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 April 2017, a new species of reptile is discovered in Spain, linking to crocodiles and the dinosaurs. Included in this pack is a copy of the article and linking comprehension questions suitable for KS2. Enjoy!

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.

I made this resource based on Sainsburys' 2015 Christmas advert. Judith Kerr's 'Mog The Cat' is brilliantly brought back to life in animation form. He is found having a bad dream in his family home, which caused a series of unfortunate events, ultimately causing the fire brigade to arrive! Christmas seemed like it was ruined for the family, but the village quickly came together to help and to make Christmas a happy and united occasion. My class last year loved this recount. In the first of the two lessons provided, the focus was on recounting the events from the animation, with use of adverbs to describe, but this can easily be adapted if you have a different Literacy skill that you want your class to develop! The second lesson in the pack gets children to edit and improve their writing. Look out for my other Christmas-themed Literacy resources!

I made this resource based on the 2016 John Lewis Christmas advert. It is about a dog called Buster who loves watching his young owner dream of being a professional gymnast, but then as her surprise gift is built on Christmas Eve, Buster appears becomes upset when the garden wildlife get to have a go, unbeknown to the family. The next morning, as the little girl flies out of bed and out into the garden to try her present, the family are lost for words when Buster pushes her aside to leap on to the trampoline first. I wanted to use this advert, not only because John Lewis adverts have become incredibly popular in the run up to Christmas, and therefore children find them very entertaining and engaging, but also to develop children’s description, focusing especially on verbs. Included are two differentiated story plans, a vocabulary sheet with larger screen shots from the film and a Notebook flip chart or Powerpoint presentation for teaching the lesson. This can easily be adapted to develop a different Literacy skill or to suit a particular year group. Enjoy! And also see other Literacy recount lessons inspired by John Lewis Christmas adverts in my TES shop! **UPDATED 05/11/2018 TO INCLUDE POWERPOINT VERSION OF THE LESSON PRESENTATION**

I made this resource based on the 2017 John Lewis Christmas advert. It is about a little boy who struggles to sleep at night, scared that in the dark, a monster lives under his bed. Eventually, the boy becomes friend with the monster, but it continues to affect his sleeping, leaving him tired during the day. For Christmas, he gets a special present to help him sleep well at night, content that his monster friend, Moz, will be sleeping too. It's got great graphics to draw in the viewer and a story arc that many children can relate to. I wanted to use this advert, not only because Christmas adverts continue to grow in quality and popularity, with children finding them very entertaining and engaging, but also to develop children's description, focusing in this instant on character emotions. Included is a story plan for children to note their ideas and a Notebook presentation for teaching the lesson. This can easily be adapted to develop a different Literacy skill or to suit a particular year group. Enjoy! And also see other Literacy recount lessons inspired by Christmas adverts in my TES shop! 13/11/17 - UPDATE to include a direct link to the video in the presentation

I made this resource based on the 2017 Marks and Spencer Christmas advert. It features Paddington Bear, who confuses a burglar with Santa Claus. Enthusiastic as ever, Paddington insists on helping the man with his Christmas deliveries, to the dismay of the burglar, who sees his stolen presents being taken off him. Paddington takes his new friend to observe a little girl, Alice, opening her presents, unwittingly showing the burglar the true meaning of Christmas and making him a better person. It’s got great graphics to draw in the viewer and a story arc that many children will love, having already enjoyed Paddington stories previously. I wanted to use this advert, not only because Christmas adverts continue to grow in quality and popularity, with children finding them very entertaining and engaging, but also to develop children's writing, focusing in this instant on dialogue and speech verbs. Included is a story plan for children to note their ideas and a Smart Notebook or Powerpoint presentation for teaching the lesson. This can easily be adapted to develop a different Literacy skill or to suit a particular year group. Enjoy! And also see other Literacy recount lessons inspired by Christmas adverts in my TES shop! UPDATED 05/11/2018 TO INCLUDE A POWERPOINT VERSION OF THE LESSON PRESENTATION

I made this resource based on John Lewis' 2011 Christmas advert. It is about a boy who shows his frustration of having to wait for Christmas Day throughout the video, which most children can emphasise with, until you learn at the end that he was desperate to GIVE his parents their Christmas present! I wanted to use it to develop children's inference skills and to convert the recount of an event into first person; showing their understanding of the character; with of course the description you would expect to bring the story to life. Each KS2 class I've taught have loved this recount. Look out for other Literacy resources I am uploading based on the other John Lewis adverts! UPDATE: The lesson presentation is now available in both Notebook and Powerpoint format in this download.

