Whole lesson Year 3. Meets National Curriculum Objective: compare and group together different kinds of rocks on the basis of their appearance and simple physical properties. This lesson has been prepared as an exciting practical start to the topic of rocks and soils - ideal for the first lesson in a unit of work. This resource pack includes: Lesson plan Lesson presentation Printed activity/recording sheet Printed learning objective Rock name labels (editable) Name that rock printout - (identification chart) for help identifying the rock as an alternative to pre-labelling. Children are given an input based on properties of different materials and are then asked to consider the properties of different rocks, by examining them. After that they decide how to sort/group them, based on the properties they have just observed. I’ve delivered this lesson for two years without the slide show and the printouts, and I know it will be better for it - the children always enjoy it, regardless - and it enthuses them for the rest for the topic - this is simply tightening/smartening up. Tip: If you are spending the whole afternoon on the activity, use setting circles/hoops and encourage children to create physical Venn diagrams with the rock samples, according to their own sorting criteria written onto post-it notes (as in the last slides of the slide show). Please note: you will need access to rock samples to deliver this lesson - I have left editable boxes on the rock labels, as well as including the most likely to be used rocks. (I selected 7 types that could be gathered together fairly easily) I hope you enjoy using this resource. I would be grateful if you could leave a review.

A pick-up-and-go lesson covering the Year 3 National Curriculum objective, compare and contrast the diets of different animals including pets. This presentation includes vivid images of different animals alongside their diets in general terms. It prompts children to think about what their own pets eat, or mustn’t have and links to a BBC classroom clip. I have used this lesson in Year 3, and the children were exceptionally engaged. The activity creates an imaginary scenario, where there is a new zoo keeper who has lost her notes explaining which bucket of food is to be taken to which enclosure. Children help by matching the menu with the enclosure. This resource includes: lesson plan, activity, lesson presentation, and printed L.O. Tip: Print the activity on the ‘two sides per sheet’ setting to fit into books nicely without wasting too much paper and ink, leaving space for additional writing below. I hope you enjoy using this resource. I would be grateful if you could leave a review once it has been used in class.

An introduction to the diet of the ancient Greeks by tasting! This resource can be used at the start of a learning journey on Ancient Greece, to engage, or at the end. I have also used it the day before a ‘Fabulous Finish’ (Ancient Greek Day) where the children dressed in costumes, designed their own Greek pottery and carved in clay, held a mini Olympic games tournament and then marched into a feast, giving due honour to Zeus before eating. It worked well in this manner, because the children were already aware of the types of foods they would be sampling and why. The resource includes: Presentation on the diet of the Ancient Greeks. A printable Menu - edit on the ppt to include the food you have bought Slides to show what foods are going to be sampled A printout where children can rate the food, based on its appearance and texture and taste etc. (Print from ppt) A suggested follow up task - where children design their own menus, of Ancient Greek style food, using effusive persuasive language. All the food types included, are easy to source, and I found Aldi/Lidl extremely good value for 60 pupils. Most children gagged on the anchovies, but it was part of the fun - they all loved the goats cheese/greek yoghurt squeezy honey combo (and some were eating the honey simply on its own!) I hope you enjoy using this resource.

Year 4 - Changing States of Matter Practical lesson - used as a hook following Christmas start of new topic - link to food waste - ways to preserve. This is a whole lesson where children make butter by shaking double cream in jars until it first becomes whipped cream and then butter. I prepared it to use in the first week back as a lesson to engage before moving on to solids, liquids and gases. It is an easy and fun practical lesson. This resource comes with a lesson plan, a learning objective table/slip where children are encouraged to link their task to the forthcoming learning by answering two questions about how the liquid cream was different from the solid butter, and a power point presentation - my first slides relate to food waste at Christmas, but this could be easily edited to link to food waste more generally. You will need to provide: several tubs of double cream, jars or lidded plastic tubs to use as shakers, salt, spoons, crackers. I hope you enjoy using this resource and if you could take the time to feed back, I would be grateful.

This toolkit is designed for daily use as part of a classroom routine. There are 6 weeks of daily activities included. (Three weeks of twice daily drills - ideal to use from Term 5 commencement right up to the SpaG test.) Ideal for quick revision of key concepts already taught in the lead up to SATS after Easter, or diagnostically at any other point in the year The resource follows a regular routine: Use the first slide to re-visit the grammar rule. Active teaching of concepts already taught. Children complete the activity on the second slide independently (e.g. during the register on whiteboards, rough books or dedicated SpaG books; this slide could be locked onto the IWB using the freeze function) Third Slide gives the answer to the SAT style question asked in slide 2. and encourages peer to peer feedback. The SATs questions have been created from scratch and are based on the content of previous papers Tip: Make a copy of the whole presentation for next year, then delete each set of three slides once taught for easy navigation to the correct day. This toolkit contains 100 slides of active revision. I would be grateful if you could leave a review.

