Fun educational English games and activities are crammed into the vibrant pages of this Middle School resource. Individual games, team games, mini writing activities, silly speeches and riddles to solve will be a survival kit on Friday afternoons and other dire emergencies. The preview provides peeks into some of the sections. The resource includes a bonus card game: literary devices SNAP! It can also be purchased separately. Here is a list of just the individual games. All games have an answer key! Most involve speed; the first person to finish is the winner. Non-rude parts of the body that have three letters. Words of 4 letters out of the word ‘holiday’ Names of countries that can be made into other words Categories Palindromes Vowel-less words 9 words that can be made from ‘Washington’ The longest list of 11 letter words that begin with ‘e’. The longest list of sports Book titles and matching author names The longest word Memory test Anagrams of jobs and professions 10 alternatives to ‘big’ 25 alternatives to ‘said’ Top 10 lists, such as biggest countries in the world, the fastest animal in the world, most popular chocolate in the UK, etc. Literary terms bingo. It includes the bingo card for students, 54 questions on terms, and a 3 page definitions list to be given to students for review before the game commences. This is the only game which requires a few minutes of photocopying beforehand. It can also be bought individually. I hope that your classes experience as much hilarity from these 80 games as mine have done! If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about this product - or any other product in my store - please write to me at brilliantlylit@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you Thanks so much for checking out my resources. If you purchase the resource, it would be grand if you could review it afterwards. I would be happy to forward you a free single recognition in recognition of your time if you send me your email.

This literary devices review game SNAP! loses none of the fun of the popular children’s activity while reviewing 7 key literary terms in groups of 2-5 players. As in the traditional children’s game, the object of the game is to win all of the cards. In this version of Snap, however, students gain cards by matching examples of 7 devices: alliteration, metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole, oxymoron and onomatopoeia. Half of the 72 cards contain one sentence examples of each of these devices. The other half contains the device words. Ways to win cards The simplest way: when two identical device cards are played consecutively. The student who spots this match first shouts out the device name, followed by SNAP! When a device card is followed by an example of that device. The student who spots this match first shouts out the device, followed by SNAP! When two consecutive cards are examples of the same device. This match takes the longest to work out. The student who spots this match first shouts out the device, followed by SNAP! What you get in this resource: An optional glossary (with examples) of the 7 terms. This can be given to the students to review for a few minutes before the game. 9 pages of cards (8 cards per sheet, for a total pack of 72). An optional back of card fun graphic (the back of the cards can be left blank). An answer key that students can consult to solve any disputes. How to prepare for the game Photocopy enough packs of cards for the number of groups that best suits your class. For a class of 24 you might play in 6 groups of 4, and would therefore need 6 packs. Photocopy one answer key for the whole class. Give students scissors and they can cut the cards before commencing play. The cards can be photocopied onto ordinary paper, but using cardstock would mean that they will last you until your retirement! This game is part of another resource in my store: English Games and Activities If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about this product - or any other product in my shop - please write to me at brilliantlylit@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you. Thanks so much for checking out my resources!

When even your most academic students are thinking more about the weekend ahead than about the finer points of your brilliant lesson, then bring on these educational games! There are games for individuals, team games, mini writing activities, silly speeches and riddles to solve. If you and your students enjoy these freebie frolics, it would be wonderful if you could write a quick review.

These years 6-9 worksheets will suit ANY book and allow students to show their close reading and comprehension of a text in a different and exciting way. Students compete to be chosen as the location scout for a film studio that is shooting a film (or remake) of their novel, short story, or play. Their main job is to find local places where TWO of the major settings in the book could be shot. One location is an interior – a room- and one is an exterior. Students also have to decide on other aspects, such as props and furniture, and the weather that the external scene should be recorded in. The third location is one to be built by the movie studio. Students have to design this set themselves. For every decision they make, they have to write a few sentences on the worksheets, justifying their choice. Students are also required to complete simple sketches. A brief rubric is included, and a model answer key for the first page, just to get students started. Table of Contents General instructions to students Room questions Room layout sketch Room sample sketch Furniture questions Furniture drawings Props list Props questions Exterior location questions Exterior location picture or photograph Weather questions Studio set questions Studio set sketch Answer sample for the first page Teacher’s rubric If you write a review of this resource, I would be happy to send you any single resource in my shop in recognition of your time. Just pop me an email telling me which one you would like. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about this product - or any other product in my shop - please write to me at brilliantlylit@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you!

