I am a teaching Deputy Head in a primary school in Hampshire and TES recommended author. I've been teaching in primary since 2007 with experience in most year groups, although my heart lies in Year 1! I enjoy making helpful, time-saving and engaging educational resources for teachers and pupils - I hope you find them useful!
I am a teaching Deputy Head in a primary school in Hampshire and TES recommended author. I've been teaching in primary since 2007 with experience in most year groups, although my heart lies in Year 1! I enjoy making helpful, time-saving and engaging educational resources for teachers and pupils - I hope you find them useful!
Use these slides to introduce some of the Year 2 suffixes, including spelling rules, and then practise some examples before children apply what they are learning in their own writing.
Suffixes included:
-y
-ful
-less
-ness
-ment
Display these synonym posters for over-used, everyday words to support your students in enriching their vocabulary. There are 12 separate posters for your display board and/or a table top page containing all 12 posters on one page for use on tables.
15 lessons of story writing planning for primary school children! The planning is based around Year 1 curricular objectives but could easily be adapted for other year groups as it is written around the universal themes of
- beginning, middle and end
- story problems and resolutions
- use of adjectives to describe
This download includes 15 lessons on writing short narratives including ideas for linking your guided reading to the writing, key questions and differentiation. There is also a story planning frame included.
Great for Key Stage 1 SATs revision! Help your pupils to practise and become confident with the types of questions that arise on the end of KS1 SATs reading comprehension papers.
Use these editable question templates to create limitless questions - based on your choice of text - and practise the content domains that the children will encounter in the KS1 reading SATs papers.
These question templates create smarter comprehension questions for whole class and guided/focused reading groups. Example templates include:
- 'Tick one' and 'tick two' style questions
- True or false tables
- Sequencing events by number
- Matching boxes
- 2 mark extended answer questions
...and many more.
Also included in this download are two samples to model how to copy, paste and edit the template questions to create SATs style comprehensions either in PowerPoint or Word.
Additionally, a 'question of the day' style model is included, generated from the editable question templates, that gives children practise at one particular style of question.
Make sure your children are prepared and being tested on their reading ability, not their exam technique.
All the best,
Katharine7
Another set of red herring slides for my Year 1 class! Handy for the Year 1 phonics screening check, Year 2 revision and even end of Year R. The red herrings are a bit random, but the children love looking out for them. The ‘red herrings’ are slides within the powerpoint that don’t contain the featured grapheme, e.g. in a set of words for ‘ea’, a slide will pop up saying ‘shirt’ - a red herring. When they arrive the children put their hands together, make a fishy movement and call out ‘red herring!’ For some reason, they think it’s hysterical and I’m happy to go with it because they are engaged, they’re paying attention to the graphemes and best of all they’re having fun - I love hearing their cheeky giggles!
I also use the slides to teach silent blending, how to break down longer words for reading and spelling patterns we’ve practised, e.g. words ending in ‘ed’ or ‘y’. I’ve really noticed their reading coming along and although it’s not entirely down to the red herring powerpoints as we do lots of stuff, I think they’re a solid part of it. I don’t use them every day because I don’t want the concept to get boring but I always get a ‘yessss!’ when I do.
I’ve checked Letters and Sounds carefully against the National Curriculum and believe that all of the digraphs and trigraphs listed are included (between this set of powerpoints and the Phase 3 set) but if you spot any discrepancies, please get in touch and I’ll update the slides.
I hope your class enjoy using this as much as mine do!
Words containing Phase 3 graphemes for reading practise.
I made this resource this term for my Year 1 class and they love it! The red herrings are a bit random, but the children love looking out for them (they are words in the powerpoint that don’t contain the featured grapheme). When they arrive the children put their hands together, make a fishy movement and call out ‘red herring!’ They generally fall about laughing too. I don’t know why it’s so funny but I’m happy to go with it because they are engaged, they’re paying attention to the graphemes and best of all they’re having fun!