Nelson Boles' 'Little Boat' animation is surprisingly powerful - taking a simple boat through a range of settings which sees it become more and more damaged by human life, storms and war, but with a surprising and heartwarming ending. This Literacy lesson challenges children to image they are the boat themselves and recount it's story in the first person, describing what it can see, but also what happens to it, and its consequential feelings. Lesson pack includes writing plan for children and full lesson notebook! Enjoy!

This short burst English topic presents or revises different types of poetry before focusing on the topic of key Black History figures and creating nominal poems about them. The objectives covering four days are: Day 1: To compare different types of poetry * I know the purpose of poetry * I can identify the structure of different poems * I can identify use of description in different poems * I can explain how a poem makes me feel Day 2: To be able to perform poetry Success Criteria: * I can compare how authors read poetry * I can speak confidently and clearly * I can use punctuation to identify the flow of a poem * I can emphasis key words in a poem Day 3: To be able to plan the content of a poem Success Criteria: * I can research key personal information about an individual * I can find out why they became a key Black History figure * I can brainstorm adjectives that describe their personality * I can brainstorm adjectives that describe their appearance Challenge: I can predict the feelings of an individual at key points during their life Day 4: To be able to write a nominal poem Success Criteria: * I can write the first letters of the persons name down the left margin * I know the first word for each line starts with the given letter * My poem tells the reader why the person is celebrated during Black History Month * I can include descriptive language to make my poem emotive This resource pack contains the Notebook presentation for the four days, which includes examples of all types of poetry, links to poetry being performed, talk partner questions, opportunities to take notes from children's feedback and task outlines for each lesson, along with worksheets for the third and fourth lessons and linking photographs. Suitable for KS2 and great for Black History Month or a general poetry topic.

I made this resource based on the 2016 Sainsbury Christmas advert. It is about a man called Dave who is a busy Dad struggling to find time to spend with his family because of work commitments and commuting. Being a toy maker, he comes up with the idea on Christmas Eve to disguise the toys he makes to look like him, so that come Christmas Day, he could be at home with his family while work didn’t notice he was away. It’s got great graphics and a catchy song by James Corden, but most importantly the advert has a very real life, human element that many children and families can relate to. I wanted to use this advert, not only because Sainsburys Christmas adverts are now right up there in quality with John Lewis, with children finding them very entertaining and engaging, but also to develop children’s description, focusing especially on the point of view of a character. Included is a story plan for children to note their ideas and a Notebook presentation or Powerpoint for teaching the lesson. This can easily be adapted to develop a different Literacy skill or to suit a particular year group. Enjoy! And also see other Literacy recount lessons inspired by Christmas adverts in my TES shop! UPDATED 05/11/18 TO INCLUDE A POWERPOINT VERSION OF THE LESSON PRESENTATION

I made this resource based on John Lewis' 2012 Christmas advert. It is about a snowman and snowwoman who are made by some children in their garden, but overnight, the snowman disappears. He is seen making an epic journey across mountains, rivers, city centres, and eventually he returns...with the little girl finding that he had bought his snowwoman some christmas presents. I wanted to use it to develop children's inference skills and to develop their description; both of the characters and the various settings that the snowman travelled through. Each KS2 class I've taught have loved this recount. Look out for other Literacy resources I am uploading based on the other John Lewis adverts!

Planet Unknown is a brilliant futuristic animation about a two Space Rovers, sent to find potential inhabitable planets using 'nSeed' pods to detect the possibility of growing plants. In the story, the two Rovers are undertaking their mission, but suddenly find themselves battling through an asteroid shower. This resource is two lessons; the first gets children to brainstorm descriptive language for the two characters and the setting, while the second is the writing recount of events from the film. The two objectives are as follows: 1) To describe a film setting and its characters 2) To be able to recount a film as a written story These are each supported by specific success criteria to aid children's writing. This pack includes a Smartboard presentation with detailed slides for both lessons, a planning worksheet for lesson one, and screenshots JPEGs of the characters and the setting It can easily be adapted for different KS2 year groups and a particular skill focus, e.g. tense, sentence starters, grammar or vocab. I have kept it as a general recount focus involving all skills.

