I have been teaching across the foundation phase and Key Stage 2 since 2004, and I have created a wide range of effective resources for all sorts of topics and subjects, all of which have been tried and tested with my own pupils. Most of my resources are already differentiated, as I know how much time this saves. I hope other teachers find these resources useful and that other pupils enjoy and benefit from them as much as my classes have. All reviews/ratings gratefully received!
I have been teaching across the foundation phase and Key Stage 2 since 2004, and I have created a wide range of effective resources for all sorts of topics and subjects, all of which have been tried and tested with my own pupils. Most of my resources are already differentiated, as I know how much time this saves. I hope other teachers find these resources useful and that other pupils enjoy and benefit from them as much as my classes have. All reviews/ratings gratefully received!
I wrote this pantomime script to perform with a very large Year 3 class and Year 4 (62 pupils total), so it has plenty of parts for a large group of children. There is a variety of parts for different abilities, with large, medium and small speaking roles, dancing and singing parts, and non-speaking roles. For a smaller group, you could miss out the first couple of scenes and start where Buttons introduces the panto part.
I have included EVERYTHING you will need (apart from a stage and some children!). All these resources are in this pack:
*Play script,
*Poster/front cover
*Lyrics for all the classic Christmas songs we used, and one song I wrote (shortened version of 12 days of Christmas)
*Cast list - shows the difficulty of each part and ideas for costumes, plus space to write the names of your actors for each part.
*Background PowerPoint - Background slides with scene changes, 'Strictly' scoreboard (insert photos) and credits at the end (insert children's names) for children to walk off at the end according to their parts.
*Props list - all easy to make or find.
*QR codes sheet - with links to YouTube versions (almost all with lyrics) of all the songs (I gave this as homework for children to practise the songs at home.
*Printable tickets - just change the date and time and print!
The title is "Cinderella's Strictly Christmas" and the story begins with parents, teachers and pupils all preparing in different ways for the school play, with auditions, etc, before launching into a pantomime loosely based on Cinderella.
Cinderella, Buttons, two wicked stepmothers, five ugly sisters, the King & Queen, four princes, the royal party planner and a host of other characters are all involved in this magical Christmas tale, culminating in a special Christmas 'Strictly' style dancing competition at the palace.
Four Christmas guests (Buddy the elf, Santa, Mrs Claus & the Grinch) arrive to judge, the ugly sisters dance with the princes in an attempt to win a grand royal wedding, but Cinderella and Buttons arrive at the end and they end up dancing and winning the wedding themselves, before getting married and living happily ever after! Finally Buttons gets the girl!
I used a selection of well known Christmas songs (some from the Home Alone films and a few other classics...all available on YouTube for practice), which many of my pupils knew quite well already, which made life much easier and made it really fun for everybody!
This took quite a while to put together, but hopefully it will save you a huge amount of time and work during this especially busy time of year! The children and parents at my school absolutely loved it! I hope you enjoy it too!
This is a simple reading comprehension task which I created for my Year 3 class as a homework task, but could also be used in class. There are 3 pages in the file - the first is the lyrics, which everyone will need, and then there are two versions of the questions (one for the majority of the class, and one simpler version for the less able). I tried to write questions using similar formats to those used in our Year 2/3 national tests. I also included a QR code at the end, which links to the song on YouTube, so they can have a sing-along when they have finished!
Differentiated worksheets for 3 ability groups. I made these as we were converting measures and also doing a robots topic at the time. The task is to convert measurements and put them in order, (first from shortest to longest, and then from longest to shortest) in order to help Hiro and Baymax (from Big Hero 6) with their robot building projects. This could be followed up with some practical measuring and robot building if you wanted to.
Pupils use the grid to draw an island, and then have to add a list of things on their map, such as a lake, hotel, beach, etc.
Once they have finished creating their island, they need to complete directions for tourists to help them get around their island. Using North, South, East and West pupils have to tell them how to get to and from different places on the map.
