A wide variety of resources based on my 30 years teaching in primary and secondary schools, as well as home education too.
My passion is writing and encouraging youngsters to experiment with a wide variety of tools in order to develop their written work.
If you like my work, please leave some feedback - I'm alway looking to improve what I have to offer and this is only possible if people tell me what they want!
A wide variety of resources based on my 30 years teaching in primary and secondary schools, as well as home education too.
My passion is writing and encouraging youngsters to experiment with a wide variety of tools in order to develop their written work.
If you like my work, please leave some feedback - I'm alway looking to improve what I have to offer and this is only possible if people tell me what they want!
Three great resources to encourage upper KS2 and KS3 students to think about the start of the new year & the new term.
#1 - New Challenges: A talking/recording exercise designed for students to consider the major challenges they have in their lives and how they might overcome these in the light of the new year;
#2 - Same or Change: An activity designed to encourage students to think about the attitudes & thoughts that might hold them back and how these might be changed in the format of 'New Year's Resolutions';
#3 - New Year - New Start: Students working in pairs consider the pros and cons of the previous year, with a view to focussing on the positives for the forthcoming term.
A huge creative writing pack, using the 'Phalanges Family' - little characters that will inspire your students, created on their fingers!
A cross-curricular resource, encompassing writing, art and science - all based around our fingers!
Lots of examples for children to work with - 'The Phalanges on Vacation', 'The Phalanges at Christmas' and also an editable script (MS Word) to use as exemplars.
Children can create their own families, using the provided hand-photographs and then either on their own fingers or using one of the art ideas provided.
Included are examples of how the Phalanges live - Christmas, Vacations, visits from other relatives.
Also included is a selection of extension activities to take this project even further!
A comprehensive A5 booklet designed for children to keep, covering Remembrance Day and beyond.
The resource looks at the story of the poppy, its history and how it is perceived today. This includes some strong discussion points to strengthen students' debating and persuasive skills.
A discussion of the act of Remembrance is covered, as is a more in-depth look at the battle of the Somme.
Included is a poster for display, showing key words. Also included is a 'Facts & Figures' sheet.
Finally, the resource is completed with a cross-curricular question sheet.
A comprehensive activity that focusses on creating a newspaper front page, with a walk-through guide for students to follow and discuss.
Also included is a sheet that explores the use of puns and alliteration in newspapers.
A worksheet aimed at elementary advertising is also included, as is an A4 newspaper template.
Inspired by true events, this resource is aimed at helping students to recognise different aspects of bullying - that it isn't all fighting!
'One Boy's Bullying' takes the form of a boy's noticeboard, where he pins his occasional thoughts to it, showing the development of his bullying story.
Becoming increasingly desperate, the boy's situation becomes ever more fragile as he begins to lose sleep, lose weight and lose his family.
Guaranteed to provoke quality discussion, this resource comes with a lesson plan and some extension activities.
A wonderfully useful set of sheets for children to use in all manner of writing styles and genres, this pack contains -
- An A4 sheet of sentence starters, covering speech, using adverbs, rhetorical questions and short sentences;
- An A4 sheet for children to jot down their thoughts around concepts such as useful synonyms, adjectives, similes and rhetorical questions they might use;
- An A4 storyboard, split into eight sections for children to plan their work onto;
- An A4 'Writing Checklist' - for children to use after their writing is done. Covering sentence choices, spelling, handwriting, grammar, punctuation and more, it is designed to be used in a self-assess or peer-assess format, this sheet makes a great support document for reminding children what they need to include in their writing.
All of these sheets could be laminated as they will be used again and again and again...
Please leave a review if you liked this work - and check out my other resources too!
A fabulous resource with lots of stunning images of the arctic, aimed at upper KS2 and KS3.
Aim: Writing development.
How: Using powerful imagery, combined with lots of scaffolding support - for able and less able learners, these activities will develop both verbal and written vocabulary.
Included:
- 'Iceberg': A descriptive writing activity with strong scaffold support to give students a clear idea of what to do when planning a piece of writing;
- 'The Boat': Another descriptive writing piece with a more open-ended support sheet, designed to encourage discussion;
- 'Storyboard': A set of six pictures to be cut out and rearranged to make a story, based on discussion with a partner. Blank storyboard included to stick pictures onto;
- 'Lost': 'SATs' style question with a scene depicted and basic information given and students need to complete the story;
- 'ICE' (Support Sheets): Two support sheets that complement all the above activities encouraging students to look and think more deeply - 'What rhetorical questions might you ask?'
An essential wall display/resource for any classroom, showing ten different genres - Action & Adventure, Myths, Mystery, Fantasy, Horror, Real-Life, Historical, Sci-Fi, Thriller and Folk Tales.
