Needing some inspiration for my reading corner, I created this display in order to show case the children’s reading books. The idea behind it is that the book templates will be printed out for children to fill in whenever they complete a book. They can draw the front cover and fill in the blurb on the back and the teacher can laminate the books and hang them from a string underneath the heading. It’s a super cute idea to show off all the books that you’re class have read and let’s face it, it looks really colorful in your reading area. Included: *The display name: “Books we’ve Read” *Book templates to print out. (See cover photo for a clearer idea).

Can’t get this song out of your head? Well neither can we! Dig deeply into the lyrics for comprehension and close reading practice with these high-interest, current songs to allow children to use their deduction and inference skills. This comprehension is based on the song ‘Mamma Mia’ from the Mamma Mia movie and Abba of course because: We all love the song Mamma Mia. It’s something a little bit different to analyse a song. The children discussed the lyrics in detail, trying to decide what they meant. It allowed them to appreciate the lyrics in songs and not just to sing them. There is a mix of questions involved in these comprehensions, asking children to: *locate information from the text *rate the effectiveness of certain words and EXPLAIN the reason for the answer *form an opinion on the lyrics. Do they like/dislike the lyrics? Why? Overall, children will gain an understanding of the meaning behind the lyrics and they will be encouraged to form opinions on a song, which is something a little bit different. I hope you enjoy this resource as much as we did! Products like this: The Greatest Showman Comprehension

If you are teaching your class about myths or simply just want a comprehension activity that is SLIGHTLY different from the norm, then this resource is for you. Included: *Text *Questions to check understanding (inc ordering events, decoding meaning etc) *Creation Station- where children create their own labyrinth. *Adjective Alley- children create amazing adjectives and phrases to describe the minotaur. *The New Minotaur- children will get their creative juices flowing and create a Minotaur of their own, perhaps even half human, half unicorn. An enjoyable, creative way to check and extend children’s understanding of what they’ve read. Also an excellent addition to your myths topic, if you’re teaching it. Check out: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/myths-understanding-the-features-11943412

Each week, I like to give my children a new comprehension to 1) check their understanding and 2) immerse them to different text types. While studying poetry, I discovered that many children found it difficult to decode the meaning behind poetry. This resource contains: *A poem. *Questions to check understanding. *An answer sheet. The poem chosen is one of my favorites as it’s about bullying so it can tie into other lessons/discussions that arise in the classroom. It’s written by an Irish author, so there are 2 or 3 phrases included that children may not understand. This is a fantastic opportunity for them to use their reading skills to read back over the sentence and try to work out what the word means. A really enjoyable poem and it can also be sent home as a homework activity. Overall, children will gain an understanding of the meaning behind the poem and they will be encouraged to form opinions on a poem, which is something a little bit different. I hope you enjoy this resource as much as we did!

So if you are viewing this resource, you NEED to check out my other product on myths first as this is a follow on from it. Traditional Tales and Myths- Understanding the features Children cannot and should not be writing their own myth without first of all familiarising themselves with the text type. Having completed that step, they can then begin to think about planning their very own myth. This resource includes: *3 day detailed lesson plan. *Toolkit template for children to write down the features and necessary things needed in order to write a successful myth. *Myth adaption sheet for drawing their new idea to change the myth. *Pictures to caption- this confirms children’s ability to order the story. *Theseus and the Minotaur text for reference. *Vocab cards for tricky words/pictorial representation. *Drama ideas: such as text tennis, text mapping etc. The idea behind this week of teaching is that children are reciting/acting out the text each day, confirming their understanding of the story structure/sentence structure orally. Once children can do this, they will be able to write their very own version. They are encouraged this week to change one part of the myth in order to write their very own myth. For example: instead of Theseus and the Minotaur, it could be Theseus and the Lemontaur, who is a half lemon, half horse who throws lemons at Theseus? By the end of these lessons, children should be able to write their very own adaptation to the myth: Theseus and the Minotaur. But as stated earlier, this is a follow on from this lesson: Traditional Tales and Myths- Understanding the features Want this product as part of a bundle at a discounted price? Check out: The BUNDLE Give it a try!

