This resource has seven multi-step problems to solve. Some of the problems have two examples, so you can work through the first example as a class to develop strategies and then the pupils can have a go independently. Alternatively, let them have a go first and then demonstrate more efficient strategies. There is also a quick starter activity based on measures as this was a focus for my class at the time and some of the questions involve converting measures. The questions are provided in SMART Notebook and PowerPoint format for display on the interactive whiteboard, and in PDF and Word format as a paper resource. These were originally used in Year 4 as an end of term activity and are based on the NNS Puzzles and Problems for Years 3 & 4; however, they could be used across KS2 with different levels of support. Ideas for use: Time filler for stolen moments at the end of term. Developing problem / investigation solving. Stick the question onto a large piece of paper and solve as a group. Adult-led guided group activity/assessment opportunity. Part of a Travel Agent role play corner. Early finishers work Homework activity School work for pupils going on a long holiday during term time (if you dare!) More able or Upper KS2 pupils could devise their own problems in the same format to truly demonstrate their understanding.

This is a sheet of questions about fractions, decimals, ratios and percentages. This is perfect for the beginning of a topic to ascertain individual and collective gaps and strengths. The activity could even be given as a homework. The questions get progressively more difficult and span from Level 3 - Level 6. The sheet can be easily edited in Word format so that the levels aren’t visible to pupils. There is also a record sheet for teachers with the objectives at the top of the sheet. Teachers can use a system of ticks and crosses to fill in the boxes, but I use a highlighter to indicate the objectives achieved. I then use this to inform my planning and guided groups. At the end of the topic I give the pupils the questions again and record on the same sheet using a different highlighter so that progress is clearly visible. As well as PDF, resource is provided in Word format for easy editing.

This is a maths trail that I devised for my pupils and involves them exploring the school grounds. It consists of two A4 pages of questions that can be really easily adjusted to suit your school grounds and the age/ability of your pupils. A great way for pupils to apply their mathematical skills and knowledge in context. The questions touch on many areas of maths including: percentages, measures (length), area, difference, calculation, time, shape, symmetry, reasoning and perimeter. I used this as a general baseline assessment at the start of the year and got lots of data to work with - not only from marking their work, but also from observing how confident they were with maths and listening to the things they were saying whilst going around the grounds. The resource is provided in WORD format as well as PDF so that you can adjust to suit your school grounds or the ability of your pupils if necessary. Ideas for use: Moving Up Day: get to know the personalities and mathematical abilities of your new class before September. End of year fun outdoor activity - no prep but can stretch out for a whole afternoon! Small guided group activity or assessment opportunity. Make it a team building exercise by using mixed ability groups and introducing a prize for the first team back with the answers! Baseline assessment at the start of a new school year. Activity to be left with a supply teacher or a group of pupils who are staying behind from a school trip/residential.

Seven sessions of planning, accompanying PowerPoint and paper resources. Each session takes around 30 minutes and are aimed at Years 5 & 6. The objectives covered are: To correctly use the common homophones – there, their, they’re and where, wear, were and we’re. To spell unstressed vowels in polysyllabic words. To spell words with common letter strings and different pronunciations. To spell words with common pronunciations but different letter strings. To explore the spelling patterns of consonants and to formulate rules. To explore the spelling patterns of consonants and to formulate rules. To explore less common prefixes and suffixes.

This is a simple display that I put on the back of my classroom door. It consisted of an octopus in the middle with eight different ways of opening a sentence around it - one at each tentacle. One of my pupils drew and painted a octopus for me, but I have included an image of an octopus in the resource to save you time - just enlarge to A3. Of course, you could ditch the Octopus completely (especially for older children) and just display on the wall or laminate and add to a working wall. There is a PowerPoint to accompany the display, which is probably best if you focus on experimenting with one type of opener at a time to let it sink in! The PowerPoint is really plain and simple as it is intended to be annotated and used interactively as opposed to a presentation. Octopus picture credit: http://cliparts.co/octopus-clip-art

