Included in the zip folder: detailed lesson plan, presentation, four fantastic personification generators (spooky woods, old buildings - inside and outside, creepy caves and majestic mountains). You will need 1-6 dice to use the personification generators. Try them - the combinations really work! Everything is Word/PowerPoint so you can edit and adapt as you wish. This is a carefully planned, fully resourced and differentiated lesson about personification aimed at upper key stage 2 writers. I used this session to create poetry with personification, but it would work equally well with descriptive writing or story settings. The lesson is structured as follows: Warm up What is figurative language? What is personification? Can you personify your noun using one of the prompts on the screen? Shared writing 2 differentiated dice-based personification generator activities - children use these to create stunning examples of personification about spooky woods (one verse) or spooky buildings (two verse: inside/outside writing) - try it! Peer assessment There are two additional personification generators if your class are keen to do more (cave and mountains). Fully road tested - in one session the whole class had written superb personification poems (example included on the ‘woods generator’), and they really enjoyed the spooky theme. I hope your class have the same success.

Play this to develop children’s understanding of clauses and to encourage children to vary the number of clauses they include within their sentences. I have tried so many approaches to teaching this, and I have had the most success with this one. Assessment focus I can understand the terms ‘clause’ and ‘conjunction’. I can write sentences with one or more clauses. I can write sentences with many clauses, without confusing the reader. Here you will find three versions of the engaging dice activity ‘Clauses, clauses, clauses’. In its simplest form, children write one or two clause sentences, using a limited number of conjunctions. Other versions go up to six clauses - very tricky! I have also included an extra version (my favourite activity for teaching clauses, conjunctions and multi-clauses sentences) called ‘Clauses, clauses, clauses - scavenger hunt version’. This activity promotes lots of talk around word classes and building multi-clause sentences. I recommend playing this a few times across the school year, as these skills need revisiting many times to build confidence. I hope your class find these activities as useful as mine did. Good luck!

Here is a short science fiction/suspense model for Year 5 or Year 6. I have also included an annotated version with teacher notes showing all of the key grammatical features, the way the text is structured and some suggested activities. How is this text organised? Are you good at hiding? Do you ever keep secrets? Can you keep secrets from your reader? This story is all about keeping secrets, and causing confusion, uncertainty and suspense! Can you keep the identity of your man character (a cat in the model text) hidden until the end and let the reader try and work out what they are? Can you keep the danger unknown until right at the end? Can you finish on a cliff hanger? So many questions… Build your own story from here. Scatter clues about the identity of your main character and keep the danger hidden. Here are the themes of each part of the story: Setting, fear, an unknown thing coming Flashback 1: unclear warnings and rhetorical questions Sustaining injuries: main character stops what she is doing and runs for home, but it is treacherous Home and family: How is the character motivated to survive? Her den and cubs! Flashback 2: she remembers more warnings, but the threat remains uncertain and confusing Main character finds a familiar place – nearly home? – nearly safe? A mysterious object finally appears – everything scatters – character’s identity revealed Fear changes to hunger – prey becomes predator… cliff hanger!

This is a one day greater depth writing workshop aimed at upper KS2. There are 13 resources attached and a detailed plan of the day. Children have a complete piece of writing by the end of the workshop. Here is a brief summary of the day: Part 1 Get to know the model Reading as reader: How did the story make you feel? Reading as writer: How did the author do that? Drama (pairs) – bring the text off the page Part 2 Know your animal! Part 3 Know your mysterious object! Part 4 Quick plan Part 5 Parentheses activity Part 6 Extended writing time Success criteria for extended writing I can organise my story creatively and keep the reader in suspense (withholding vital information and using flashbacks) I can create suspense using modal verbs and rhetorical questions I can interrupt my sentences using ‘dramatic dashes’ (parentheses) I can use technical language appropriately in my creative writing (precise language around my animal’s physical features, habitat, behaviour and offspring) I can use figurative language

