I have added a massive amount of content to this resource. Newspaper Articles, worksheets a great pack of resources. Ideally suited and adaptable for years 3-5.
-Includes a Powerpoint on âHeadlinesâ that gained outstanding in an observation, with lesson plan
-Weekly Unit plan
-Additional worksheets
As a bonus I have included a Newspaper article and comprehension I wrote based on âBack to the Future.â
Lots of comprehension based materials on Back to the Future
Some based on âNewspaper Articlesâ written.
Iâve added lots of additional materials to match.
In the UK this is in my top 5 resources, highly rated!
Enjoy!
Get Boys Writing â Shrek-Inspired Playscript Writing Lesson (Years 3 & 4) â UPDATED for 2025
Fun, laughter and learning with Shrek
This completely unique and updated resource is ideal for engaging lower KS2 pupilsâespecially boysâin writing through the magic of movies. Using a popular and hilarious clip from Shrek, children explore playscript features and create their own dialogue in the style of the film.
Tried, tested and loved by pupils, this lesson has delivered fantastic results in observation lessons and always brings a buzz of excitement (and a few brilliant impressions) to the classroom.
Whatâs Included:
⢠Edited Shrek video clips for classroom use
⢠A typed-up excerpt of the playscript linked to the video
⢠Full lesson plan with detailed teaching notes
⢠Worksheet to help children convert narrative text into a playscript
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Lesson Overview:
Starter / Whole Class Work:
⢠Watch the specially selected Shrek video clip.
⢠Discuss how animated characters are voiced by real actors.
⢠Pupils follow along with a printed excerpt of the script as they watch.
⢠Rewatch and encourage volunteers to act it out â children love doing the voices.
⢠Identify features of a playscript together as a class.
Main Activity:
⢠Pupils are given a written version of the next part of the story (in narrative form).
⢠Their task is to convert it into a playscript using correct format and features.
⢠Annotate with different colours for each speaker (e.g., Shrek and Donkey).
⢠Encourage children to continue the scene in the filmâs style â creativity and humour guaranteed.
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âMy class absolutely loved this! The voices, the laughs, and the learning â it was a hit. Perfect for reluctant writers.â
If you find this resource useful, please consider leaving a review. Your feedback helps support future updates and improvements.
A set of resources about Remembrance Day!
This is primarily designed to be a huge amount of resources to âdip intoâ during the day or week of this event.
I have now also included a Literacy unit plan including a Remembrance Day segment suitable for years 3-6 based on comments and feedback recieved.
Included in this resource packâŚ
-A Powerpoint to introduce Remembrance day with included example poems to read to the children to help scaffold their own
-Acrostic Poem Templates
-Planning (please note this is under âCreating images weekly planâ) in the resources.
This follows on from Bonfire night planning.
-Comprehension , unique, questions and answers.
A Fantastic Veterans Day Video
-Information about Poppy Day
-Crossword
-Poems
-Using a dictionary activity
-Newspaper articles uniquely writted designed to discuss England and the FIFA Poppy Ban from the England football match from the last World Cup, an excellent PSHE lesson.
NB:
An EXCELLENT movie is 'The Piano' - this is absolutely perfect, emotional for the occasion and can be used in assemblies or the classroom to promote discussion.
A set of resources for children to decide whether they are for or against school uniform, I have included both viewpoints in separate documents and a document that discusses both sides of the argument as well as a few more resources to help. Hope this helps!
A set of materials I made based on the Marks and Spencerâs Food Adverts.
The lesson objective was to use interesting adjectives in their writing.
We watched M&S food adverts, as a class explored describing different foods and then wrote our own.
IncludedâŚ
Weekly plan (just a few ideas in a weekly plan format including this lesson, you can make your own lesson plan with some of these ideas)
Word bank for this lesson
Video example of advert to pick out language
QUALITY Presentation (the same one) in the following formatsâŚ
Mac / iPad / Keynote
Powerpoint
Movie Format
(Following this lesson, children then wrote their own advert using descriptive language and we filmed the advert.)
A BUMPER pack to dip into for the teaching of settings around several genres for example a âspooky houseâ that would be of interest to boys especially.
Taught with year 3-4 classes but can be easily adapted and used with years 5/6.
Included:
Lesson Plans
Display Material
Examples of childrenâs work
Prompt sheets
Powerpoints
Notebook File
Unit of work
Useful Connectives for writing
Indiana Jones - Adventure, survival stories - Implementing genre features - Internal dialogue - Could alternatively be used as a stimulus for a âbig write.â
I found very little in terms of creative content in this area so made my own creative lesson up. (Delivered to a year 5/6 class of 30 children.)
RESOURCE FEATURESâŚ
Lesson Plan (used in an observation lesson.)
PowerPoint - Including embedded video clips, starter to the lesson and details of activity.
Worksheet for starter asking the children to name the genre from a general description. (Answers on PowerPoint.)
Separate video clip for lesson
All you need for a creative literacy lesson with the following objectives and success criteria.
