We are a team of two sisters who specialise in primary education. We are determined to create resources of the highest standard that can be used without further preparation. Our lessons and assemblies have been designed to challenge children of all levels within a creative, engaging and inspiring context. Explore our shop to find lesson packs for languages, art and religious education, plans for assemblies and numerous high-quality resources to help you teach phonics, mathematics and literacy
We are a team of two sisters who specialise in primary education. We are determined to create resources of the highest standard that can be used without further preparation. Our lessons and assemblies have been designed to challenge children of all levels within a creative, engaging and inspiring context. Explore our shop to find lesson packs for languages, art and religious education, plans for assemblies and numerous high-quality resources to help you teach phonics, mathematics and literacy
This resource is a poetry comprehension activity for year 2. The poem explores the different places you find water in the summer, such as the garden and the beach.
The resource includes 3 differentiated levels of booklet, which use different layouts and slightly altered content and questions to make them suitable for a whole range of abilities.
The middle ability booklet is laid out in a similar way to the KS1 SATs booklets, with four pages of pictures and short verses to read and 3-4 questions per page. There are a range of ‘what,’ ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions, some multiple choice tick questions and some that require more detailed answers.
Answers are included.
A great way to bring the summer into your classroom this summer!
PDF file format.
This resource contains 3 comprehension activities suitable for using with year 1.
They each contain a short piece of text (about 5 sentences) with words that can be sounded out. There are three trickier words which have pictures to help children work out what they say.
The text is followed by 5 questions, containing ‘what,’ ‘which,’ ‘who’ and ‘where’ questions and some multiple choice questions.
The theme in this pack is St George.
There is also a PowerPoint included in the pack containing a slide for each text so that you can go through the comprehensions before the children complete them. Each slide also contains 3 words that are trickier to sound out, with sound buttons underneath them.
PDF file format and editable Microsoft word format included in the price.
A 3 day summer poetry unit, perfect for using with year 2 before or after the summer holidays. The unit is based around a poem called ‘Summer Postcards,’ which tells the story of a boy’s crazy travels with an elephant over the summer holidays.
During the unit, the children complete a reading comprehension, gather ideas and write their own simple poem, imagining a bizarre trip of their own.
The unit contains:
A detailed plan for each of the three lessons
Curriculum coverage
Starter activities
Writing and planning templates
Differentiated comprehension booklet
The comprehension is also available to purchase separately.
PDF file format and Microsoft PowerPoint.
This resource is a summer poetry comprehension activity for year 2, based around a poem called ‘Barbecue Day.’ The poem tells the tale of a disastrous barbecue that turns out to be the perfect summer day
The resource includes 3 differentiated levels of booklet, which use different layouts and slightly altered content and questions to make them suitable for a whole range of abilities.
The middle ability booklet is laid out in a similar way to the KS1 SATs booklets, with four pages of pictures and short verses to read and 3-4 questions per page. There are a range of ‘who,’ ‘what,’ ‘where’ and ‘why’ questions, some multiple choice tick questions and some that require more detailed answers.
Answers are included.
A great way to bring summer into your classroom this term!
PDF file format.
This resource is a seaside poetry comprehension activity for year 2. The children read a descriptive, repetitive poem describing the sights and sounds of the seaside, before answering comprehension question.
The resource includes 3 differentiated levels of booklet, making them suitable for a whole range of abilities in your class.
The middle ability booklet is laid out in a similar way to the KS1 SATs booklets, with four pages of pictures and short verses to read and 3-4 questions per page. There are a range of ‘what,’ ‘where’ and ‘why’ questions, some multiple choice tick questions and some that require more detailed answers.
Answers are included.
A great way to bring the seaside into your classroom this summer!
PDF file format.
A collection of six enjoyable poetry comprehension activities for year 2, all with the theme of summer.
Each booklet comes in 3 differentiated levels. They are based on the reading SATs paper, containing a similar style of questions.
The following poems are included:
Holiday Postcards
S…S…S…seaside
Barbecue Day
The Beach
A trip to the sea
Water
The perfect way to bring summer into your classroom this term!
PDF file format.
Please note: Poetry units are also available through the Blossoming Minds shop, using these poems as the focus.
An interactive PowerPoint to help your class revise the first half of phase 3 phonics.
