This is a complete practical lesson for lower KS2 on the difference between reversible and irreversible changes. The lesson begins with an open-ended ‘odd one out’ activity intended to engage children’s deeper thinking and elicit appropriate scientific vocabulary and verbal reasoning. Depending on your school’s health and safety policy, you may or may not be able to do the very first teacher demonstration, where you burn a small amount of methylated spirit in a plate (then show them the empty plate after it has burned away!) If not, videos can easily be found on YouTube. For the 3 child-led practical parts of the lesson you will need: olive/sunflower/vegetable oil vinegar (any) sand filter paper funnels Alka-Seltzer tablets (one per pair) or similar There is then a short activity to finish off with - differentiated three ways and with an open-ended extension question to keep any ‘fast finishers’ busy! The plenary activity challenges pupils to use what they have learned to discuss whether a real-world chemical change is reversible or irreversible. Give the blue cards to one partner and the yellow ones to the other. The partners will then have to work together to arrive at a conclusion.

A lesson for KS1 explaining the creation story of the Bible/Torah/Quran. Includes a diamond 9 starter activity encouraging pupils to think about all living things and which is most important, and a matching activity they can complete while watching the video. The main pupil activity is differentiated three ways.

A complete lesson for lower KS2 on recognising and describing unit fractions. The starter is based on using ‘playdough’ to give pupils a concrete reference for a ‘whole’ object and how dividing it into parts gives rise to fractions. If, however, you have access to other concrete manipulatives for teaching fractions you may prefer these as a way to keep mess to a minimum! The worksheets are differentiated two ways and both have an additional challenge for ‘fast finishers’. The plenary is discussion based and is an AfL opportunity to see how well your pupils understand that fractions must be equally-sized parts of a whole.

A complete lesson for teaching Alan Peat’s ‘tell: show 3’ sentence type - a very useful device for instantly making setting and character descriptions more interesting. This lesson is in the context of describing a forest setting. However, both the files are editable should you want to change this. The resources comprise a powerpoint with detailed explanations and examples of the sentence type, along with three differentiated sheets to get pupils writing their own t:s3 sentences by the end of the lesson!

This is a lesson for KS1 on what science tells us about how the universe and world was made, including the theories of the ‘big bang’ and evolution. The lesson features a video of the book ‘Grandmother Fish’ and is followed by a pupil activity that is differentiated three ways.

A lesson for KS1 about what goes on and what can be found in a Mosque. Powerpoint contains a link to a video that gives a tour by Muslims of the East London Mosque in Shadwell. Three differentiated activities for pupils to choose between plus an extension and plenary mini quiz .

A complete lesson for Y3/4 to enable pupils to plan a ‘new’ Roman (or Greek) myth. This could be ideal if your topic is the Romans or Ancient Greece and you are looking at myth writing in English. The resources comprise a step-by-step powerpoint, an ‘ideas mat’ (with possible plots that pupils can use or adapt as they see fit) a ‘quick planning’ template that pupils can use as you guide them through the presentation and a writing frame for them to record their plan in full.

A complete lesson for lower KS2 on telling the time to the nearest 5 mins. The resources comprise a step-by-step powerpoint presentation, a laminatable sheet of blank clocks for pupils to use to represent the times given in the guided activities and three differentiated worksheets for the main activity. There is also a discussion-based plenary. Please note: pupils should already be able to read time to the nearest 15 minutes before you teach this lesson and should know how many minutes are in one hour. It’s also recommended that you have teaching clocks with moveable hands for both the pupils and a larger one for you and/or your TA.

A lesson for lower KS2 on poetic metaphor and personification, using poetry about water as the context. The powerpoint introduces the idea via the concept of similes (so pupils should understand similes before teaching this content). The differences and similarities between metaphor and personification are then explained. The lesson then gets pupils to discuss ‘good’ and ‘not so good’ examples of metaphors and uses this to draw out ‘success criteria’ (guidelines) for writing good metaphors. The main activities are then differentiated 3 ways.

