Raising standards in KS1 and Special Needs: helping every child to succeed.
I have taught systematic phonics to all ages and abilities for over 30 years. My teaching degree was in Environmental Studies and I hate to see science reduced to box-ticking when there is so much to discover about the wonderful world we live in.
So, I produce Phonic resources that meet the real needs of children and teachers, along with science resources to engage children in learning about the natural world.
Raising standards in KS1 and Special Needs: helping every child to succeed.
I have taught systematic phonics to all ages and abilities for over 30 years. My teaching degree was in Environmental Studies and I hate to see science reduced to box-ticking when there is so much to discover about the wonderful world we live in.
So, I produce Phonic resources that meet the real needs of children and teachers, along with science resources to engage children in learning about the natural world.
3 differentiated worksheets to teach KS1 children to label the parts of a tree when they are visible in winter.
4 parts taught: branches, trunk, crown and twigs.
See our blogpost for more help to teach children to identify trees by their structure in winter. Become a Nature explorer yourself too!
https://ks1nature.weebly.com/free-science-lessons/trees-in-winter-for-kids
Learn about the life-cycle of a Daffodil and and see how much of the science curriculum you can cover - without any effort and extend the learning into language and art in a truly child-centred way.
Our spring Daffodil Science Lesson Pack is great for KS1 classroom use or for home-education nature study and includes:
An 18 slide narrated Power Point to help KS1 children learn how Daffodils grow.
Starting with the bulb under the ground the Power Point shows how Daffodils grow and teaches about the bulb, leaves, stem, buds, calyx (the papery covering of the buds), petals, trumpet and pollen. This Power Point is a taught lesson - with sound.
Lesson outlines included with extensive notes for both Year 1 and Year 2 with relative National Curriculum for Science links.
How to dissect a Daffodil.
Pictures and word cards for multiple uses, e.g. labeling, making a matching game
Label the parts of the plant
Front cover of a Daffodil diary for recording observations
Poetry lesson based on William Wordsworth poem ‘Daffodils’
Acrostic sheet
Suggested art activities for each year group.
8 Photos for display/discussion
Learn about Oak trees with our simple first factual decodable reading book plus a PowerPoint to make guided reading easier.
With only common basic digraphs and trigraphs it will enable your early readers to tackle this subject confidently.
Short with only 8 pages
New vocabulary is highlighted on the page where it is first met.
Everything is explained in simple language and accompanied by photos and drawings.
A clear, easy-to-read font.
The 8-slide PowerPoint has a screen to block off text until revealed and a marker to run under the text as the child/ren read/s.
It is ideal for use when studying a topic on trees or autumn.
Use it for guided reading sessions or for reading comprehension work.
Suited for both classroom use, small group and online tutoring.
All you need for a great Weather project in KS1 - plenty of differentiated ideas,
Including:
Weather topic ideas for your science and geography lessons
**Supporting worksheets **and puzzles to help the development of vocabulary.
Our mini-clouds project can be incorporated into your Weather Project, providing differentiated activities for Science, Geography, English and Art with supporting resources.
Clouds Powerpoint 29 slides to help children learn about clouds and how they are formed
**The Seasons and Weather PowerPoint **
57 slides taking pupils through the seasons thinking about the weather and how it affects the things that happen
**The Weather Word Mat ** will be great to help children write up their observations.
25 vocabulary flashcards, phonetically coded to help young learners
Covers all of the KS1 weather components of both the Geography and Science curricula.
This is a National Curriculum/Common Core aligned themed mini-unit about EVERGREENS suitable for K to 1 (Years 1 to 2) and mixed Grade classes, covering Science and English: Informational texts.
The Evergreens mini-project lesson teaches:
· To know that evergreen trees stay green all
year through while deciduous trees drop their
leaves in autumn
· To know that some evergreen plants have
flat leaves and some have leaves called needles
· To know the properties of the leaves of
evergreens - strong to withstand wind and
frost
· To know that the needles are different/grow
differently depending on whether the tree is a
fir, spruce or pine.
Key vocab: evergreen, needles, leaves, deciduous, pine, fir, spruce, Holly, Ivy
The pack includes:
A full lesson plan
PowerPoint overview of the subject
Powerpoint with the 3 reading passages in a format suitable for guided reading
Fact sheet - handy easy-to-read facts for teachers to prep before the lesson or to use with pupils where appropriate
Supporting worksheets with:
· 3 de-codable, differentiated reading comprehension passages with matching comprehension activities
· 3 Differentiated worksheets to help children write about evergreens
A set of photos to be used during the lesson and/or for display.
Flashcards of key vocabulary
16 picture cards to sort into deciduous or evergreen
This is a NO-PREP Lesson – straight out of the pack!
The lesson will cover parts of the ‘plants’ element of most science curricula, providing a wonderful opportunity to teach more of/revise/reinforce the science curriculum while teaching English!
