Hi,
We are Sally and Amanda from Guinea Pig Education. We present a range of complimentary teaching aids and workbooks to use in your classroom or as homework – in both print and digital format.
We aim to raise reading standards and to develop literacy skills, with our ‘fun for kids’ phonic reading resources.
We also offer support for pupils aged 4-16 years. We highly recommend our comprehension and creative writing resources - which build confidence and develop imagination.
Hi,
We are Sally and Amanda from Guinea Pig Education. We present a range of complimentary teaching aids and workbooks to use in your classroom or as homework – in both print and digital format.
We aim to raise reading standards and to develop literacy skills, with our ‘fun for kids’ phonic reading resources.
We also offer support for pupils aged 4-16 years. We highly recommend our comprehension and creative writing resources - which build confidence and develop imagination.
33 pages
This resource includes 2 packs.
In this work pack the child is asked to read the text and to answer some questions. The last question focuses on the meaning of words used in the text and the child then writes his or her own non fiction piece. The child also works through punctuation exercises - putting in capital letters, full stops and question marks.
Let’s Practise Our Reading Comprehension Packs are a valuable resource to help the child practise essential reading comprehension skills. Each pack includes an article for the child to read and then a series of questions. They are ideal for use with 6-9 year olds, who have reached some degree of reading fluency.
The articles ask the child to retrieve facts, explain information and develop their own ideas as to what the writer is implying. Each pack contains vocabulary exercises, encouraging the child to search for words or phrases with the same meaning.
Each pack takes the form of a mini topic or project. Answers are included.
In this pack the child should read the sentences and use the multiple choice options to select the best answer to complete the sentence or make up one of their own. There is an emphasis on using good vocabulary.
This series provides prompts to encourage children to write. It provides starting points, to encourage even the most reluctant writers. Presented in a lively ‘magazine style’ format, these packs feature stories and non fiction texts to read. They include follow up activities that will inspire even the most reluctant writer, to write stories, letters, play scripts, diaries, poems, persuasive leaflets and more. More than this, the child will learn writing techniques including: simple, compound and complex sentences - connectives, grammar tips - harder vocabulary and punctuation.
Aimed at 7-11 year olds, these work packs provide excellent writing practice for those children preparing to take 11+ exams or S.A.T.s. They will also benefit children with special needs, or where English is a second language.
13 pages
12 pages
Challenge 7
‘Two Pieces Of Pie’. Revise soft ‘c’ (as in mice) and hard ‘c’ (when ‘c’ is put with other letters) for example, ‘cat’. Practise some tricky homophones that children often get wrong, for example, ‘where’ and ‘were’.
Challenge 8
‘The Fair Has Come To Town’. This pack reinforces complex middle and ending sounds, as in ‘air’, ‘ght’, ‘ea’ and ‘ou’. Zoggy says let’s look at rhyming pairs. Let’s see how different words add the suffix ‘ing’. Remember if a word has a short vowel sound, you have to double the consonant.
Spelling need not be dull. Learn to spell tricky words with Zoggy, is a fun spelling aid to encourage children aged 7-11 years to enjoy learning to spell.
This series of work packs include 12 graded spelling challenges to work through, with spelling tests. They concentrate on those words or sound patterns that consistently cause problems.
To help cement these ‘tricky words’ into young minds, we meet again our quirky alien character, Zoggy - with his cartoons, his zany messages back to planet Zen and his ridiculous rhymes and mnemonics.
These packs use a multi sensory approach.
Say the word
Repeat the rhymes
Sound it out
Read it
Write it
Cover and spell again
Use the method that work for you.
Good Friday Easter Writing Pack
Jesus’ Trial And Crucifixion
This pack will allow your kids to look deeper into the accounts of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion, while practising their comprehension skills.
Includes a number of themed activities including:
A reading comprehension based on the bible passage
Creative writing activities
A craft
A drawing activity
With our bible work packs, kids will practise their comprehension skills and look deeper into their favourite Bible Stories.
26 pages
This pack will allow your children to look deeper into the account of Saul’s Conversion, while practising their comprehension skills.
Ideal Sunday School resource.
