Tag Archives: ks2

Idea 249: Writing a Narrative with ‘The Pixar Formula’ including FREE RESOURCES!

Posted on January 2, 2017 by theplews

Have you heard of the Pixar formula? Apparently, any story that is to be developed by the massively successful movie studio Pixar must follow a simple but incredibly effective formula. The formula is just six sentence starters: 1. Once upon … Continue reading →

Posted in English, Resources Included | Tagged elementary, english, key stage 2, key stage one, ks1, ks2, literacy, primary, year 2, year 3, year 4 | Leave a comment

Idea 248: SPaG Lesson on Capital Letters, FREE 4-way Differentiated Worksheets

Posted on December 14, 2016 by theplews

These resources are great for a standalone ‘review’ lesson to reinforce the need to ABC: ‘Always Be Checking’! It seems that right the way through primary school, even the most capable of writers will continue to forget to put in … Continue reading →

Posted in English, Resources Included | Tagged capital letters, elementary, handwriting, key stage one, ks1, ks2, primary, SPaG, worksheets, year 2, year 3, year 4 | Leave a comment

Idea 237: Multiplication Grid Paired Task

Posted on August 10, 2016 by theplews

I did this activity with my Year 2 class after we’d used (completed) multiplication grids to self-check answers to multiplication questions. Children worked in pairs to take turns adding one number into the multiplication grid until it was complete. LOTS … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics | Tagged elementary, key stage one, key stage two, ks1, ks2, mastery, multiplication, multiplication grid, primary, problem solving, year 2, year 3 | Leave a comment

Idea 235: ‘Line Jumping’ Simple PE Activity

Posted on July 27, 2016 by theplews

A nice event for Sports Day or as a warmer, requiring no resources. Mark out a line and have half the class stand on one side of it. They get 30 seconds to see how many times they can jump … Continue reading →

Posted in PE | Tagged elementary, jumping, kindergarten, ks1, ks2, pe, physical education, warmer | Leave a comment

Idea 233: ‘Improving Pairs’ and ‘Learning Lines’

Posted on July 13, 2016 by theplews

A useful activity requiring no resources and little time that you can throw into any lesson to have children think about their learning and progress. The kind of activity that, if you have your children trained in advance, will look … Continue reading →

Posted in English, Mathematics, Miscellaneous | Tagged elementary, english, improve pairs, key stage one, key stage two, ks1, ks2, learning line, maths, plenary, primary, progress, secondary | Leave a comment

Idea 231: Fun Quick Activity to Help Children Work Together.

Posted on May 25, 2016 by theplews

This is a fun little activity which always ends up with the children in my class having a good time with each other and laughing over mistakes. Very simply, you teach the children a clapping game they can play in … Continue reading →

Posted in Discipline, Emotions / Morals | Tagged clap game, clapping, classbuilding, elementary, emotional quotient, EQ, key stage one, key stage two, kindergarten, ks1, ks2, primary, pshe, teamwork | Leave a comment

Idea 228: Teaching Exam Technique With ‘Spoof’ Test Marking

Posted on May 4, 2016 by theplews

I wanted to familiarise my class with the format of an upcoming test and the type of exam skills needed to complete it. The most obvious way to do that is to simply give the children a test to complete. … Continue reading →

Posted in English, Mathematics | Tagged arithmetic, elementary, english, exam practice, exam skills, first grade, key stage one, key stage two, ks1, ks2, maths, tests | Leave a comment

Idea 219: Year 2 Multiplication Problem Solving RallyCoach Lesson

Posted on February 3, 2016 by theplews

This was a problem-solving lesson I did with my Year 2 after a week on looking at multiplication as repeated addition and drawing arrays. I did this as a rally coach, with each pair having a sheet between them and … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics | Tagged elementary, kagan structure, key stage one, key stage two, ks1, ks2, mathematics, maths, multiplication, problem solving, rally coach, year 2, year 3 | 1 Comment

Idea 207: Noun, Verb, Adjectives Register Review

Posted on November 18, 2015 by theplews

A lovely simple idea I’ve been using to review word types. I introduced the class to nouns in a short grammar lesson, then to make sure we keep revisiting the term I asked the children to choose one noun to … Continue reading →

Posted in English | Tagged adjectives, elementary, first grade, grammar, key stage one, key stage two, ks1, ks2, nouns, primary, register, SPaG, verbs, word types | Leave a comment

Idea 204: Encouraging Children To Listen with Kagan ‘Timed Pair Share’ Structure

Posted on October 27, 2015 by theplews

How I previously used ‘talk partners’ in a lesson: “Do you think a car is alive? Discuss with your talk partner what you think and why.” After perhaps a minute, I would signal for everyone’s attention and then randomly-select a … Continue reading →

Posted in Discipline, English, Miscellaneous | Tagged cooperative learning, elementary, kagan, key stage one, key stage two, kindergarten, ks1, ks2, talk partners, timed pair share, year one, year two | Leave a comment