So I put together this information guide to support teachers in carrying out a P4C lesson. This can be used as a guideline to follow before teaching a P4C lesson. Check out some of my packs with complete lessons on my store https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/philosophy-for-children-12033036

Philosophy 4 Children is being taught across the UK to teach children fundamental skills such as: critical thinking. reasoning skills. empathy. team work. In this pack, I have included: Philosophy Display Cards Philosophy lesson plan: recycling Philosophy lesson plan: friendships Philosophy Powerpoint: recycling Philosophy Powerpoint: friendships A document on how to teach philosophy. I have been teaching Philosophy lessons for a whole term now and the difference it has made in children’s problem solving skills in friendship issues, aswell as mathematical problems is amazing! We spend an hour a week on P4C and it’s the children’s favourite lesson. Some of them have come out with some cracking conclusions too: “Crying is an expression of your truest emotions. The body takes over from the mind”. I mean WOW!

6 challenge cards for children to solve upon finishing a comprehension task early or if looking to encourage them to think deeper. We have been trying to use the A.P.E (answer, prove, explain) technique for inference questions, which encourages children to PROVE their answers by looking at clues in the text/pictures. These challenge cards remind children to prove their answers.

A ONE page worksheet on inverse operations for KS2! I use this one sheet for each ability group within my Year 4 class. I differentiate through support rather than work. Yes the lower ability children may need more initial support and resources, but they are flying in confidence and in Maths ability. This sheet allows children to move on to a harder challenge every 3 questions, thus challenging each ability group at all times. Before children start their activity, they need to critically think about a statement written on the paper (work backwards and change the sign). I allow them to talk in mixed ability pairs about this statement and PROVE that it is correct/incorrect before they start their activity. By doing this, children learn to justify their own answers in Mathematics, thus having an overall better understanding for the Mathematical concepts. I have adopted this strategy for all topics and it’s proving very effective in children’s understanding. GIve it a try and be sure to let me know how it worked in your classroom.

As last week was Book Week, I planned a week’s worth of lessons based around the book ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. Each day, we read a chapter of the story and then engage in lessons based on what we’ve read. As you can see from the cover image, this involves lots of chocolate!! The children absolutely adored these lessons and were so engaged in the process of melting chocolate. They needed to see which chocolate would be the best to build the Indian Prince’s palace out of by melting different types of chocolate. HINT: flakes don’t melt! Honestly, a really fun week and trust me, you’ll enjoy it too. Please check out my Instagram for more of my activities for Book Week: Rebecca.the.irish.teacher

An editable book cover hunt. Children will follow the clues on the reverse side of each book cover and hunt around the school for some hidden treasure. They must write down the names of the book covers that they come across too and aim to read at least one of them that week. Just something a bit different during Book Week to engage them with different books. For more information of activities that we did during Book Week, check out my Instagram: Rebecca.the.irish.teacher.

A complete booklet to hand out to staff outlining events for Book Week. There are ideas, timetables for the week, overviews, checklists for teachers etc. This booklet can be edited to suit your school, but also can be used directly as is to make your Book Week run successfully. This has just been used by my school and was incredibly successful. See photos on my Instagram for more details (Rebecca.the.irish.teacher).

A comprehension based on the story of ‘Who killed King Tut’. (a report) Children are encouraged to use their inference skills and comment on why the author has used a certain structure to help the reader. Children will use a range of reading skills and strategies when answering this comprehension.