There are 3 differentiated versions:
LA - Have to give simple instructions for 4 different routes.
MA - Have to give instructions for 9 different routes.
HA - Have to give 9 instructions for different routes, and also have to give some directions for routes with more than one stop (e.g. hotel -> lake -> beach).
I printed them out on A3 for my Year 3 class to use, which worked well, but they could be printed A4 too.
I decided to make the most of the Pokemon Go obsession in my Year 3 class by making these worksheets as part of a unit on symmetry. They could also be used with able Year 2 or less able Year 4 children. I differentiated the task for three ability groups as described below (all 3 versions are included!):
LA - Children must decide which pokemon are symmetrical or asymmetrical, and draw one line of symmetry through the symmetrical ones.
MA - Pictures of different pokemon characters cut in half, so children can draw the missing half, making sure they remain symmetrical.
HA - Asymmetrical pokemon cut in half and split apart - children then draw the missing halves to match the two separated original halves, which in turn creates two brand new symmetrical Pokemon (they really liked this idea, and had great fun trying to think of names for the new pairs of Pokemon they had created afterwards!).
This file contains three differentiated versions of a simple research task which I created as homework for my Year 3 class to kick off our new topic about natural disasters.
The task is to find out about the main types of natural disasters and what they are.
*Less able pupils have to match the types of disaster to simple descriptions.
*The second version has some descriptions to match to the disasters, but some are missing and they have to write their own and then match them up.
*More able pupils have to research the types of natural disasters and write their own short descriptions of each one, so they will have to do a bit more research in addition to more writing.
Three differentiated time worksheets. I made them for my Year 3 class, but depending on ability they could be used from Year 1 up to Year 4.
Each set is differentiated with 3 different versions
*o'clock and half past
*o'clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to
*5 minute intervals (e.g. ten past five, twenty to seven, etc)
Each worksheet asks children to complete analogue clocks to show time times given to help Santa get all his chores done around the North Pole.
Three differentiated time worksheets. I made them for my Year 3 class, but depending on ability they could be used from Year 1 up to Year 4.
Each set is differentiated with 3 different versions
*o'clock and half past
*o'clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to
*5 minute intervals (e.g. ten past five, twenty to seven, etc)
Each worksheet asks pupils to complete digital clocks to help the elf get his jobs finished on time so he has time left to make presents.
Three differentiated time worksheets. I made them for my Year 3 class, but depending on ability they could be used from Year 1 up to Year 4.
Each set is differentiated with 3 different versions
*o'clock and half past
*o'clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to
*5 minute intervals (e.g. ten past five, twenty to seven, etc)
Each worksheet asks children to complete both analogue and digital clocks to help children do Christmas jobs round the house (make cookies, set the table, wrap presents, etc) before Santa comes.
Three different sets of differentiated time worksheets. I made them for my Year 3 class, but depending on ability they could be used from Year 1 up to Year 4.
Each set is differentiated with 3 different versions
*o'clock and half past
*o'clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to
*5 minute intervals (e.g. ten past five, twenty to seven, etc)
On the first set of worksheets, children must complete analogue clocks to show time times given to help Santa get all his chores done around the North Pole.
On the second set, pupils must complete digital clocks to help the elf get his jobs finished on time so he has time left to make presents.
The last set asks children to complete both analogue and digital clocks to help children do Christmas jobs round the house (make cookies, set the table, wrap presents, etc) before Santa comes.
All the worksheets have colourful pictures of Santa, the elf and children doing their Christmas tasks. My class particularly liked the photo of Santa hanging out his washing!
I created these tasks for my mixed ability Year 3 class, but they would be suitable to use with younger or older pupils too. As part of our human body topic, I wanted them to do some research about organs, and set this for homework, although it could of course be done in class too if you have non-fiction books/iPads/laptops available to use for research.
There are three differentiated tasks (all saved in one file):
'Less able' - Matching task where pupils have to research the appearance of the main organs so they can match images of them to the correct names.
