Tons of ideas to stimulate kids to read. Plenty of short snappy ideas. The zip file has over a dozen documents. Sample ideas Write a letter as a character in your book to either another character in your book, a new invented character or a real-life character. Write a letter from yourself to a character in your book. Write a letter to the author of your book – you could say what you like or dislike about the book, or give ideas for what else you would like included in the book. Have a go at drawing a map of one of the places in the story. See how much you can include and how much detail you can add. Pretend you are a travel agent and want people to visit the place in the story. Write a paragraph on what you would tell others. Re-tell an event from the story from another characters point of view. For example, if Jenny is visiting a haunted castle with her wimpy brother Joe, can you change it from Jenny’s point of view to Joe’s? Re-tell an event from the story as if you are a newspaper reporter and you are writing a newspaper article. Imagine you could interview a character in your story – what would you ask them? What would their replies be? Write your interview with your character. Set it out so you use 2 different colours for your questions and your character’s answers. Write the diary entry (or several) for a character in your story after something interesting has happened. Have a go at writing a second diary entry for a different character. Have a go at continuing the story after the end of the book. What might happen next? Change the story by changing the actions of one of the characters. Maybe they do something different when it’s a big event, that changes everything! Change the story into a very simple version for young children and illustrate it too. Change the story (or part of it) into a comic strip. Change the story (or part of it) into a poem. Change the story (or part of it) into a play. Create a passport or ID card for your character. Draw a picture of a character from the story. Make sure you use all the detail that the book gives you. Draw a picture of a place in your story. Make sure you use all the detail that the book gives you. Design a new blurb for the back cover of the book. You can use colours and pictures as well as writing. Redesign the front cover of the book. Design a poster to advertise your book. Think about it’s unique selling points – e.g. what is good about it. Design a radio advert to advertise your book… maybe you would read some of the exciting bits to the audience. Remember your audience can only listen, not see what you’re doing. Write about what a character might be thinking or feeling at different stages of the story. You could write it in the first person, or in a speech bubble.

Great planning and activities on the Tron Man. sample Introduce the book to the children. Highlight the cover of the book. What do you think the book will be about? Discuss with partners, share ideas with the class. Read the blurb. Why do you think the book is described as a modern fairy tale? Introduce that the author of the book is also a poet. Share that there are many poetic features in the text that are used to describe the characters and setting e.g. similes, metaphors and onomatopoeia. The children will have to take notes of these features. Read chapter 1 to the children. Ask the children to jot descriptions of Iron Man on their whiteboards while listening to the story. Use a PowerPoint to highlight the description of Iron Man on page 1-2.The children will create a mind maps on Iron Man. They will create a description his movements, his features and his personality. Focus: Characters WALT: To create a description of a character from a text. WILF: Use of adjectives, verbs and poetic features (i.e. similes, alliteration and onomatopoeia). Use neat handwriting. Recap on previous lesson. Ask what has happened so far in the text (Chapter 1 describes Iron Man stepping off a cliff and getting his body back together. In then walks into the sea).How has the author kept our interest so far? What have you enjoyed? Read first half of chapter two to ‘The Iron Man had gone back to the sea.’ Discuss how the boy might felt when he saw Iron Man. How might it have been different if his family didn’t believe him? Why do you think Iron Man went back to the sea? What might happen next? WALT: To create a description of a character and their actions. Identify and discuss powerful verbs, adjectives and adverbs which describe the Iron Man’s movement. Create a mind map of those from the text and other suggestions. Mind map to include similes. Task: Children are to create a ‘Wanted’ poster for the Iron Man. They give a detailed account of his description (using similes and metaphors.) They also must provide details for why he is wanted, listing crimes committed, reward, contact number etc.

Lovely powerpoints and planning. Sample : Give out copies or enlarge Fog by Carl Sandberg (see resources). Read the poem together. Write ‘personification’ on the f/c and discuss what this means. Write a definition: Giving human traits to non-human or abstract things. Or making a non-human thing do things that only a human can do. Enlarge or give out copies of Two Sunflowers Move in a Yellow Room by William Blake (see resources). Discuss how the sunflowers are given human characteristics – they talk, they feel tired, they want a room with a view! Return to the poem Fog. In this, it is almost as if Fog is alive – either human or possibly feline (cat-like). Look again at Two Sunflowers Move in a Yellow Room. Underline the words ‘topaz tortoises’. Do chn know what these last lines mean? Discuss whether it matters if we are not sure of the exact meaning of all the words in a poem. Why might it not matter? Because it is the sound and the rhythm of the words which is as important as their meaning in a poem. Look up topaz to find its meaning. Does this help us understand what the last two lines mean? Easy Working with the teacher, and using a copy of Fog, chn brainstorm other types of weather. They make a list and then write a short sentence or phrase which personifies that weather, e.g. The wind yells in the gaps between the buildings. TD

