A complete lesson for Y3/4 on writing rhyming couplets, with water as the context for the poetry. The lesson involves plenty of partner talk and oracy so as to allow pupils to hear the effect of different rhyming structures, as well as the overall rhythms of poetry. The main activity is differentiated three ways with a word bank to support children working at all three levels of challenge.

This resource works best when enlarged to A3 and/or printed on card rather than paper. You then cut along the lines (or ask your TA very nicely!) to create a reasoning puzzle for your pupils. This puzzle can be done in mixed ability pairs or set as an extension. A great way to assess your pupils’ grasp of fraction-related content near the end of a unit, I’ve found tarsia puzzles to be great for engagement - and for those who complete it, perhaps they can create their own!

This is a short (30-45mins) R.E lesson to teach lower KS2 children about the importance of the Eid (Eid Al Adha) festival: why the concept of sacrifice is important in Islam and what happened in the original sacrifice story that is remembered at Eid (Ibrahim and Ismael). The presentation begins with a discussion-based starter with examples of sacrifices children will be familiar with from general life. The video (linked from YouTube) explains the story of the original story of Ibrahim and Ismael). The activity that follows is differentiated three ways: ‘1 chilli’: order the storyboard pictures and match with them the text, 2 chillies: pupils create their own pictures to accompany the story text, 3 chillies: pupils create their own text and images to narrate the story. Please note: It is an important belief in Islam that characters of religious significance should not be explicitly depicted in images - therefore the faces of the characters on the 1 chilli activity are hidden - the powerpoint reminds pupils completing the two more challenging activities to do the same with their drawings. It is worth reiterating this orally to your class. For those who complete quickly, an extra challenge is described on the powerpoint.

A lesson for KS1 about the importance of stewardship of the world and what some of the major world religions say about looking after the planet. Includes two videos. Activity (to produce poster about what we should and should not do to be good stewards of the world) is differentiated three ways.

A lesson for Y2 or Y3 on the key locations on Earth (North Pole, South Pole, Equator, Northern and Southern Hemispheres) plus the directions of a four-point compass. Activity comprises three smaller tasks and is differentiated three ways. Includes a world map with the key countries (for the questions) highlighted. However, you may prefer to use a photocopied atlas (perhaps enlarging to A3) for greater readability.

A PSHE lesson suited to most primary year groups on talking about our achievements and goals. This could also be used as an assembly presentation if you take out the slide with instructions for the task.

A writing lesson for Y3/4 giving pupils an opportunity to write a section of an adventure story with a polar/Arctic/Canadian/Inuit theme. The pupils are challenged to write the ending to a story they are introduced to (‘Nukilik and the Bear’) about an Inuit boy and an orphaned polar bear. This lesson can be used as an assessment piece at the start or end of a unit on adventure story writing. The resources comprise: a planning template, wordbank, story introduction to follow on from and a step-by-step powerpoint.

An ideal end-of-unit quiz for upper KS2 to put their knowledge of the Muslim religion to the test in a fun and accessible way. No need to print anything - just put the slides on-screen and click through! Note: the combination of questions and answers takes approximately 1 hour to work through with a class.

This is a complete lesson for lower KS2 pupils who are studying Hinduism in RE and have already had a basic introduction to the concepts of Ahimsa, Karma and Dharma. There is a starter intended to ‘hook’ the children in by getting them to ask the questions - these questions could then be used in an alternative plenary in which pupils can answer their original questions. The reading activity could be completed in groups of four (one card each) or pairs (two cards each). There are comprehension questions at the bottom for the pupils to ask each there peers after reading each section. Finally, the main written activity is differentiated three ways to allow children to apply their new understanding of Ghandi and his beliefs.

A complete lesson for lower KS2 that introduces subtraction with regrouping. The resources comprise a powerpoint with animated base-ten blocks to show what is happening when numbers are subtracted, a template for children to ‘create their own worksheet’ and 2-way differentiated activities that pupils can add to the template to suit their own level of challenge. The worksheets are uploaded as Word documents and are therefore fully editable - please feel free to replace ‘Mr Drakes’ and ‘Mrs Nichols’ with members of staff from your school! There was originally a separate set of resources for different partners within the class (hence the ‘blue’ and ‘yellow’ labels).

A lesson for KS1 on Christian places of worship. Features a video, tasks differentiated three ways, an extra challenge for fast finishers and a short plenary quiz.

A lesson explaining to pupils the significance of the Palm Sunday story and challenging them to retell it in ‘storyboard’ form. Includes a video recounting the events of Palm Sunday as told in the Bible. The pupil activity is differentiated three ways.

A lesson for KS1 on the five pillars of Islam, with three differentiated activities for pupils to choose between and a quiz for the plenary.

A lesson prompting pupils to reflect on the messages in two important stories about the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH): Muhammad and the Old Woman The Rich Man and the Poor Man The main task prompts pupils to think about how to apply the lessons in these stories to their own lives. There is an extension for those who require a further challenge.

A complete lesson for Y4-6 (adaptable for Y3) about how to identify and write effective similes. This lesson is intended to take pupils right back to what the point of similes is: to create vivid imagery in the reader’s mind. From there, various ‘good’ and ‘not so good’ examples show pupils how to build that imagery most effectively. Pupils then generate the ‘success criteria’ for effective similes (the powerpoint refines these down to 3 ‘golden guidelines’). Finally, there are 3 differentiated activities ranging from quite heavily scaffolded (‘Challenge 1’) to freer writing. For higher year groups, you could make ‘Challenge 2’ the easiest and then challenge your most able writers to apply the ‘golden guidelines’ in their own similes ‘from scratch’. Please note: this lesson frames similes through the context of writing descriptive settings of a forest. You can of course edit the powerpoint directly and copy/paste, then edit the wording from the activities.

A lesson for KS1 on Sikh places of worship, featuring a video which edits together the most useful parts of older content that give a tour of a Gurdwara for a child audience. Activities are differentiated three ways and include a challenge for any fast finishers. The plenary is a short, quickfire quiz.

A lesson for Y5/6 that takes some of the themes of the final sections of The Journey , e.g refugees arriving in a new and strange country, and uses them as the inspiration for writing haikus. The lesson begins with a ‘diamond 9’ activity to get children discussing the feelings that a refugee finally stepping into safety might experience. There is then a brief recap on syllables using a fun paired game. Pupils are then introduced to haiku as a form and, through good and ‘not so good’ examples, draw out the success criteria themselves. For teachers less confident with spontaneous shared writing, there is a ‘crib sheet’ with key questions and ‘think out loud’ points. For the independent activity, pupils can select an image to write a haiku about and the help sheet has examples for each image which pupils can use to base theirs on if needed.

A complete lesson for any primary age group about the importance of mental health. The lesson introduces the concept of mental health and then introduces pupils to the idea of mindfulness and how it can help to refocus our thoughts and feelings and leave us calmer and more content. There are two main activities: one a ‘meditation’, during which the teacher tells a short story and the children follow the instructions in the narrative to control and slow their breathing. Following this, the independent activity is a choice of mindfulness colouring activities.

Use these differentiated resources in a practical 3D shape lesson in lower KS2 on prisms and non prisms. You will need to source the items for the children to investigate: balls Toblerone boxes Smartie boxes fruit cans or similar matchboxes teabags (the ‘pyramid’ (tetrahedron) kind) pencils ice cream cone wrappers toothpaste boxes There is a template that starts pupils off at the ‘1 chilli’ (i.e. easiest) level and allows them to choose how their level of challenge progresses from there. Ask your TA to trim the activities along the black lines into rectangles and pupils can come up to collect the one they want when ready!