Hi, welcome to my shop. I have been a primary teacher for 34 years and have a wide range of experience in different roles. I have been a senior leader in schools and most recently a SENDCO for 10 years. I am posting resources that I think will be helpful for SENDCOs, class teachers or even parents and home educators. I am new to this - so please do send reviews to help me improve - or requests if there is something you think I might be able to create that you would find helpful.
Hi, welcome to my shop. I have been a primary teacher for 34 years and have a wide range of experience in different roles. I have been a senior leader in schools and most recently a SENDCO for 10 years. I am posting resources that I think will be helpful for SENDCOs, class teachers or even parents and home educators. I am new to this - so please do send reviews to help me improve - or requests if there is something you think I might be able to create that you would find helpful.
These structure strips are designed to be stuck on the left-hand side of a student’s page to provide a clear guide as they write each non-fiction text type. The give a guide to the paragraph structure of the text and what to write in each paragraph. They can be used to help students generate a plan as well as to support them when they write the final text.
The text types included are:
Recount/Diary
News report
Instructions
Biography
Persuasive argument
Balanced argument
Explanation
Report
If used in an I do, We do, You do writing progression – these can scaffold the process for students. Not having to remember what to include, can free up working memory for a greater sentence and word level focus during the writing process.
They are available in PDF format to avoid formatting issues as images have been included to give some limited dual coding to help student understand what is required. There are 3 of each strip on a page to allow for quick copying of them if being used for class support.
Ever wished that students were looking at a plan as they wrote their story to help keep them on track. This structure strip will give them a ‘story mountain’ style structure to follow.
These structure strips are designed to be stuck on the left-hand side of a student’s page to provide a clear guide as they write. They give a guide to the paragraph structure of the text and what to write in each paragraph. They can be used to help students generate a plan as well as to support them when they write the final text.
If used in an I do, We do, You do writing progression – these can scaffold the process for students. Not having to remember what to include, can free up working memory for a greater sentence and word level focus during the writing process.
They are available in PDF format to avoid formatting issues. There are 3 of each strip on a page to allow for quick copying of them if being used for class support.
An accessible way for students to show the phonics knowledge they have learned. They are presented with visual multiple-choice options that they can select using computer/laptop, touch screen or adapted input device. The presentation gives the student instant feedback and prompts them to retry any incorrect responses.
This presentation covers the fourth and final set of initial sounds students might learn – jlqvwyxz. It has 2 levels of challenge within the presentation. The first set of slides gives students 2 choices and from slide 26 there are 3 options to choose from. The activity could be done independently. It can also be done with a supportive adult voicing elements for the student. I recommend voicing the sound for the letter/ grapheme and say the options for the student where the activity is being used for teaching. Where it might be used to assess what has been retained – the adult might not voice the sound but voicing the options for the student.
Whilst this was designed with making phonics accessible for SEND students in mind – it can also be used with any student learning phonics who engages well with interactive formats.
An accessible way for students to show the phonics knowledge they have learned. They are presented with visual multiple-choice options that they can select using computer/laptop, touch screen or adapted input device. The presentation gives the student instant feedback and prompts them to retry any incorrect responses.
This presentation covers the second set of initial sounds students might learn – eurbhf. It has 2 levels of challenge within the presentation. The first set of slides gives students 2 choices and from slide 20 there are 3 options to choose from. The activity could be done independently. It can also be done with a supportive adult voicing elements for the student. I recommend voicing the sound for the letter/ grapheme and say the options for the student where the activity is being used for teaching. Where it might be used to assess what has been retained – the adult might not voice the sound but voicing the options for the student.
Whilst this was designed with making phonics accessible for SEND students in mind – it can also be used with any student learning phonics who engages well with interactive formats.
An accessible way for students to show the phonics knowledge they have learned. They are presented with visual multiple-choice options that they can select using computer/laptop, touch screen or adapted input device. The presentation gives the student instant feedback and prompts them to retry any incorrect responses.
This presentation covers the third set of initial sounds students might learn – Mdgock. It has 2 levels of challenge within the presentation. The first set of slides gives students 2 choices and from slide 20 there are 3 options to choose from. The activity could be done independently. It can also be done with a supportive adult voicing elements for the student. I recommend voicing the sound for the letter/ grapheme and say the options for the student where the activity is being used for teaching. Where it might be used to assess what has been retained – the adult might not voice the sound but voicing the options for the student.
Whilst this was designed with making phonics accessible for SEND students in mind – it can also be used with any student learning phonics who engages well with interactive formats.