Thursday 26th September 2024 is the European Day of Languages! This is an assembly that has been prepared to let children know this, and to encourage them to reflect on why there is a special day for languages. It would work well as an introduction to a whole day of European language themed small activities e.g. the lunch menu in other languages/teachers greeting you in other languages. There are opportunities to iterate to children that, even though we are leaving the EU, we are part of Europe, and will still be part of Europe when we leave (Not overtly mentioned - this could be held as a discussion on the ‘Europe’ slides.) It links to what I have called in the presentation ‘British Values’ (but for my school we talk of Core Values) and prompts children to reflect on how learning about another person’s language and culture can link to values such as tolerance. There are links to a clip, where children have to listen for the French speaker saying ‘hello- talk to me’ - as we teach French in our school (simply amend the photo and listen for the language(s) that you teach if it is not French). Later on there are some fun activities, in French, which are appropriate if you do or do not teach French, as ideally, throughout the school day, you would incorporate ways to engage with the other languages spoken in Europe (e.g. am register in Italian, pm register in Spanish - I have chosen French as we teach it in our school and it needs a ‘push/plug’. The material is designed to fill approximately 20 minutes assembly time. If I had more time to fill, I would show one of the excellent French language short animations afterwards, such as Du Tout Cuit I hope you find this resource helpful.

A ppt (including differentiated activity printouts) that gives an overview to where modern day Greece is located, the make up of the land and climate. It then includes major cities and reference points of ancient Greece. (All images/maps sourced via Google images) This is for KS 2 and has supported a Year 5 introduction to ancient Greece, alongside timeline lessons and more general introductions.

Just a bit of fun - this could be used when teaching French on a themed day such as World Book Day or maybe a Harry Potter themed event is taking place at your school. It is a short (5 question) quiz that shows how the titles of Harry Potter books have been translated, and the characters, so it could be used as a starter. I would probably use it to elicit a brief discussion about whether people’s names should be translated - or not - in this case, they often need translating, as the name also conveys the character, a bit (like Miss Honey in Matilda) in the French translations of the Harry Potter books, many characters have different names e.g Snape = Rogue, but in the German translations, they are not altered - can give older children an idea about the subtleties of translating! **Tip: **I have used a special Harry Potter font (which I love!) to make it more relatable. This can be easily downloaded for free with a quick internet search.

This is a whole lesson encouraging children to think critically and evaluate whether the information they see on the internet is real or fake. This resource includes: lesson (or session) plan and an activity. The plan details how to encourage children to think about what we use the internet for, and through the use of classroom clips introduces the idea of fake news. Children are given tips about how to evaluate whether a story etc might be fake or genuine. The activity is to look at a screen shot of a news story/twitter feed/web page/email/viral photo and decide whether it is is real or fake. Children click the answer each time (real or fake) -most are fake - and then there is extra information about how they might have reasoned this, what clues or warnings there were etc. These are mostly real-life examples. Although the activity has been entitled ‘Fake News Spotter’, the scope of the lesson is actually much broader than ‘Fake News’ as it also touches upon scams, trusted sources of information and using the internet for research. Tip: The activity is designed to be completed by the children individually/in pairs in ppt, but if that is not possible, it can be delivered as a whole class activity, or the slides can be printed and children can examine them in groups or pairs and sort them into a pile of ‘real’ or ‘fake’ before the answers are talked through as a whole class. This makes a nice reading-based activity in mixed ability pairs - perfect if there are carousels of activities taking places as part of a whole school approach to Safer Internet Day. I’m really pleased with this lesson which I have used with Year 4. I did notice that, when using the ppt, they all were very keen simply to see if they were correct or incorrect and whizzed through the slides without really reading the important information, so I would advise that you put in place some incentives to ensure that they actually read the slides - perhaps partner has to ask a question based on the content, or each taking it in turns to read the slide aloud before moving on - I had to make at least one quarter of the class go back over it again when finished. I hope you enjoy using this resource - there is so much misinformation out there, even for us adults - anything that helps our young people think more carefully about what they see or share, or how they select what sites they visit, is, in my view, a good thing!

Most of the resources I’ve seen regarding hyphens focus on compounding. This Power Point (with printable resources within) focuses simply on other situations when hyphens might be used. It will build upon an introductory lesson, but could also be used as an introduction lesson, too. It is not too bogged down by strict grammar rules - giving examples instead. It uses humorous photographs throughout, as a means of keeping children engaged - please use with care to the age/suitability for your own class groups. Suitable for: Year 5 (Hap) or 6 (Pitched at this level - map) or beyond for lap. I would be grateful if you would take the time to review this resource.