Lesson notes for a lesson about evergreens are included with all the resources you need - except evergreen leaves.
handy easy-to-read facts for teachers to prep before the lesson
pictures
19-slide PowerPoint (with a script under each slide in the notes - use in presentation mode - go to slide show, click three dots bottom left and select ‘Presentation Mode’.))
The pack includes a 31-page PDF, one 19-slide PowerPoint and one guided reading PowerPoint of all three comprehension passages.
18 weather-related worksheets and puzzles covering 6 areas of weather:
•What is the weather like today?
•Hot and Cold
•What shall I wear today?
•It’s Windy
•It’s Raining
•General Weather
3 Worksheets for each:
1 easy activity for younger children/lower ability,
2 word searches, 1 easy and 1 harder.
Use for a topic on weather, or as early finisher activities at any time of the year.
The harder words searches were originally written for a class of Y3 children so can be used with that age group too.
These worksheets are included in the Weather Project Pack but are listed here separately for those who only want the worksheets.
A complete lesson to help children to learn about the seasonal changes in an Apple Tree that lead to the formation of apples.
Includes
Lesson Plan
2 differentated worksheets to show life-cycle of an apple tree through winter, spring, summer and autumn
Supporting resources: flashcards for 4 key words, original photos, 1 page four mini photos, one for each of the four seasons.
Suggested to be used with our PowerPoint on the same subject:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/-12752722
Buy as a bundle and save!
Two PowerPoints suitable for use when teaching about Seasons/weather/changing levels of light through the year.
Covers many areas of science:
Seasons:
Learn what changes to look out for across the four seasons
Learn that days get shorter and longer throughout the year
How this affects the weather
How the seasons affect us: what we wear/what we do
How the seasons affect plants and animals
Light and Dark
Darkness is the absence of light
The sun is the main source of light on Planet Earth
Reminds pupils never to look directly at the sun
The sun provides warmth too - or Earth would be very cold
Why plants need the sun: to make food to help them reproduce
Creatures of the day (the need for survival)
Shadows - how they are formed
Plants and animals that prefer the shade and why (the need for survival)
Creatures of the night
Nocturnal (the need for survival)
Both with full narration notes plus notes under slides for use in Presenter View.
Yes, Y1 can study the life-cycle of a frog.
If frogs or frogspawn captures your children’s interest then use it to teach KS1 Science. Just because the National Curriculum says do life-cycles in Y2, it does not mean you cannot touch the subject in Y1! Much can be learnt that can actually covers the Y1 Science Curriculum!
KS1 Overview:
To enable pupils to experience and observe phenomena, looking more closely at the natural and humanly-constructed world around them. They should be encouraged to be curious and ask questions about what they notice.
Y1: Animals, including humans
Statutory requirements
identify and name a variety of common animals including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals
identify and name a variety of common animals that are carnivores, herbivores and omnivores.
Y1 Science is all about arousing interest in the world around the child - use whatever is at hand, such as…
Butterflies: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12679180
Conkers: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12239335
Squirrels: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12742537
Use our Lesson notes to help you to plan your lesson about the life-cycle of butterflies.Aimed to help stimulate enquiry and observation. Useful as part of work on life-cycles.
How to raise butterflies from the egg stage
Links to the National Curriculum for Science
What to look for/background information for each stage - helping you to feel like an expert!
Questions to help get the class thinking and to model asking questions
Guided reading sheets: blow up for class use, or copy for group/individual use
Use the worksheets for follow up:
Pictures to order the life-cycle of a butterfly
Label the parts of a butterfly
Draw and write about an observed caterpillar/butterfly
Reading comprehension
2 poems with comprehension exercises to follow each (two ability levels)
Decorated writing sheets
See our other life-cycle Lesson resources and Powerpoints:
Life-cycle of a Horse Chestnut Tree
Apples
Frogs
Daffodils
Apples
Buy our 2 clouds project resources in one bundle price.
The Cloud Power Point presentation follows the text of the Cloud reader, available for free in Lilibette’s Resources store, adding in slides to stimulate further thought/discussion: full of beautiful photos of the sky. This brings the book to life!
Last but not least, a pack of ideas for Science/Geography/English and Art activities to help you teach young children about clouds.
This bundle pack will work well with a project about the weather.
A 26 slide PowerPoint about Squirrels for EYFS/Y1. Suitable for use a as lesson starter, or to ignite interest, or for reinforcement. Full of beautiful, original photos. Best used in autumn or winter when squirrels are more obvious.
The PowerPoint is read by the teacher, using either the notes seen in presenter view (go to slide show and then into presenter view). or from the notes pack attached in the download.
It can be used to teach the Animals component of the National Curriculum for Science for Year 1.
It starts in story form to engage pupils before leading them to consider:
What squirrels look like - their characteristics
Where they live
What they eat
How they behave
Once studied, pupils can use their knowledge to compare squirrels with other animals.
This PowerPoint can be used with our Squirrel Photo Pack and our Squirrel Worksheets for Y1.