This resource looks at the three main types of sentence structure: simple, compound and complex. Opportunities are given for pupils to: Learn the features of each type of sentence structure. Use the terms noun and verb and consolidate their understanding of word classes. Use the terms main clause and subordinate clause (the idea of adult and child is given as a pictoral representation). Identify sentence structures within texts: a newspaper article and an extract from Roald Dahl’s ‘Matilda’. Up-level sentences by adding suborindate clauses to simple sentences before, after and in the middle of the main clause. Use commas correctly the mark clauses and clarify meaning. The presentation has little activities throughout, which you could build on to structure a mini unit of work or just dip into for ten minutes at a time. It would work well as an introduction earlier down the school, revision in upper KS2/KS3 or with a guided intervention group who have gaps in their understanding. I found it particularly useful for assessing the pupil’s understanding of the vocabulary associated with sentence level and word level work.

This was a mini topic that I did with a Year 5/6 class but it would work throughout Key Stage 2. It spanned two afternoon sessions and could easily be lengthened to create more of a topic. Pupils discover the key features of Aboriginal art and then go on to explore and record their own ideas before producing a final Aboriginal-style piece. Plenty of opportunity is given to evaluate their own and others work. The resource includes: Teaching plans for two lessons PowerPoint presentation (15 slides) Simple pupil planning sheet Aboriginal symbols reference sheet The topic provides good coverage of the 2013 National Curriculum for Art and Design (links are highlighted in bold on the planning). Planning and resource sheets are Word documents and fully editable. Makes for a lovely display at the end!

A ready to go worksheet and PowerPoint of problem solving questions that require pupils to convert between litres and millilitres, kilograms and grams and metres and centimetres. I have also put the questions on to a simple PowerPoint so that you can do a bit of whole class marking, model solving a problem, discuss the different strategies used by pupils or gather a group who are struggling together and work through as a team (annotating on the interactive white board as you go). All four number operations are covered and some of the questions are two step problems. I used this with a Year 4 class, but it could be used across Key Stage 2 for different groups of pupils. For example, I have used this activity in Year 6 as a quick revision activity and a baseline assessment. Comes complete with teacher answer sheet and answers on the PowerPoint are below each slide in the notes section. As well as PDF, the resource is provided in Word format so that it can be edited to suit your pupils.

Simple ready to go worksheet with accompanying PowerPoint- originally used in Year 6. Provides pupils with the opportunity to practise calculating the area of compound shapes. The PowerPoint is really simple with just the same questions as the sheet, but it allows you to display on the interactive whiteboard for the purpose of whole class marking, supporting groups and modelling and discussing strategies.

This resource includes 17 slides and a paper resource. There are examples from Rose Blanche and Carrie’s War as we were working on a WW2 topic; however, this lesson will work just as well in any other context. The lesson looks at the effect of different sentence lengths to begin with and then moves on to look at how effective - ing and -ed openers are in varying sentences. Pupils then write a descriptive paragraph about an image (I chose one from Rose Blanche but this could be any image) and try to incorporate sentences of varying lengths and use -ed and -ing openers. Pupils then up-level their passages by using connectives. To consolidate the learning there is a paper resource featuring a selection of different notes to the class asking for advice. Cut each of these notes up and put them in a hat or bowl. Have pupils select and read a note from the bowl and discuss as a class or groups what sort of sentence lengths and structures we would recommend to achieve the effect the writer is aiming for, e.g. lots of short simple sentences one after the other; long flowing complex sentences; start with short sentences and then gradually increase to build pace – use the conjunction ‘and’ repeatedly to give a sense of rushing.

A ready to go set of ten multi-step worded questions (some like mini investigations) that require pupils to use their knowledge of inverse operations. This activity took a whole lesson with a Year 6 class for me. Differentiated questions: yellow cards are Level 4 questions, blue cards are Level 5 questions and green cards are Level 6 questions. Ideas for use: Print on card, cut up and distribute around the class for pupils to solve in groups. Place the card on a large sheet of sugar paper and jot workings around the outside. Share strategies as a class. Whisper Maths activity: pupils have some time to consider the question individually first and then snowball out into pairs and then groups. Set up as a competition, with tables coming to the front for the next card once they have provided the correct solution. Early finishers activity. Print cards on paper, cut up and stick one (at the appropriate level) in each child’s book for them to jot around and solve individually. Guided intervention activity. The resource is provided in PDF as well as an editable Word document and the answers are included. Many thanks for looking.