After hours of reading and PD on Pie Corbett’s Talk4Writing, I decided to plan my English lessons around his style of teaching. The idea behind it is fun filled, active and different so my children and I absolutely love it! Included: *4 day, detailed lesson plan. *Power Point of the story. *‘Theseus and the Minotaur’ text resource (color coded). *‘Box-it up’ planning frame. *Hot Seating Questions which allow the children to get into the mind of the Minotaur. I have put a lot of detail into the lesson plan, so it can be easily followed to apply this style of teaching to your ENglish lessons. The idea behind it is: Week 1= Imitation Phase. In this week, children need to learn off a text to fully immerse themselves in the style of writing, structure, language etc. This is done through actions and also text mapping (drawing pictures). Only when children fully understand a text type, should they begin to write. The writing of a myth will be done in week 3. (This resource is only week 1). By the end of the week, your children should fully understand the features of a myth, and should be able to recite a whole myth using their text map. It’s lots of fun and a fantastic scaffolding for children to understand before they write. Give it a try!

FREEBIE! This freebie contains a book review for both fiction and non-fiction texts. It’s a sample from my recent resource: [https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/the-super-book-of-guided-reading-activities-11926213] Check it out for 25 pages of superhero themed activities.

FUN, COLORFUL and SUPERHERO THEMED! This resource is 25 pages of superhero themed guided reading activities to cover lots of objectives from the curriculum. Children will engage with activities such such: *Sorting fiction and non-fiction book titles. *Feature spotting in a non-fiction text. *Adding an appropriate sub-heading. *Adding captions to pictures. *Book review *Designing book covers *Designing blurbs *Identifying what makes a book cover attractive in fiction books. *Identifying what makes a book cover attractive in non-fiction books. *Dictionary work. *Alphabetical ordering and why it’s important… And much more! Just PRINT and TEACH!

I created this document to hand out to my parents at the beginning of the school year. It’s a short snippet of activities that parents could engage with with their children. There are 7 pages, including: *Some sample questions to ask children while reading. *Rate out of 10. To allow children to form opinions on what they’ve read. *Re-tell the story. To allow children to order parts of the story. *Change the ending. This allows children to take their understanding to another level. *Strategies for parents when reading with their children. See my preview for a clearer idea of this resource.

6 Guided Reading Assessment/Guidance Sheets to use with your younger readers. These sheets can be printed for each child to keep track of their reading abilities/areas needed to improve. How to use this product: Each week, I use a new assessment focus (AF). They are marked as *AF1- decoding of the text. *AF2- retrieving information. *AF3- deducing and inferring information. *AF4- structure and organisation of the text. *AF5- comment on the writer’s use of language. *AF6- to identify the purpose. *AF7- to relate the story to others. Each sheet contains 4-5 ‘I can’ statements in which you can shade in to mark where each child is at in terms of reading. By using one assessment focus per week of guided reading, you can see real progression in the children’s understanding of the particular questions you’re asking. Beside each ‘I can’ statement, I have put a heart shape in which the teacher shades: Green: if the child is secure in that area. Orange: if the child is emerging in that area. Red: if the child is un-secure in that particular area.

Want to teach your children how to write a postcard but cannot stomach writing about a ‘summer holiday’? Look no further. This resource is jam packed with a range of activities to inspire and motivate children to write a postcard to a friend about a mysterious creature they found. This is a 4 day series of lessons, where children will learn: the difference and importance of using informal and formal language. how to edit and plan their own work. *the style and structure in which a postcard is written. INCLUDED: *Detailed 4 day lesson plan. *Detailed and colourful notebook file AND powerpoint for your convenience. *Postcard Planning Sheet. *BFG passage to inspire writing. *Sample Postcard for annotating. *Role play formal/informal sorting cards. *Informal/Formal people sorting cards. *Success Criteria- for children to self assess and peer assess. *Postcard template for children to write their postcard on day 4. It’s attached as a zip file so that I could organise the activities into folders for you. Please let me know your thoughts on this resource :)

I wrote a short piece about a Middle Eastern boy joining a British School and decided to make it into a Year 6 SATS sample paper. The questions are structured exactly like the SATS exams and children can use them as revision in the weeks/months coming up to the SATS exams. I have uploaded it as a PDF and also a word document. Also, I’ve separated the reading material and the questions in two different documents if required. Can be used with year 5s also to get them into the SATS style of questioning. Let me know your thoughts on this resource.

