Two presentations (either PPT or Smartboard) to help children to sequence sentences to form a short narrative. The first one helps children to use adjectives. Children first choose a fish to describe to their partner. Can they guess which one it is? They then write a description of the fish, using given sentence openers. LA children have an outline help them. HA can go on to write about what the fish is doing today. The second presentation shows a fish going for a swim. The children have to guess what sea creature he sees first as the picture is partly obscured. Then what does he see next? They can also guess the time word used. They then write sentences to describe what he sees on his journey. Again, there is an outline to help LA writers and higher ability writers can continue the story. Everything is fully editable so you can change it to suit your class. For further resources see my shop - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/Jazel

The story mat is designed to spark off ideas in children and to give them confidence to write independently. It should also help to extend their vocabularies. It is in PPT format so that it can be shown to the whole class at the beginning of the lesson as well as being printed out. This was originally designed to fit in with a topic on Greek Myths but then adapted to other storm descriptions – hence the 2 versions, which are the same but with different pictures. Fully editable. Tips: Talk about the pictures and their own storm experiences Test them on some of the vocab e.g. describe the ocean waves using a simile or find three words to describe the sound of the wind Can they find any other words to add to any of the lists? Discuss how a storm can build up from a cold dark sky to torrential rain with thunder & lightning. You can illustrate this by getting the class to make sound effects – gentle patter with fingers, building up to clapping, whistling, then howling wind, thunder clap. Challenge them to use vocabulary from each section in their descriptions. For further resources see - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/Jazel

Word mats are in PPT format so they can be displayed to the whole class or printed out for individual use. The first is for using expanded noun phrases and the second for powerful verbs and adverbs. There is another PPT included with a lesson about improving a disjointed character description using connectives and modifiers. There is also a plan and some printouts linked to this. Aim: to improve vocabulary and to help children to write more independently. Everything is fully editable. Feedback and suggestions welcomed! For more resources see my shop - www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/Jazel

Children write instructions to make Christmas decorations and give them to other children to make. Original lessons for 6-8 year olds. Lesson 1: Play ‘Simon says’ with your class to introduce instructions, particularly imperative verbs. Then show the presentation (either ppt or Smart notebook). This demonstrates how you would write instructions for how to decorate a Christmas tree, showing the children how instruction texts are set out. Children then write out their own instructions using a checklist. Lower ability children use a template. Lesson 2: Children make Christmas decorations for the classroom. They are split into 3 groups, each making a different kind. They then write instructions on how to make their decoration. Lesson 3: Children follow these instructions to make the decorations that they did not make before. A useful exercise to see how clear their instructions really are! All fully editable. See further resources - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/Jazel

Children watch the PPT or Smart board presentation showing pictures of a birthday party. They discuss their best party ever - where it would be, who they would invite, what they would eat and what their favourite presents would be. They do this orally, or on whiteboards, using the picture prompts, thinking carefully about where the commas should go. They then write a paragraph describing the party, using the given sentence openers. There is a check list to help them to remember to use commas correctly. Finally, they could go on to write a descriptive paragraph about another celebration using commas in a similar way, such as Christmas Day or another festival or another person's birthday. Fully editable. For further resources see - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/Jazel