This resource is ideal for use when teaching lower KS2 pupils how to find fractions of a number. The ‘1chilli’ and ‘2 chillies’ activities are intended to be trimmed into three rectangles and stuck onto the template when completed. For example, a pupil may start with the ‘1 chilli - A’ activity, find they are ready to move onto harder work and so do the ‘two chillies - A’ activity next. The template has space for up to 3 activities. Additionally there are a pair of ‘chilli challenge’ cards that you could trim and laminate for use as an extension or to go in a ‘challenge area’ within your classroom. These challenges are ‘open-ended’ - there are a range of solutions and therefore should keep able Y3/4 pupils busy for some time!

If you happen to be looking at the Stone Age to Iron Age in your topic and you need to teach fronted adverbials to Y3/4 this could be the lesson for you! The powerpoint explains step-by-step what an adverbial is, what the different types of adverbial are and how and when to start sentences with them. The examples are all in the context of a descriptive setting of a Bronze/Iron Age village. The activities (differentiated 3 ways) allow pupils to create sentences with fronted adverbials, whilst also demonstrating their knowledge of the underlying grammatical theory.

A complete lesson on reading inference for Y3/4 with a newspaper article on the invasion of Britain by the Anglo Saxons as the focus text. The powerpoint pre-teaches tricky vocab and outlines the strategy pupils should use. There is then an example question before the pupils answer the questions themselves. The questions are differentiated 3 ways but all are inference questions as this is the target skill.

A lesson for Y3/4 focussing on the skill of historical interpretation. This lesson provides primary and secondary sources (in picture format) that pupils interpret to explain the ways in which the Anglo Saxon invaders of the 6th century AD were different from the Roman-influenced Britons that they found living here. The resources comprise a powerpoint, a sheet with information on the sources (it is suggested you enlarge this to A3), images of the sources to cut and stick (if desired) and the worksheets themselves, differentiated 2 ways.

An assembly that I used during an assessment day for an deputy head position (I got the job!) This is a presentation with some embedded videos (links to YouTube - please check that they work with your school’s firewall/intranet before using) that starts with the famous ‘marshmallow test’ before exploring the life stories of three very different ‘geniuses’ (Einstein, Michael Jordan, Steve Jobs) and relating their successes and struggles to the growth mindset. Pupils are then confronted with three scenarios and asked to think what a person with a growth mindset would do and what a person with a fixed mindset would do in each of them.

A lesson on Ramadan with a video clip following young Muslims as they fast during the holy month, and then celebrate at Eid-al-Fitr. Three differentiated activities for pupils to complete are included, plus an extension challenge.

A lesson for Y1/2 on Jewish places of worship. Powerpoint links to a video that gives a tour of the New London Synagogue. The main task is differentiated three ways and there is an extension task for fast finishers. The plenary is a short quickfire quiz.

A lesson for Y3/4 focussing on the skill of historical interpretation. This lesson provides primary and secondary sources (in picture format) that pupils interpret to decide why the Roman army was such a successful fighting force and why they enjoyed such success against the Celts when they invaded Britain. The resources comprise a powerpoint, a sheet with information on the sources (it is suggested you enlarge this to A3), images of the sources to cut and stick (if desired) and the worksheets themselves, differentiated 2 ways.

This is a complete (short: 30-40 mins) lesson on the practices of worshipers in Muslim places of worship and the beliefs behind them. There is powerpoint that includes links to short BBC video clips of Muslims worshiping at the mosque, explaining what they do and why. There are then two differentiated worksheets, both of which include a further challenge for ‘fast finishers’.

These differentiated resources are ideal for lower KS2 children when you are teaching how to apply knowledge of rounding and using the inverse to check calculations. For each question, the numbers involved are represented pictorially and the line between green and yellow backgrounds helps pupils to see if they need to round up or down. Each question has these steps: Round the two numbers to the nearest 10 Add/subtract these rounded numbers in the space below (‘estimate’) Do the calculation using the actual numbers and see if the estimate was close Put the three numbers in the calculation into the ‘Singapore bar’ template in the third cell (largest number in the top cell). Do an inverse calculation to check For the ‘2 Chillies’ resource, there is no scaffolding for the children’s calculations.

A complete lesson for lower KS2 to deepen understanding around the process of multiplication and the fact that it is not commutative. The lesson comprises a ‘diamond 9 starter’ that could be completed in pairs/groups. There are then some worked examples in the powerpoint using ‘Singapore bar’ representations and arrays to allow two different multiplication statements to be shown. The worksheets are differentiated 3 ways, with the ‘3 chillies’ sheet including a reasoning challenge at the end.