This activity consists of a teacher card with 50 spellings and their meanings plus 30 different pupil cards (10 sheets of 3). The teacher has the choice of reading out the words or - for more able groups - the meanings. Great as a starter or plenary activity.

Worksheet where pupils have to categorise and colour code the words in sentences into subject, verb or object. Answers supplied.

This is cursive handwriting from the beginning. The first lesson covers the formation of c,a,d,g,o, and the animation in the PowerPoint show demonstrates top and bottom joins; the second lesson covers i,e, and the animation shows how the dot is put on the i after the word has been completed; the third lesson, which builds on the first two, introduces top loops with the letters l.h. Transitions between slides are teacher-controlled, but individual slide content contains conceal/reveal animation. There are PDF versions of the presentations which are intended for display. The PDFs of small cards are for laminating, and can be used in conjunction with the handwriting lines.

For Upper KS2 and KS3, a text about Burns, his poetry, and his place in Scottish life. The reading comprehension comprises 15 questions, with mark allocation indicated. The question type ranges from simple retrieval to inference and interpretation of language. Mark scheme is provided.

Fun whole class PowerPoint activity for primary or KS3 classes: English with a bit of maths. Great for starters or plenaries. Teacher calls out a number (eg 12) which is the sum of two digits showing on the screen. Pupils choose two numbers (eg 8 + 4) that add up to the teacher’s number and, if correct, they turn those two cards to reveal two letters. As more letters are revealed, the spelling begins: pupils make as many words as they can. They are scored according to the number of letters they contain. The teacher may decide to set a minimum word length. The maths element can be made more difficult for more able classes ( eg '12 is the product of of which two numbers? ’ - Pupils could choose 4 and 3, 6 and 2, 12 and 1). Or it can be omitted entirely, and pupils simply select numbers to turn. There are 8 games included in the PowerPoint. And some frantic music. Turn your computer sound down if it gets too much!

These four texts are retellings in modern English of traditional Chinese folk tales. One - the story of the Nian - is specifically about the origins of Chinese New Year traditions. The other three could be used at any time of the year. These have several common themes (money, religion, magic, kindness, and more which could be suggested by pupils themselves), and would make a good starting point for textual comparison or cross-curricular work (eg RE, citizenship). The texts all come with a set of 10 questions which could be used for discussion in assembly, or for formal written comprehension in the classroom. The folk tale format makes the texts accessible to a wide age range, including KS1, whereas the themes broached in many of the questions make them more suitable for able KS2 or KS3 classes.

This is a game for 2-4 players. It is played with a single die and counters. Included are a simple game board with Christmas pictures every few squares, and a set of 24 question cards suitable for lower or upper KS2. The grammar content should have been covered by the end of Y3. If players land on a picture square, one of the other players reads out the Christmas themed grammar question. If players give the correct answer, they advance one square. If incorrect, they go back one square. A useful resource for the period leading up to the Christmas holiday.

A retelling of a folk tale well-known in Germany and Ukraine. 12 comprehension questions with answers. Links to websites with other versions of the tale are provided in the teacher notes. Good for KS1 as a stimulus for writing, art and craft, and for KS2 as part of a study on different versions of legends and folk tales. It lends itself too to cross-curricular work: a study of eastern European countries in geography, or of mini beasts/arachnids in science, or research into the history of tinsel on Christmas trees.

For KS1 and lower KS2. A seven slide (plus title and end) presentation on how commas are used for lists. Nouns, noun phrases and adjectives are covered fully, and at the end there is an indication that the same rules apply for other types of lists (verbs and adverbs, for example). Each demonstration slide is followed by a whole class 'Try this' activity, which could be done on individual whiteboards or in books. Available as either PowerPoint or PDF. The second file is a worksheet where pupils have to supply the commas in sentences containing lists. Answers are provided. Lesson plan also included.