A whole English lesson on formal and informal language. I have used versions of this in year 5 and in year 6. There is a very clear explanation of formal and informal language as well as standard and non-standard English. Children are guided through several SATs style questions and then introduced to a written task. They are to re-write a couples draft wedding vows in a more formal style as befits the situation! Fun. A model answer is given. There are usually several questions that require the children to select the most formal sentence in the spelling and grammar SpAG SATs test, and this lesson helps, particularly where practice papers have identified this as an area for improvement. I tend to theme my lessons based on the learning journey or something topical, and this lesson has nods toward the topic of skating and also the Harry Meghan Royal Wedding where I have adapted it for use in both. If there is another big forthcoming celebrity wedding that the children are aware of, it would be worth replacing the names and the photos, once downloaded, to keep in relevant and up to date for the children, but I’m afraid my knowledge of the latest celebrity couple is rather wanting! The resource includes a written plan and LO printout. I hope you enjoy this lesson. It is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but surely that’s the best way to deliver a grammar lesson? Please also note that a percentage of author proceeds from the sale of this product will be given to our partner school in Sierra Leone. To date (Feb 2020) have donated £250 from the proceeds of author sales

Tuesday 21st February is Mardi Gras (Shrove/‘Fat’ Tuesday)! This is a power point resource all about Mardi Gras that includes accompanying activities that can be done afterwards. It is designed as a French lesson, but can easily be used as a whole school assembly, especially in a French-teaching primary school. There are some links to be made with RE and Lent, so it will work especially well in a CE/Catholic primary school teaching French. It is suitable for KS2 or perhaps just lower Key Stage 3. There are already many resources out there on the subject of Easter, but very few on Mardi Gras, which is increasing in popularity in the UK as ‘Fat Tuesday’. The lesson commences with the children analysing 2 photos showing Mardi Gras (carnival) scenes. (A means of activating critical thinking skills) before introducing the lesson as one about Mardi Gras, how it is celebrated and some key vocabulary. The ppt links to a You Tube clip of a parade in Montreal (providing opportunities to discuss French culture around the world). It introduces some key vocabulary, (and can be used as an opportunity to revise colours, days of the week and dates, as they come up, naturally). Possible activities include: -2 word searches using the key vocabulary. One easier, one harder. Reading slide (depending on ability, could be read as a whole class looking for ‘the word that means…’ Recorded audio of the reading slide - you could give the challenge of listening to hear a specific word or phrase. (In the passage, as there are some near-cognate words that are not given in the vocabulary - children have to work out they mean based on how they look, sound or are spelled.) As a creative task, children can design a Mardi Gras mask, and several templates are given. The ppt slides can be printed in A3 when there are 2 per page. To make a larger art/DT project. This provides opportunities for wonderful displays!!! I have seen examples of Mardi Gras displays on the internet, where, having created the masks, the children’s photographs are taken and printed A3 size and the masks stuck over the top of the child’s face on the board - looks amazing! In my school, I haven’t gone that far, but the children were occupied for a whole wet-play, making gold, green and purple paper chains, which I decorated around a notice board, using my ppt slides as information for the mid-section. Sorry, there are no word search answers for the 2nd word search, but you could retain a child’s once they have solved - also, using the word ‘or’ in the word search has resulted in there being several possible answers - I didn’t change it - it’s probably something else of interest that will enable the word to stick in their minds. Please note: Selling resources on TES has enabled me to donate £500 to date to our partner school in Sierra Leone. All author proceeds from this resource will be donated to our partner school, where it is used to buy medicines and period products

This is a resource prepared for key stage 2 to be used in the maths session either in the first few days of the September term, or as a structured maths activity as part of a transition. Children solve the calculations/problems to find a number that corresponds to a letter. The letters spell out a phrase. The secret phrase is ‘Maths is fun!’ or ‘Maths is awesome’ when completed. Children can then go on to create their own phrases/coded words. I have used this activity in Year 5, but because there are four different levels of challenge, this activity could easily be carried out in lower years, or even Year 6. The children enjoyed it - because the phrase is the same for all levels, children can race to solve it first (swear them to secrecy, by asking them to only whisper the phrase to you for a reward if they are correct). Works well if partners are working together - if the sheet is too hard, or one question on the sheet is too challenging, they can always look at the question on an easier sheet. I found this exercise to be helpful to get an overall sense of how the class were with number and their ability and confidence with a range of maths overall - probably as helpful as a test for a quick sense of where a new class is at, but without any of the threat. It gave me some good ideas about where to pitch my planning for the next couple of weeks, whilst I got to know them and their strengths/gaps better, so I would consider it of much more value than simply a ‘holding’ teacher-meet type exercise. Tip: Set the printer to double sided, so they can flip over to create their own code once they have found the answer. I hope you enjoy using this resource. I would be grateful if you could leave a review, once used in class.