This resource is best suited to KS2 and features key vocabulary to help with setting up a science working wall. I have included it in Word format as well as PDF so you can edit to suit your favourite colours and fonts. It includes: Scientific skills, e.g. comparing results, using equipment. Types of scientific investigation with an example scientific question for each, e.g. observation, fair test (kids love a fair test!) Ways of presenting data with a picture of each, e.g. table, line graph. 18 scientific questions for pupils to match with the most appropriate type of enquiry. Uses: Print and laminate several copies for pupils to use as a toolkit to help with planning their investigations. Give pupils the selection of scientific questions provided and ask them to decide which type of investigation best suits each question. Similarly, give pupils scientific questions and ask them to consider what the data would look like and the most effective way to present it. Print and laminate these labels and keep them on your science working wall permanently or select a few to display as the focus of each unit. As a class, consider which scientific skills we are good at and which we need to work more on. Ask pupils to consider ‘What’s the same? What’s different?’ between different types of investigation and data presentation. Pose the scientific question for the lesson and ask pupils to rule out each type of investigation in turn until they find the best way of answering the question. Or flip this around and give the pupils a type of investigation and they must come up with a question that they would like to investigate. Hope this save a bit of time for you and also helps to keep the transferable scientific skills in the forefront of pupil’s minds whilst they enjoy exploring the subject knowledge of plants, humans, materials etc.

A lesson originally designed for Y6 class. Resource includes: Powerpoint presentation with activities on place value of decimals and ordering decimals. Fun task cards where children have to use the knowledge they have gained in the context of a supermarket. Printable ‘Star Employee’ stars! (I laminated these and added a safety pin to make it into a badge). For a really wow lesson, you could use the cards as a starting point, but set up the activities using real-life objects (good for an observation!).

The resource includes photographs of 51 different instruments (common orchestral instruments and school percussion instruments) with their names underneath. The resource can be used in so many different ways and - if printed on card and laminated - it is a resource that can be used time and time again! Ideas for activities and uses: Matching the instrument to its name. Sorting /ordering according to different criteria, e.g instrument families, pitch of the sound, size of the instrument… Venn Diagram sorting, e.g. wood/metal, played with a beater/played by hand… Display or working wall labels. Music trolley/cupboard labels. Stimulus for a composition - assign or have pupils choose a number of instruments to incorporate in their piece. Provide pupils with a title for a piece of music, eg. ‘The Storm’ - what instruments might you use? Baseline/end-of-unit assessment task. Listening activity: play a piece of music and have pupils pick out the instruments that they can hear from the pile. As well as PDF, the resource is provided in Word format in case you want to edit the font or use a different name for a particular instrument. Thank you for looking and I hope this resource saves you some time!

A set of 30 cards, each featuring the name of a percussion instrument and an image of it. I printed these on card and laminated them and I have used them in many different ways; here are some examples: Sorting activities: encourage children to become more familiar with the instruments and calling them by the correct name by inviting them to sort them according to their own or pre-defined criteria, e.g. tuned/untuned, metal/wooden… Children select a card at the start of a lesson…this is the instrument they will be using (saves arguments and also prevents against six sets of cymbals crashing all lesson!) Use as labels for instruments in your music room or instrument store - great for music subject-leaders who are struggling to keep the cupboard tidy! Separate the names from the images and invite children to match the name to the correct instrument. Give children different themes for compositions and ask them to select the instruments that they think would be most suited to that theme and explain why, e.g. drums and cymbals for a storm composition.

