Simple literacy activities on spelling and sentence structure are contained in this twenty page booklet on the theme of animals. Short poems by Benjamin Zephaniah and Gyles Brandreth and information about electric eels keep students interested with scope for their own research and writing about an animal of their choice. Aimed at students who need to catch up at secondary school or primary school students.

Don’t you just hate it when students overuse the verb “get” in their writing? With this fun powerpoint, you can encourage your students to abandon this tedious and unimaginative verb. The powerpoint contains several quick-fire activities and the folder includes five worksheets to embed the learning. Great for teaching synonyms and how to vary your vocabulary.

This lesson on creating complex sentences with the relative pronoun “which” contains two activities. First of all there are ten pairs of sentences to combine into one sentence, with answers provided. Students are then given the first part of a sentence, which they have to extend with “which”.

Forty-four clues to names of animals that have come into English from nine different languages. Teach students to recognise that English is a language full of borrowings from other languages in this fun powerpoint-based lesson. All answers provided on the slide to enable students to mark their own work. Can be completed individually or in groups.

Students learn how to personify their home town in a poem by studying two examples of poems that personify cities. Twenty-five slide powerpoint, plus worksheets with fill in the blanks exercises.

Two-page word document with magazine text about Bill Gates’ new house in Spanish (three paragraphs); followed by ten comprehension questions in Spanish; followed by various follow-up activities: Translate a paragraph from Spanish into Engish. Research other philanthropists. Write a paragraph explaining what you like to do for your money. Enough activities to keep students occupied for an hour. Could be used for cover. Activities aimed at GCSE syllabus.

Inspire an interest in reading by telling your students about the fascinating life and work of Michael Morpurgo. This thirty slide Powerpoint covers his early life, his career, marriage and work. Find out the amazing story about how he discovered the identity of his biological father and how the author’s note at the beginning of War Horse was a little white lie until 2011. Finally there are four choices of activities for students to complete ranging from researching one of his books to writing an article about him. Students find real lives interesting, so this is a good way to hook them into reading.

Help your students to become better writers with this Powerpoint which explains how to construct complex sentences with embedded subordinate clauses. Students have several supported opportunities to practise the construction and the second section includes ten supported sentences where students have to come up with the embedded clause about X-Men superheroes. Finally, students create three sentences using the construction independently.

This lesson begins with a quiz to see if the students can guess which animal is being described by the poet. They are given a second chance to guess the animal with a series of images to represent each line of the poem. After a short analysis of the writer’s message, students are then given help to write their own six-line poem on an animal of their choice. Students are then guided through the re-drafting and presentation process. A fun couple of lessons that can link into work on animal rights. Alternatively, it could be used to set up a school poetry competition.

A set of twelve comprehension questions on the opening to Ray Bradbury’s novel helps students to subsequently tackle the English Literature exam-style question ‘How does the writer present Montag in the opening of the novel’. The folder includes a Powerpoint with starter activity and an exemplary introduction to the exam question, as well as a Word copy of the opening and a Word set of comprehension questions.

In May 2021 the Minderoo Foundation published a ground-breaking report into the problem of single-use plastics. They discovered that a mere twenty global companies were responsible for over fifty percent of the non-recyclable plastic in our world. The report created the first ‘Plastic Waste Makers Index’. This lesson is based on this report, simplifying complex terminology so that students can understand the shocking detail and the contribution of single-use plastic to the climate crisis, which is predicted to grow even further in the coming years. Activities to engage students are interspersed throughout the 39 slide Powerpoint and the final activity is a letter to government to persuade policy-makers to legislate to curb the prolific production of this noxious product. There is a suggested letter structure and a reminder about persuasive language techniques.

Teach your students how to collate information from two sources into a structured report with recommendations. This fourteen slide Powerpoint introduces the purpose of reports and then guides students through how to write a report for their headteacher on the suitability of two applicants for the position of English teacher at their school. The Word worksheet with the teacher applications is included.

Teach your students the importance of the history of sailing and its effect on the language with three-part lesson. First read a timeline of the history of sailing. Then create sentences with seven idioms from the semantic field of sailing. (Both these terms are explained on the Powerpoint). Finally, students create and educational poster to explain the origin of idiomatic expressions from the world of sailing.

Worksheet and Powerpoint that practises and explains these two confusing words. The Powerpoint includes a fun activity where students guess the correct word from a series of posters and film posters. In total thirty chances for students to practise getting the confusing words right.

Many students write stories in which they jump between the present and the past tenses. This Powerpoint explains the difference between the simple past and the simple present tenses and contains a variety of exercises to encourage tense consistency and to help them to feel more confident. The zipped file also contains two informative and practical follow-up worksheets which ask students to put a passage about William the Conqueror into the past tense. The other worksheet asks them to put information about the Titanic into the past tense also.

Teach your students to think outside the box and the power of metaphors with the intense, five-line cinquain poetry lesson. The example poem compares anger to a bull, allowing you also to explore the nature of emotions and the representations of animals. A lot of lesson in just five lines! Enjoy!

Designed to teach the Seamus Heaney poem “Death of a Naturalist” in the Eduqas Poetry Anthology, this zipped folder contains a powerpoint with starter activity, context, student activities and plenary. There are three student worksheets focussing on Heaney’s use of sensory description; a storyboard of the key events in the poem and an exploration of what Heaney’s original images make students imagine. There is also a colour-coded annotated copy of the poem for teachers’ reference and a relevant answer sheet for one of the student’s worksheets. An added bonus is an example of a comparison to another poem in the anthology. Overall this should take two lessons and explore the poem in great depth and detail, making it memorable for students.

Celebrate the life of the remarkable Edith Cavell with this two-page information sheet, accompanied by comprehension activities and a vocabulary extension worksheet. A Powerpoint with starter and answers to the questions with lots of ideas for further activities is also provided. Designed to commemorate both World War One and the sacrifice of women in that conflict, Edith Cavell is an inspiration to all.

Calling all budding journalists. This twenty-three slide Powerpoint helps your students to analyze the key features of headlines and the key language techniques used. They are then prompted to write their own headlines for fictional news stories, culminating in them creating their own intriguing headline to grab the reader’s attention. Worksheet with techniques included. A fun lesson that might inspire your students to become the hacks of the future.

This fifty slide powerpoint on Sherlock Holmes could be used as background to the study of a Conan Doyle text; as part of a crime writing scheme of learning; or as a one off lesson to get students to create their own detective character. The folder includes: A powerpoint with brainstorming activity on different fictional detectives; a ten question quiz on the character traits of Sherlock Holmes; historical background information about how Conan Doyle created Holmes and his popularity. A worksheet to support students to create their own detective. Follow-up comprehension questions to consolidated the learning for homework.