The PowerPoint consists of 20 activities that focus on the skill of reading. They could be used as fillers for a whole month, or as part of a phonics lesson.
Example activities include:
speed reading
finding the odd one out,
finding as many ‘ch’ words as possible before the timer finishes…
…and many more!
I have created the PowerPoint to use with my year 1 class throughout the month of September as a revision activity, so some of the activities have an autumn/back to school theme. However, you can easily use them at any point in the year.
14 phase 3 sounds are covered, up to the ‘ee’ sound.
This is the first in Blossoming Minds’ new series of phonics filler activities! Follow us to see when we add more.
This is Blossoming Minds’ second set of 10 PowerPoints to help prepare your class for the Phonics Screening Check.
Each PowerPoint includes 40 words, one on each slide. 20 words are pretend or ‘alien’ words and 20 are real words. They are organised in the same way as the screening check, starting with four simple phase 2 words, before moving on to phase 3, 4 and 5 and concluding with more complex words.
Get your class to call out together or choose targeted children to decode the words.
Use throughout the year - fit in during 5 minute gaps or use during a phonics lesson to make sure your entire class are prepared for the screening check!
This is a set of 6 PowerPoint presentations. Each PowerPoint includes all the Phase 4 high frequency words. There is one word on each slide and the words are in a different order on each PowerPoint. Each PowerPoint has images with a different theme that is unconnected to the words. There are 6 themes - birds, minibeasts, seasons, pirates, dinosaurs and transport.
Get your class to call out together or choose targeted children to decode the words.
Use throughout the year - fit in during gaps or use during a phonics lesson.
This resource is an interactive lesson aimed at whole class or group phonics. It is a 40 slide Powerpoint presentation that allows children to revise phonemes and learn or revisit the alternative ‘ea’ sound. It covers the ‘ea’ sound pronounced ‘e’ and takes 15-20 minutes.
This non-editable PowerPoint is split into different sections:
Revision of phase 5 phonemes in a random order
Introduction to the ‘ea’ sound and opportunity to trace the shape of the sound
Spotting the odd one out (the picture with a different ‘ea’ sound)
Segmenting and blending sounds in ‘ea’ words
Phoneme counting
Phoneme spotting in sentences
Writing words with the ‘ea’ sound
Writing a sentence with the ‘ea’ sound
(Click ‘Read Only’ to open the PowerPoint.)
This resource is an interactive lesson aimed at whole class or group phonics. It is a 42 slide Powerpoint presentation that allows children to revise phonemes and learn or revisit the alternative ‘ow’ sound. It covers the alternative ‘ow’ sound as in ‘grow’ and takes 15-20 minutes.
This non-editable PowerPoint is split into different sections:
Revision of phase 5 phonemes in a random order
Introduction to the ‘ow’ sound and opportunity to trace the shape of the sound
Spotting the odd one out (the picture with a different ‘ow’ sound)
Segmenting and blending sounds in ‘ow’ words
Phoneme counting
Phoneme spotting in sentences
Writing words with the ‘ow’ sound
Writing a sentence with the ‘ow’ sound
(Click ‘Read Only’ to open the PowerPoint.)
This resource is an interactive lesson aimed at whole class or group phonics. It is a 43 slide Powerpoint presentation that allows children to revise phonemes and learn or revisit the alternative ‘g’ sound. It covers the alternative ‘g’ sound as in ‘giant’ and takes 15-20 minutes.
This non-editable PowerPoint is split into different sections:
Revision of phase 5 phonemes in a random order
Introduction to the ‘g’ sound and opportunity to trace the shape of the sound
Segmenting and blending sounds in ‘g’ words
Phoneme counting
Grapheme spotting in sentences
Writing words with the ‘g’ sound
Writing a sentence with the ‘g’ sound
(Click ‘Read Only’ to open the PowerPoint.)
I updated this on the 6th May 2019, following the birth of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s baby boy!
This year 1 comprehension booklet teaches the children about lots of British royal baby facts, including bizarre traditions, royal baby names, royal baby christenings and royal baby clothes.
This resource contains 3 differentiated booklets.
Higher Ability
The higher ability booklet contains a title page with helpful words, followed by five pages of pictures and short written extracts to read and 4-5 questions per page. Answers are included.