Learning Objective: To know and understand the features of survival / adventure stories
Success criteria:
⢠Powerful verbs
⢠Dialogue and internal voice (the PowerPoint / clips are especially useful for this concept.)
⢠Description to create excitement
Children are then asked to produce a piece of creative writing (as set out in the lesson plan / PowerPoint) with the film clip as a stimulus.
I have designed a unique set of resources designed to engage children in Literacy. Also excellent for a futuristic topic. Please note this is a set of unique resources, not a unit of work or lesson plan. It is designed for teachers to âdip intoâ as they wish or even as part of a whole school topic. There is tonnes of material and this took many hours to assemble.
Resources Updated 2023
2015 was the year that in the Back to the Future films they visited the âfutureâ. October was the month of âBack to the Future Day.â
The resources could be used as part of a thematic unit or within other units of the curriculum. Excellent for Newspapers and Non-Fiction writing opportunities in particular.
Included in this resource packâŚ
Multiple sets of Newspaper articles (edited by myself and made highly visual in worksheet form) with comprehension and activity worksheets I made for them.
-Additional extension activities fitting the articles
-Punctuation activity
-Original trailer and Poster from the movie with activities I designed around them
-The stuff the film got wrong!
-Punctuation activity
-Ideas for a Back to the Future week / day.
-Display materials
-Movie clips âmaking ofâ
-Hover Chase Video
âŚand much more!
Due to the popularity of this resources I have added some futuristic robot activities which tie in well with the topic!
An up to the minute and current set of resources that children will love, especially boys and a brilliant way to encourage creative writing / comprehension skills as well as looking at the features of Newspapers.
Designed for KS2 but could be easily differentiated for lower KS3.
Please check my other resources out hereâŚ
/teaching-resources/shop/dave_orritt
A bumper set of resources initially used in the Year 4 topic of:
Creating Images with Poetry, Similes and Metaphors.
Due to the popularity of this resource I have included a Powerpoint I used for a very successful âOutstandingâ observation lesson by Ofsted involving describing a beach setting with similes and metaphors.
I recently adapted this in this for a year 6 class I taught and we produced some fantastic work.
There is also quite a few poems I have written using Similes and Metaphors in them to create images and a few more resources too including a soothing soundtrack and background to play on your IW on loop.
LO: Understand how writers portray character personality through writing.
This is a lesson based on exploring the techniques a writer uses to show a characters personality and requires pupils to use the evidence from the text extract I have included from the book 'The Hobbit' it is an excellent extract featuring the character 'Gollum.' The Powerpoint I have made goes through the process of...
S (speech)
A (actions)
D (description)
Children can then annotate their text accordingly and / or draw the character with annotations. Highly adaptable for many ages.
The 1970's version of the hobbit features a similar conversation on YouTube.
BONUS
I have included a snippet of the text from 'The Hobbit' an activity for children to highlight all the parts of the text that describe the hobbit / wizard and the house. They then draw a picture to match their highlights. The results can be compared to the artists impression I have included.
A collection of Anne Frank Resources including a Powerpoint I made about some of her more poignant quotes.
I have also have included a video narrated by Jeremy Irons which is incredibly powerful. If used in the correct way.
A teachers guide is also included. Suitable for higher KS2 and KS3.
LOTS of resources for writing match reports themed on quite a few of the Euro '16 football championship games. Easily adapted for other tournaments / matches.
Resources for writing a match report on the game on Thursday 16th June between Wales and England, and (unfortunately) the game on Monday 28th June against Iceland. I have also included a comprehension for this and some other activities.
Example of match reports for both of these games,
All the goals and highlights video from BOTH games (lots of the language here is easy to pick out eg. âgolden chance.â)
Report Template
Tips for higher ability children on writing match reports
I have also included some self-made resources for studying Iceland as a country.
Enjoy!
The first few 3 chapters formatted and nicely presented for reading with some great class or guided reading activities from âThe Twitsâ
Suitable for Year 2 / 3, but easily adaptable if required.
EXTRAS: MARCH 2019
A script that can be used to act out
Up to Chapter 8 Printable
A Great Video for âWormy Spaghettiâ
The first set of activities I designed for my year 4 class who do 'reading response.&' This means after / during reading a book they take on one of the following tasks.
Lesson Plans for teaching the area of Calligrams / Shape poetry. Ideal for year 3/4.
I have also included a set of resources for use in the genre.
Reduced price.
Project based around the 'Dragons Den' TV program. Pupils are asked to design their own toothbrush.
I have converted my Keynote document I made into a movie file as I created this on a mac.
Also useful for Science and 'teeth' Included are some of the worksheets I made.
Originally written for year 4 but easily used for older children.
Explanation text resource using the 1999 Animated Tarzan Film as a stimulus.
I have included the explanation as a video file.
Children watch how the animation process 'Deep Canvas' works and then describe it themselves.
Also included a display I produced from this lesson, within a rainforest topic and using the lesson cross-curricularly, the writing children produce is often outstanding when given the prompts as they get so engrossed in it.
I have now included an extra 'how to draw Tarzan step-by step' as an excellent art activity and a planning sheet and extensive word bank where children can describe Tarzan.