Hello, thank you for looking around my shop. I am a teaching deputy head teacher, with 16 years of experience, who works in a rural primary school. I know how wearing many hats can eat into your time but understand how important excellent resources are for engaging pupils so they make accelerated progress. I have included lots of free resources in my shop but placed a small charge for resources which have taken me many hours to create. I hope you enjoy them and use them to motivate your pupils.
Hello, thank you for looking around my shop. I am a teaching deputy head teacher, with 16 years of experience, who works in a rural primary school. I know how wearing many hats can eat into your time but understand how important excellent resources are for engaging pupils so they make accelerated progress. I have included lots of free resources in my shop but placed a small charge for resources which have taken me many hours to create. I hope you enjoy them and use them to motivate your pupils.
This is a fantastic whole book planned guided reading unit based on the book Song of the Dolphin by Elizabeth Laird. The story is based in a Scottish seaside town where a young boy discovers how plastic and balloons is endangering local dolphins. The story also has a mystery as his mother disappeared and is rumoured to be a selkie. The main character and his friends have to find a way to convince a local supermarket to not release thousands of balloons to save the local wildlife. I have included a variety of different guided reading formats to focus on word choices, retrieve key informing and summarising aspects of the text.
The questions are designed to easily fit English books as I have adjusted the margins so they fit. I hope your class enjoys this book as much as mine have always done.
This is a word mat I made for my class to help them choose the correct conjunctions for their writing. The list includes:
• Causal
• Comparative
• Coordinating
• Explaining
• Listing
• Opposing
• Subordinating
• Time
There is also an explanation which I stick on the back of the list as a reminder to the pupils what a conjunction is.
This is a 3-week unit which is based on the text ‘Roman Soldier’s Handbook’ by Lucia Fabricius Imperiosa. This is a graphically pleasing and informative book which my class have enjoyed reading during our Roman topic. The final piece that this unit produces is a historical information text based on an area of Roman life (that interest each pupil). Most times pupils are inspired to either write about the army, Gladiators or the sanitation!
I have listed the learning objectives for all of the lessons below. Also, I have included all of the worksheets, PowerPoints, links and resources you will need to teach this unit straight away.
Stage 1 - Stimulate and generate- Learning outcomes
To gather information in note form
To write an information text
To find the meaning of words
To retrieve and record information from text
To gather information in note form
To use notes to write an information text
Stage 2 - Capture, Sift and Sort- Learning outcomes
To find key features of an information text
*To write in the third person
*To know how to write in the past tense
*To write using technical vocabulary
*To write headings and sub-headings
*To write captions
*To retrieve and record facts from a variety of texts
Stage 3 - Create refine evaluate- Learning outcomes
*To plan an information text
*Extended Writing - To write an information text
*To publish an information text using digital media
Stimulate and generate = This usually starts with a hook to interest the class where the class realise who they are going to write for so they have a clear purpose and audience. Activities can include reading excellent model texts, drama or researching more about the author or the content of the book.
Capture, sift and sort = This is the part of the unit where pupils look at key features, practise skills they will need in order to complete the final piece or new learning for objectives they have not learnt yet.
Create, refine, evaluate = This is where you bring all you have learnt together and plan the final piece before you write it and then edit it to improve the piece. This can include self, peer or teacher led reviewing.
This is a 3 week unit of work that is based on the book ‘Ice Trap’ by Meredith Hooper. This book tells the amazing story of Ernest Shackleton’s epic attempt to be the first person to reach the south pole. When his ship, the Endurance, gets trapped in the ice his adventure turns into a battle to stay alive and fins a way to escape. My class love this gruesome and heroic story and always produce some amazing diary extracts as a character from the Endurance who suffered through this ordeal.
This unit includes all of the worksheets, plans and PowerPoints to teach it today.
The learning objectives for this unit of work are;
• To write a diary extract
• To ask questions and draw inferences to improve understanding
• To draw inferences and make predictions using the text
• To explore the themes of a book
• To evaluate the author’s use of language for effect
• To build background knowledge of a topic; gathering information and making notes
• To explore the character’s feelings and emotions through drama
• To identify different word classes
• To establish the key features for successfully writing in role
• To vary sentence openers to engage the reader
• To use brackets, dashes and commas to indicate parenthesis
• To understand the difference between colons and semi-colons and their use
• To portray contrasting viewpoints effectively in my writing
• To plan effectively for writing
• To edit and publish writing for the chosen audience
This unit of work uses the 3 stage planning process of:
• Stimulate and generate
• Capture, sift and sort
• Create, refine and evaluate
Stimulate and generate = This usually starts with a hook to interest the class where the class realise who they are going to write for so they have a clear purpose and audience. Activities can include reading excellent model texts, drama or researching more about the author or the content of the book.