Middle Ability
The middle ability booklet contains a title page, followed by five pages of comprehension activities with answers. Each page contains a short piece of text (about 3-7 sentences). There are 3-4 trickier words on each page which have pictures to help children work out what they say. Each text is followed by 4-5 simple questions.
Lower Ability
The lower ability booklet contains a title page, followed by five pages of comprehension activities with answers. Each page contains a short simple piece of text (3-5 sentences). There are 4-5 trickier words on each page with pictures to help children work out what they say. Each text is followed by 4-5 simple questions.
PowerPoint Presentation
There is also a PowerPoint included in the pack containing a slide for each text from the middle ability booklet so that you can go through these comprehensions before the children complete them. Each slide also contains 3 words that are trickier to sound out, with sound buttons underneath them.
I have included colour and black & white versions of each of the 3 booklets. The preview pages show the title page and one of the comprehension pages, from the middle ability booklets. They also show one slide from the PowerPoint.
PDF file format.
I hope your class enjoy learning some interesting facts about royal babies!
You might also like our Year 2 Royal Babies comprehension:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/year-2-reading-comprehension-royal-family-royal-baby-3-levels-colour-and-black-and-white-11886762
This resource is an interactive lesson aimed at whole class or group phonics. It is a 44 slide Powerpoint presentation that allows children to revise phonemes and learn or revisit one of the alternative ‘a’ sounds. It covers the ‘a’ sound as in ‘path’ and takes 15-20 minutes.
This non-editable PowerPoint is split into different sections:
Revision of phase 5 phonemes in a random order
Introduction to the ‘a’ sound and opportunity to trace the shape of the sound
Spotting the odd one out (the picture with a different ‘a’ sound)
Segmenting and blending sounds in ‘a’ words
Phoneme counting
Grapheme spotting in sentences
Writing words with the ‘a’ sound
Writing a sentence with the ‘a’ sound
Revision of tricky words
(Click ‘Read Only’ to open the PowerPoint.)
This interactive PowerPoint quiz is perfect for using in the 2022 Australian CBCA Book Week. It contains 76 questions. The first 70 questions cover famous books from Australia and around the world. This is followed by one question on each of the books in the CBCA 2022 short list for ages 7-12.
You can use this as a starter, an assembly, a filler or a main activity. All questions are multiple choice and focus on popular modern books as well as classics. After you have chosen an answer for each question, click again and the correct answer changes colour. The PowerPoint is not editable. Please click ‘read only’ to open. Some of the images are only revealed when the PowerPoint is played as a slideshow with the animations.
Example questions include:
Who visits Narnia first? Peter, Edmund or Lucy
Which of these books does Hermione Granger like to read? Albus Dumbledore’s Guide to Magic, The History of Hogwarts or Hogwarts: A History
Where do Jane, Michael and Mary Poppins have a tea party? On the ceiling, In the nursery or In Wonderland
What is the name of The Magic Pudding that always reforms after being eaten? Arthur, Albert or Alexander
A separate answer sheet is also included.
You might be interested in our 2023 book quiz:
Quiz for CBCA Book Week 2023
This interactive PowerPoint quiz is perfect for using in the 2022 Australian CBCA Book Week. It contains 76 questions. The first 70 questions cover famous books from Australia and around the world. This is followed by one question on each of the books in the CBCA 2022 short list for ages 7-12.
You can use this as a starter, an assembly, a filler or a main activity. All questions are multiple choice and focus on popular modern books as well as classics. After you have chosen an answer for each question, click again and the correct answer changes colour. The PowerPoint is not editable. Please click ‘read only’ to open. Some of the images are only revealed when the PowerPoint is played as a slideshow with the animations.
Example questions include:
Who visits Narnia first? Peter, Edmund or Lucy
Which of these books does Hermione Granger like to read? Albus Dumbledore’s Guide to Magic, The History of Hogwarts or Hogwarts: A History
Where do Jane, Michael and Mary Poppins have a tea party? On the ceiling, In the nursery or In Wonderland
What is the name of The Magic Pudding that always reforms after being eaten? Arthur, Albert or Alexander
A separate answer sheet is also included.
You might be interested in our 2023 book quiz:
Quiz for CBCA Book Week 2023
This interactive PowerPoint quiz is perfect for using in the 2020 Australian CBCA Book Week. It contains 78 questions on The Glimme by Emily Rodda. The Glimme is in the CBCA 2020 short list for ages 7-12.