Brought to you by KS1 Nature
18 pages of ideas/activities for learning about clouds for KS1 (5-7): Science/geography/Language/Art plus supporting worksheets to record observations and learning. This short unit can be used alongside a project about weather.
See also our
Weather for KS1 Project Pack:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12616669
25 Weather words flashcards in a clear font, phonetically coded to help young readers.
Use for:
Writing tasks
Science activities (groups weather by season/kind - e.g. heat/cold/wind etc…)
Word Walls
Literacy Centers
Pocket Charts
Dictionary work
Have you seen our Weather Project Pack?
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12616669
And our Clouds Project Pack?
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12056090
And our Clouds Power Point lesson?
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12056140
10 birds to colour.
Hand-drawn originals.
Suitable for ages 5 +.
Help children to learn:
to identify different birds,
to appreciate their differing colourings and structures
to sort birds
Ideas for use:
Colouring for early finishers - much Science can be learned from colouring birds, so this would not be a ‘busy’ activity.
Once a bird has been coloured, more could be found out about it. This could lead to research, factual writing, as well as Science work as the bird’s characteristics are studied.
If different children take a different bird, then they can share what they have learned and comparisons can be made.
Not for use as Clip Art.
This 34- page Y1 teaching resource pack, based on Blackbirds, will help children to use the local environment throughout the year to explore and answer questions about animals in their habitat. It can be used to teach both science and English: reading and writing non-fiction.
Contains:
Two lesson outlines (but material for more)
3 differentiated factual reading pages (print A 3 and fold into A4, or print 2x A4)
The story of Blackbirds nesting (4 A4 pages with text and drawings)
1 page mini black and white pictures of the nesting story for ordering/writing about)
2 colouring pages
3 differentiated Blackbird Facts worksheets
4 differentiated reading comprehension sheets (based on the factual reading pages and matched in ability
2 differentiated writing sheets for factual writing
5 Photographs
Helps children to ask questions and find answers, first through observation and then from other sources. Learn about
colour/identification
what Blackbirds eat
where they live,
how they move and
nesting behaviour.
The pack will:
Help you to fully embrace the non-statutory guidance for the Year 1 National Curriculum for Science as well as teaching the statutory requirements.
Bring Science alive and help you to deliver excellent lessons based on squirrels in the local environment.
Use with our 41-slide Blackbird PowerPoint!
Get more hints and tips about teaching your lesson at KS1 Nature:
https://ks1nature.weebly.com/science-lessons/blackbirds-a-complete-lesson-for-ks1
Designed to appeal to the Y1 child, gently introducing key vocabulary.
Written by an Environmental Education, Early Years specialist (ages 3 to 8) who understands how children learn.
Year 1: Science curriculum covered:
• identify and name a variety of common animals, including birds.
• describe and compare the structure of a variety of common animals (including birds).
Identify and name a variety of common animals that are …omnivores.
Once the Blackbird has been studied you can compare it to other birds, or even other animals in the local environment.
See our Squirrel Resources fro Y1 here:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12742537
Brought to you by KS1 Nature: Helping teachers teach science, naturally, through the local environment.
This Leaf Sorting lesson pack can help you to deliver the National Curriculum for Science in Year 1. The Leaf Sorting Pack includes
12 pictures of varying leaves, suitable for sorting according to vein pattern, formation and leaf properties (e.g. prickly/rounded edges, deep cut edges etc…) - in two sizes for whole class/group use or display.
a My leaf recording worksheet
a sheet of 12 small pictures to sort, cut out and stick.
See also our Why do leaves fall ? PowerPoint, which goes well with this pack of resources.
Full lesson notes are provided at KS1 Nature.
An easy reader for those beginning to read longer simple texts - with words that can be sounded out using phonic knowledge and only a few most common sight words.
Learn about the Song Thrush through a simple story. Learn Science at the same time!
Use with any phonic programme after a child has learned the basic digraphs and trigraphs, for example, after Phase 5 Letters and sounds, or after RWI Speed Set 3 have been completed.
See more at https://ks1nature.weebly.com/tipsideasfreebies/song-thrush-for-kids.
An easy phonetic reader for those beginning to read longer simple texts - with words that can be sounded out using phonic knowledge and only a few most common sight words.
Learn about a garden bird - the Chaffinch- through a simple story. Learn Science at the same time!
See more at [KS1 Nature]https://ks1nature.weebly.com/
Learn the life-cycle of a frog with our simple first factual reading book: Each stage is explained in simple language and accompanied by photos and drawings.
A clear, easy-to-read font.
Ideal for use when studying a topic on frogs.
See how a tadpole turns into a frog.
Use for guided reading sessions or for reading comprehension work.
Suitable for upper KS1, early KS2 and reluctant/struggling readers.
'Frogs is one in a series of factual readers for those just beginning to take off in reading independently, see more:
https://ks1nature.weebly.com/nature-readers.html
Air
Clouds
Water