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.

Lesson plan and 3 differentiated versions of a fun game to practise spelling words ending words ending –el, -al, -le. Assessment focus I can spell words ending –el, -al, -le Explanation ‘Towel’, critical’ and ‘apple’ all have the same pronunciation at the end. So how do people know which spelling to use? Most words end –le (-al and -el endings are far less common). Also –le endings tend to follow letters with ascenders or descenders. There are no rules that work every time! –el, -al, -le game You will need: a 1-6 dice per pair, a word bank per pair, a recording sheet each

This is an Iron Age themed Quiz Quiz Trade with 32 facts for the class to learn - this really support information writing. Also included are instructions on how to play Quiz Quiz Trade and an extra little 12 fact Quiz Quiz Trade about Mammoths!

This is whopping 70 slide powerpoint and 16 scratch files to walk you through coding a finished ‘launcher’ style game. The powerpoint gives you everything you need to know and all the code blocks too. You have to launch an animal at its food, and code gravity and obstacles. It’s great fun and will take a class around 5 lessons. It really depends on how much coding they have done and how much further they want to take the game. I have used it across KS2.

Sweet shop lists! A fun way to generate list sentences Assessment focus I can use a comma (or ‘and’) to separate things in a list You will need: a dice guide (included), a tick chart (included), a 1-6 dice Support: Reduce the number of items on the tick list. Use a 1-3 dice and reduce the number of rows on the dice guide. Challenge: For each item in your list add an adjective to extend the noun phrase. There are some helpful words in the ‘Yum word bank’. Example: We shared our chewy fudge, sour laces and delicious lollipops.

There are lots of resources already available for expanded noun phrases, but none that really challenge children to develop their vocabulary and make really adventurous or precise choices. This dice activity encourages children to try out new word choices from extensive word banks, and it is fully differentiated into three versions. In its simplest form, children add adjectives and pairs of adjectives to noun phrases. In its most challenging form, children may have to add two compound adjectives and a preposition phrase - this can result in some wonderfully descriptive sentences. It all depends on the roll of a dice. Of course, teachers that love using my games will have guessed that already! Try it with your class and then ask them to apply the skill in their next composition. Fully editable so that you can easily adapt it to the unit you are working on by changing the single clause sentences that the children will be developing. *The main version here works well with myth, legend and adventure, but I have added a sci-fi version to show how it can be adapted for use with any fiction.

I couldn't find much out there on KS2 noun phrases. Lots of stuff for KS1, but I feel it still needs pushing in KS2. On top of that, I couldn't find any decent short texts for sci-fi writing... So here is a very exciting - but also brief - sci-fi text. Children have to expand the noun phrases. There are 6 suggested ways they can expand nouns and a detailed word bank to support them. The text could also be used as a model for writing - it would be easy to play with it create something entirely new. Worked for my class.

From Year 2 onwards children are expected to understand and compose statements, commands and questions as part of their understanding of grammar and punctuation. Bring this dry subject matter to life by playing 'Mission Control'. Why should a fun games-based approach only be used in mathematics? This resource has everything you need: full lesson plan with differentiation; PowerPoint to support direct teaching; fully resourced game. Just add 1-6 die and you are ready for blast off. 10...9...8...7...

This one works a treat! ***This game and 39 others are included in ‘40 Grammar Dice Games’ available from my TES shop*** ’More Grammar Dice Games’ is also now available Fronted adverbials should now be taught from Year 3 upwards and this is a useful way in - it will also stretch talented KS2 writers. This dice-based activity encourages children to add a wide variety of fronted adverbials to a main clause. The game is differentiated into three different versions. In its simplest version, less confident writers can pick appropriate adverbs to open sentences. In the most challenging version writers must elaborate and include more than one adverbial before the main clause. This can produce some stunning sentence work. My class have been able to apply this skill in their own writing and I’m sure yours will too. There is a presentation to provide your class (or any less confident teachers) with the knowledge needed to use the activity creatively. NEW! I have added a new game ‘Warrior Swords!’ to develop the skill of varying the length of fronted adverbials. It is more challenging than the other 3 versions attached. I hope you find the games as useful as I have. ***This game and 39 others are included in ‘40 Grammar Dice Games’ available from my TES shop*** ’More Grammar Dice Games’ is also now available

Children are expected to capitalise proper nouns from Year 1 onwards, but many children in Key Stage 2 find this tricky to remember. Often, children do not understand the difference between common and proper nouns. This lesson, complete with presentation and an dice game, will give children experience of using a wide variety of proper nouns, from book titles to shop names. Classes about to undertake the Y6 Grammar Test would find this a useful refresher on common and proper nouns. Make missing capital letters a thing of the past by playing: ‘How many capital letters?’