Want your students to practice inference making and close reading skills? This fun brain teaser mystery will entertain your students and give them comprehension tasks to deduce the thief’s identity. It will work well for independent work, homework or home school learning because all of the answers are in a separate PDF from the mystery. To track down the thief students will have to unscramble the answers to jokes and riddles told by riddler Sophie to her friend Matt. They will also work out clues using a numbers-to-alphabet code. A further slice of challenging fun is rooting out the writer’s ‘mistake’- an event in the story that really could not have happened. Students will enjoy the humorous, rapid-fire interaction between Matt and Sophie. He fears he isn’t as speedy at working things out as his clever friend is, but he manages to wow her in this story- and discover who stole her phone! To complete the activity, students have to complete two short fun writing tasks and a ‘Where’s Wally?’ style drawing to find the missing phone. A question sheet is included, and a separate PDF answer key. Each student will need their own question sheet. If you are doing this activity in class, for read-aloud fun (and paper saving), you could put the story and answers up on your screen. If this is assigned for homework, you can photocopy the story, questions and answers, and give them to pairs or individuals. The answer key has been put into a separate PDF to allow for teachers to post the mystery first, and then follow it up a few days later by the answers. Thanks so much for checking out this resource. If your purchase this resource it would be grand if you could review it. I would be happy to send you a copy of a single resource in my store in my shop as a recognition of your time. You just have to email me and tell me which one you want!

Mini-mystery stories are entertaining brain teasers that practice comprehension and close reading skills. This fun package has been especially formatted for homework and for independent class work. There are 15 brain teaser mini-mysteries in this resource, but for maximum flexibility they have been split into two packages of mysteries and two packages of answers. As the solutions are separate from the stories, you can hand out the initial paper packets confidently, without fearing students will sneak a look at the answers! Alternatively, you can post the stories on a password protected school homework website and then post the answers a few days later. In addition to the brainteaser mysteries there are writing exercises - students have to write mysteries of two different types - and two puzzle tasks. These stories have been deliberately written as high-interest, fun reading experiences. A few stories are ‘one offs,’ but some characters, like Mr and Mrs Orange and their twins, Pip and Peel, appear in more than one tale. Included in the resource: 15 vividly illustrated mini-mysteries split into two packages and two packages of answers. An optional tips page, explaining the most common mystery/ riddle clue types. Optional working pages, so students can write down their guesses, and keep a tally of how many mysteries they got right. A mini-mystery writing advice sheet, to guide students in writing their own. A simple teacher rubric to mark the students’ own mini-mysteries. A mix and match detective jokes puzzle page and answers. A scrambled words page and answers. There are 5 more mysteries in English Games and Activities Years 6-9 If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about this product - or any other product in my store - please write to me at brilliantlylit@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you. Thanks so much for checking out my resources! If you purchase the resource, it would be grand if you could review it afterwards. As a thank you for your time, I will send you any single resource in my shop. Just email me after the review is written and tell me which resource you would like.

Fun educational games and activities for Secondary English classes are crammed into the vibrant pages of this resource. There are games for individuals, team games, mini writing activities, silly speeches and riddles to solve. The preview provides glimpses into four sections of the resource. The resource includes a bonus card game: literary devices SNAP! It can also be purchased separately. Here is a list of just the individual games. All games have an answer key! Many involve speed; the first person to finish is the winner. 11 non-rude parts of the body that have three letters. 11 words of 4 letters out of the word ‘holiday’ 11 names of countries that can be made into other words Categories Palindromes Vowel-less words 9 words that can be made from ‘Washington’ The longest list of 11 letter words that begin with ‘e’. The longest list of sports Book titles and matching author names The longest word Memory test Anagrams of jobs and professions 10 alternatives to ‘big’ 25 alternatives to ‘said’ Top 10 lists, such as the top 10 chocolate bars eaten in the UK, etc. Literary terms bingo. It includes the bingo card for students, 54 questions on terms, and a 3 page definitions list of these 54 terms to be given to students for review before the game commences. This is the only game that requires much teacher preparation (photocopying.) The vast majority call for none at all. Literary terms bingo can be purchased separately. I hope that your classes experience as much hilarity from these 80 crowd pleasers as mine have done! Thanks so much for checking out my resources! If you purchase the resource, I would be very grateful if you could review it afterwards. I would be happy to send you any single resource in my shop as thanks for your review-writing time. Just email me at brilliantlylit@gmail.com and tell me your choice.