Want an accessible way and interactive way for students to be able to engage with learning phonics.
This bundle has 4 interactive activities that cover all 26 single letter sounds – introduced in an order that will match the teaching sequence in many schools.
Students are presented with visual multiple-choice options that they can select using computer/laptop, touch screen or adapted input device. The presentation gives the student instant feedback and prompts them to retry any incorrect responses.
There a two and three option multiple choice activities for each set of letters. The activities could be done independently. They can also be done with a supportive adult voicing elements for the student. I recommend voicing the sound for the letter/ grapheme and say the options for the student where the activity is being used for teaching. Where it might be used to assess what has been retained – the adult might not voice the sound but voicing the options for the student.
Whilst this was designed with making phonics accessible for SEND students in mind – it can also be used with any student learning phonics who engages well with interactive formats.
This is a fully editable PowerPoint presentation that you can personalise for use in your school – but designed to needs as little updating daily as possible. These start of the day slides include:
• Share the plan for the day.
• Soft start/ Registration activities:
• Reading for pleasure
• Target Time - prompting students working on personal targets/ intervention booklets etc to spend some time on these
• Finish First – prompting students with tasks they have not completed to get these done in this time. Staff may leave books/ work out for students ready.
• Daily challenge activity – which can be updated with minimal editing. This box is highlighted to make it easy to pick out.
• Me-time moment – a calming and self-regulation activity for each day.
• Random Act of Kindness – a prompt to do something positive for your peers each day.
A printable booklet to review pupil understanding of a range of words selected from key vocab lists for maths, science, history, geography, music, art, DT and computing.
24 words have been selected that drawn from a range of curriculum subjects. There is a Frayer model diagram for students to complete to explore the meaning of each word.
Additionally, there is a challenge to think about how each word can be used in creative and narrative writing contexts with an example given for each to scaffold ideas.
Student can do them over any time scale – but as a word of the week will be able to complete them all before the end of the school year if they start them in January 2024 in class or as a home learning activity.
A simple activity for students to record 3 aims they have for 2024. The prompt suggests they try and set aims in different areas of their lives and gives examples for learning, personal development and social aims.
Would you like to give your class or tutor group some ideas of how they can be kinder to each other in 2024?
Use this Random Acts of Kindness challenge to do just that. I gives 24 ideas of little things that students can do that will build a positive ethos in the classroom and build a kindness culture in your classroom.
Want to set your students a challenge to read more and read widely this year? Use this 24 for 2024 reading challenge record sheet to do just that. There is space to record 24 books and reflect on their reading too.
A simple worksheet for students to think about friendship and love linked to Valentines Day. Gives them space to draw a friend and a person they love e.g family member. They are asked to write about their friend and select words beginning with the letters to create an acrostic style piece of writing about the person they drew in the heart shape.
This is a simple PSHE/ RE activity that shares 4 of the qualities the dragon is said to embody in the Chinese Zodiac. It asks students to think how they might demonstrate these qualities and also to record a wish for the year.
This resource has 20 vocabulary related activities that can be used in English lessons or across the curriculum to develop good approaches to working with new and challenging vocabulary.
It includes single word study and word collection activities. They can be put into presentations for sharing with the whole class or printed as activities for students to work on. They will help develop good reading strategies for approaching vocabulary as well as model ways of working with word choice when writing.
Rather than buy an activity guide for each novel that you study – how about trying one booklet of activities that you can apply to any novel?
Whole class novel study is now one of the main ways in which reading is taught through guided reading and comprehension work. This booklet is designed to give teachers a range of activities that they can use alongside these lessons. They can be applied to which ever novel is being studied and used to give students a scaffolded way of recording the thinking and learning that they have done in lessons.
There are:
• 12 Character study activity pages
• 12 Setting study activity pages
• 12 Vocabulary study pages
• 8 Plot and Chapter study activity pages
• 10 Whole Book study activity pages
The activities very in the amount of formal written recording needed to allow for adapted provision addressing the same learning. There are also structure strip based pages to provide scaffolding support for more developed written work for those students that need this.
This booklet includes a sequenced and comprehensive resource to cover the KS2 History study of the Stone Age and Prehistoric period in Britain.