This is a follow on lesson from:Non-Chronological Reports: Understanding the features. Children cannot and should not be writing their own report without first of all familiarising themselves with the text type. Having completed that step, they can then begin to think about planning their very own report. This resource includes: *4 day detailed lesson plan with a step-by-step guide on how to deliver these lessons. *Report adaption sheet for drawing their new idea to change. *Pictures to caption- this confirms children’s ability to order the report. *‘Who murdered King Tut’ text for reference. *Comprehension on the text used to ensure understanding. *Success Criteria for children to self and peer assess their report writing. *Drama ideas: such as text tennis, hot seating etc. The idea behind this week of teaching is that children are reciting/acting out the text each day, confirming their understanding of the report structure/sentence structure orally. Once children can do this, they will be able to write their very own version. They are encouraged this week to change one part of the report in order to write their very own version. For example: instead of ‘Who killed King Tut?’, it could be ‘Who killed King Thor the Viking’ children will have to adapt the report they know so well to make it their own. Now that they have a basis to go off, their report will be much more successful.

After hours of reading and PD on Pie Corbett’s Talk4Writing, I decided to plan my English lessons around his style of teaching. The idea behind it is fun filled, active and different so my children and I absolutely love it! Included: 4 day, detailed lesson plan (differentiation included). Power Point of the features of a report. ‘Who killed King Tut’ text resource (colour coded). ‘Boxing it up’ plan Report starters- which allow the children to get into the mind of writing report style sentences. Text mapping opportunities- which allow children to act out and DRAW the entire report so they can recite it, thus learning the sentence structure orally. I have put a lot of detail into the lesson plan, so it can be easily followed to apply this style of teaching to your English lessons. The idea behind it is: Week 1= Imitation Phase. In this week, children need to learn off a text to fully immerse themselves in the style of writing, structure, language etc. This is done through actions and also text mapping (drawing pictures). Only when children fully understand a text type, should they begin to write. The writing of a report will be done at the end of week 2. (This resource is only week 1). By the end of the week, your children should fully understand the features of a report, and should be able to recite the whole thing using their text map. It’s lots of fun and a fantastic scaffolding for children to understand before they write. Give it a try!

An editable powerpoint presentation for a workshop to give to parents in supporting their children’s reading at home. It’s 20 pages long and covers: *How to support your child in comprehension *Activities to engage with while reading *How long to spend reading with your child *Links to websites for further help It can be used from 5 y/o to 12 y/o children.

In my class, I got really fed up of using the carousel for teaching guided reading. I felt only 1-2 groups benefited from it, while the others were in engaging in monotonous activities. The idea behind this is to engage in whole class reading/discussion about a picture or text and answer only 3 questions in the CAR format: C- Choice of the Author A- Always Infer R- Retrieval Included in this pack is: 6 different activities to use CAR technique How to use page Display of CAR to remind children what the different letters stand for.

Needing some inspiration for my reading corner, I created this display in order to show case the children’s reading books. The idea behind it is that the book templates will be printed out for children to fill in whenever they complete a book. They can draw the front cover and fill in the blurb on the back and the teacher can laminate the books and hang them from a string underneath the heading. It’s a super cute idea to show off all the books that you’re class have read and let’s face it, it looks really colorful in your reading area. Included: *The display name: “Books we’ve Read” *Book templates to print out. (See cover photo for a clearer idea).

Can’t get this song out of your head? Well neither can we! Dig deeply into the lyrics for comprehension and close reading practice with these high-interest, current songs to allow children to use their deduction and inference skills. This comprehension is based on the song ‘Mamma Mia’ from the Mamma Mia movie and Abba of course because: We all love the song Mamma Mia. It’s something a little bit different to analyse a song. The children discussed the lyrics in detail, trying to decide what they meant. It allowed them to appreciate the lyrics in songs and not just to sing them. There is a mix of questions involved in these comprehensions, asking children to: *locate information from the text *rate the effectiveness of certain words and EXPLAIN the reason for the answer *form an opinion on the lyrics. Do they like/dislike the lyrics? Why? Overall, children will gain an understanding of the meaning behind the lyrics and they will be encouraged to form opinions on a song, which is something a little bit different. I hope you enjoy this resource as much as we did! Products like this: The Greatest Showman Comprehension

