Available in pdf and editable word, for personalisation options. The first is a larger flag simply to print and colour, the second a smaller flag, that can be folded and displayed over a washing line type rope. These would be good for younger classes, where you are attempting to improve pencil grip and writing stamina. I would print one per pupil and use it to create eye-catching bunting over the classroom. 50% of the author proceeds of this resource will be donated to our partner school in Sierra Leone.

A moving up day presentation with activity. Children play ‘two truths and a lie’ and then create their own passports to enable them to move up to the next year group. The presentation is a simple powerpoint that you can edit to include the names of the adults in the classroom and create your own “two truths and a lie” facts. I would also add slides about the topics that are covered in the year - it contains screen shots of the activity in order to model to the children what to do. The activity has been been based on a version of a TES recommended resource by tafkam which is excellent, so I can take no credit for the original idea. I have created my own version more suitable for lower Key Stage 2 and hopefully easy to edit to include school logos etc. It should be printed or photocopied double sided. When I have done this activity in the past, I have held onto the children’s passports and returned them to them in the summer, prior to their new moving up day. It’s a nice way to get them to reflect on the year that was, too. (Please note: the photograph on the example is an example of one I created with my son, for fun, not of any pupil I teach! I’ve also blanked out his school logos and school name.) I hope this resource helps you to get to know your new class better!

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.

One reading sheet Scenario: French teenagers talking about what they like doing in their hometown of Lille. The vocabulary has been deliberately chosen so that children can work out the meaning of the small paragraphs in the speech bubbles even if they have not been taught the vocabulary. This would be good for pair work - to try and figure out what is being said, for learners prior to it being read through and explained by the teacher. The second worksheet is a set of simple questions so it can be completed in a more traditional way.

Come on England! We are behind you. Triangular-shaped bunting on a power point to print out for children to colour in. Red coloured pencils at the ready! Hastily put together in time for tomorrow’s game! The alternative activity is to complete the second half of the flag, symmetrically. Would make a lovely classroom/window display if we do manage to get through to the finals! I hope you enjoy using 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.

End of term fun. A classroom quiz full of topical and relevant questions. This was lots of fun in the making and I think it will be lots of fun in the doing! This quiz consists of four rounds of 5 questions each. The answers are multiple choice apart from the two bonus rounds. The rounds have been carefully selected to appeal to a wide cross-section of interests and abilities. Each new round is introduced with a sound bite to catch attention and each question also has a sound bite that plays automatically to gain silence, so you can read the question out. The answers are given after each round, groups being asked to swap to mark by passing to the left. The rounds are: Football (World Cup) Strange but True In the News Fads and Crazes The bonuses are pixelated images of famous people, books and films, to identify, some easy some more difficult, and can be done as timed extra rounds, or printed and given to children to do as a less-structured part of the quiz, and a quick break for the adult reading the questions. This quiz is written primarily for a KS2 audience, but could be used for older children, too. I have not had a chance to use this in the classroom, yet, but I did pre-test it on my own (key stage two) son, who loved it, and was begging for more the next day, even writing his own questions. I would appreciate feedback. In the end-of-term spirit, some of the questions are a little ‘colourful’ and be warned - the England chant as a sound bite on one slide will add to that ‘end of term’ vibe. :-) I have included lots of ironic potential answers to keep us quiz masters and mistresses amused, too. I hope you enjoy using this resource.

Children solve the maths equations in order to determine what colour to colour the chameleon. There is an easy version, suitable for lower year groups or older pupils with additional maths needs. There is a harder version, suitable for year 4 upwards, due to the fact it contains squares, brackets and square roots, but the calculations themselves are not too tricky. There is also a blank version that children can use to create their own calculations. A slide show accompanies the printouts, that can be used to model what to do. It also includes a couple of facts about chameleons - and introduces ‘Charmander the maths chameleon’. The calculations can be modified directly on the ppt and printed directly from the ppt to suit the needs of your class. I imagine this resource to be suitable for a maths activity as part of a meet the teacher transition, as a light hearted end to a topic/learning journey that covers rain forests, or towards the end of term/a busy week e.g. if there have been tests, when pupils are tired, so they can still engage in maths but in a less formal/structured manner. Tip: if there are some calculations that are too tricky on the harder version, have a few spare easier versions printed, so pupils can cross reference. I hope you enjoy using this resource.

Use skateboarding as a novel way to teach acute, obtuse, reflex, right and straight angles. These are eye catching posters that can be printed at size, or enlarged, and are suitable for a classroom working wall. They support a skater-themed learning journey. These posters were developed to support resources: Skateboard Angles, and Skater Turns.

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.

