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!
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!
This resource is part of a whole half term of engaging lessons which I have used from years 3-5 to teach children about Animals including Humans. This lesson initially recaps children's understanding of human and animal skeletons, before focusing on developing their knowledge of food groups. It includes questions to stimulate children's ideas and understanding, various interactive links to engage and support, and suggested tasks to allow children to demonstrate and challenge their understanding.
The Lesson Objective and Success Criteria are:
LI: To know the different food groups
Success Criteria
I can explain what animals and humans need to stay healthy
I can name common food groups
I can name example foods in each group
This resource is part of a whole half term of engaging lessons which I have used from years 3-5 to teach children about the Humans including Animals. This lesson recaps children's knowledge of the human skeleton and then moves on to focus on animal skeletons, comparing different types, identifying well known animals by their skeleton and comparing human and animal skeletons. The resource includes questions to stimulate children's ideas and understanding, links to various video clips and interactive websites to engage and support, and both group and independent tasks to allow children to demonstrate and challenge their understanding.
The lesson objective and success criteria include:
LI: To compare the skeletons of different animals
Success Criteria
I can use first hand observations to find out about skeletons
I can use secondary sources to find out about skeletons
I can use observations to make predictions
I can identify similarities and differences between human/animal skeletons
This resource is part of a whole half term of engaging lessons which I have used from years 3-5 to teach the topic Humans including Animals. This lesson focuses on the human skeleton, and includes questions to stimulate children's ideas, links to online video clips to help develop and engage children's understanding, and suggested lesson activities.
The objective and success criteria are:
LI: To understand the human skeleton
Success Criteria
I know what the human skeleton is made out of
I can explain why humans have a skeleton
I can label different parts of the human skeleton
This resource is the perfect introduction to a half termly topic which I have used from years 3-5 to teach children about the human body, skeletons of both humans and animals, food groups and digestion. This particular lessons gets children to brainstorm what they already know about animals and humans, and what they would like to find out, helpfully allowing you to adapt your planning to match their subject knowledge..
Objectives and success criteria include:
1) LI: To be able to produce facts that state my current understanding
1) LI: To be able to ask questions which would develop my understanding
Success Criteria
I can state what I already know about a given topic
I can ask questions linked to a given topic to develop my understanding
I can use a range of question starters (what, who, how, when, do...)
This resource is useful to use either at the start of a new term or in the middle of the academic year, to allow children to demonstrate what they believe to be their own personal academic achievements so far, and their targets.
It is presented using comic-book style speech bubbles to make it engaging. The top bubble is entitled: 'What I've Done Well So Far This Year' and the bottom: 'What I Would Like More Help With...'
I have used these in every year of my teaching, as it gives children the opportunity to demonstrate their pride, their aspirations, and the wording of 'help' rather than 'target' correctly implies that support will be given, rather than a goal being an independent task (and therefore to many, very difficult to achieve).
The resource is available in Pages, Microsoft Word and PDF format and in black and white for ease of printing and gives the children the opportunity to decorate if time allows! Enjoy!
A simple but fun Macbeth-themed word search and crossword puzzles to help children to embed their knowledge of the Shakespeare tragedy. Available in PDF, Pages and Word formats!
All words link to the plot, including characters names, themes and places. Enjoy!
A range of lessons that will bring your class’ WWII topic to life, learning about everything from why the war started and who was involved, to evacuation and how events were broadcast, to the social changes brought into effect from the conflict, from the role of women to economic and industrial changes.
This lesson explains why gas masks were used during World War 2, including video clips from the 1930s reminding people to carry their masks with them at all times and to practise wearing them once a week.
The lesson brainstorms what they were made from and their effectiveness, before comparing adult and child gas masks. The lesson objective is for children to make a gas mask using given materials, considering comfort, effectiveness to keep out gas, and appeal for children to wear them.
There are lots more WWII resources in my shop too if you want to link further lessons. Enjoy!
This lesson comprises of three mini activities which together will help children to understand and empathise with families experiences of evacuation during World War 2.
The Notebook presentation gets children includes reading and discussing a personal recount, choosing and justifying one object they would put in their small evacuation suitcase and inferring what people are thinking and feeling in photographs taken from the evacuation process using thought bubbles.
There are lots more WWII resources in my shop too if you want to link further lessons. Enjoy!
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.
This is a fun lesson which allows children to learn and appreciate other social aspects of life during World War II. It starts by questioning children’s current understanding and enjoyment of entertainment via the radio, and informs them of its importance in the 1930s.
It includes example radio clips from the war, asking children to discuss their features, and then goes on to compare those with clips from present day news broadcasting (both radio and television).
The lesson objective and success criteria are as follows:
Objective: To be able to write and broadcast a World War Two radio news bulletin
Success Criteria:
I can select key information about an event
I can bias my report in favour of the Allied war effort
I can use emotive language to engage the listener
I can speak clearly
I can use intonation and expression in my voice
In my lesson I gave children facts about a particular bombing raid in London and asked them to report it as if they were a 1930s broadcaster. It was brilliant to see them dramatising their pronunciation and tone, and how they took different perspectives about the same event. I’ve left it open in the resource presentation as to what resource you would want to use for the children to complete this task.