Includes a number of themed activities including:
A reading comprehension based on the bible passage
Creative writing activities
A craft
A drawing activity
With our bible work packs, kids will practise their comprehension skills and look deeper into their favourite Bible Stories and Passages.
32 pages
23 pages
It’s Fun To Write A Diary About My Daily Life
This pack includes a real child’s diary, written by seven year old Ellie Mae. The child should read the examples and then fill in the pages. They should use the prompts to record details from their daily life, (from the school day or weekend events). The child can zoom in on anything that inspires them - giving facts and opinions and saying how they felt and why.
This series of lively work packs encourages children of 6-9 years to record their personal experiences in a diary. This will enable the child to practice their writing skills independently and to express their ideas freely. It will encourage them to write in more detail.
A diary is usually written in present tense. It is an informal piece of writing and may contain some colloquial English.
Diaries are fun to write and to re-read later. Older children will enjoy re-reading their old ‘news’ books, years and years later.
Encourage the child to write a diary everyday, once a week or just at special times, such as, Christmas or in the summer holidays, in the form of a journal.
What Techniques Do We Use To Write Persuasively? (GCSE English Writing Work Pack)
This resource includes a list of emotive words to make your reader feel sympathetic. Also included is a list of connectives and linking words or phrases to help you structure your paragraphs.
These work packs provide essential creative writing practice for the new GCSE English exam. They will help GCSE students prepare for their exam, whether they are students in years 9, 10 or 11. The packs provide practise in different forms of writing, for example, articles, blogs and letters.
These resources help students to write in a tone appropriate to purpose and audience. They instruct the student how to write from different perspectives or viewpoints and present a balanced argument. As well as, using appropriate tone and language. For example, learning to use: formal or informal register, language devices like rhetoric and groups of three and punctuation, such as variation of sentences for effect.
Writing Discursive Articles For GCSE Creative Writing (GCSE English Writing Work Pack)
This resource provides prompts to help the student with writing discursive articles for their GCSE exam. The purpose of their writing is to argue from different perspectives or viewpoints and to create a balanced argument. The intended audience is for adults/parents and young people. Subjects include:
In Favour Of Zoos Or Not?
Is hosting a sporting event like ‘the olympics’ beneficial to a country?
Elderly people are not treated with respect.
These work packs provide essential creative writing practice for the new GCSE English exam. They will help GCSE students prepare for their exam, whether they are students in years 9, 10 or 11. The packs provide practise in different forms of writing, for example, articles, blogs and letters.
These resources help students to write in a tone appropriate to purpose and audience. They instruct the student how to write from different perspectives or viewpoints and present a balanced argument. As well as, using appropriate tone and language. For example, learning to use: formal or informal register, language devices like rhetoric and groups of three and punctuation, such as variation of sentences for effect.
Write About My Interests (7-11 years)
Answer the questions to write about the things that interest you or are very special. Try to explain why you feel this way.
This series provides prompts to get the child to write. It provides starting points to encourage children of all abilities to write - even the most reluctant writers. With this series they will be inspired to write stories, poems, play scripts, diaries, reports, persuasive leaflets and more.
More than this, the child will learn writing techniques; simple, compound and complex sentences, connectives and spelling, punctuation and grammar tips. There is an emphasis on improving vocabulary - looking at lots of better word choices: harder adjectives, more powerful verbs and adverbs.
19 pages
13 pages
At The Stroke Of Midnight: Write A Spooky Story (And More) (Essential Writing Practice With A Spooky Halloween Theme) (9-13 years)
Plan, structure and organise a spooky story, called ‘The Creepy House’. Take advantage of impressive vocabulary and describe the desolate, ram shackled house and it’s wild, over grown garden.
Read a second story ‘At The Stroke Of Midnight’ and complete another spine chilling version of your own. This pack is not for the squeamish, but packed with suggestions for spooky vocabulary.
An essential series of themed prompts to help children aged 9-12 years to practise their creative writing skills for 11 plus entry exams or S.A.T.S. The packs include an outline to help the child plan his or her own story, article, letter or play script and examples to build on, using harder more challenging vocabulary to stretch more able pupils.
