37 spelling questions linked to the Y5/6 spelling list and other patterns and rules that Y5/6 need to know. Complete each challenge to solve the Christmas joke puzzle! The answer is at the end of the sheet - don’t show your pupils. It’s a festive way of assessing spelling!

It can be tricky for young spellers to choose between the suffixes ‘-able’ and ‘-ible’. The two player dice game ‘WinnABLE’ gives players lots of opportunities to spell and discuss these words and introduces a much needed element of FUN! There is also a simple presentation and a word sorting warm up to use with your class. I’d allow a full session for this suffix work.

A two player dice game that really gets children talking about the rules for adding -ing. This resource comes with a peer marking sheet so that children can learn from each other. Depending on your class, you’ll need at least 30 minutes to play this.

A fun version of consequences that aims to develop awareness of determiners, adjectives, noun, verbs, adverbs and prepositions.

This is a five session writing workshop designed to support Y6 writers achieve their age related expectation. It could easily be adapted by other KS2 classes for use as news report unit. During the project, children pick events from the story of Theseus and retell them in a journalistic style. They explore topic sentences, direct speech, reported speech, passive voice and many other skills. All resources are included. I ran this as a one-day writing workshop for writers who were a little off track. It could easily be adapted for use in any KS2 setting - everything is fully editable. I had some great outcomes - I’m sure you will too.

This is a one week (5 lesson) poetry unit inspired by a Simon Armitage poem. The unit is based on my popular free resource ‘First day back poetry’. I have spent some time developing that activity into five fully resources lessons. I hope your class enjoy it as much as mine did! Everything you need is here. All resources are fully editable (PowerPoint and Word). If you buy this unit, please please open the zip folder, containing lesson-by-lesson sub folders within. The PNG files are just to preview the unit. Lesson 1 Reading fluency, vocabulary and comprehension • I can read poem showing understanding through pace, tone and volume • I can discuss a poem and discover its meaning Activity 1 Model expressive reading of a line and then a verse. Activity 2 Partner reading. Activity 3 Discuss the poem and try some comprehension questions Lesson 2 Exploring vocabulary • I can explore the meaning of words (in context) Activity 1 Reusing and defining Activity 2 Sketchnoting Lesson 3 Capturing ideas for poems of our own • I can compose lines for a free verse poem using my own life experiences Activity 1 Connect Activity 2 Enjoy listening to poetry Activity 3 Partner talk Independent task Can you make the ordinary sound amazing? Lesson 4 Arrange and edit for poetic techniques • I can edit my poem for poetic techniques Activity 1 Warm up Activity 2 Listen Activity 3 Arrange Activity 4 Edit for poetic technique Activity 5 Peer assess Lesson 5 Present and perform! • I can prepare a poem to be presented to an audience Activity 1 Read your poem Activity 2 Think of title for your poem Activity 3 Prepare your poem to be read aloud Activity 4 In groups of four, read your poems to each other

Your class will enjoy playing: 'Will you or won't you?' This is a brilliant way of motivating children to use modal verbs accurately in sentences. Children have to play against each other. One child is trying to go to a sleepover and the other other is desperately trying to avoid it. Sounds bonkers? Well, maybe a little, but it certainly generates a lot of sentence work and discussion. Children will all know what modal verbs are by the end of the lesson. That's a promise. All instructions and resources included - just add dice and counters.

Prepositions can be a tricky group of words for some children. Through these three games, children will become very comfortable at knowing, classifying and using prepositions and prepositional phrases. First, play the memory test - some surface level learning that ensures that children know some examples of prepositions. Next, play the sorting game. This goes a little deeper, and children learn the different functions of prepositions. In the final game, children move on to prepositional phrases and use them in sentences. The last game is differentiated 3 ways to support those that need it and challenge those that are ready. Play these games over two lessons and your class will be confident at explaining the functions of prepositions and able to use prepositional phrases within written compositions. Explanations of the concepts, rules and resources all included, as always.

There are two useful resources here: 1. A carefully planned lesson about dashes, exploring how different types of extra information can be added to a sentence. This includes a detailed lesson plan and 3 activities (the final one is a team game, with clear differentiation). All resources are included. The lesson covers these Year 5/Year 6 objectives: I understand the terms dash and parenthesis/parentheses I can explain some uses for dashes I can use dashes creatively for lots of different purposes This is perfect for a demonstration lesson or an observed session. There is minimal ‘teacher talk’ and lots of active pupil engagement. 2. I have also included a further punctuation game: ‘Punctuation show-offs’. I can use brackets, dashes (parentheses) and semi-colons in my sentences. Would you like the writers in your class to be ‘punctuation show-offs’? Me too. I created this dice activity to encourage children to add extra information to sentences using parentheses (brackets and dashes) and also to separate closely related main clauses using semi-colons. I have also provided teacher and - more importantly - child friendly explanations and examples of all concepts. Children may incidentally find out about Usain Bolt, Picasso, Stephen Hawking and a 1000kg bowl of cereal. Have I caught your interest yet? This whole activity has a ‘show-off’ theme and it’s fun. After playing this, you can remind your class to be ‘punctuation show-offs’ in their own writing. Finally, I have added a ‘Victorian’ version of the same game, to show how it can be adapted to different themes.

A simple presentation about active and passive sentences, with some key questions. It leads into a board game that could be used for independent work, in pairs. The game could be recorded in written sentences or simply to used to orally practise active and passive.

Assessment focus I can use a wide variety of sentences and conjunctions in my writing Explanation Some of us are great at writing long descriptive sentences, whilst others are superb at short and shocking ones. We don’t always remember to use a wide variety of sentence types throughout our writing. It is far more enjoyable to read a story packed with questions, exclamations, complex sentences and speech sentences than a story that sticks to one or two of these. Have you ever wanted to write a story without doing any planning or preparation? Well, now’s your chance!