This literary terms review activity will be a crowd pleaser. Use one of the world’s most popular games to motivate students to learn literary terms! Only if they know the answers to your bingo caller questions do they have a chance at victory. Included in this resource is: how to play guidelines a bingo game sheet for students a 3 page definitions handout of the 54 literary terms this game tests a list of terms for students to select from to make up their card 54 bingo caller question cards Pre-game review Post or distribute the list of 54 literary terms and definitions included with this game. Give the students some time to brush up their knowledge before you commence the bingo bonanza. Explain that you, as bingo caller, will be asking questions about the terms, and only if they know what term you are asking about will they be able to circle or highlight the number that corresponds to the literary term. Here is an example of a question: “Mrs Dursley was thin and blond and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck.” Which device is used in these lines by JK Rowling? At this point, the knowledgeable student would circle the number corresponding to HYPERBOLE if they have it on their bingo card. For your convenience, the answers are included on the teacher question cards. Pre-game set-up Teacher set-up. You have to photocopy one bingo card for each student every time you play. You only have to copy the pages of questions and cut them into strips once; keep them in an envelope and they will last you for the rest of your career! Student set-up. The most educational part of the game for students is filling in their card from the list of 54 words: they have to choose 25 words from the list and write (correctly spelled!) one literary term in each square. The most alert students will only fill in the words they know, so if you want to motivate them into even more review you could insist that they make a card for the person next to them, and then swap. How to win Students get two chances to win. The first way is by getting a diagonal line, a line down, OR a line across. Then the class goes on to a full house; all of the squares must be completed. Skills that the game tests Not only do students have to know literary terms, but also focus is needed during the game to work out which term they are being questioned on. With some of the more complex words, clues are provided, such how many letters the term has, or the letter it begins with. Please note that this game is included in my 80 English Games and Activities Games, years 6-9 If you write a review of this resource, I would be happy to forward you a copy of any single product in my shop in recognition of your time if you send me your email.

This Years 5-7 Reader’s Theatre brainteaser mystery script will give English and drama pupils practice in reading aloud, comprehension and writing, while having lots of fun. The Mystery of the Stolen Laptop script will entertain your students and require them to perform inference tasks to solve clues. The script is intended for 8 readers but the number of readers can be contracted or expanded depending on how many groups you wish to have. This funny and engaging story is about the theft of a laptop at school and the detective work that two characters use to track it down. The main character parts range in age from 10-14. KS2 and early KS3 students will have a hoot! Matt fears he isn’t as speedy at working things out as his clever friend Sophie is, but he manages to wow her in this story- and discover where his stolen laptop is. To track down the missing laptop students will unscramble anagrams. They will also work out clues using a numbers-to-alphabet code. After finishing, students have to discuss and write on six questions, complete a journal entry, and design a ‘Where’s Wally?’ style drawing for a fellow student. This resource will delight both entire classes and small groups of early finishers. Question sheets and answers are included.

The last days of the school year are WILD! This fun, no-prep activities resource is intended to keep students happy and busy, while still exercising their brain cells. The 3 brainteaser mystery stories require active listening and careful, inferential reading. The riddles, puzzles and writing races will provoke chuckles and co-operative learning. Summer holidays will seem an anti-climax in comparison! Table of contents 3 End of year/summer mystery stories Summer dice roll story Summer numbers to words puzzle Visual logic puzzle #1 Summer scrambled words Find the differences puzzle Summer writing race #1 Blind group poetry Writing race #2 School riddles mix and match Visual logic puzzle #2 Silly book titles mix and match Book titles invention Summer riddles mix and match ANSWERS The easiest way to present some of the activities, like the mysteries and writing races, is to show them on your screen. The answers to the brainteaser stories have been placed on separate pages to avoid spoilers ruining the fun of being a detective! The writing races could be completed on scraps of paper from the recycling bin. Some of the activities, such as the anagrams, mix and match riddles and number to words activities need to be photocopied. To promote classroom spirit and to save on photocopying, these activities could be completed in pairs. Again, to reduce the required amount of photocopying, you could put all of the answer keys up on your screen. The Internet is not required for any of the games. I hope that your pupils have lots of fun before charging out of the door to their holidays!

This independent work packet is designed to raise students’ spirits! All of the activities, from jokes, to riddles, to writing on happy events past, present and future, will put a smile on students’ faces. They will write a dice roll story that ends happily, pen a limerick, and send a greeting card to someone special. All of the vocabulary activities - the word search, the word cloud, the word scramble - focus on feel-good words. This no-prep package is designed to be completed without adult assistance and so is ideal for homework, early finishers, and sub plans. Answers are supplied for the jokes mix and match pages (questions are separated from the jokes’ punchlines), the word search and the word scramble. A simple rubric is supplied should you wish to use this resource for marks. This Happiness Activities packet has been especially formatted to make it easy for independent learning. The answers are in a separate document in the zip file. This means that you can post the activities resource to a password protected homework site, such as Google Classroom, and then post the answers several days later, so that students can check their answers themselves. Of course, you could just print off the resource in colour or black and white and include it as part of an independent paper work packet. Banish the gray and let some ELA sunshine reign! Students will have fun, while sharpening their writing, vocabulary and comprehension skills. Table of contents Jokes (mix and match) #1 Limericks Riddles Greetings card Dice roll story Word search Past happiness Present happiness Future happiness Word cloud What happiness looks like Word scramble Jokes #2 If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about this product - or any other product in my store - please write to me at brilliantlylit@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you! Thanks so much for checking out my resources! If you purchase the resource, I would be very grateful if you could review it afterwards. If you do, I would be happy to send you a free single resource in recognition of your time if you send me your email address.