There are lots more WWII resources in my shop too if you want to link further lessons. Enjoy!
This resource nicely extends children learning about World War II by comparing London's post-war infrastructure to modern day.
It compares various images from post-war to modern day (which children find particularly intriguing!) and uses engaging BBC short video clips to examine how housing infrastructure has changed since the war.
As the main activity, children will identify key London landmarks by their pictures, stick and label them in their books, read an information text about how London has changed since WWII and see if they can find any information about their landmarks, noting facts next to the relevant pictures.
The resource includes a full lesson Notebook presentation, the full information text, the images comparing post-war and modern day London, along with the activity resource sheet and instructions. Enjoy!
This is a great lesson to introduce a World War II topic. Using a Notebook presentation, it involves a range of discussion and activities helping children to understand what a world war is, why WWII started, what the two main sides were and why these alliances were formed. The lesson follows the objective and criteria:
Objective: To be able to locate the Allies and Axis powers
* I know the meaning of Allies and Axis
* I can use an atlas to locate countries involved in WWII
* I can identify which countries were Allied or Axis
* I can explain why countries may have formed alliances
The main lesson activity involves children using atlases to identify countries in Europe, and then either independently or as a class understanding and marking whether each country was Allied or Axis.
This lesson explains to children the importance of women during WWII - how they kept the country running while men were away fighting, taking on jobs in industries that women previously did not work in and therefore changing their role and status in society.
The notebook presentation explores how women's roles changed, their pay and what that would compare to today, and how the government used posters to encourage women into industrial work in factories and on farms.
The lesson activity is in three parts: 1) studying the posters and annotating observations towards use of colour, illustrations and text 2) Answering questions based on class discussion about women's role during WWII 3) Using the internet to explore given articles about women in WWII, understanding how it is still celebrated today
This lesson would be a good introduction to direction in either Geography or Maths. It introduces what a compass is and what it is used for, before focusing on NESW and the points in between. This could easily be demonstrated in the classroom by putting up NESW posters on each wall of your classroom, but my lesson uses a map of the counties of England to develop compass skills and direction. This is first modelled by the teacher, e.g. Cumbria is NW of North Yorkshire using the Notebook presentation, before the children have a go themselves, completing either missing compass directions or places in each statement. Suitable for KS2. Enjoy!
This lesson pack includes a Notebook presentation and linking worksheets, getting children to investigate how different materials can affect the movement of an object. First, they recap what forces are, such as push/pulls, then move on to understanding gravity.
A push force is not needed to make a car go down a ramp, because gravity acts upon the car, moving it to the flat surface. However the material on the flat surface can affect how far the car travels, and therefore affects the force upon the car. The children will investigate which materials will impact most on the force of the car (i.e. which material will allow the car to go furthest/not as far) using the following objective and criteria:
Objective: To investigate how materials affect forces
Success Criteria
I can make predictions using prior knowledge
I can carry out an enquiry to test a prediction
I can take and record accurate measurements
I can use my results to draw simple conclusions
Simple but fun Christmas-themed word search and crossword to entertain children in the run up to Christmas. Available in PDF, Pages and Word formats!
The words to be searched are:
BAUBLE BELLS CHRISTMAS ELF HOLLY MINCE PIES PRESENTS REINDEER ROBIN SANTA SLEIGH SNOWFLAKE TINSEL TREE
The crossword clues are:
ACROSS
2) These three people followed the star to Bethlehem
3) Vegetable used to make a snowman’s nose
5) Noise that bells make
7) Decorations made by folding and cutting paper
10) Gold items from the fifth day of Christmas
11) Breed of bird associated with winter
12) Traditional Christmas tree decoration
DOWN
Type of pies eaten at Christmas
Species of animal that Rudolph is
Abbreviation of ‘Christmas’
Animal swimming on the seventh day of Christmas
Area where Santa lives
Green, spiky plant used in Christmas decorations
A pack of engaging Science lessons (made by a school Science co-ordinator) put together in one handy bundle linking to the Earth and Beyond (e.g. magnetism, Earth - and eventually will include resources linked to Space and the Solar System)
I love making Science as interesting, informative and hands-on as possible for children in order to develop their understanding of various concepts.
I made and taught these Art lessons alongside our class Victorians topic, helping children to understand why silhouette artwork became popular in the Victorian period, how silhouettes are made and identifying everyday objects by their silhouettes.
The first lesson is an introduction, as described above. The task gets children to match images of everyday objects with its silhouette.
The second lesson gets children to work in small groups to sketch their portrait silhouette outlines using torches and pencils.
The third lesson brings a modern twist to the portrait silhouette, by getting children to fill their portrait not with solid black, but with drawings and colour linked to their own personality (which could be linked to Mindfulness in PHSE).
UPDATE 27/03/2019 Presentation now available in Powerpoint format.