You can use this as a starter, an assembly, a filler or a main activity. There are several questions for each of the 20 chapters. You can use the links to jump to different chapters or back to the main menu. All questions are multiple choice. After you have chosen an answer for each question, click again and the correct answer changes colour. The PowerPoint is not editable. Please click the ‘read only’ button to open.
Example questions include:
What is in the glass roofed room in Edge House? Painted panels, Plants or Dragons
Why is he renamed Penn? His mum was called Penny, He likes to write or He likes to draw
How long will Teller have to complete his mission? 1 year, 1 month or 1 week
What special gift does Lone Annie have? She can heal people, She can visit the past or She can see the future
The quiz is in the zip file.
(There are no illustrations from the book included because these are copyrighted.)
We also have a shorter 25 question quiz on this book:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/quiz-for-cbca-book-week-2020-the-glimme-by-emily-rodda-25-questions-12364642
You might also be interested in our two quizzes on The Secrets of Magnolia Moon by Edwina Wyatt
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/quiz-for-cbca-book-week-2020-the-secrets-of-magnolia-moon-67-questions-12413025
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/quiz-for-cbca-book-week-2020-the-secrets-of-magnolia-moon-25-questions-12413298
This resource contains 5 comprehension activities all about the weather. They are suitable for using with year 1 or lower ability year 2.
There are three differentiated levels. There is a colour and black & white version of each level.
Each level contains five short pieces of text with words that can be sounded out. There are three trickier words which have pictures in the lower and middle levels to help children work out what they say.
Each passage is followed by 5 simple questions.
There are five different topics:
What is the weather?
Let it snow…
Breezes, gusts and gales
Rain, rain go away
Heatwave!
PDF file format.
There is also a PowerPoint included in the pack containing a slide for each text from the middle ability so that you can go through the comprehensions before the children complete them. Each slide also contains 3 words that are trickier to sound out, with sound buttons underneath them. This is not editable. Please click the ‘Read Only’ button in the centre of the screen to open it.
Answers are also included.
All of the documents are in the zip file.
No further preparation needed.
This interactive PowerPoint quiz is perfect for using in the 2020 Australian CBCA Book Week. It contains 25 questions on The Glimme by Emily Rodda. The Glimme is in the CBCA 2020 short list for ages 7-12.
You can use this as a starter, an assembly, a filler or a main activity. All questions are multiple choice. After you have chosen an answer for each question, click again and the correct answer changes colour. The PowerPoint is not editable. Please click the ‘read only’ button to open.
Example questions include:
What is in the glass roofed room in Edge House? Painted panels, Plants or Dragons
Why is he renamed Penn? His mum was called Penny, He likes to write or He likes to draw
How long does Teller have to complete his mission? 1 year, 1 month or 1 week
What special gift does Lone Annie have? She can heal people, She can visit the past or She can see the future
(There are no illustrations from the book included because these are copyrighted.)
The quiz is in the zip file.
You might be interested in our longer 78 question quiz:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/quiz-for-cbca-book-week-2020-the-glimme-by-emily-rodda-78-questions-12364302
You might also be interested in our two quizzes on The Secrets of Magnolia Moon by Edwina Wyatt:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/quiz-for-cbca-book-week-2020-the-secrets-of-magnolia-moon-67-questions-12413025
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/quiz-for-cbca-book-week-2020-the-secrets-of-magnolia-moon-25-questions-12413298
This resource is an interactive lesson aimed at whole class or group phonics. It is a 39 slide Powerpoint presentation that allows children to revise phonemes and learn or revisit the alternative ‘s’ sound. It covers the alternative 's’ sound as in ‘sugar’ and takes 15-20 minutes.
The PowerPoint is split into different sections:
Revision of phase 5 phonemes in a random order
Introduction to the ‘s’ sound and opportunity to trace the shape of the sound
Spotting the odd one out (the picture with a different ‘s’ sound)
Segmenting and blending sounds in ‘s’ words
Phoneme counting
Phoneme spotting in sentences
Writing words with the ‘s’ sound
Writing a sentence with the ‘s’ sound
(The PowerPoint is not editable. Click the ‘Read Only’ button to open it.)
I’ve used this PowerPoint with classes for phonics lessons. I’ve included a page of instructions to accompany it.