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Stephanie's Shop

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(based on 57 reviews)

I completed my PGCE at The Institute of Education in 2011, staying in London to start my career at a primary school in Hackney. I taught across KS2 in four years, while also co-ordinating Spanish and Science and receiving brilliant CPD training across a range of specialisms. In 2016 I moved to Lancashire, where I have been supply teacher for a range of local schools. I love creating engaging & purposeful resources to bring education to life and to give teachers their weekends back!

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I completed my PGCE at The Institute of Education in 2011, staying in London to start my career at a primary school in Hackney. I taught across KS2 in four years, while also co-ordinating Spanish and Science and receiving brilliant CPD training across a range of specialisms. In 2016 I moved to Lancashire, where I have been supply teacher for a range of local schools. I love creating engaging & purposeful resources to bring education to life and to give teachers their weekends back!
Debating - Four days of activities. What they are? How to hold a debate? Debate a motion.
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Debating - Four days of activities. What they are? How to hold a debate? Debate a motion.

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Applicable and editable for all KS2 year groups, this is a short-burst topic on debating which can be used either during Literacy, Topic or SEAL time. There are 4/5 lessons (the first could be split over 2 days) which introduce what debating is, how debates form our UK government, example debates, and two motions for the class to discuss and debate themselves! Included in the pack is a Notebook flip for the whole week and 3 resource sheets for children to display their outcomes and self assess their understanding.
English / Literacy: A Spooky Story Recount Lesson
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English / Literacy: A Spooky Story Recount Lesson

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Here is a lesson presentation and writing plan based on Teacher's TV 'spooky graveyard' short film. I enjoyed using this English/Literacy across all KS2 classes to develop children's descriptive writing (setting, atmosphere) in the form of a recount. This is especially good to use around Halloween time! Resource includes lesson presentation (Notebook) and planning sheet.
Limerick Poetry Lesson
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Limerick Poetry Lesson

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This lesson introduces children to Limerick poetry and gets them to try writing one of their own. I used this as a one-off lesson, but could easily be extended across one or multiple weeks. I made a cross-curricular link with our class topic, water, and again, this resource could easily be adapted to suit your topic or year group. Also included is a planning worksheet for your class to brainstorm their ideas before writing their poem neatly either on the sheet provided or independently in their books. Enjoy!
Rhyming Poetry Lesson
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Rhyming Poetry Lesson

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This individual lesson teaches children how to structure lines in poetry to make them rhyme. I have linked this lesson to our Science work on the body, but this can easily be adapted to suit any cross-curricular theme or year group. Included is a whole lesson presentation, which allows you to model skills to the children and to challenge them to have a go themselves, and a worksheet for children to brainstorm their vocabulary ideas and structure before writing their poem up neatly into their books. Enjoy!
English / Literacy: Eleven Recount Lessons Bundle
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English / Literacy: Eleven Recount Lessons Bundle

11 Resources
In this bundle are 11 of my favourite individual recount themes that I’ve used in my teaching career to develop children’s writing skills. Each uses a brilliant animation or film resource to engage the children and each has a particular writing skill focus (e.g. description, tense, sentence structure). I hope you enjoy using them as much as I do!
Reading Comprehension - Spider Newspaper Article
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Reading Comprehension - Spider Newspaper Article

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When developing my children's comprehension skills, I don't like using photocopies from text books and meaningless expectancy sheets. I prefer to use purposeful, educational and REAL LIFE examples to engage and inform them, while still challenging them and looking for those reading skills. Therefore a lot of my comprehension challenges are based around interesting newspaper articles. In this example, taken from the Telegraph in 2013, a new species of tarantula roughly the size of a dinner plate is discovered in a Sri Lankan village. Included in this pack is a copy of the article (still available online) and linking comprehension questions suitable for KS2. Enjoy!
Reading Comprehension - BBC News Article (Blizzard)
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Reading Comprehension - BBC News Article (Blizzard)

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When developing my children's comprehension skills, I don't like using photocopies from text books and meaningless expectancy sheets. I prefer to use purposeful, educational and REAL LIFE examples to engage and inform them, while still challenging them and looking for those reading skills. Therefore a lot of my comprehension challenges are based around interesting newspaper articles. In this example, taken from the BBC News website in 2013, a huge blizzard brought much of the north-eastern US and eastern Canada to a standstill, leaving about half a million homes without power. Included in this pack is a copy of the article and linking comprehension questions suitable for KS2. Enjoy!
English / Literacy: Writing using time connectives (featuring The Black Hole)
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English / Literacy: Writing using time connectives (featuring The Black Hole)

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I used this lesson to revisit time connectives to improve the flow of my class' writing. The lesson itself starts with a recap of what time connectives are, why writers use them, and the brainstorming of different examples. It then moves on to challenging the children to use time connectives when recounting the events from the funny short film, 'The Black Hole', before they go on to independently complete a piece of writing - either recounting the events of the film or by writing their own story featuring a mysterious black hole.
History / Topic: How Hackney and East London Has Changed Since World War 2
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History / Topic: How Hackney and East London Has Changed Since World War 2

