A2 Biology Respiration - written as a list of reactions and then again as a silly story for students to draw as a cartoon or just memorise. Using this technique I have had students be able to memorise and then recite every part of respiration from glycolysis to the electron transport chain under an hour. It takes a bit of a leap of faith to try it, but it has worked well for me. Let me know if you need any help. Pete

Starter/Plenary exit ticket-type activity which asks students to write a tweet, in 140 characters or less, about 'today’s topic'. Very popular and effective with my classes. You get some great hashtags which link to the learning. Enjoy :)

These personal learning checklists have been created by John Andrews, Chemistry teacher and Deputy Head at The City of Leicester College. They have been broken down into key areas of study for each unit with RAGed self assessment boxes for each one. Great resource to support revision.

Dice template so you can set games for cover lessons without worrying about lost dice. Enjoy :)

Starter/Plenary exit ticket-type activity which asks students to draw a picture on an instagram template about 'today’s topic' as a starter and then in a plenary to show progress within the lesson. Very popular and effective with my classes. You get some great comments which link to the learning. Enjoy :)

Homework Menu for Holes by Louis Sachar. Students choose one starter, one main course and one dessert from the selection of tasks, to be completed within half a term (or whenever you want, just change it on the sheet) Created by an great English teacher in my school.

65 ideas for revising alone, with a partner, or in a group. Some revision websites and ideas for revising also included.

Please find attached this month's Lesson Toolbox. This is a list of non-subject specific ideas for learning in lessons. It is currently at 204. I usually send this out every month, depending on how busy I am! I hope you find them useful Pete :-)

Please find attached this month's Lesson Toolbox. This is a list of non-subject specific ideas for learning in lessons. It is currently at 228 ideas. I usually send this out every month, depending on how busy I am. I hope you find them useful. For updates follow me on Twitter @Lessontoolbox. Kind regards, Pete :-)

Please find attached this month's Lesson Toolbox. This is a list of non-subject specific ideas for learning in lessons. It is currently at 214 ideas. I usually send this out every month, depending on how busy I am! I hope you find them useful. For updates follow me on Twitter @Lessontoolbox. Kind regards, Pete :-)

Homework Menu for Homework menu for Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo Students choose one starter, one main course and one dessert from the selection of tasks, to be completed within half a term (or whenever you want, just change it on the sheet) Created by a great English teacher in my school.

I have adapted the PiXL personal learning checklist (PLC) so that the statements are student-friendly questions and the tick boxes have been enlarged for students to prove that they understand the concept by filling the box with diagrams or descriptions. I get students to fill this in as they go through the topic to check understanding and use the answers to self-mark them before they do the end of topic test. SEN or absent students can get a copy of the answers to annotate. Check out my account for other topics.

Literacy and numeracy activity that involves students using scrabble letters to add up the scores of key words from the lesson. Can be use as a competition in teams or individually. Idea magpied from @ASTSupportAAli on twitter

Blooms snakes and ladders blank template. Students can add questions for end of topic tests or revision. Enjoy :)

Building on Ross McGill's 5 minute lesson plan, the EAL plan is designed to reduce planning time & focus on learning for EAL students. It includes "Model Phrases" - What do you want your EAL learners to be able to say? Please tweet me for any advice or with any questions @LessonToolbox or see my blog lessontoolbox.wordpress.com. Explanation of how it works... https://lessontoolbox.wordpress.com/2015/05/16/the-5-minute-eal-student-support-plan/

Twitter template for students to summarise their learning at the start, middle and end of a lesson or series of lessons. Great way to show development of learning and student understanding (especially by looking at what they use as a hashtag). A great example of a hashtag was used in a recent biology lesson about the menstrual cycle. A student added the hashtag #who_let_the_eggs_out? Genius! Enjoy, Pete Sanderson @lessontoolbox

Great resource to support student understanding of key words, phrases, numbers, equations, literary characters...etc. Students place a different key word/phrase etc from your topic in each of the 7 hexagons. In the grid below, student's explain how each word is linked to the one next to it, e.g. for “A” you would explain how the word in the centre hexagon links to the word in the top hexagon.

Designed to reduce planning time & focus on strategies to support EAL learners.

A learning progression mat for students on Atomic Structure. A bit like a lesson plan for students to follow to encourage independent learning. Includes lesson objectives, success criteria, key words, choice of activities, resources etc. Editable .ppt version or .JPEG

Because of the way hexagons tessellate (love that word) you can group together key words or ideas and ask students to justify the connections between ideas. They are great for assessing understanding or trying to make sense of connections between ideas. I always keep a bag of hexagons handy for summarising or making sense of complex ideas. I don’t recommend buying a Hexagon cutter - they are quite expensive, the hexagons are quite small, and are fine for cutting out the odd one or two, but if you want to make more, cutters can take a while. I suggest using my hexagon template for making them in bulk. Just cut out the strips then chop off the corners.