You are buying four resources here. They could be used in this order: 1. A scavenger hunt activity - active start to the lesson Cut up the word bank provided and stick the cards around the room, or simply leave the word bank out on tables. Children need to hunt for words that match plural rules. Finally, children apply the rule and change the singular noun into its plural form. 2. Extension tasks (in orange) for those that finish quickly. 3. A PowerPoint that goes over the rules from the scavenger hunt. Clear up any misconceptions before moving on to the next activity... 4. A fun dice game for exploring 6 of the most common rules for changing singular nouns into plural nouns. The first one to fill their solar system with plural nouns wins! It has a space theme ('Plural Planets'), but I have included an editable version of the gameboard so that you can easily change the theme to match your class topic. Enjoy! *I have added a' Vikings' themed gameboard to show how the game can be adapted to different writing topics.

*In this resource I have argued against space travel and computer games as I thought it was likely that most of my class would like to take the opposing view for their own writing, later on. A fully planned and resourced lesson, complete with differentiated activities and a model text. First, children learn the opening paragraph to the model text ‘Computer games are harmful to children’. This should be quick and easy to learn – add a few actions if you wish. Use the PowerPoint or a text map to support. Then, take a quick look at how the text has been changed to the subject of space travel. What has changed? What has stayed the same? Briefly explore the idea that, in persuasive writing, if you can write one opening paragraph, you can write hundreds. It is simply: • Introduce the subject of the debate • Introduce which side you are on • State that you have many strong arguments Next, move on to looking at the how the first argument is structured. Again, it follows a pattern: • Topic sentence – to introduce the key idea of this particular paragraph • Facts and opinions • A rhetorical question On a flip chart or screen, show how you can use this simple structure to write a paragraph against exploring space on the subject of safety. There is an example of how you could do this on slide 8. Now the children should be ready to try this structure themselves. During independent time they use the same structure to create their own persuasive paragraphs about space travel. After this they can organise persuasive paragraphs about anything they choose. I have had great success with this approach and so have my colleagues. I hope you find it useful too.

Assessment focus I can compose simple and compound sentences. Explanation This is two versions of the same game. By rolling dice and flipping cards, children construct their own simple and compound sentences. The second version has lots of silent letters words as this was a spelling focus in my class. It is an effective way of making sure that children are secure with these basic - yet important - sentence structures.

This is a whole lesson about the spelling patterns able and ible. It includes 2 short quizzes, making up new words and a fun writing activity that encourages children to apply their understanding, using a tried and tested word bank and a fun (persuasive) context. Great for spelling and sentence work.

I can say and write simple, compound or complex sentences If children become confident at using a blend of simple, compound and complex sentence structures, their writing will be varied and accurate. For many young writers, this is not easy to achieve. These sentence skills must be revisited and rehearsed over and over again. Practising sentence skills could get boring! This lively dice game, to be played in pairs, generates lots of purposeful talk about sentences. Children collect game cards to win! If children record their sentences, it also generates plenty of good examples to refer back to during whole class sessions. The activity is differentiated three ways. At its most basic, children generate a mixture of the three sentence types. On track writers try a wider variety of subordinating conjunctions. More able writers are moved on to creating sentences with a greater number of clauses. I used this for myth writing. If you wanted to, the ‘game cards’ and sentence examples on the ‘dice guides’ could be easily changed to match any story or text. It’s a great way of learning or revisiting these three important sentence types. *I have added a version of the game with Beowulf game cards and another version with ‘ough’ words, to demonstrate how the game can be adapted to different texts or spelling patterns.

Five straightforward worksheets that require children to think about the meaning of prefixes, and select correct prefixes. A time-saver. Prefixes covered: dis, re, mis, over, in, il, im, ir, Suffixes covered: ence, ance

This is a fun and engaging whole class activity about organisation within a paragraph. Using a non-fiction context (information about space) pupils go to a paragraph party. They have to work out who is hosting the party (the topic sentence), who is the uninvited guest (information that doesn't belong) and various other activities. In short, it's a lively and memorable way of exploring non-fiction paragraphs.

THIS IS THE BEST WAY TO MAKE PARAGRAPHING A FUN AND CONCRETE EXPERIENCE. This is a fun and engaging whole class activity about organisation within a paragraph. Using a non-fiction context (information about football) pupils go to a paragraph party. They have to work out who is hosting the party (the topic sentence), who is the uninvited guest (information that doesn’t belong) and various other activities. In short, it’s a lively and memorable way of exploring non-fiction paragraphs.

Working on biographies? Teach your class a simple structure for organising information within a paragraph. This whole class activity supports both reading and writing skills. Assessment focus I can group information into paragraphs I can organise the sentences in my paragraph into a sensible order I have used this ‘paragraph party’ approach several times for information texts and persuasive texts, and it really helped children to improve how well their writing was organised. That’s why I have developed a similar approach to use when tackling biographies. Children will learn a simple pattern and later on they can apply to their own writing. Using lots of constructive talk, children have to work together to organise different sections of Anne Frank’s life. Children need to find the host of the party (the ‘topic sentence’) and throw out any information that is not relevant (the ‘uninvited guest’). Then they explore the subtle way information is ordered. Later on, children explore whole text structure. Finally, children pick a new subject (Greta Thunberg, Boyan Slat, Marley Dias or Pele) and apply their learning; they have to organise their facts into paragraphs. Each paragraph follows the same pattern, and children can use this pattern to support any biography writing that follows.