**Update: I have recently changed the skeleton file as some people fed-back that it wasn’t printing as it should as a Publisher file. It is now an A4 PDF file, but can be enlarged to A3 in order to get the same size of skeleton that I used on my display (or it could be scaled down to A5 for cute mini skeletons!) This interactive display invites the pupils to arrange the skeleton and label each bone correctly. I enlarged the skeleton, cut out each bone, laminated it and then stuck a bit of blu-tac to the back; however, if you are lucky enough to have a skeleton in school you could just label that! The display also includes questions and answers about the skeleton and bones and fun facts. I have included a picture of the finished display once it was moved to the school corridor (and, therefore, wasn’t being used interactively any more). I have changed the font to Comic Sans as the one I used isn’t often installed as standard, but each file is provided in Word as well as PDF so you can fiddle with the font and wording.

Guided reading planning for Y5/Y6 more able readers based on the text ‘Journey to the River Sea’. Six sessions of planning are included, although in reality it could spread over a much longer period of time if you wanted! The other files included are pictures of the Amazon used in lesson one. The planning includes teacher discussion prompts (each linked to AFs) and a follow up reading activity. In my class I had four groups and ran guided reading over four days. Each group had one session with me and three independent days. The pupils followed this cycle over the four days: Pre-reading in preparation for Book Club. Preparing answers for Book Club. Children had a preview of some of the more complex questions and wrote their answers in their reading journals. This had the benefit of me being able to ‘pick on’ any child without them being flustered, but also meant I had some written evidence for all pupils every week (I was finding that some weeks I hadn’t written any notes for some pupils during the Book Club session). Book Club with teacher. Follow-up task. Each group knew which day of the week was their follow-up/Book Club/prep day. On the fifth day I heard individual readers and the pupils did free reading of their own books/magazines. I sometimes used this day to catch up if we had missed a guided reading session earlier in the week due to special assemblies etc. (often the case!).

Reports should obviously be very personal to each individual child, so I am in no way suggesting that you will just cut and paste comments from this resource. However, from experience, I know that your mind can go blank after a while (particularly on the 27th report!) and it can help to have a bit of inspiration. This resource includes: Tips for report writing from my experience - particularly useful for NQTs. Lots of example statements that I have taken from previous reports I have written, grouped into categories like, ‘Poor presentation’ and ‘Struggles with friendship groups’. Examples of personal statement sections (high-achiever, middle-achiever and SEND). I have also thrown in some examples or generic statements that I wrote for core subjects (maths, reading, writing and speaking & listening) differentiated from Level 4 - Level 6. The statements might not be true to your cohort but I have included them just to give an example of the kind of generic paragraphs that you might write at the beginning of the report writing process. This allows you to cut and paste the level that best suits the child in question and then edit the paragraph to make it more accurate and personal and also to give it a better flow. The statements are all taken from real reports and are perhaps most applicable to Key Stage 2 pupils. I have included the resource in PDF version and Word version. PDF is probably the best to print as it will keep the original formatting, but I have included a Word version as this enables you to copy, paste and edit more easily. The I hope that you find this resource useful and time-saving…writing reports really is the worst!!

This PowerPoint is for a unit of work that took a week with my Year 6 class and looked at the features of discussion texts. Persuasive techniques are also revised. The texts are taken from The National Literacy Strategy ‘Argument Unit’. Children read and analyse a persuasive text ‘Should mobile phones be banned in schools?’ as a class and come to define the key features of discursive writing. Pupils then analyse a different text based on the circus and highlight the key features that they have previously identified. Pupils then prepare for a debate. Taking the story of the Pied Piper, pupils are assigned roles and have to prepare a persuasive speech to argue their point of the debate. We then hold debate and discuss the value of debates in real life. Pupils finish the week with two lessons to write a piece of discursive writing on whether pupils should be able to write on laptops in schools. Pupils are provided with the arguments for and against, but must do the rest of the work on their own. This then forms an assessment piece. National Curriculum Links: Year 5 & 6 Programmes of Study discuss and evaluate how authors use language, including figurative language, considering the impact on the reader plan their writing by: identifying the audience for and purpose of the writing, selecting the appropriate form and using other similar writing as models for their own. Through debate the pupils also hone their speaking and listening skills and this also provides a good opportunity for assessment.