Capture, sift and sort = This is the part of the unit where pupils look at key features, practise skills they will need in order to complete the final piece or new learning for objectives they have not learnt yet.
Create, refine, evaluate = This is where you bring all you have learnt together and plan the final piece before you write it and then edit it to improve the piece. This can include self, peer or teacher led reviewing.
This is a 3 week unit of planning that produces a fantastic descriptive narrative writing piece based on the beautiful picture book Leon and the Place Between. This is the story of a boy who gets whisked away during a magical trick at the circus to where magic exists. This unit always inspires some excellent creative writing as it so engaging. This text is best suited to lower KS2 but can easily be adapted to upper KS2.
I have listed the learning objectives for all of the lessons below. Also I have included all of the worksheets, PowerPoints, links and resources you will need to teach this unit straight away.
Stage 1- Stimulate & Generate learning outcomes
• To be able to write in a form appropriate to the task
• To engage with a text through its setting
• To use expanded noun phrases to convey complicated information concisely
• To be able to select vocabulary to create an impact on the reader
• To identify different word classes in a text (e.g. verb, adjective, noun, adverb conjunction, pronoun & preposition
Stage 2 - Capture, Sift & Sort learning outcomes
• To modify sentences using a variety of word classes and adverbials
• To write poetic sentences, using authorial techniques
• To cohesively join sentences to build stanzas within poems
• To make plausible inferences about a character’s emotions throughout a text
Stage 3 - Create, Refine & Evaluate learning outcomes
• To generate and select ideas relevant to the text
• To sequence key events across a story
• To write a descriptive narrative based on the style of an author I have read
• To revise, edit evaluate and improve my writing
• To revise, edit evaluate and improve my writing
• To publish work for a given audience and purpose
Stimulate and generate = This usually starts with a hook to interest the class where the class realise who they are going to write for so they have a clear purpose and audience. Activities can include reading excellent model texts, drama or researching more about the author or the content of the book.
Capture, sift and sort = This is the part of the unit where pupils look at key features, practise skills they will need in order to complete the final piece or new learning for objectives they have not learnt yet.
Create, refine, evaluate = This is where you bring all you have learnt together and plan the final piece before you write it and then edit it to improve the piece. This can include self, peer or teacher led reviewing.
This is a list of over 140 fronted adverbials that include:
• How
• When
• Where
• Frequency
This is a great resource to improve pupils sentence starters that I use in most creative writing sessions in my class.
This is a display I have made for my class. Every pupil has an individual coat of arms where they add their own interests and things they are proud of. The larger class coat of arms is for writing class generated rules and expectations. It is displayed with pupils coat of arms surrounding the class coat of arms with rules and expectations. There is space around the large coat for pupils to sign their names.
This is a display that I use to remind the class of the theory of Austin’s Butterfly. It is simple and colourful and can be displayed in a relatively small space like near the door to be a constant reminder to the class.
• Austin’s Butterfly
• amazing is
• achieved
• through
• working
• together.
This is a great 2-week unit where pupils write a mini saga about a mythical creature. This requires them to really edit and refine their work as they are only allowed to use 50 words to tell the story with. I base this unit around the fantastic book; ‘The Atlas of Monsters’ by Stuart Hill & Sandra Lawrence which shows where mythical monsters come from around the world. Pupils will choose one of these mythical beasts and research them then write their myth in a challenging mini saga. This unit makes pupils in my class really consider their word choices and how best to write an engaging and effective story in such few words.
I have listed the learning objectives for all of the lessons below. Also, I have included all of the worksheets, PowerPoints, links and resources you will need to teach this unit straight away.