Loads of planning. Great to reinforce sats work. About a month’s work. sample: Short Activity One Taught session. Use the two contrasting passages (from lesson support materials in purple Ros Wilson book). One written at L4/5 and one at L2/3. Play ‘Spot the differences’ – what makes one higher than the other? Use to establish the idea of levels and assessment. Identify differences in punctuation, openers, connectives and vocabulary. Use to establish that these are the four features that can easily make a difference to the level of pupils’ writing. Show the Punctuation Pyramid. If you only use a full stop, you are punctuating at level one. Name all the pieces of punctuation – pick a few of the level 4 pieces and ask how it is used – exemplify if time permits. Short Activity 2 Taught session Read the text ‘The Monster’ from lesson support materials. Highlight or underline examples of the four generic targets using a colour code. Children to continue this in pairs. Discuss the passage sharing likes and dislikes. Emphasise the suspense. How does the writer achieve it? Talk about language and punctuation.

Planning for writing a piece of jounalism. Full planning. Great powerpoint and lots of detail. Pupils write a piece with the teacher’s help. Model write for 2011 short writing task. A speech to my class persuading them to support the charity of my choice – charity to buy books for foreign schools. 8 for composition and effect 4 for sentence structure Hello 6J My name is Chloe and I would like to persuade you to support the ‘Books for foreign countries’ charity with the money that we hope to raise. There are many reasons for my choice and I am going to tell you about them today. Surely you agree that every child deserves an education? Isn’t this a fundamental human right? I think it is. Yet in some countries, children aren’t as lucky as us. Recently, I have been writing to a young girl in Bali, Indonesia. In 2002, a tsunami struck Bali millions of people died, thousands were injured, few survived. Bali is a poor country and finding the money to rebuild lives wasn’t easy. Most schools were swept away CHECKLIST: PERSUASIVE WRITING. Features of persuasive writing Achieved ü What sort of persuasive writing is it? e.g. letter, poster/flyer, travel brochure, advert, catalogue, book blurb etc. Is the point of view clearly explained in an introduction? Is there a series of points with elaboration? (Elaboration means adding more detail.) Is it in the present tense? Does it use logical connectives? e.g. because, consequently, as a result, however, nevertheless etc. Does it use emotive language (e.g. strong adjectives)? Does challenge the reader? E.g. using adverbs and phrases; Clearly, Surely, Obviously, Everyone knows that… etc Is there a clear conclusion or final statement?

Planning for Literacy Lesson. Pupils will focus on a soldier who was fighting at Dunkirk. Main character Jimmy Jones Medic in WW2. Lovable, friendly and family orientated but also proud and doesn’t talk about his experiences during the war. Two daughters and several grandchildren. Grandson Bobby will be in the story briefly. Present Scene A bonfire and fireworks event at the local park. Jimmy is enjoying himself with his family. Noisy, crowded, smells of hotdogs and candyfloss, feeling his Grandson’s hand in his. Seeing a father piggy back his children, having fun, children squealing in delight at the sparklers in their hands. Wishing his wife was there to experience this. Past Scene The beaches of Dunkirk, there were explosions here too as Luftwaffe bombed the boats. People being carried here too, carried to me as a medic. How can I help them? I have no supplies, no way of easing their pain. Soldiers scream in pain and give up on life. Gunfire and shells all around me, the chaotic sound of warfare. A ring of flames. Smell sweat on my bloody uniform. Damp clothes. Lice crawling over my body. Trigger The sound of wood crackling on the bonfire brings a distant memory and the sound of an exploding firework causes the flashback to begin… Ending Bobby ‘Daddy, what’s wrong with Grandpa?’ Jimmy’s son gently on his father’s forearm ‘Dad?’. ‘It’s nothing Son, ‘ he cleared his voice gruffly and tried to come back to the present.

A 46 slide powerpoint that details Characterisation and contains exciting group work. The pupils create characters using the top tips.