For upper KS2 or lower KS3. This worksheet is for pupils who have studied the different ways in which commas are used, and who need practice in identifying them. There are ten sentences containing various kinds of comma. Some of the sentences contain more than one kind. The first part of the exercise is simple enough: pupils have to insert the missing commas in each sentence. The second part is more difficult: giving an explanation of the type of comma used. Answers are provided.

PowerPoint presentation showing how to punctuate speech in 3 positions in the sentence.

The third in a series of comprehension exercises from Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The text (unabridged) is the description of Scrooge and Bob Cratchit in the counting-house in Stave 1. There are 8 questions on the text, worth 20 marks in all. Mark scheme is provided. The same text is used as a starting point for four other exercises (cloze, punctuation, reading aloud, and spelling). Suitable for Y6 and up.

This resource provides enough material for a week or more. At the end of the unit, pupils should have a good knowledge of the text, and the more able should know it by heart. It consists of a copy of the spell from the witches’ scene from Act IV of Macbeth with a glossary, a comprehension exercise with suggested mark scheme, a poetry analysis exercise, and a group activity where pupils are challenged to stage the scene. The outcome could make a worthwhile and entertaining contribution to a class or whole school assembly.

The language level of this resource makes it suitable for able KS2 classes and KS3. It comprises an interactive presentation based on a specially written text themed on New Year resolutions. The text and presentation target the following SPaG areas: SPELLING -whose/who’s, loose/lose, choose/chose silent g (gnome, consign, diaphragm ) PUNCTUATION capital letters for festivals and religions ellipsis commas brackets GRAMMAR simple, compound and complex sentences elision of '‘that’ and ‘whom’ in some complex sentences Two slides cover how structure can be manipulated to improve writing. There is an example of how the first paragraph of my New Year text moved from simple to compound and then complex sentences, and finally to ‘hidden’ complex sentences. Plenty of written follow-up work is provided: SPELLING CROSSWORD (silent g) PUNCTUATION WORKSHEET (the unit text (stripped of commas and capital letters) DICTATION : this is a supported activity, where pupils fill the gaps in the text. More able pupils should be expected to write the whole text without the help of the worksheet. TEST (worth 30 marks. The final question is a writing assignment.) The pack would be good to use over a whole week , using the spelling, punctuation and grammar sections over consecutive days (possibly as lesson starters), with the dictation on the fourth lesson, and the test taking up the whole of the final session. If you find this works for you, look in my shop, where you will find several others text-based SPaG resources.

Five worksheets targeting words that children often spell or use incorrectly. Some (there,their, they’re) are homophones . Others (who,whom) are used incorrectly because of grammatical difficulties. Good for KS2 and KS3.

This resource contains a selection of engaging activities for Shrove Tuesday. The interactive quiz consists of a PowerPoint grid where 16 tiles are flipped one by one to reveal a pancake picture. To accompany it is a maths/general knowledge quiz. The answer to each question is a number between 1 and 16. Give out the quiz sheets and let the class work on them for a short time. Pupils then put their hands up to offer answers and come up to interactive board to flip the corresponding tile. The reading text is a recipe for pancakes. This would be a great practical activity in the morning, with the opportunity to eat pancakes at break! The accompanying comprehension questions, worth 20 marks, are accompanied by a mark scheme. For English, there is a further activity - a pancake poem by Christina Rossetti, which can be exploited for teaching/revising imperative verbs. A follow up task could be to find out something about the poet. The maths task consists of five word problems based on the recipe. Some are quite challenging (eg involving scaling the original recipe).

A simple handwriting sheet for Hallowe’en. The style is looped and joined (see my other handwriting resources)

An online Google Slides game for practising verbs. It works well on desktop computers or interactive whiteboards, especially in full screen mode. It's less suitable for mobile devices. Players have to identify words in sentences in order to collect fruit to make a fruit salad. If they go wrong, they are sent back to the beginning. Beware of the cheat potential with this, however: the slide controls at the bottom om the screen enable the player to click through the slides without answering the questions!

A 10 question multiple choice comprehension exercise. The text is the Door Knocker passage from Stave 1 of A Christmas Carol. A good starter or plenary activity for Y6 and up.