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Having taught in an East London primary school, I wanted to end the class WWII topic by linking it to their own community. East London was a huge target during the Blitz, therefore was devastated during the war, which children in the area might not realise given the infrastructure around them. However, the lesson mainly compares WWII problems with modern day life in East London - positive and negative. It gets children to examine their own community, identify what is good, and what could be improved, and what they imagine it will be like in the future. The lesson activity is continuous through the lesson; making notes about what they think Hackney is like, and then develops to the children using their notes to write a poem (using my teacher example). Although this resource is focused on East London, it could be adapted to focus on area of London or the UK that was particularly affected by the Blitz. Resources include a Notebook lesson presentation, a worksheet for making notes, a presentation page for children to write their best copy of their poem and lots of picture resources.
English / Literacy Instructions Lesson - How To Eat An Easter Egg
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English / Literacy Instructions Lesson - How To Eat An Easter Egg

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This is one of my FAVOURITE lessons that can be taught across KS2; a short burst Literacy lesson to develop children's understanding of instruction texts using a chocolatey Easter theme! I would always bring in a few small Easter eggs to this lesson. Using one in my modelling, I would play dumb and be an alien who had never seen an Easter egg before. I would ask the children what to do with it (i.e. to open and eat it) but did everything LITERALLY as they said, to make them appreciate the detail they needed to include in their instructions. Therefore, if they said "pull open the flaps" I would pull really hard and rip the box!! This would encourage them to include adverbs, like 'carefully', in their instructions. The other Easter eggs would be on each table to help the children think through the different steps of opening and eating it, with the promise that they would be shared at lunch time of course! This again helps to bring a purpose to the skill activity and engages children into the learning. Included is a flip notebook guiding you and the children through the lesson, and differentiated planning sheets. Appropriate for all KS2 and easily adapted for your own class' needs. Enjoy!
Literacy / English: Using A Dictionary Activity
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Literacy / English: Using A Dictionary Activity

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Helping children to practise their dictionary skills in order to support their spelling, this lesson and worksheet gives a selection of purposely mis-spelt words and their dictionary definitions. Children use their dictionary to find the correct spelling. They can also challenge themselves by thinking about words they know they commonly mis-spell in their writing. Used successfully during an OFSTED inspection. Suitable for KS2.
English / Literacy: Persuasive Texts - Comparing and Identifying Features
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English / Literacy: Persuasive Texts - Comparing and Identifying Features

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Here's a resource I've enjoyed using over and over, as it gets the kids to do most of the learning! The best way for children to understand the features of different Literacy texts is for them to explore and compare different examples. This worksheet focuses on the features of persuasive texts, which children would look out for in different examples, tick or cross whether they could spot them, and evidence by including an extract (e.g. if they have ticked that a text uses a rhetorical question, they need to note it on the sheet). This task promotes clear investigative, reading and literacy skills which could be completed independently, in partners or even together as a group!
English / Literacy: The Piano - Emotive Language Recount (2 lessons)
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English / Literacy: The Piano - Emotive Language Recount (2 lessons)

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This amazing short film by Aidan Gibbons 'The Piano', will really tug on the heartstrings of you and your class and produce some brilliant emotive writing. Included in this pack is two Literacy lessons (planning/writing recount and edit/improve), a planning sheet for the first lesson and a worksheet to make notes using stills from the film. The writing activity takes the form of a first person recount (also easily adaptable to third person) which challenges the class to infer the main character's thoughts and feelings as he is playing the piano and recalling key memories from his life.
English / Literacy - Point of View recount lesson based on 'Monkey Spoon'
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English / Literacy - Point of View recount lesson based on 'Monkey Spoon'

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Monkey Spoon is a hilarious animation about two monkeys who find a spoon and proceed to mess around with it. I have used this resource over and over to promote various writing skills, the most successful of which I have found to be adopting one of the character's points of view in a recount of events. Included in this resource is the whole lesson notebook and a plan for children to make notes on before writing their recount.
Poetry Lessons - Acrostic, Rhyming, Limerick
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Poetry Lessons - Acrostic, Rhyming, Limerick

3 Resources
This bundle contains three individual lessons teaching children how to write different styles of poetry; acrostic, limerick, rhyming. Each lesson I used linked to the class cross-curricular theme at the time (e.g pirates, the human body, water) but each can easily be adapted to link with your theme. Each lesson pack contains a lesson presentation, allowing you to teach, model and challenge each poetry skill, and a worksheet for children to brainstorm their vocabulary ideas, before writing their poetry formally into their books.
English / Literacy Writing Activities based on famous Christmas adverts
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English / Literacy Writing Activities based on famous Christmas adverts

10 Resources
A bundle of Literacy recount lessons based on famous Christmas adverts from the last few years (e.g. John Lewis, Sainsburys). Children really engage with these as they have seen them at home, because they are emotive or funny, and because they are so well made - like a mini film! UPDATED 05/11/2020 TO INCLUDE THE 2019 WAITROSE JOHN LEWIS ADVERT
Captain Tom Moore - Fact Finding Challenge
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Captain Tom Moore - Fact Finding Challenge

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I made this resource using a BBC article about Captain Tom’s achievements and subsequent recognition. I made up the questions based on the article, so it is more of a comprehension - but the children don’t need to know this!
English / Literacy Worksheets for Carrot Crazy Recount
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English / Literacy Worksheets for Carrot Crazy Recount

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Carrot Crazy is a fun animation widely available on Youtube. This resource is made up of two worksheets; screenshots ordering events from the animation to guide children, and a planning sheet to help children recount the events of Carrot Crazy using lots of description.