Some great planning for a project on Africa. Best spread over a half term. A little and often Maybe you could do an assembly? Fun activities. Make a mask Make a dance Climate and history and social science covered. Start off with this: So how much do you really know about Africa? Begin with a quick question and answer session on Africa to ascertain how much the class already know, for example: Is Africa a continent or a country? Is it an island? Is the equator near Africa? What animals do they associate with Africa? Watch the ‘Challenge the Stereotypes’ video after going through the questions Class Input – Has anyone been to Africa? Using a map of Africa (visualiser, cut out, atlas?) ask children to come and label the places they have been in Africa and say 3 sentences about the area. Challenge – How many countries can children label on the map in Africa? Show students a map of Africa. Explain how it is one continent that has 54 countries. Find the UK on the map, discuss the differences in location, size etc. Explain that they are going to be finding out about Africa and looking into its problems and their solutions over the next half term. Think/Pair Share: Discuss where in Africa you might go as a tourist and why? Did they know Egypt was part of Africa? Explain to the chn that Africa is so rich in its culture that the Earth’s oldest known stone tools (2,400,000 BCE) and first known species: homo erectus (1,900,000 BCE) and humans/homo-sapiens (200,000 BCE) inhabited Africa before any other continent! So genetic evidence suggests we all originate from a species in Africa This lesson should highlight the minimal amount we know about Africa and encourage chn to find out more about the continent, the coutries and the culture over the coming weeks.

Some material that can be displayed on the board as they enter for registration. Powerpoint. 10 simple questions per day Three weeks worth. Watermark not on full product sample ; Double 24. Half of 28 is 14. What is ¼ of 28? What is an apple likely to weigh: 1g, 10g, 100g, 1kg, 10kg? A garden path is 10m long. Half of it is weeded, how much is still to be weeded? How many grams are there in 1kg? How many 10’s are there in 265? How many 100’s are there in 265? Which of the following are even? 12, 9, 6, 14, 17, 5. Read these numbers to your partner 562, 784, 90, 106. Write these numbers in figures, two hundred and seven, six hundred and twenty six, fifty.

Some material that can be displayed on the board as they enter for registration. 7 to 10 simple questions per day Two weeks worth. sample ; A school bag could weight about: 2 metres, 2 centimetres, 2 kilometres, or 2 kilograms? The length of a bed measures about: 2 kilos, 2 metres 2 inches or 12 metres? The height of a school building would be measured in: centimetres, litres, kilometres, metres? How many mms in 25cms? How many strips of 10cm could you cut from 2 metres of tape? In the year 3 classroom there are 4 pots with 5 crayons in each pot. How many crayons are there altogether? Jodie thinks of a number and doubles it. The answer is 30. What was the number Jodie thought of? Double 7 and add 2. Draw a square and shade ¾ of it. A trip to the swimming baths costs 50p per child. How much will it cost for 4 children?

14 weeks of short term plans Great for cutting and pasting into your own personal school timetable. I’ve included a sample week in the visible upload. The zip contains the lot. sample year 2. Register Activity Chn finish work from Meet Your New Teacher day. 9am: Input: Welcome the children to their first day of year 2! Talk about how we were feeling before coming into school, did we get very much sleep last night? Share with the children how you were feeling too! Introduce the chn to the text of the week: First day jitters by Julia Danneberg. Read the story together and discuss the twist at the end. (Ask questions throughout) T focus for morning: x2 groups of 6 L.O. To use features of a non-chronological report W.I.L.F I can… Include a heading Use subheadings to organize my writing Talk about the difference between facts and fiction (All about me) Chn create a 3D profile, including a self-portrait drawing of their head, to be used for display. Chn complete section boxes all about their family, friends, hobbies etc. Cut out the sections and arrange them inside the folded top. Put together the body parts on colored backing card, ready for the head to be attached later. Label with name sticker. 9am: Input: Quickly recap the story for this week and remind ourselves of the main character, how she was feeling and why? Introduce class bear, explain that he was also feeling very nervous about meeting new chn and starting year 2. Display a page from (bear’s) diary, ask the chn to highlight the adjectives they can see. (perform an action when they hear an adjective word) T to highlight them in a colour as they read. Explain the independent challenge is to match up the adjective words to the different emotion cards. T focus for morning: x2 groups of 6 L.O. To use adjectives W.I.L.F I can… Use capital letters and full stops Use first person Use commas between adjectives Check my sentences make sense (Writing it in the present tense) Chn to write a short diary entry about how they were feeling the night before they came back to school, include adjectives to describe how you were feeling. *Have Monday’s 3D profiles out on a table to finish off. TA focus for first thing: To assess SPP chn against current targets, make notes and set up folders for works to begin.