This booklet covers:
• Chronology
• Ice Age animals
• Stone Age settlement
• Development of farming
• Study of Stonehenge
• Beginning of use of metal and the Bronze Age
• Cave art and early writing
• Sources of evidence
• Dangers in the Stone Age
• 2 Review activities
It is presented in booklet form to be an inclusive resource for students at lower key stage two. Many secondary schools use booklets to sequence and scaffold learning for students, but this approach is less common in primary schools. I was interested in how this format might be used to make history more accessible and to ensure that it is history rather than writing that is being developed.
All the information is recorded for students, and they are encouraged to interact with it to develop recall and understanding. There is a very limited requirement to record in writing – other methods have been used so that the historical thinking is key rather than writing skills.
Working through the booklet does require literacy skills in that there is a level of reading required. This may be something that a teaching assistant can work on with a student who needs support – but it is also recognised that often this support is not available for subjects such as history. Therefore, the reading level has been managed so that an alternative way of using the booklet would be with peer support. Pairing a students of differing literacy skills would allow for peer support. Both students will be able to record in the same way so there will be no obvious difference in outcome which is positive for self-esteem – but the additional independent reading experience and challenge will be positive for the student who is the stronger reader in the partnership.
There is a well-established tradition in primary schools of using Christmas adverts as a context for literacy work.
This pack contains materials to support using one advert to review students’ comprehension, vocabulary and writing skills at the end of the autumn term, giving them an opportunity to apply all they have learned since the start of the year.
Activities are provided in a range of formats to allow them to be adapted and appropriate for a range of students.
This pack contains:
• Comprehension task
• Retrieval comprehension task
• Response comprehension task
• Vocabulary task
• Diary writing activity
If you would like similar activities for other Christmas adverts as well - do look at the booklet in my shop which has activities for 5 adverts including this one. You can see it at https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/christmas-advert-comprehension-vocab-and-writing-pack-12946279
A pack to support the use of this picture book to study Remembrance Day with primary age children from Year 2/3.
Please note this pack does not contain a copy of the text but has a link to buy it from Amazon. It is a beautifully illustrated book that warrants sharing with students.
Includes comprehension, vocabulary, and retelling activities as well as craft tasks.
Contents:
• Cover study activity.
• Recall and retrieval comprehension – in two versions for sentence answers or with multiple choice options.
• Inference and prediction questions.
• Vocabulary activities – at two levels for the same words from the text, one including visuals to support students.
• Retelling as a story board activity – at two levels, one including sentences to scaffold.
• Two poppy craft activities – make a wreath and make your own poppy.
• PSHE and design activity to create medals for people it is important to remember and thank in your own life.
A pack to support the use of this picture book with primary age children – the main pack is aimed at students in Year 2/3 but it includes 4 additional activities to use with older students in Key Stage 2.
Please note this pack does not contain a copy of the text but has a link to buy it from the publisher or Amazon. It is a beautifully illustrated book that warrants sharing with students.
Includes comprehension, vocabulary, and retelling activities as well as craft tasks.
Contents:
• Cover study activity.
• Recall and retrieval comprehension – in two versions for sentence answers or with multiple choice options.
• Inference and prediction questions.
• Vocabulary activities – at two levels for the same words from the text, one including visuals to support students.
• Retelling as a story board activity – at two levels, one including sentences to scaffold.
• Christmas activities – design a stained-glass window and make a Christmas star .
• PSHE and design activity to think about the difference between needs and wants, noting the key things that the family in the story might need.
• For older students, you will find an activity relating to the work of War Child (the charity that is supported by sales of the book), an activity relating to right respecting PSHE knowledge, a retelling in a journalistic style activity and a detailed vocabulary study based on the title of the book.
There is a well-established tradition in primary schools of using Christmas adverts as a context for literacy work. Christmas adverts provide an accessible way for students to review and demonstrate literacy skills as most students can access the text. They are also motivating as students often recognise them – which is why one of this year’s Christmas adverts has been included in the pack.
This pack contains materials to support using 5 different adverts to review student’s comprehension, vocabulary and writing skills at the end of the autumn term, giving them an opportunity to apply all they have learned since the start of the year.
For each of the adverts you will have:
• Comprehension questions appropriate for students at 3 different levels – with answers at the end of the pack
• A vocabulary development activity
• A follow up writing activity. Text types covered include narrative, letter, diary, instructions, and review.
Activities are provided in a range of formats to allow them to be adapted and appropriate for a range of students.
The selected adverts included are:
John Lewis – Bear and Hare 2013
Sainsburys – Christmas Truce 2014
Sainsburys – Mog’s Christmas Calamity 2015
John Lewis – Edgar the Excitable Dragon 2019
Lidl – Find the way back home 2023