These 15 fun writing games and activities will foster a creative approach to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and also keep your students happy and engaged during even dire emergencies, such as Friday afternoons. The found poetry, one pager, and dice roll story will occupy a considerable portion of three classes, and a simple rubric is included should you wish to use these activities for marks. Most of the other activities in this package are more suited to a spare 10 minutes or so at the end of the class, or even as plenaries. A DOZEN of these fun smaller activities will keep them happily occupied! These dozen activities, like the one pager, can be used with ANY book. Only the found poetry, dice roll story and anagrams are particular to this play. Most of these activities are no-prep- just project the activities onto your screen or write the instructions on the board and fun immediately awaits! You can even put them on a password protected homework site. The only activities that need to be photocopied are the found poetry activity (two sheets for each student) and the one pager. In the found poetry exercise, the students take the perspective of Romeo after killing Tybalt, and explore his limited options. Table of contents Guidelines Found poetry example Romeo and Juliet found poetry One pager example One pager Romeo and Juliet dice roll story Romeo and Juliet anagrams Q & A poetry Wingspark poetry Hiakus Spine poetry and example Silly book titles 6 word stories Diamond poetry Greetings card poetry Group poetry Blind group poetry Writing race Teacher rubric Writing a review of this resource after purchase will give me much appreciated feedback and to show my thanks I would be happy to send you any free resource in my shop that you select. Just email me and tell me what you want! I would love to hear from you, if you would like to write to me at brilliantlylit@gmail.com Thanks so much for visiting my shop.

This fun homework resource gives practice of text dependent reading comprehension skills while reading a magical novel. Perfect for reading HOMEWORK! 100 close reading questions on this original 10,000 word novel, Nervous Nolan’s Magical Meeting, will keep them happily occupied for many hours. The book is split into 12 chapters. Each chapter is followed by comprehension questions. The question formats are: short answer, multiple choice, true or false, mix and match, chronological sequencing. Your students must refer to the novel to give textual evidence of their reasoning. FULL ANSWERS are supplied, of course! This resource is flexible. You can photocopy the entire novel and the entire 100 questions workbook for each student. OR if you have students who struggle with organization, you can photocopy and distribute just one chapter and its questions at a time. You can customize its use to fit your students. The novel, written by a professional author (Julia Clarke) contains fun illustrations created by a professional graphic designer (the other half of the Brilliantly Lit team). Novel Storyline Nail nibbling Nolan is regarded as a lucky boy by everyone. There is only one thing he lacks: confidence. Nervous Nolan faces a series of challenges: giving his first public speech, trying out for the football team, and writing his first poem for a Year 5 English assignment. Although Nolan is teased by the toughest kid in his class, his biggest enemy is himself. When Wilbert the Wiggly Woggly Wizard arrives at his home, Nolan knows a powerful friend is on his side. He teaches Nolan a type of magic that is even stronger than the confidence spells cast by the wizard’s wiggling-woggling fingers. Best of all, Nolan can access this magic himself, at any time. He learns that the greatest magic is not the words of a spell, but the words we say to ourselves. How to use this resource This ready-to-print novel can be used for several weeks of homework, for early finishers, or even as a fun read-aloud. There are 3 PDF’s. the novel the questions the answers. You can keep the photocopied novel for future classes and just discard the students’ completed question sheets. In addition to the comprehension questions, there are also a few optional creative activities. Age suitability The novel is perfectly designed for year 5. It would also suit some year 4 students, and most year 6’s. The book is deliberately crafted as high interest for these age groups. Thanks so much for checking out my resources! If you purchase the resource, it would be grand if you could review it afterwards. If you do, as thanks I would be happy to forward you any single resource in my shop if you send me your email address . If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about this product - or any other product in my shop - please write to me at brilliantlylit@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you!

These three creative writing quickies have stimulated some of the most fun times I have ever had with my pupils! Each takes about 20- 25 minutes to write; the sharing time afterwards will vary according to class size. Each of the activities will provoke both the imagination AND critical thinking. The “show, not tell” activity reinforces that all important characteristic of successful narrative that eludes so many writers. The first activity is in the form of a printable for pupils, whereas the other two need to be related to them orally to maintain their intriguing secrets.

A one page graphic highlights the main facts of Shakespeare’s life, depicting him as the literary superhero he truly is! A short quiz and answer key is included.