If you are teaching your class about myths or simply just want a comprehension activity that is SLIGHTLY different from the norm, then this resource is for you. Included: *Text *Questions to check understanding (inc ordering events, decoding meaning etc) *Creation Station- where children create their own labyrinth. *Adjective Alley- children create amazing adjectives and phrases to describe the minotaur. *The New Minotaur- children will get their creative juices flowing and create a Minotaur of their own, perhaps even half human, half unicorn. An enjoyable, creative way to check and extend children’s understanding of what they’ve read. Also an excellent addition to your myths topic, if you’re teaching it. Check out: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/myths-understanding-the-features-11943412

Each week, I like to give my children a new comprehension to 1) check their understanding and 2) immerse them to different text types. While studying poetry, I discovered that many children found it difficult to decode the meaning behind poetry. This resource contains: *A poem. *Questions to check understanding. *An answer sheet. The poem chosen is one of my favorites as it’s about bullying so it can tie into other lessons/discussions that arise in the classroom. It’s written by an Irish author, so there are 2 or 3 phrases included that children may not understand. This is a fantastic opportunity for them to use their reading skills to read back over the sentence and try to work out what the word means. A really enjoyable poem and it can also be sent home as a homework activity. Overall, children will gain an understanding of the meaning behind the poem and they will be encouraged to form opinions on a poem, which is something a little bit different. I hope you enjoy this resource as much as we did!

So if you are viewing this resource, you NEED to check out my other product on myths first as this is a follow on from it. Traditional Tales and Myths- Understanding the features Children cannot and should not be writing their own myth without first of all familiarising themselves with the text type. Having completed that step, they can then begin to think about planning their very own myth. This resource includes: *3 day detailed lesson plan. *Toolkit template for children to write down the features and necessary things needed in order to write a successful myth. *Myth adaption sheet for drawing their new idea to change the myth. *Pictures to caption- this confirms children’s ability to order the story. *Theseus and the Minotaur text for reference. *Vocab cards for tricky words/pictorial representation. *Drama ideas: such as text tennis, text mapping etc. The idea behind this week of teaching is that children are reciting/acting out the text each day, confirming their understanding of the story structure/sentence structure orally. Once children can do this, they will be able to write their very own version. They are encouraged this week to change one part of the myth in order to write their very own myth. For example: instead of Theseus and the Minotaur, it could be Theseus and the Lemontaur, who is a half lemon, half horse who throws lemons at Theseus? By the end of these lessons, children should be able to write their very own adaptation to the myth: Theseus and the Minotaur. But as stated earlier, this is a follow on from this lesson: Traditional Tales and Myths- Understanding the features Want this product as part of a bundle at a discounted price? Check out: The BUNDLE Give it a try!

After hours of reading and PD on Pie Corbett’s Talk4Writing, I decided to plan my English lessons around his style of teaching. The idea behind it is fun filled, active and different so my children and I absolutely love it! Included: *4 day, detailed lesson plan. *Power Point of the story. *‘Theseus and the Minotaur’ text resource (color coded). *‘Box-it up’ planning frame. *Hot Seating Questions which allow the children to get into the mind of the Minotaur. I have put a lot of detail into the lesson plan, so it can be easily followed to apply this style of teaching to your ENglish lessons. The idea behind it is: Week 1= Imitation Phase. In this week, children need to learn off a text to fully immerse themselves in the style of writing, structure, language etc. This is done through actions and also text mapping (drawing pictures). Only when children fully understand a text type, should they begin to write. The writing of a myth will be done in week 3. (This resource is only week 1). By the end of the week, your children should fully understand the features of a myth, and should be able to recite a whole myth using their text map. It’s lots of fun and a fantastic scaffolding for children to understand before they write. Give it a try!

Got a class full of worriers? Have a few children that have a bunch of questions that need answering? This is the resource for you! At the beginning of a brand new school year, children can be timid, unsure and un confident with a new teacher/classroom. By using these cards you can create a whole class discussion in which all potential worries can be discussed in a safe environment, where children feel secure. It’s a very simple activity to make children feel more at home in their new classroom and with their new teacher.