If I have six sweets and increase them by a half, what fraction would I have to reduce the result by to get back to the original 6 sweets? This resource was made as a way of explaining a KS3 exam question I found, which used this idea but with x amount of sweets.

This is a good resource for pupils beginning in algebra, especially those who like to know exactly what's going on and why. The left hand column of the resource gives written examples showing that, for example, 3 x a x a can be written as 3a(squared). It proves this by working the same example through with numbers. 3 x 4 x 4 = 3 x 4(squared) = 48. The right hand column requires the pupil to have a go at writing a simplified algebraic expression based on the pattern in the left column. There is room to do a 'numbers version' if that helps. At the bottom, there is a challenge to work the idea backwards, expanding expressions such as 6fg to find out what's really going on inside that expression.

These three games are a good introduction to algebraic terms and expressions and are designed for two players. In two of the games, the question cards will have something like b + b + a + a and the players need to see if they have the simplified answer 2b + 2a on their grid. In the third game, the question card might show yz + z and the pupil needs to expand it to y x z + z to see if they have it on their grid.

This resource is designed for groups who are in the early stages of column addition. It is used a bit like a smartboard (although it's in word) as its examples need to be worked through with the children. Visually, the questions are shown with arrow cards to help show that adding 2 and 6 in the tens column is the same as adding 20 and 60. This also helps if you are then able to provide this resource children to use 'hands on' in the lesson. For questions that require carrying, the appropriate 10 or 100 is available at the bottom of the page to drag up in to the questions. The first questions are TU + TU with no carrying, reaching HTU + HTU with carrying by the end.

Here we have three resources. The first is a number line from -20 to +20 which will help pupils to complete the two activities. The first activity asks pupils to increase or decrease a temperature by a given amount of degrees. Blue and red are used to help colour co-ordinate the questions depending on whether the temperature rises or drops. Later questions involve a temperature that first goes up and then comes down a bit, providing a basic two-stage question. The second activity requires the pupils to do multiple increases or decreases (or both) to get a final temperature. For example: It's 11 degrees and the temperature drops by 2 degrees every night for six nights. It them increases by 3 degrees for one further night. What's the final temperature?

The main activity in this lesson begins with asking children to make some true statements about a group of shapes (where the statement will be true for ALL shapes in that group). From here the activity moves on to looking at a statement about a shape and seeing if children can find an example of a shape which proves this statement and another shape that disproves the statement. A sheet of shapes has been provided so children don't always have to draw shapes but can cut and stick instead. This resource also comes with 3 introduction or follow up activities linked to shapes and their properties. There are instructions for drawing shapes with given properties; a Carroll diagram for sorting right angles and curved sides, and a table looking for the basic sides and corners of well-known 2D shapes.

Four sheets are provided here: two classwork sheets and two homework sheets with a set for more able and a set for less able. The sheets look first at making 100 using deines cubes, where children are encouraged to draw the extra cubes and sticks until they reach 100. The second half builds on this, making the link with the deines equipment that the cubes will always make a ten and the sticks will need to add up to the other ninety. The homework sheets provide more practice of what has been covered in lesson.

Find the missing sides by scaling up and down.

This resource comprises two sheets. The first shows a model answer about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's descriptive writing skills in The Hound of the Baskervilles, beginning with a simple answer, moving to a more detailed answer and finishing with some extra detailed analysis. The second sheet is made up of prompts for sentence starters on making a point, introducing evidence from the text and beginning to explain what it means.

A lesson to introduce Alan Peat's 2a sentences, presented in a word document so that it can be edited for your needs as required. Pages 1,2,4 can be presented on the IWB screen to the children. These involve the introduction, individual/partner activity using whiteboards and the instructions for the plenary activity (which involves editing and improving a previous piece of the child's English work with this new skill). Page 3 needs to be printed as the worksheet for the main activity (finding 2a sentences in a short story and then writing some of their own 2a sentences with prompts for ideas).

Here we have all of the resources for a lesson on possessive apostrophes that assumes some children will know the basics already. It would be good for the first lesson *you* have taught them on it, assuming they have done it sometime last year, or as a revision lesson after a long break. It starts with the whole class reading an article and spotting missing apostrophes before focusing in on some whiteboard work using pictures as prompts. A partner work/table group game (which could be made competitive or even silly/funny if you like!) is then followed by some written activities to go in the book. Plenary and homework provided too!

