them if they include a certain number in their writing.

The children are introduced to what a simile is on the smart board slides, which includes a link to some internet games. PLEASE LEAVE FEEDBACK! They then have to hunt for the similes in copies of popular books like MrGum, Harry Potter and the BFG. I photocopied pages from them-there is a word doc with the book titles and page numbers where the similes appear.

There is a 'while you wait' looking at 'an', then an unrelated starter (was/were) and then examples of how 'a' and 'the' can change the meaning of a sentence, for example a queen/the queen, a dog/the dog. They then create their own sentences and draw pictures. e.g. There is a dog. (they draw any dog) There is the dog (their own or one they know).

We pretended to go into outer space and set the classroom as up if we were in a rocket. The Smartboard was at the front, as if it were a window on the rocket. This was part of a fun topic we did on Aliens. There is plenty of chance for role play and drama. We ended up landing on a new planet,Kepler B22, and bringing back alien eggs which they had to look after. This lead to lots of drawing and writing when the eggs hatched! They wrote a recount of their trip. We also had a debate:Should we keep the eggs? Try it out-they will love it! Please leave feedback!

This is for year 3 or 4 to help develop their understanding of Egyptian Gods and reading comprehension skills at the same time. The reading comprehensions are differentiated on 4 levels.\nPlease leave feedback!

Follow the Smartboard-The children pick their favourite Kandinsky painting and then work with children in teams, who also chose the same fave painting as them, to do a presentation to explain why it is their favorite. The SB doc contains vocabulary which you can encourage them to use. PLEASE LEAVE FEEDBACK! There is also a maths link on here so they can make a class graph of their favourite painting and answer questions on this.

These writing tips are posters/reminders designed to be placed around the classroom. They include synonyms for nice, beautiful, don't like, angry and really/very so you can teach children to avoid the most obvious &'every day&'; words. There is also one which encourages them to extend their sentences. PLEASE LEAVE FEEDBACK!

A Power point to help teach the vowels and when to use an. Learn what the vowels are through a song to the tune of 'bingo was his name&'. There is an activity explained at the end where the children can make a simple book about it.PLEASE LEAVE FEEDBACK!

Help your children to remember to use the correct spelling in their writing with these bright posters which can be laminated and displayed. Includes saw/sore hear/here right/write because said there/their/they're won/one where/we&'re/were loose/lose, ways to remember because, said and &';ould' words.

This is suitable if you have a Smartboard.The slides take you through the debate. The children do not have to know a lot about WWI. This could be seen as a philosophy, Literacy, PSHE or history lesson. PLEASE LEAVE FEEDBACK!

This Smartboard was designed for the whole junior school to use as the end of term writing assessment. You will need to colour photocopy different STORY scenes and I have included the list of picture books I took mine from in the SB. This was a chance for the children to show off their writing. If you don't know what ISPACE is, it is an excellent tool to use to teach children to vary their sentence structure. (look it up on the net!) PLEASE LEAVE FEEDBACK!

The children will need to learn about concrete and abstract nouns first. They have ten sentences and have to underline all the nouns. There is an answer sheet.

This is similar to my other spelling Bee resource, but these the books and word lists that we are doing this year -2014. See my other resource for how to run it.

This was part of a festival topic we did in year 6 where the children imagined going round the UK to different festivals. In the first two lessons the children plan what they would need to take on a trip and design their own vehicle (DT). They begin in Norwich at the Dragon Festival and then move on to Birmingham for the Sikh New Year festival (Vaisakhi). Then they pop over to India! Then return for the Festival of Speed and the Welsh Music festival.The Smart Boards are detailed and can be followed without a lesson plan. Then they travel to Northern Ireland.

This resource links to my BIG SPELLING resources, which contain spelling lists for years 3 to 6 and assessment lists. This shows you how you can ensure that your children learn the statutory spelling lists in the new national curriculum, bit by bit, in a manageable way, whilst continuing with Big Spellings.