This lively whole class game involves stealing words and wearing blindfolds - it causes a real buzz of excitement around creating complex sentences. It is one of my most involved games, but very easy to get the hang of. You’ll need a full lesson to play it. A fun whole class grammar game promoting the use of subordinating conjunctions in complex sentences. My class loved it - I hope yours will too.

This was a really fun and engaging lesson about polygons, which produced some terrific work. There is clear differentiation, and absolutely everything you need to make this fly in your classroom. I created it for a year 3 class, but I think it could be adapted for any class from y2 to y6. Included: detailed lesson plan quiz quiz trade quiz quiz trade instructions spelling box activity photos of finished investigations support activity - matching polygons to their names instructions for paper-folding polygons investigation at two levels of challenge table top vocab cards additional problems for children who have finished

I can spell ‘ie’ and ‘ei’ words Lots of children (and adults) get mixed-up when spelling 'ie' and 'ei' words. Is the rule 'i before e except after c' actually helpful? This dice game encourages children to explore the rule and decide for themselves. Here are some words that keep to the rule: field, shield, brief, chief, belief, believe, unbelievable, relief, relieved, piece, achieve receive, conceit, deceive, deceit, conceive, misconceive, perceive, perceivable, ceiling, receipt Here are some that don't: neighbour, weigh, counterfeit, foreign, kaleidoscope, their, caffeine, leisure, protein, seize, weird ancient, deficient, glacier, proficient, society, science, sufficient, species Play the game ‘Follow the rule/break the rule’, classifying words into two groups. After the game, the class could consider if this rule may work best: “i before e except after c, but only if it rhymes with a bee!”

All maths teachers, regardless of the age they teach, know how important it is for children to be fluent in their root addition and subtraction facts. I couldn't find them as a word document anywhere, so I made these two simple grids. They can be used in so many ways, for teaching, practising and assessing how children are doing with their basic number facts.

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.

A lesson pitched at upper KS2 that breaks down solving a multi-step word problem. Multiplication, addition, and subtraction are required! Work is differentiated to two different abilities. Answers also provided.

These resources are designed to promote the teaching and learning of basic number facts across primary school. If children are fluent they do not need to keep going back to inefficient counting methods! Many of the fluency skills promoted here may be the same in Key Stage 1 as they are in Key Stage 2. This is because for many children it is just as important to learn root addition and subtraction facts in Year 6 as it is in Year 1. These number facts will support children when facing the very large numbers they have to deal with at primary school, so it is well worth promoting fluency across your school…and I’m not just talking multiplication tables! Everything is fully editable, so adapt it to make it work for your school. Resources included: A whole school fluency map, showing the number facts that must be learned from Y1 to Y6 ( a lot of skills are repeated across every year group. This is intentional! Fluency guides for each year group, linked to the whole school map Fluency guides for parents (please make sure you send out with the ‘addition and subtraction roots on one page’ document copied onto the back of the sheet) Addition root facts Subtraction root facts Optional reward chart for parents to use at home, linked to parent guides Multiplication facts pre and post assessment sheet Division facts pre and post assessment sheet In the zip folder: Multiplication and division - bronze, silver and gold timed challenges, including medal chart and medals. We give out a times tables wristband anytime a child gets a gold medal - this has proved a big hit. Bronze - times table in order, 30 seconds Silver - times table out of sequence, 40 seconds Gold - times table with division facts, 80 seconds Good luck! I hope your fluency work has a positive impact on mathematics teaching and learning at your school. And remember explicit teaching of fluency skills is just as important as practising and rapid recall.

Create poetry on any subject using this engaging dice activity. Why not kick your next topic or writing project off with a some poetry? This works well as a stand alone activity or as part of a writing unit, to develop adventurous language. Assessment focus: I can use figurative language and word play I can assess another writer’s work (peer assessment) I can draft, edit and publish my own free verse Follow the steps of this fun two part lesson (approximately 2 hours needed) and pupils will be able to create poetry on any subject. Simply give pupils a picture they can write on, and let the activity do the rest. What’s included? A detailed explanation of the activity, with real classroom examples Resources to try the activity with an image of a Viking archer (but you could replace the image with anything you like - the activity will work just as well!) Differentiated activity sheets, with many examples of short lines, verbs, prepositions, personification, alliteration, metaphor and simile Peer assessment prompt sheet I use this approach a lot, often with great success. Give it a try!

This lesson is planned in detail and fully resourced, with warm up activities and 5 independent activities, all about subtracting from multiples of 10. First there is a subtraction fluency warm up activity, to get children involved straight away. Using the mastery approach, the lesson begins with simple concrete activity (using counters) that everyone can access. Following this, children can quickly move on to other activities, at their own pace. I used this in a Y3 class and it was a great session. It could work well in Y2 or early in Y4, to check understanding.