Stage 1 - Stimulate and generate- Learning outcomes
• To evaluate how engaging a mythical story is
• To gather information in note form
• To summarise facts about a given subject
• To retrieve and record information from text
• To discuss words and phrases that capture the reader’s interest and imagination
Stage 2 - Capture, Sift and Sort- Learning outcomes
• To evaluate and edit by assessing the effectiveness of other people’s writing and suggest improvements
• To identify the main ideas drawn from more than one paragraph and summarise these
• To write expanded noun phrases
Stage 3 - Create refine evaluate- Learning outcomes
• To plan and organise my ideas to effectively support my writing
• To plan and organise my ideas to effectively support my writing
• To publish a mini sage
Stimulate and generate = This usually starts with a hook to interest the class where the class realise who they are going to write for so they have a clear purpose and audience. Activities can include reading excellent model texts, drama or researching more about the author or the content of the book.
Capture, sift and sort = This is the part of the unit where pupils look at key features, practise skills they will need in order to complete the final piece or new learning for objectives they have not learnt yet.
Create, refine, evaluate = This is where you bring all you have learnt together and plan the final piece before you write it and then edit it to improve the piece. This can include self, peer or teacher led reviewing.
I run an after school club for cards as it is excellent for teaching pupils about probability, tactics and requires higher level thinking. I have included 3 sets of rules for the games I play, they are:
The Rules of Knockout Whist
The Rules of Hearts
The Rules of Contract Whist
This is a Forces Fairground display that I made which ends up being a colourful Ferris Wheel. The display includes explanations for the following forces:
Gravity
Water Resistance
Pulleys
Forces
Parachutes
Machines
Air Resistance
Friction
Levers
Mechanisms
Springs
Movement
The display has a quiz which pupils can interact with too.
This is a fantastic resource I made for improving spelling during morning activities. There are 20 different 9 letter words which are placed in a wheel. One of the letters is put in the middle, which has to be used in every word. Pupils then try to make 3 letter or more words.
I score it by allowing the pupils 5 minutes to find words. They get 9 points for the 9 letter word and 8 points for 8 letter words etc. Pupils read their word out and if no one else has got it they get the points. Everyone who gets the 9 letter word gets 9 points, even if someone else gets it too. Each slide has a clue what the 9 letter word is. The next slide always reveals what the 9 letter word is.
This is a display which is eye catching as well as useful to have displayed all year round. It reminds pupils the importance of considering the best possible conjunction to use each time they want to write and. It has an explanation why pupils should try to only use and in lists furthermore a list of possible alternative words for pupils to use.
A Venn diagram for Reading, Writing and Maths in PowerPoint. To add your pupils just insert a text box where they need to go. This is a simple tool for class teachers to use to track the progress of the pupils in their class throughout the year.
These are pupil tracking sheets for Reading, Writing and Maths. There is a commentary section at the bottom where you can record pupils who need targeting and what interventions you plan to provide them. This allows you to target interventions across the school and monitor what has impact which allows you to make better than expected progress for the pupils in your school.
Having matching style tray labels is always a great way to improve the appearance of your classroom. I have chosen a green and light blue border for these labels but this is easy to adjust to suit your preference by double clicking either the text or the label. I have also included a blank sheet of tray labels in green, red and blue so you can either add your own make your own with a different border.
Tray labels include:
• Whole punches
• Scissors
• Scrap paper
• Rulers
• Pencil sharpeners
• Colouring pencils
• Plain paper
• Squared paper
• Line guides
• Lined paper
• Scrap paper
• Whiteboards
• Whiteboard pens
• Book labels
• Stickers
• Homework
• Reading records
• Glue sticks
• House point chart
• Achievers award
• Wet play games x4
• Highlighters
• PPA
• Monday
• Tuesday
• Wednesday
• Thursday
• Friday
• Whiteboard cleaners
• Treasury tags
• Felt tips
• Book labels
• Mirrors
• Counters
• Place Value Cards
• Arrow Cards
• Multiplication Grids
• 100 Squares
• Dienes
• Numicon
This is a great whole book planned guided reading unit based on the book Mysterious Traveller by Mal Peet & Elspeth Graham. The story tells of an old man finding an abandoned baby in the desert who he adopts as his own grand-daughter. he teaches her how to track her way through the desert and she travels with him while he guides traders through the deserts of northern Africa. When he loses his vision she becomes his eyes and they work in tandem on their adventures. I have planned a unit of work that is split into 9 different reading comprehensions as each set of questions has between 6 and 8 questions and covers 5 pages of the book.
I have also included printer friendly pages where there are 3 copies of the questions on each page so it is easy to prepare for lessons. I have included all the answers too as this is a great time saver. The questions are designed to easily fit English books as I have adjusted the margins so they fit. I hope your class enjoys this book as much as mine have always done.