This is a bundle of 13 resources for use at GCSE Level. These resources have been taken from our popular book
‘How Do I Improve My Grades In GCSE English?’.
Each resource concentrates on one aspect of writing at GCSE (14-16 years). The student should work their way through all the work packs at their own speed. Take the advice on board and we guarantee that students will gain a grade C or above in their GCSE English Language exam.
The examples contained within each resource will give the student ideas to build on and provide practice to develop their writing skills. The examples will show the student the standard of work they need to reach to do well in their exam. They will learn how to tackle a question to get those higher marks.
GCSE English Writing work packs include:
Practice in writing for different purposes and to reach different audiences.
Practice in writing from different points of view, including articles, blogs, brochures and leaflets.
Practice in different ways to set out an argument (PEE or PEA).
They will also examine language techniques.
This series provides a clear, concise revision guide to boost grade, written by a teacher and tutor who is familiar with the requirements of the new GCSE examination. It is so simple that the student can use it for last minute revision. The skills and requirements for the GCSE English language exam are very specific: retrieving information from texts, inference, analysis of language, presentational techniques and comparing texts are some of the skills needed. For writing, students are required to engage the reader and produce a response, which relates to the purpose and audience.
This book teaches students how to write using different purposes to inform, explain, argue, advise, describe, persuade, review and how to make the tone and register of their writing suitable for the audience. It emphasises the P.E.E or P.E.T.E.R technique, so students have a blue print (format) to work from; make POINT, give EVIDENCE, comment on TECHNIQUE, EFFECT and RESPONSE. This helps students to develop analytical skills for non-fiction tasks and responses in English literature papers. The students are also taught to use rhetorical techniques groups of three, speaking directly to the reader, rhetorical questions, inclusive pronouns as well as stylistic devices like similes, metaphors and high level vocabulary.
The aim of this series is:
To help every child gain a grade C in GCSE English.
To outline the requirements of the present GCSE course and to teach students to structure and organise a piece of writing.
To teach students to look for key words in a task and to plan a suitable response.
To teach students to use linguistic and stylistic devices.
To show them how to use rhetorical techniques.
To teach P.E.E techniques and to teach the analytical skills required for English language and literature tasks.
To teach good spelling, punctuation and grammar.
100 pages approximately
The Little Match Girl Comprehension
Read our illustrated version of the classic fairy tale The Little Match Girl, by Hans Christian Andersen, and answer the comprehension questions.
A thought-provoking activity that will encourage kids, age 7-10, to think about those less fortunate than them during the holiday season and the importance of being charitable and kind.
This workbook is packed full of information about the workhouse system in Victorian Great Britain. It is your job to finish the research and complete the various activities. You will need to ask questions, find information and interpret the evidence you discover. It includes lots of firsthand source material.
The topics covered include:
The New Poor Law
Building design and layout of workhouses
Staffing the workhouse
Workhouse orders and rules
Clothing
The sorts of jobs workhouse inmates had to do
Workhouse diet
Living conditions in the workhouse
Common diseases in the workhouse
Poor Law Guardians
Reasons why people may have gone into the workhouse
Elizabeth Twining and the Workhouse Visiting Society
Written accounts of the time about what life was like in the workhouse
What happened to the workhouses
Each topic is broken down so that it is easy to understand and all the information is presented in an engaging manner. The historical subject matter being taught is written up in the form of imaginary interviews, newspaper articles, letters, diary entries, posters etc. for the children to read. There are lots of questions to answer that will encourage your children to thoughtfully consider the evidence before them. They will be asked to look for clues in texts and pictures, to describe, to explain, to reason, to draw conclusions and to think critically. There are also creative writing exercises to do that will help children write their own narratives about each topic and to recall, select and organise relevant historical knowledge. Where information is missing, your children will be required to make their own enquiries and look up the answers to the questions online and in books.
This pack is designed to help support your children as they explore the Victorian era, deepen their understanding of this historical time period, and ignite their interest in history. It is suitable for children age 8-13.
54 pages.
PDF
This is a digital download.
Please be aware, there are no answers, but all the missing information is provided in bullet points at the end of the pack.