Talk! Drama! Reading skills! Grammar skills! Games! Writing an information text! In this three week non-fiction writing unit, children look at an information text (a poster about the now destroyed Brighton Chain Pier). Then they play with the text and create new sentences of their own, developing key Year 2 grammar skills. Finally they create an information text of their own (Brighton Palace Pier), applying the skills taught in the previous two weeks. Every resource is included and resources are differentiated 3 ways - there’s a lot of work here! You could easily swap the model for an attraction local to you. I would simply keep the model and swap the outcome to an attraction near you - the skills in this unit are all transferable. When you download, use the full unit and planning in the zip folder - ignore the files uploaded for the preview. Here are the objectives covered thoroughly across the three weeks: This unit revisits Y1 grammar: I can make up sentences. I can join my ideas using ‘and’. This unit introduces new Y2 grammar concepts: I can use commas for lists. I can use questions, statements, exclamation and commands. I can use expanded noun phrases to describe and specify [for example, ‘the polished stones’]. I can add a chunk (clause) using ‘and’ (coordination) This unit introduces the following Y2 terminology: noun, noun phrase, statement, exclamation, command, adjective, verb, comma This unit introduces these Y2 composition objectives: I can write an information poster. I can plan or say out loud what I am going to write about. I can use new words (vocabulary). I can write my ideas in sentences (continued from Y1). I can make improvements and changes with the teacher or with my friends. I can re-read to check that my writing makes sense. I can proof-read to check my spelling and punctuation [Are the ends of my sentences punctuated correctly?] I can read aloud what I have written clearly and with expression. Reading skills : I can spot meaning breakdown. I can repair a meaning breakdown. Enjoy!

Word and PDF versions of everything included! In this fun ‘fronted adverbials’ game, children are journalists, working for rival newspapers. Bitter rivals! Players want to be first to the big news stories before their rival scoops them. Only the ‘First on the scene’ will get the story in their paper. The first player to finish their newspaper is the winner! Assessment focus I can use fronted adverbials to say ‘How?’ ‘When?’ ‘Where?’ events happen I know that fronted adverbials come ‘first’ in a sentence Explanation If you’ve been teaching for as long as I have (don’t ask!), you’ll have heard adverbs referred to as ‘roving reporters’. ‘Roving’ because they have more freedom to move around the sentence than other groups of words and ‘reporters’ because they often tell us more about the action and how/when/where it happens. • Slowly, he entered the room. • He slowly entered the room. • He entered the room slowly. Fronted adverbials aren’t ‘roving’ because they always open the sentence. You could think of these words and phrases as reporters (journalists), chasing big news stories and wanting to be ‘first on the scene’ to tell us more about the action as it happens. That’s why I created the game ‘First on the scene’ to encourage young writers to open sentences with adverbials.

I can identify unstressed vowels I can spell words with unstressed vowels Children (and adults!) often spell words with unstressed vowels incorrectly (how about these: diffrent, intresting, seprate, evryone…). This dice game encourages learners to engage with this tricky group of words. Players identify and sort unstressed vowel words into groups. They record them on a game sheet. No marking - peer assessment built in (answers are on the reverse of cards). There is a competitive element to add some fun, but it could just as easily be played collaboratively. I have included ideas on how to quickly differentiate the game, to include all learners. There is also a quick warm sorting activity. My class enjoyed it. I hope yours do too. All you need is 1-6 dice. The rest is all here.

Two dice games for KS2: ‘Point or show quantity’ pupils explore the two basic functions of determiners. ‘Introduce the noun’ pupils add determiners to noun phrases and sort determiners into groups. Both games have a competitive element but are tightly focused on the following objectives: I know that determiners have two jobs: ‘pointing’ or ‘showing quantity’ I can use determiners accurately in sentences I can use a wide variety of determiners to introduce nouns I can sort determiners into groups Determiners can get a little confusing for primary school aged children when you get beyond simple ‘a’ or ‘an’ activities. How far you go with your class is best judged by you (of course!). Through the presentation (which you may wish to simplify, depending on how far you wish to go with determiners) and engaging dice games, children will use lots of talk, and really engage with this tricky-to-define but important group of words.

Create stunning descriptive sentences about WW2 settings. During this sentence building activity, young writers describe damaged homes, a pier and a pavilion. You could quickly edit the images and the word banks to match landmarks in your local area. We went on to use the sentences we created in stories set during WW2. Enjoy!

This session teaches children one way of structuring a biography paragraph. Prior to the session, children will need to have gathered some information for the biography they are going to write. Everything else you need is here! You are buying: - a detailed lesson plan; - a 'paragraph party' resource, based on Anne Frank's life; - a presentation, including suggested shared/modelled writing.