I also use the slides to teach silent blending and how to break down longer words for reading. Handy for preparing for the Year 1 phonics screening check and I’ve really noticed their reading coming along. It’s not entirely down to the red herring powerpoints, they’re only one aspect of what we do, but I think they’re a solid part of it. I don’t use them every day because I don’t want the concept to get boring but I always get a ‘yessss!’ when I do.
I’ve included the graphemes are, ore and ear (as in pear) in the trigraphs powerpoint as they’re in the Year 1 curriculum (although not in letters and sounds). I thought they would fit most conveniently in the trigraphs powerpoint. I also took out ‘ure’ as it doesn’t appear in the curriculum until Year 2 but you can easily add it back in by editing the powerpoint if you would like to use it. Many of the graphemes are also appropriate for Year R.
I hope your class enjoy using this as much as mine do!
Stories include: Little Red Riding Hood, The Gingerbread Man, The Frog Prince, The Three Little Pigs and Jack and the Beanstalk. Opportunities for pictorial or written responses - perfect for Year R and Year 1!
This resource contains two files:
1. Making connections - children are encouraged to relate their own experiences to five different traditional tales.
2. Retelling - children are given a framework and some simple story vocabulary for retelling five different traditional tales. There is also a character and a speech bubble from each story where children can write recurring character phrases.
Year 1 National Curriculum reading comprehension objectives:
Pupils should be taught to:
- develop pleasure in reading, motivation to read, vocabulary and understanding by:
- being encouraged to link what they read or hear read to their own experiences.
- becoming very familiar with key stories, fairy stories and traditional tales, retelling them and considering their particular characteristics.
- recognising and joining in with predictable phrases.
Comprehensive KS2 unit of work on recounts based around a school trip or school event but could easily be adapted for other recount subject matter. The planning uses Red Nose Day as a model and was originally written for Year 3, also suitable for Year 4.
The unit of 6 lessons follows the composition progression laid out in the National Curriculum - plan, draft and write, evaluate and edit, including proof-reading. Planning includes ideas for cutaway and pullback groups and EAL/SEN activities. All resources required to deliver the unit of work are included in this download. There are starter activities as pdfs, but if you would like to change any of these, or edit the success criteria to suit your class, there are also editable powerpoint slides for you to adapt. All editable resources are indicated below; if they do not include ‘editable’ they will be a pdf file.
There’s so much in here! Included in this unit:
- Recount unit of work planning document (editable)
- Session 1 presentation
- Session 1 presentation (editable version)
- Recount example (editable)
- Time connective word cards
- Recount writing prompt cards
- More able recount lesson planning activity template (editable)
- Photos of my recount skeleton framework and recount plan displayed in my classroom
- Recount planning writing frame (editable)
- Session 2 presentation (editable)
- Four starter activity slides as a pdf
- Session 3 presentation (editable)
-Sentence builder activity for SEN/EAL (editable)
- More able evaluation checklist (editable).
Year 1 writing frames/scaffolds for our first topic - 'Wish you were here...'
We will be using the 'Holidays - joining with and - writing scaffolds' to practise orally rehearsing sentences including words joined with 'and' before writing them. Moving on from using the scaffold we will be writing sentences about our holiday with more independence.
We'll be using the postcard templates as role-play writing materials but they could be used in a variety of ways including phonics application, early morning work or incorporated into a whole lesson. The postcards include three levels of differentiation.
Set up independent spelling practise of the Year 1 CEW with a selection of meaningful spelling activities to suit a range of learning styles. These could be used as morning jobs or small group work allowing you to work with a focus group whilst knowing that your independent groups are carrying out learning activities and not just ‘holding’ tasks.
The recording sheets contain the 45 common exception words contained in National Curriculum for Year 1. There are two designs with a few different headings to suit your classroom practise. I use one for recording which words they can read and then a second one for those they can spell. Children enjoy colouring in the sheet and working towards completing the whole sheet.