This fascinating workbook is packed full of information about Queen Victoria, who ruled in Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 to 1901, and the royal family of the time. It is your job to finish the research and complete the various fun activities. You will need to ask questions, find information and interpret the evidence you discover. It includes lots of interesting firsthand source material.
In this resource, your children will learn about important moments in Queen Victoria’s life and reign. The topics covered include:
Her childhood
Her coronation
Her early years as Queen
Her marriage
Her family
The royal houses
The Great Exhibition
Her relationship with Prince Albert
Her position in the British Empire
The royal jubilees
Her death and funeral
Each topic is broken down so that it is easy to understand and all the information is presented in an engaging manner. The historical subject matter being taught is written up in the form of imaginary interviews, newspaper articles, letters, diary entries, statements etc. for the children to read. There are lots of questions to answer that will encourage your children to thoughtfully consider the evidence before them. They will be asked to look for clues in texts and pictures, to describe, to explain, to reason, to draw conclusions and to think critically. There are also creative writing exercises to do that will help children write their own narratives about each topic and to recall, select and organise relevant historical knowledge. Where information is missing, your children will be required to make their own enquiries and look up the answers to the questions online and in books.
This pack is designed to help support your children as they explore the Victorian era, deepen their understanding of this historical time period, and ignite their interest in history. It is suitable for children age 8-12.
53 pages.
PDF
This is a digital download.
Please be aware, there are no answers, but all the missing information is provided in bullet points at the end of the pack.
Between the ages of 9 and 12, children have to complete Standardised.Assessment.Tests (Sats). To help them practise for these tests, Guinea Pig Education have produced a new series of grammar, punctuation and spelling booklets.
The Standards and Testing Agency states that the child has 45 minutes to complete the test, answering the questions in the answer booklet. There are different types of questions for them to answer in different ways. The space for their answer shows them what type of answer is needed. The child should read the instructions carefully. Some questions are multiple choice and only need them to tick, draw lines to, or circle their answer. For others, they will need to write their answer in the space provided. Numbers at the side of the page indicate the number of marks they can get for each question.
The tests in this booklet are based on the KS2 English Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling Assessment sample papers. It is important to try and complete them in 45 minutes, but it is their choice. The more tests they practise the quicker they will get.
38 pages
Includes:
Plan, structure and organise a spooky story, called ‘The Creepy House’. Take advantage of impressive vocabulary and describe the desolate, ram shackled house and it’s wild, over grown garden.
Read a second story ‘At The Stroke Of Midnight’ and complete another spine chilling version of your own. This resource is not for the squeamish, but packed with suggestions for spooky vocabulary.
Read the prompt poem on ‘Fright Night’. Write a spine chilling version to persuade your reader to join the spooky event. Next, write an article reporting on the frightful night, adding fearsome facts and odious opinions.
Be terrified as you make a poster for ‘Little House Of Horrors’. Use words that are fearfully persuasive, containing chilling vocabulary, to give your reader goose bumps. Next, write a story called ‘The Strange Dream’.
This resource is part of an essential series of twelve mini themed booklets for all children who need additional practice in writing. The Creative Writing Tutor series provides a lively series of themed booklets that will stimulate a child’s imagination and inspire him or her to write in a more interesting way and to achieve better results.
The booklets provide a tutor for the child, fun features and stories to read, follow up activities to complete, harder vocabulary to prepare children for more advanced writing and many helpful tips and techniques to improve writing style. Written by an experienced teacher, they are recommended for use at school or at home by children aged 9-13 years, of all abilities. They are excellent for stretching fast workers and able writers or preparing for writing tasks in examinations.
A clear, concise revision guide to boost your grade, written by a tutor who is familiar with the requirements of the new GCSE examination. It is so simple you can use it for last minute revision.
The skills and requirements for the GCSE English language exam are very specific: retrieving information from texts, inference, analysis of language, presentational techniques and comparing texts are some of the skills needed. For writing, students are required to engage the reader and produce a response, which relates to the purpose and audience. This book teaches students how to write using different purposes to inform, explain, argue, advise, describe, persuade, review and how to make the tone and register of their writing suitable for the audience. It emphasises the P.E.E or P.E.T.E.R technique, so students have a blue print (format) to work from; make POINT, give EVIDENCE, comment on TECHNIQUE, EFFECT and RESPONSE. This helps students to develop analytical skills for non-fiction tasks and responses in English literature papers. The students are also taught to use rhetorical techniques groups of three, speaking directly to the reader, rhetorical questions, inclusive pronouns as well as stylistic devices like similes, metaphors and high level vocabulary.