This is a slide show that contains 22 slides of puzzles and riddles. They are easy enough to guess the answers but hard enough to present a fun challenge for primary school-aged children. I used these riddles as part of an English lesson in Year 5 and they were very well received. It also includes a worksheet where the riddles have been differentiated to solve in groups as an alternative to a whole-class activity. This is a light hearted end-of-term fun activity for the children who are tired, and in need of something a bit lighter, but it will nonetheless develop their critical thinking skills, and hopefully foster a love of these word-play type problems. The presentation includes slides explaining what riddles are and how they work, and giving several guided examples before launching into the whole class slides. Each separate riddle is presented on one slide, which is then animated to reveal the answer, alongside an explanation of any that may need further clarification. Having carried out this lesson previously where children simply read the printed riddles from a worksheet, I am really pleased with the slide show, as the pictures add another element of deception - you are further able to mislead their thinking with subtle/subconscious red-herrings! I hope you have fun using this resource. I would be grateful if you could leave a review.

A simple resource, children can use when investigating different types of rocks. Using a grid, children can state whether they think a specific rock is e.g. smooth or gritty, layers or no layers, crystals or no crystals. This is a taster, part of a collection of resources based on the Year 3 topic of Rocks and Soils available at: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/rocks-year-3-11910312 I hope you enjoy using this resource.

This is a lesson (teaching presentation and activity) for teaching coordinates in all four quadrants. A knowledge of coordinates in the first quadrant is assumed alongside a basic knowledge of the principles of negative numbers. The resource is survival themed (as it was delivered as part of a survival learning journey) but it could be used in any maths lesson to teach coordinates in all 4 quadrants - the theme just makes it a little more engaging. It is equally easily adaptable as a pirate treasure map activity. Children imagine themselves on a desert island. They want to create a map for their fellow castaways (or pirates) indicating where the fresh water is, the firewood etc. they must create their own desert islands, plot co-ordinates for all the key features and then state what the coordinates are in a key. Children will love the creative element of this - the maps could be decorated and improved further in pm sessions - this is the type of challenge/activity that they do again at home for the fun of it. It has been deliberately left for the children to decide what their island looks like, and what is important to plot, so that they have full ownership of the ideas. There are teaching slides on how to read and plot co-ordinates in the 4 quadrants and the activity instructions are carefully scaffolded (Children will make mistakes if asked to draw their own axes in their maths books without a clear explanation about how to do so - we discovered the hard way!) There is also a printable grid for LA pupils, who will still be able to create their own island, and plot their own features. Tip: print a few extras, so if anyone does struggle to draw the axis in their books, and needs to re-start, this could be glued in over the top. I created this resource to be used as a survival themed project over a week in maths, at the end of term - there is an accompanying resource set on reading shipping maps and timetables, and creating a look-out rota/timetable. I hope you enjoy delivering this lesson. I would be grateful if you could leave a review with a comment, once you have used it in class.

Les Animaux de la Jungle. Now with recorded French for each piece of vocabulary used or introduced. This is an engaging way to introduce vocabulary for animals that live in the Indian jungle. It would support a topic of India or simply use as something different to the usual animals that are taught. Games: Listen to the animal sound and say the animal that makes the noise (C’est quel animal?) Look at the picture closely and state which one is missing (Que manque-t-il) Revise numbers at the same time by watching the moving pictures closely and counting how many animals there were altogether. (Combien de…?) Also includes: A three-page worksheet that includes simple cut/stick, matching activities and a wordsearch using the new vocabulary. The powerpoint is available in two options: Autoplay soundbites for non speakers of French (learn alongside!). This duplicates slides and auto plays all French phrases. Sound clips included when you click on the icon - to vary interest and give another voice for children to listen to. The worksheets are supplied in Microsoft Word format so they are fully editable. Note: the Power Point presentations are animated which cannot be viewed in preview mode.

This assembly explores the Christian value of humility using Palm Sunday and the symbolism of Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem on a donkey. It is ideal to use during the week preceding Easter (Holy Week) or in the lead up to Palm Sunday. Start by asking children what words they would use to describe the white horse. There is a word art image with likely answers. This assembly encourages children to think of ways they can practise the Christian value of humility, and ends with a prayer. It could also be used as part of a lesson input in a church school where children then create their own palm frond crosses, from paper or real palm leaves. I would be grateful if you could leave a review, once you have used this resource.

This is a simple Power Point which asks questions and answers them in the following slides, accompanied by simple graphics and photos. I would use the presentation as an overview, and then ask children to ask further questions, which they could write on speech bubbles to be displayed on the working wall. Includes: What is Hinduism? Where do Hindus worship? What do Hindus believe happens after you die? Images of gods and goddesses Do Hindus have a sacred symbol? Do Hindus believe in one or many gods? It would be good for an RE day, or topic introduction. I have used it in year 4. The children in our church school had never heard of the idea of reincarnation and were fascinated to hear about other ideas from other religions.