'Middle group' - Research the main organs, and write a brief description of what each one does.
'More able' - Choose one of the main organs, research it and complete a fact sheet about it, describing its size, position, function and drawing a labelled picture of it.
I made this worksheet for my Year 3 class for a homework task to take advantage of their Pokémon Go obsession! They just have to look at each row of Pokémon and put their CP scores in order from smallest to largest.
There are 3 differentiated versions -
LA - Ordering 2-digit numbers (with a couple of 3-digit ones at the end!)
MA - Ordering 3-digit numbers
HA - Ordering 3-digit and 4-digit numbers
A simple factfile sheet, which I created for my Year 3 class to complete by researching a rainforest animal, using both non-fiction books and the internet.
Based on our current rainforest topic, I created these 3 differentiated versions of a multi-step money problem. The 'tribe' makes items to sell to raise money for the village. Each worksheet has a table showing how much each item was sold for, and how many they sold. Pupils must multiply to find the total for each item, then an overall total, before completing a subtraction sum at the end to work out how much more the tribe need to reach their target. The three levels are differentiated by the difficulty of the numbers used, but the format of the task is the same.
Simple differentiated (3 levels) worksheets where pupils have to read temperatures on thermometers, and also calculate simple changes in temperature (e.g 3 degree warmer, etc).
The scales on the thermometers are blank, so they can be differentiated or edited depending on pupils' ability. I printed copies for my class, then wrote on my own scales and shaded the temperature levels, before photocopying, to ensure accurate differentiation for my class.
Maths word problems I wrote for my Year 3 class to practise for tests. There are 2 pages for each group, each with word problems needing a range of different Year 3 maths skills. We are doing a pond/rock pool topic at the moment, so the questions are all about a fisherman called Fred! The questions are differentiated for 3 different levels (The wording of the questions is simplified slightly for the lower ability. All three levels are differentiated by the difficulty of numbers used, whether carrying is needed, etc). Lower ability sheet would also suit Year 2, and higher ability sheet would suit less able Year 4 pupils.
3 differentiated worksheets (in the same file) I made for my Year 3 class, but would be suitable for Year 4 too.
Worksheet 1- More able - 18 questions - subtracting 3 digit numbers, using borrowing.
Worksheet 2 - Middle group - 18 questions - q1-9 subtracting 2 digit numbers using borrowing / q10-18 subtracting 3 digit numbers, using borrowing
Worksheet 3 - Less able - 12 questions - subtracting 2 digit numbers using borrowing.
Three differentiated versions of a worksheet using open number lines to find the difference between 2-digit numbers by counting on in steps. Created for my Year 3 class, but suitable for Year 2 or 4.
1) (LA) Finding the difference between 3-digit numbers - numbers at each end of the number lines and some of the jumps and '+' signs put in place for extra scaffolding.
2) (MA) Finding the difference between 3-digit numbers - with numbers at each end of the number lines to scaffold.
3) (HA) Finding the difference between 3-digit numbers - blank number lines.
Three differentiated versions of a worksheet using open number lines to find the difference between 2-digit numbers by counting on in steps. Created for my Year 3 class, but suitable for Year 2 or 4.
1) (LA) Finding the difference between 2-digit numbers (differences less than 20 - round to next 10, add 10, then count on to target number)
2) (MA) Finding the difference between 2-digit numbers (differences more than 20 - round to next 10, add multiple of 10, then count on to target number) - with numbers at each end of the number lines to scaffold
3) (HA) Finding the difference between 2-digit numbers (differences more than 20 - round to next 10, add multiple of 10, then count on to target number)
Differentiated versions of a zoo animal themed data handling task. There are differentiated templates for pictograms with animal pictures included, already sized to fit into the spaces on the pictogram, and differentiated templates for zoo animal block graphs/bar charts. Originally created for Year 1, but suitable for more able Reception pupils and also for Year 2.