A brilliant lesson on homophones and near homophones, suitable for Year 5 and Year 6. Assessment focus: I understand the term ‘homophone’. I can give definitions of many common homophones. I can spell common homophones. You are buying: - a detailed lesson plan; - ‘mistaken identity celebrities’ PowerPoint; - mistaken identity scavenger hunt; - self –assessment tool (on powerpoint); - engaging dice game differentiated 2 ways - plenty of challenge - answer checkers provided; - SEN/low attainers activity; - an extension activity for those who finish. You’ll love this session - a fun way to explore homophones and near homophones.

Do you want your class to learn about the language of explanation whilst also learning how to host parties and start fires in the wild? Try the dice activity ‘Cause and effect’. Assessment focus: I can use causal connectives to extend a sentence or begin a new sentence. When writing explanations, many children find it difficult to discern between conjunctions that join sentences (eg because, so) and adverbs/adverbials that begin a new, closely related sentence or at the very least follow a semi-colon (eg however, as a result of). This activity gives children lots of opportunities to use causal connectives (because, so, so that, however, consequently, this means, this will, this may, as a result of this) orally and in sentences. Most importantly, it helps them to think about whether they are extending a sentence or beginning a new one. This could be used before my other popular resource for explanation writing: ‘Explain yourself’. That activity enables children to develop a full explanation, whereas this narrows the focus to sentence skills.

*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.

Two different sets of quiz, quiz, trade cards for learning about shape. Quiz, Quiz, Trade is a fun and active way for children to learn facts. The cards can be tailored to cover any subject area, topic or learning objective and are particularly useful for introducing a new subject area that your class wouldn’t already know lots about. You could include a range of differentiated questions, but I have often found that the children you least expect will learn the more complicated facts after playing this game. The idea behind Quiz, Quiz, Trade is that it is a fun, non-threatening and exciting game that is inclusive for all and will help all children in your class to acquire knowledge quickly. Really handy when you just need them to have a bit of background knowledge or learn something quickly in order to apply or develop the knowledge in their work. Quiz, Quiz, Trade can be used for any age group (my cards are all aimed at years 4-6) that will be able to read the questions and answers. I have used Quiz, Quiz, Trade in observations with much success (see instruction page) and consistently use it to introduce new topics in class-the children love it!

Quiz, Quiz, Trade is a fun and active way for children to learn facts. These times table Quiz Quiz Trade cards have red, amber, green and sometimes blue questions. The children can say which colour question they would like, depending on how confident they are feeling.

Children will need access to Base 10 (or Diennes) and 0-9 dice for this activity. My year 5 class were struggling with decimals so I made up this simple activity, and had quite a lot of success with it - children fed back that it helped their understanding. First children use 0-9 dice to generate a decimal and record it on the sheet. Next, they make the number using Base 10 and draw it on the sheet. Finally, they place their decimal on a 0-9 numberline. They should record it as a fraction and a decimal at this point. Children repeated this activity three or four times until they felt confident with their understanding. It is differentiated so that children can work with tenths, hundredths or thousandths.

I have recently produced a far more in depth ‘Theseus’ unit with masses of carefully produced, differentiated resources and detailed planning. It is available here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/theseus-and-the-minotaur-3-weeks-of-detailed-planning-fully-resourced-and-differentainted-11914692 Here are lots of older Theseus resources, including a model text, comprehension work, story boards, fronted adverbials activity, planning frames etc.

Assessment focus I can use colons to explain and add detail (description: detail) I can use colon sentences in non-fiction writing Colons can be used for various purposes (before lists, introducing quotes), but this activity focuses on the use of the colon to separate two main clauses. By playing this dice game, children get plenty of opportunities to practise this skill, whilst finding out about some very creepy creatures. There is also a version of the activity for learners that need a lot of support, and an explanation of what to do with your high attaining writers. Enjoy!

6 editable posters, pupil questionnaire, pupil response sheet, spreadsheet for data This resource is designed to support learning about growth mindsets in primary schools. It includes 6 growth mindset posters. These are saved as jpegs and as a powerpoint, so that you can edit them to meet your own needs. It also includes a pupil questionnaire made up of 11 questions in a powerpoint, so that you can assess the impacts of raising awareness of mindsets in your school. Use it before you start any work on mindsets, and then again at the end of the year. There is a pupil response sheet too, to make data analysis easy. I used this across Year 5, as a sample group, but I think it could be used across the primary age range. I have now added a simple spreadsheet. This will help you analyse your data giving a percentage for each response and generating a simple bar graph for each question. I dropped the graphs into a powerpoint to share with staff, governors and of course pupils. It’s a useful ‘before and after’ activity to show any impact/identify where you need to do more work.