A fun, engaging week of lessons based on writing a persuasive leaflet to encourage people to come Visit Qatar (the home of the World Cup 2022). This resource includes: A detailed, differentiated lesson plan. Pictures to stick on the leaflets Information sheets for children to research and make notes Planning activities Powerpoints Sample leaflet to annotate and recognise the features Comprehension also for one day. A sample of my kids writing to show you WAGOLL (What A Good One Looks Like) Children produced some fantastic leaflets (see preview) using lots of taught persuasive techniques to persuade the reader to visit Qatar. It engaged both boys and girls and we did it in pairs. Very enjoyable :)

Shared/Guided Reading lesson based on the story ‘Journey to Jo’Burg’. This was used to inspire these kids and completely engage them with the story. My idea is for the starter, display three questions (see planning) and get them to write their answers in groups on post-it notes. Then stick them up on the IWB on a picture of South Africa (also in resources). This will engage them straight away with the text and what’ll happen. Then you’ll move on to explaining that the idea is to focus on what a dilemma is and what it is in this chapter. (The chapter is linked on the planning and you can download it as a pdf). The children should have a hard copy in front of them and together you will make a success criteria of what a good, interesting reader sounds like. Get them to critique you reading in a boring way. Children to sort pre-made laminated statements into positives and negatives about going to Jo’Berg. In groups children will then engage in a conscience alley (role-play) to thrash out both sides of a dilemma. You can do it as a whole class or small groups either. Children really get into the story this way and feel they’re helping Naledi choose her dilemma. Great, engaging lesson. Really enjoyed it!

This was a fantastic week of English lessons, including lots of speaking and listening activities, resulting in effective writing. This genre was studied through the story ‘Journey to Jo’Burg’. To which we read the first two chapters online (pdf linked in planning) and ended up writing the third chapter as our ‘big write’ including an issue and dilemma. Lesson 1: Children explore the terms issue and dilemma by engaging in a conscience alley, forcing the child acting as the main character to make a decision based on a dilemma. (thoroughly enjoyable). Lesson 2: Children read through the chapter 1 and 2 (linked in planning) and underline dialogue, action and different words for the word ‘said’. This allows children to see the exact style used by the author in order for them to recreate their very own chapter 3 in the style of the story. Planning is also done in this lesson. Lesson 3: The success criteria is shared with the children and they are then allowed the remainder of the lesson to finish off their chapter 3. The end product was fantastic! The children came up with their own title for their chapter and really took on the style of the author, alternating between dialogue and action. It was fantastic! INCLUDED: *4 day detailed lesson plan *Colourful Notebook File *Success Criteria *Identifying features Prompt *Moral Dilemmas for discussion *Positive and Negative grid

A simple display I used when studying the book ‘Journey to Jo’Burg’. We used this book to create pieces of writing with issues and dilemmas. (Planning is available in my shop also). Children loved the colorful characters which confirmed their understanding of what a dilemma was, while learning about the country of South Africa at the same time. *I know the sign in my cover picture (Jo’Berg) is spelled wrong, however I have fixed it in the resource itself.

Four simple worksheets with extensions based on: Apostrophes Speech Marks Inverted Commas Pronouns Children are reminded what the term means and then given progressive tasks to increase their understanding.

COMPREHENSION BASED ON THE SONG ‘This is me’ FROM THE MOVIE THE GREATEST SHOWMAN. SOme inference questions based off this song because: It’s something different We all love the song! The children loved listening to the lyrics and try to understand/deduct what the meaning was behind the lyrics. Word Document and PDF included of Verse 1 and Verse 2.

A detailed chapter study of the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. Included: vocabulary study from various chapters comprehension questions for a variety of chapters character analysis on all of the main characters in the book a wide range of independent activities which engage children with the content of the story. This is a selection of resources in which I used alongside reading the story to my class. It can be used for guided reading sessions also. During the independent activities children are asked to: Re-write the blurb Re-draw the cover for the book Write a letter to Veruca Salt’s Dad Write a diary entry from Grandpa Joe’s point of view. Design the chocolate palace Design a golden ticket Children really engaged with the story and learned some new words also through the vocabulary study. For more resources related to this book, please see my persuasive writing unit, which also directly links to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/persuasive-writing-year-4-11762226

**A detailed study of Chapter 1 and 2 by Roald Dahl. This is geared towards KS2, particulary Year 3/4. Included: prediction activity vocabulary comprehension questions character analysis This is a trial to see if people are interested in this resource. If there is interest, I will complete the resource for the whole book. Please leave a review and let me know your thoughts.