I made this resource when working with some weaker Year 6s who got in a massive muddle with converting cm, m and km. They couldn’t remember what to times and divide by, whether they were shifting the digits or decimal point (because different teachers had taught them differently!) or which way they were shifting things. So this powerpoint/lesson avoids that method and uses the lining up method where they need to write down the conversion, then the question underneath and spot where 0s and decimal points need to go. E.g.: 1000m = 1.000km 0751m = 0.751km The lesson starts with some warming up of place value and lining up decimal numbers. It then moves on to look at units of measure and asks children to estimate some lengths, weights and volumes. (It seemed that my group had no idea what a ‘reasonable’ answer was, as they had no context of distance or weight.) The powerpoint explains how to line up to find the answer. Questions are provided and slides 26-29 should be printed for the independent worksheet. All answers provided. I appreciate children need to know the multiplying and dividing method for converting measure (see my other resources). This was a much-needed ‘quick-fix’ for SATs preparation. Please do make sure you go over the standard method with your class at a later date!

This four page booklet begins with an explanation of the terms ‘edges’, ‘faces’ and ‘vertices’ and then tests this knowledge using three basic 3D shapes. The inside of the booklet has two tables and images of prisms and pyramids. It requires the pupil to find the number of edges, faces and vertices for ten of these shapes. It also asks them for the number of sides of the base shape on the pyramid and the number of sides of the cross-sectional shape on the prism. This is to help with the investigation on the final page. The last page asks pupils to look at the numbers in the tables and spot patterns/rules. It encourages them to express their thoughts in algebra if possible. Then, to test their theories, there are another two shapes to work with on this final page. Aimed at Year 6 - Year 9 pupils.

This quiz is made up of 5 rounds with ten slides of questions per round plus a bonus question (usually a harder challenge). Answers are provided so that the quiz could be left for a supply teacher/covering TA. Play with the whole class working independently, or in teams (it is set up to be played by 2 teams which are indicated by shapes in top corner of each slide). Each slide also has colour coding for level of difficulty and an option for winning points on each question. Each round has a particular theme or topic: tenses, phrases and clauses, punctuation, types of words and making words (including root words, suffixes and antonyms).

In this activity, pupils need a fiction book to hunt for examples of authors using writing skills. Writing skills needed include those such as short sentences for drama, starting sentences in different ways and using different words for 'said'. It also asks them to find examples of ellipsis, exclamation marks, proper nouns, hyphenated words and commas in lists, among other things. For each of the skills/examples required, there is an example given on the sheet to act as a model and to remind the pupils in case they have forgotten.

This double-sided sheet introduces these four sentence types, explaining what they are are what punctuation they need. It looks at statements, commands and questions first before checking understanding with a simple quick identification exercise. It then looks at exclamations (as these are a little harder to explain) and gives another 5 sentences for children to identify whether they are statements or exclamations.

This resource allows for work on eight sentences of similes, using 'like', 'as' and 'as if'. It is a cut, match and stick activity. The first five sentences require the children to match the starts and ends of sentences, with pictures to try and help them see the connections. The last three sentences have the starts of the sentences and blank boxes for them to create their own endings, with enough room to draw a picture to help show the comparison. Images have been labelled as appropriate for reuse via the advanced search of Google images.

Suitable for upper KS2, these powerpoints each contain 10 slides: half with questions and half with answers. Each slide has an activity that is differentiated but easily edited to suit your needs. My recommendation would be to let the children choose which colour box to start on and, if they finish ahead of time, they can progress onto the next box. This resource is ideal for revision of recently covered topics or for 'just keeping things ticking over'. Week 1: Number Week 2: Calculation

If your children read The Week Junior, get them to read the ‘All about Spanish Flu’ article on p.12 in the 13th January 2018 edition. Follow it up with this quiz which is based mainly on reading comprehension skills. 10 questions. Great for morning work or guided reading.

If your children read The Week Junior, get them to read the President Trump article on p.2 in the 13th January 2018 edition. Follow it up with this quiz which is based on reading comprehension skills. 10 questions. Great for morning work or guided reading.