Included with this resource:
Spelling practise menus in colour or in black and white.
Notes on each activity for the teacher/TA.
Rainbow spelling worksheet (colour / black and white)
Spelling Hunt worksheet (colour / black and white)
Common Exception Words pupil recording sheet
Planning, PowerPoint and activities for an engaging poetry unit based around a Fire of London topic. My Year 2s produced some excellent quality poetry that they were very proud of. I have included two examples of the children's poems (before and after editing) that you could share with your class. Each planned lesson is accompanied by the resources required to deliver it. The unit touches on many objectives from the 2013 English National Curriculum (Key Stage 1) and the main ones are listed at the beginning of the planning document. There was a spelling and grammar focus of adding -ing to verbs and using expanded noun phrases. I hope your class enjoy it as much as we did!
This unit contains:
- Planning document containing 5 sessions
- An original fire poem with recurring literary language
- Adding -ing activity cards
- Vocabulary gathering mind map
- Differentiated poem writing frames
- Examples of children's poems before and after editing
- High quality vocabulary cards and word mat
Posters to encourage children to use a variety of conjunctions (and spell them correctly!) in their writing.
2016 interim assessment framework: using co-ordination (or / and / but) and some subordination (when / if / that / because).
I got a bit carried away playing around with colours, hopefully you'll find one to suit you! If there's a colour you'd prefer, drop me a message and I'll see if I can do it for you.
2013 National Curriculum Key Stage 1 English programme of study (Year 2):
Pupils should be taught to learn how to use subordination (using when, if, that, or because) and co-ordination (using or, and, or but).
Unit of work including power points, activity cards and writing frame for teaching command sentences. Based on the Fire of London and the commands that King Charles II gave during and after the fire, pupils role play the part of King Charles and l. earn how to write commands using imperative verbs.
Our Year 2s loved this unit, in particular the role play element. In hindsight, I would have split session 3 into two sessions as the children enjoyed the acting so much. The whole class, even the less able, were able to identify a command sentence with confidence following this unit - even many months afterwards. Most were able to write commands independently in a variety of contexts.
This resource contains:
- the planning document (4-5 lessons)
- powerpoints to support teaching of the unit
- activity cards to support less able and whole class improvement of speaking and listening
- speaking and listening learning journeys to share with pupils
- a writing template
A friendly Key Stage 1 grammar powerpoint based on the UK 2014 curriculum containing activity/game areas linked to objectives. Aimed at Year 2 with some Year 1 content revision. To be used to introduce and play with grammar objectives contained in Appendix 2 of the National Curriculum English programme of study for Key Stage 1 or perhaps as a pre-assessment tool.
I put together this flyer for parents asking how they can help their children at home. It includes a brief overview of the Phase 5 phonics taught in this term, some ideas for phonics games and also some website address for online phonic games.
Four powerpoints covering the split digraphs o_e, i_e, e_e and u_e.
First slide - revise
Next - teach using 2 examples
Finally - practise using 2 examples
Up to you to decide on the apply stage!
Sorry there are no a_e slides, the children have not encountered ae as a grapheme so it doesn't apply to this strategy for teaching split digraphs!
Using Talk for Write ideas, this sheet was created to encourage children to consider the character of Plop in Jill Tomlinson's story, The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark.
Physical attributes are written outside of the outline and thoughts & feelings are written inside the outline.
Outdoors phonics activity, useful for Phase 4 revision of sounds.
Print off the sound cards and hide around the playground. Children find the sound and the number then return to the supervising adult(s) who uses the checklist to ensure children have the sound correct and to record which sounds they have found.
A game to help pupils practice their high frequency keyword spellings.
The first page - the game board - should be blown up to A3 size and I’ve laminated my copy. The keyword pages should be copied onto card and cut up. You will need a dice and a counter for each child playing (my class have used their mini robots that they created as part of our topic work).