I’ve used this lesson every Autumn to engage children into the Literacy skills needed to write a good instruction text, by linking it to how to use sparklers safely on bonfire night. This pack includes a Notebook and Powerpoint presentation for one lesson, and differentiated worksheets for pupils to plan their instructions before independently writing them up into their books. Suitable for KS2 - and do get a health and safety check before demonstrating with a real life sparkler. I did, and it amazed the kids and really energised their writing! UPDATE 02/11/2018 - RESOURCE NOW INCLUDES PRESENTATION IN POWERPOINT FORMAT!

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.

Oktapodi is the story of two in-love octopi who are suddenly separated (the female to be sold as food) leading to the male to endure a fast paced and exciting quest to rescue her. The objective of the writing task is: To be able to write a narrative using descriptive language Success Criteria: *I can give my narrative a beginning, middle and an end. *I can write in simple, compound and complex sentences. *I can use adjectives and similes to describe. *I can use powerful verbs and describe them using adverbs. *I can include my characters' viewpoint (how they feel). The resource pack includes a presentation for the two days of activities (day one, writing; day two; editing, improving and re-writing), a planning sheet for children to make notes on before completing their narrative.

Pigeon Impossible is a hilarious animation easily available on YouTube. It is about a detective, Walter, who, despite his top-level job, becomes amusingly thwarted by a....pigeon! Children love describing Walter, especially his traits which lack expected 'detective-qualities', and the mischievous pigeon, who only has an eye on getting one thing. This pack includes a full lesson presentation and planning worksheet. It can easily be adapted for different year groups and a particular Literacy focus, e.g. tense, person, grammar or vocab.

I made this resource based on the 2019 Waitrose Christmas advert. It is about Edgar, a dragon who is easily excitable about things happening around him, but causes to him breathing fire, and therefore some accidents! He is friends with a young girl, his best friend, who tries to keep him out of trouble, and after one incident which causes the whole village to be angry with Edgar, she buys him a Christmas present which will bring joy to the festive dinner and make everyone happy again. I wanted to use this advert, not only because Christmas adverts continue to grow in quality and popularity, with children finding them very entertaining and engaging, but also to develop children’s description, focusing on character description in this lesson. Included is a story plan for children to note their ideas, a Powerpoint presentation for teaching the lesson, and a vocabulary sheet/ screenshots to help children to remember the plot. This can easily be adapted to develop a different Literacy skill or to suit a particular year group. Enjoy! And also see other Literacy recount lessons inspired by Christmas adverts in my TES shop!

I have used Pixar's brilliant 'Lifted' animation for two short-burst English/Literacy lessons - one as a general recount and the other as a first person recount from one character's point of view. The latter is the resource that I have shared, as I found it to be the most useful out of the two in my teaching practise. I requires children to infer a character's thoughts and feelings and to convert a given narrative into the first person, therefore allowing teachers to test a range of writing skills in one lesson, which the children themselves love because of the engaging resource!

I made this resource based on the 2018 Aldi Christmas advert. It is about Kevin the Carrot, who has previously featured in Aldi adverts. The advert starts as a spoof of the famous Cola Cola ‘Holidays Are Coming’ advert, until the truck hits snowfall on a mountain road and slides off the road, balancing precariously on the cliff edge, ending the advert literally on a cliffhanger. Aldi themselves ask the audience at the end of the advert to help Kevin, so I thought this would be a great opportunity for children to have a go at writing their own version of the end of the story. I wanted to use this advert, not only because Christmas adverts continue to grow in quality and popularity, with children finding them very entertaining and engaging, but also to develop children’s description, focusing in this activity on being able to continue the flow of a story. Included is a story plan for children to note their ideas and both a Smart Notebook and Powerpoint presentation for teaching the lesson. This can easily be adapted to develop a different Literacy skill or to suit a particular year group. Enjoy! And also see other Literacy recount lessons inspired by Christmas adverts in my TES shop!

'Hunted' is a short animation film which starts with a young, naive, native tribesman wandering into a hunter's campsite. The comedy and animation effects really draw in children and I have found it a brilliant resource to use to develop their writing description. This resource contains a full lesson and planning worksheet for the children. It focuses on developing the children's description of the setting, characters and their feelings as events progress. It can easily be adapted to challenge a different Literacy skill or to suit your class. Enjoy!