Teaching packs

This pack contains books, sequencing and writing activities for the five lifecycles of: mammal (hedgehog), plant (sunflower), amphibian (frog), insect (butterfly) and bird (hen). For texts and activities more suitable for younger or less-able children click here

In 2013, Chinese New Year is on Sunday, February 10th. This pack focuses on the tale of the naming of each year. A non-fiction based pack is also available, 'About Chinese New Year'. The 'Naming of the Years' tale is an example of a fable or folk tale which uses personification. This writing technique is used commonly in this type of story. Supporting materials provide everything you might need to take this idea forwards into a writing project, including a comparison with the Four Musicians Of Bremen story.

This Chinese New Year pack, can be used alongside the 'Naming of the Years' story writing pack. This pack provides information about the traditions and practices that are carried out at Chinese New Year, making it ideal for non-fiction reading and writing. Complete with simple writing templates, both interactive and paper-based, this pack provides an excellent starting point for a mini-research and information writing project.   

This fabulous, fun spinner will create endless story starters. Press spin and invent a story. Use for oral storytelling or 'save' combinations to print for writing tasks. This activity would be ideal for a unit of learning about adventure or mystery stories but is also a great 5 minute filler.

A classic tool for creating a cloze exercise that is very easy to set up.  See the How To document below for full details. Paste or type a text and then proceed to click on words to “zap” them. Each zapped word will be banked into a list which will provide the clickable word-bank for completing the exercise. Decide whether you want the pupils to participate in a “marked” exercise or whether you’d prefer them to complete the exercise without a check button. Save the cloze exercise as a file - to your computer, shared drive or USB. The parallel pupil version (the viewer), see below, starts with an “open” button, from which they can load your prepared exercise. They simply complete the exercise and check and print (if marked) or just print their solution. For an open-ended alternative try the sister tool, “Invent Me”, which removes each word and makes space to type one back in.

This pack has resources that can be used for a News Article Writing topic, based around sudden or extreme weather conditions - perhaps heavy rain, floods, storms, snow or even a very hot spell. The pack leads with a 'read alone' explanation book about the four seasons, providing a summary of weather conditions, animal activity and plant lifecycles. Further interactives and printables support the suggested writing genre. Other weather/seasons related writing packs are available in different age bands but could be adapted easily for this age range. Seasons Explanation and Information Writing (9-11) Familiar Settings Story Writing - Seasons and Weather (4-7)

This variation on Cloze is ideal for spelling or nonsense checking.  See the How To document below for further details. Enter a text and then “break” words by clicking on them and offering either a mis-spell or a word that doesn’t make sense. The pupil’s task is to correct or change the text to make sense. Save the exercise as a file - to your computer, shared drive or USB. The parallel pupil version (the viewer), see below, starts with an “open” button, from which they can load your prepared exercise. They simply complete the exercise and check and print.

This Exercise Maker is ideal for making activities for pupils to replace 'boring' words.  See the How To document below for further guidance. The subjective nature of the task means it is not a marked exercise. Paste in or type a boring text, e.g. one with all the speech verbs being “said”. Click on the boring words in the next screen to identify which the pupils should replace. Build a list of “improved words” using the list button. Pupils will select from this list so there needs to be a full range of alternatives. Save the exercise as a file - to your computer, shared drive or USB. The parallel pupil version (the viewer), see below, starts with an “open” button, from which they can load your prepared exercise. They simply complete the exercise and check and print.

This Exercise Maker is ideal for making activities where the pupils can guess/predict the words that are missing.  The subjective nature of the task means it is not a marked exercise. Paste or type a text and then proceed to click on words to “zap” them. The words disappear and pupils will need to type to fill the gap. Save the exercise as a file - to your computer, shared drive or USB. The parallel pupil version (the viewer), see below, starts with an “open” button, from which they can load your prepared exercise. They simply complete the exercise and check and print. Note: multiple pupils can “open” the exercise, but you need to make sure the file is saved in your network’s shared or home drive. For a closed alternative try the sister tool, “Cloze Me”, which shifts the word into a Word Bank for pupils to select from.