Each A4 poster describes the necessary requirements for each of the headings, but more importantly, each has top tips for developing writing in each of the genres.
A superbly colourful resource that children will refer to each time they write.
Suitable for upper KS2 and KS3.
Here we have several resources aimed at KS3 (but could be used with more able KS2), looking at the incoming President of the USA and what that could mean for the USA and the wider world.
Activities are based around discussion (including a class debate), questioning and knowledge.
Resources included -
- Donald Trump Fact File;
- What Donald Trump stands for;
- Worksheet - 'What would I ask the President?' which leads onto 'Writing a Letter to the President'
- 'Republicans & Democrats' - basic guide to the major differences between the parties
- Class Debate - 'Republicans or Democrats' - resource sheets to support both sides of the argument, consolidating understanding of the main differences between the parties
A massive 27-page resource to commemorate the ill-doings of the Gunpowder Plotters back in 1605.
Lasting a whole week (editable lesson plan included), covering the timeline of events perpetrated by Robert Catesby and his co-conspirators, this pack endeavours to study the reasons behind the plot, highlighting the plight of Catholics in Stuart England.
The resource includes -
- Texts;
- A timeline;
- Three-levels of differentiated comprehension tasks;
- Posters;
- Character sheets;
- Creative writing opportunities;
- Discussion points (including a whole class debate);
- Week-long lesson plan (MS Word);
- Suggestions for extension work;
- History POS information and more!
Three quality story openers to stimulate students and create plenty of discussion, leading to improved writing opportunities!
All three are semi-spooky, mysterious, thought-provoking resources that can be interpreted in a myriad of ways, but are all certain to capture students' imaginations!
Aimed at upper KS2 and lower KS3, this resource contains a whole week's worth of creative writing, covering the use of similes, rhetorical questions, adjectives and synonyms, while at the same time concentrating on verbal language development.
Included in the resource pack are full hi-res images for display use, along with semi-translucent images that can be loaded into a Word document and used as a background for the completed writing.
As well as a differentiated worksheet for less able writers and a comprehensive writers' support sheet for children to record their work on, this resource builds each day to the climax of writing the finished article by the end of the week.
Throughout, children are encouraged to co-operate, talk and work with partners, sharing their work and their learning as they go.
A set of resources aimed at KS2 to be used in the classroom for Chinese New Year in January 2017.
Activities include -
- Information sheet about Chinese New Year (The Rooster);
- Chinese Dragons writing sheet: Story starter;
- Map of China to be annotated;
- A selection of images for display/stimulation;
- Chinese Quiz
A fantastic resource to support and develop writing at KS3.
Activity sheets that support student's planning and execution of their writing, ranging from sentence structure, choosing appropriate adjectives, synonyms, similes etc, to referring to senses as a method of creating breadth and depth to their writing.
Also included are sheets covering character development through empathy, rhetorical questions and more.
A storyboard is included for more kinaesthetic students to plan their work.
The pack is completed with a comprehensive self/peer writing assessment checklist so students can identify what they have included and omitted.
Please leave a short review if you've enjoyed using this work and please check out my other resources!
Thanks!
Your end of term classwork is creative, festive and worthwhile with this bumper Christmas miscellany!
A huge resource that includes -
- Surviving Christmas - create a guide for users;
- What's Your Favourite Christmas Movie? - review
- Christmas Movies Maths Activity - Data Collection/Graphs
- Christmas Wishes - What would YOU choose?
- Christmas Crackers - Fantasy writing genre
- What's the True Meaning of Christmas?
- Your Favourite Christmas Movie Script?
- The Christmas Fox - Creative Writing
- The Winter Road - Creative Writing
- Creative Writing Planning Sheet
And more!
A superb resource for encouraging students to write in the mystery/spooky genre, with the emphasis on discussion, recording, redrafting and improving their work.
This resource is more concerned with 'mystery' in its wider sense, not just that of the traditional 'Whodunnit' but more about more mysterious things that might be around us in everyday life.
Included are three quality activities with story-starters, two resource sheets and two high-quality videos (approx 3 mins long). Both have the same images and original, atmospheric soundtrack which will be guaranteed to stimulate discussion. The second video has added annotations to encourage those students who are finding it difficult to engage.
The videos create a wonderful whole-class introduction - close the curtains, turn up the sound on the IWB and sit back - your students will respond!
If you have any questions or would like something specific creating, please get in touch!
A HUGE resource covering script writing, creative writing, description, using synonyms, cross curricular writing and a massive pack of posters looking at writing genres.
Individually, these resources would cost over £20.
Some of my best selling resources are in this package that is virtually being given away in keeping with the festive season.
Lots of Christmas related resources, but others that can be used throughout the winter season.
Grab yourselves a bargain and save over 40% on full price!
Bah Humbug!