Mince Pie Mystery Christmas Fun. Someone has stolen the mince pies whilst everyone was in assembly - it is up to the class to turn detective and work out who it was! This is a structured activity suitable for Key Stage two - Years 3, 4 or 5 ideally, to be carried out close to the last few lessons of the term, when typical teaching has stopped and you need something engaging to hold them which has more value than a traditional quiz/Christmas activity. It would work well on Christmas Jumper day or Christmas Dinner day as a break from the usual routine, too. This is designed to take up the session which is typically the maths session, after play, but the skills needed to solve this are cross-curricular. Alternatively, it could end an afternoon session when something out of the ordinary has preceded it, such as a recorder concert/hymn rehearsal/church visit and the children need a highly structured activity to refocus them with the prospect of a treat at the end. Core skills being developed include: Maths- working within time periods and calculating time overlaps, English -reading and making deductions, Logic and Critical Thinking - Eliminating suspects based on cross-referencing given facts, Drama - acting or reading out in role (if you prefer). The lower abilities will simply need more support with the reading element and the deductions, but it would work well in mixed ability groups. The actual culprit is the most obvious one - but that was deliberate so that everyone feels good at the end - even if they couldn’t say with as much certainty why, most children will put their finger on the correct thief. There is an accompanying plan. Slides should ideally be printed and stapled as copies per table: a ‘Clue’ pack, an ‘Evidence’ Pack, Witness Statements, and an elimination sheet. The mystery itself is based on a story my son told me that actually happened at his school with the chocolates in an Advent calendar going missing during play, but I’ve gone for mince pies being stolen- all the better if you can buy a bulk lot of 30 cheaply, leaving tantalisingly on display all morning only to have them suddenly disappear at the start of the lesson - and then all munch on them as a reward once the activity has ended. I hope that the activity is as fun for you as it has been for me to envisage and create. As always, I would appreciated feedback once you have delivered it in class.

This is a resource I created to be able to take the Year 3s beach combing/fossil hunting on a shingle beach on the SE coast. Whilst our beach does have some amazing fossils, the area was deemed too unsafe to go to, as access is tough and the cliffs are unstable, so instead I needed to research what the children were most likely to be able to find on a typical shingle beach (flint and chert) away from the cliffs. I have chosen to introduce only what I suspect the children might have luck in finding, and also included some information about quartz in pebbles (geodes), as these can be found. We will tie it in with a visit to a local museum to see and handle some real fossils, and it should make for a nice summer outing. This ppt is meant to be able to be used as an introduction, prior to a beach hunt (ideally with your own examples gathered in a pre-visit) Children will ideally receive instruction before or after on the formation of fossils. When I use it, I will take care to ensure the children know that we are relying on speculation, assumption and deduction, and all fossils would really require expert identification to be sure what they actually are. The ppt is not long, but does represent hours of painstaking research! It’s so hard to wade through the higher brow guides to get to the basics. I’ve included a .pdf that can be used as a guide in situ. I hope you will find it useful. If you like this resource you may also like my resources on comparing and sorting different rock types. https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/compare-and-group-different-kinds-of-rocks-11910312 or Rock Identification (free) https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/what-s-my-rock-or-mineral-11912410

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.

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 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.

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!

This is a whole lesson (ppt, plan and printouts) on creating cinquain poetry. It is scaffolded for children whose own vocabulary might need developing - rather than having to think of words themselves from a limited pool, they read and highlight a piece of descriptive text to pull out powerful vocabulary from this and create their own word bank to use. Works for higher ability, too as they can add their own ideas to the same word bank. I recommend that an adult work with the lower ability readers to understand the text extract when creating the word bank. It would be good as a precursor to creating their own cinquains from scratch on something topical or relevant to a book you are reading in a subsequent lesson. I have chosen one extract from a book about skating, Bubble Wrap Boy, by Phil Earle, and the other has been drafted by me in a similar style. The examples in the slide show and handouts are based on skating - as I had a group of boys quite obsessed with it - who I wanted to make sure enjoyed the poetry. They did. Cinquains are always fun - all the better if they get to copy them up with illustrations, or do them on PCs to get the centering/format correct. I hope you enjoy using this resource.

This year, the clocks go forward on 31st march 2024. This assembly is ideal in the week preceding or following the clocks going forward. It is of approximately 20 minutes duration. a) Starts with a more general ‘signs of spring’ discussion b) Includes activities that can be done as talk partner discussions or questions and answers c) Includes top tips that reinforce the importance of a sleep routine d) Links to an external quiz at the end. You could tie it in with some time related problems in maths: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/how-to-solve-time-word-problems-using-rucsac-11862812 I hope you enjoy using this resource. All author proceeds are donated to our partner school in Sierra Leone.

This assembly looks at the issue of single use plastic. Children are asked initially to use words to describe an idyllic scene, which they later find out is cropped, and the image reveals a litter-strewn beach. The slides talk through the origins of plastic and explore some of the benefits of plastic, so children can understand how we have arrived at this situation. The assembly goes on to look at the drawbacks -in simple terms, not too hard-hitting or upsetting. The final part of this assembly encourages children to think about what they can do to address the situation. There are slides encouraging recycling, not using in the first place, and participation in litter picks. The assembly ends with a prayer, but a good alternative would also be a silent promise - one thing the children will do in the next week to help the situation. There are also external links to two clips that could be used in the assembly - one a classroom clip about different types of plastic and another You Tube clip that’s quite a nice opportunity to ask children what unsustainable choices the man is making, and what the drawbacks for him of each of his choices are. I hope you enjoy using this resource. It is such an important issue and I’m very pleased it is becoming increasingly topical. I would be grateful if you would leave a review, once you have used the assembly.