Four short passages where children must use inference with regards to the text in order to answer 3 mark questions. This is good practice for providing evidence from the text itself and explaining reasoning. These exercises can be carried out in a whole class guided reading environment, small groups or individually. Might be a good idea to one text as a class and discuss how to answer the questions. Give another as a paired exercise and the final two as individual work. A teacher notes/answers sheet is provided as a separate file for ease of marking.

Newspaper article on Prometheus stealing fire from The Gods and giving it to humankind. Uses formal language and writing features expected in a news article as well as including a shift to informality where appropriate in interviews. Article is accompanied by a 14 question (19 mark) reading comprehension comprising of: retrieval inference true/false fact/opinion synonyms language level of formality Available as Word and PDF with answers for ease of marking.

Year 5/6 Reading comprehension based on a newspaper article written about a planned housing development in a fictional town. Contains layout of a newspaper report, opinions and examples of formal writing throughout. Also contains interviews and opinions to provide context to the report. Comes with a 20mark reading comprehension paper with questions based around the following: True and False Fact and Opinion Inference Retrieval Word comprehension Synonym Questions are accompanied by an answer sheet for ease of marking and marking boxes for speedy feeback (especially if peer-marking is to be used).

3 page story with accompanying 15 mark reading comprehension. Story is about an enchanted wood where 2 children get lost and are guided out by a mysterious white pony. Task can be carried individually, in groups for guided reading or as a whole class. Questions include: retrieval inference fact/opinion true/false word comprehension (synonyms) Task ideal for expected level and greater depth readers. Lower ability year 5 and 6 may require an adult to prompt.

Contains some original wording from the Shakespeare script. Some of the names and places are local to me and can be easily adapted to suit other geographical regions. I had my year 6s perform this as a film and it worked very well. Both children and parents greatly enjoyed the experience.

A GPS quiz for Christmas consisting of 20 spellings and 20 Grammar and punctuation questions. A time filler for that approach to the end of term and a good assessment tool to see how children are doing in GPS by using the Christmas context. Answers are included for ease of marking. Quizzes can be done individually, in pairs or in cooperative groups.

Short one page reading comprehension about a guardsman patrolling a castle at night. 9 mark reading quiz (comprehension) included. Questions focus on: retrieval inference word comprehension Ideal for guided reading, whole class reading, extension task or generally for creative writing teaching. Answers are included for ease of marking.

Reading comprehension (4 pages) about a girl who plays for her reserve team as a striker. She really wants to get her big chance playing in the first team and this story is about her first opportunity. Comprehension includes 16 questions with true/false, fact/opinion, chronological ordering, identifying similes and exclamatory sentences, retrieval and vocabulary/word meanings. Answers are enclosed for ease of marking. Exercise is good practice for SAT reading and the questions are designed to mirror the question types in previous papers.

A reading comprehension about Bonfire Night, comprising of a short poem and a first-person text about the author’s view of November 5th. This text can be used in guided reading, whole-class guided reading or independent reading. The text is accompanied by a comprehension quiz. Text can also be used for modelling writing and GPS. Examples of the following can be found in the text: similes alliteration metaphor multi-clause sentences Subordinating and coordinating conjunctions synonyms fact/opinion true/false inference

An exercise children can do in pairs, groups or individually based on identifying subordinate clauses and conjunctions. I find that children often get confused when asked to underline either clauses or the conjunctions. This is a good exercise to get them used to what the vocabulary is referring to.

A time saving assessment tool providing a quiz for year sixes to inform their teacher on work that needs to be done in specific areas. Exercises include: Determiners ‘a’ and ‘an’ Which Punctuation Mark?!. Exclamation, Question, Statement or Command? Modal Verbs of Certainty and Possibility Capital Letters and Punctuation Conjunctions and Sentence Types Relative pronouns and clauses Identifying prepositions Using verbs and nouns in context Identifying adverbs and adjective Each page has a 10 mark marking system. You could give the pupils one exercise at at time (out of 10) or give them the whole quiz (out of 90). The quiz could also be used to show progress if taken at the beginning of the autumn term, for example.

2 separate worksheets (with answers for ease of marking) that call on pupils to identify main, subordinate and relative clauses in different sentences. The method asks for similar identification to that asked for in the GPS SATs test so can be used as a good foundation for revision or simple teaching throughout upper key stage 2.

2-page reading comprehension River Systems and how they flow from source to mouth. Includes passages on the different river courses, meanders, deposition and erosion. Question types include: retrieval true/false word comprehension Answers included for ease of marking.

First in series of SPAG/GPS quick quizzes that gradually work through the different aspects of the GPS curriculum. Ideal for early and gradual preparation for the GPS SAT paper in May. Can be used as knowledge retrieval exercise or as a lesson plenary. Answers included on pages 3 and 4 for ease of marking or quick feedback. 50 mark quiz.

A nice resource to break pupils into the autumn term. A five stanza poem about autumn accompanied by a 12 mark reading comprehension. Question areas include: retrieval true or false fact and opinion synonyms word comprehension inference Good for general poetry study or simply as a reading task. Short nature of poem should make the task accessible to most abilities.

Short reading comprehension about a wizard’s apprentice who is tempted by the forbidden top shelf of books in his master’s absence. One A4 page of story text followed by an 8 question quiz (10 marks available). Questions include: retrieval inference antonyms word comprehension Answers are included for ease of marking. Exercise is ideal for online teaching as well as in the classroom.

1 page of reading - Oliver Twist Reading Comprehension for Year 5 and 6. Text is taken from the opening page of Dickens’ Oliver Twist. Some text has been altered to make it less antiquated and age appropriate so it is not entirely the original text (but it is close and the same in meaning). 24 mark reading comprehension (with answers for ease of marking). retrieval inference fact and opinion true and false word comprehension and synonym

A starter exercise to get the class thinking about formal and informal language and promote class discussion. There are also a couple of slides based on missing commas just to jog pupils’ memories.

If you’re struggling to find something to fill those end of the term time gaps then this might give you half an hour respite. Rearrange the anagrams of film titles. Can they get them all?