The aim of this book is: To help every child gain a grade C in GCSE English. To outline the requirements of the present GCSE course and to teach students to structure and organise a piece of writing. To teach students to look for key words in a task and to plan a suitable response. To teach students to use linguistic and stylistic devices. To show them how to use rhetorical techniques. To teach P.E.E techniques and to teach the analytical skills required for English language and literature tasks. To teach good spelling, punctuation and grammar.
109 pages
Use the story planner to plan and write a story ‘Moving To A New House’. Read the example to see how a story can be structured (opening, development of plot, complication, suspense and tension and resolution). Don’t forget to work on how the characters feel.
An essential series of themed prompts to help children aged 9-12 years to practise their creative writing skills for 11 plus entry exams or S.A.T.S. The packs include an outline to help the child plan his or her own story, article, letter or play script and examples to build on, using harder more challenging vocabulary to stretch more able pupils.
6 pages
Cut Out And Write A Story Of Robin Hood
How To Use
Cut out the pages along the dotted lines and muddle them up. Now, ask the child to sort them back into the right order, so the story has a beginning, a middle and an end. Get the child to read the story. Then, cover it and ask them to re-write their own version, putting in more detail.
This series provides starting points to get young children, of 6-9 years, writing their own imaginative stories.
Traditional tales like ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’ are used as examples to look at the characters, the setting and the plot and to show how to structure a story with a beginning, a middle and an end.
Children will learn how to brainstorm their ideas, how to put them in a plan and then set out their story.
Each pack provides writing challenges, asking the child to continue writing the story, developing their own ideas and to cut up stories to put in order.
15 pages
Summer Sales: Learn The Phonic Sound ough (as in tough, rough and bought) and augh (as in laugh).
Learn To Read With Phonics Reading Packs are a quick and easy way to teach children to read in just six months.
They are ideal for all ages (from 4 years plus), especially reluctant older readers of 7, 8, 9+, children with learning difficulties and children where English is a foreign language.
The packs are designed to be used one to one or in small groups with a teacher and child or parent/guardian and child learning together.
The packs consist of a structured course that build 44 phonic sounds into the text. As the children read the adventures of a loveable boy called Sam, they can have fun searching for hidden sounds. They will build up 44 sounds in total. This will enable them to read 80% of words in the English language, by breaking them down into sounds or syllables - pl ay ing. Children using phonics in this way progress fast.
A series of stories, The Bouncing Castle and The Famous Cousin From The Country reinforce the complex middle sounds being learnt. By the end of the scheme, the child will be ready to progress to ‘solo’ reading books, such as Roald Dahl’s ‘Georges Marvellous Medicine’ and ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’.
Many of the packs have cut out practice pages for matching words to pictures and phrases to pictures, to fix the sound words in the child’s memory. The simple text and fun colour sketches, appeal to young readers and have helped the authors to teach many, many children to read.
The reading packs may be used in any order, just pick the pack for the sound you require. However, when using the packs for a complete non reader we suggest you start with packs teaching initial sounds (word building with three or four letter words).
Then move on to learning phonic sounds in this order: ch, sh, wh, th, oo, ee, ar, or, ur, ir, er, magic e, ea, oa, ai, ay, oi, oy, oa, short y (as in happy), long y (as in sky), soft c (as in mice), soft g (as in engine), ou, ow, au and aw.
Next, move onto more complex sounds as in, tion, le, el, ough, gue, que, ine, ue, ie, ei, prefixes and suffixes.
How To Use
Each pack introduces a sound.
Learn the sound with the child/children
Read the sentences or stories several times, encouraging the child/children to talk about the pictures.
At the end of the sentences or story, there is a list of words and phrases, which the child can match to the pictures.
Practise each sound several times, until the child is familiar with it.
19 pages
