Raising standards in KS1 and Special Needs: helping every child to succeed.
I have taught systematic phonics to all ages and abilities for over 30 years. My teaching degree was in Environmental Studies and I hate to see science reduced to box-ticking when there is so much to discover about the wonderful world we live in.
So, I produce Phonic resources that meet the real needs of children and teachers, along with science resources to engage children in learning about the natural world.
Raising standards in KS1 and Special Needs: helping every child to succeed.
I have taught systematic phonics to all ages and abilities for over 30 years. My teaching degree was in Environmental Studies and I hate to see science reduced to box-ticking when there is so much to discover about the wonderful world we live in.
So, I produce Phonic resources that meet the real needs of children and teachers, along with science resources to engage children in learning about the natural world.
This 57-slide PowerPoint takes KS1 children through the seasons, starting with summer.
They will:
Learn what changes to look out for across the four seasons
Learn that days get shorter and longer throughout the year
How this affects the weather
How the seasons/weather affect us: what we wear/what we do
How the seasons affect plants and animals
Bright photos and simple explanation makes it accessible to all abilities in the class and will engage even reluctant learners.
Simple text for children to read on each slide. More information is provided for the teacher to read, if desired, in PDF form or under each slide.
Simply click when ready to progress to the next slide. All animations occur automatically.
Why not follow it with our Light and Dark PowerPoint?
Light and Dark PowerPoint: /teaching-resource/resource-12761117
You may also be interested in:
All About Autumn PowerPoint: /teaching-resource/resource-12422557
Autumn Leaves PowerPoint: /teaching-resource/resource-12398686
Conkers Life-cycle PowerPoint:/teaching-resource/resource-12401942
Frogs Life-cycle PowerPoint: /teaching-resource/resource-12410937
This is a bumper pack of 111 Th Ch Sh Phonics Worksheets for use with any program including RWI Set 1 Speed sounds and Letters and Sounds Phase 3.
This pack contains:
38 SH worksheets
34 CH Worksheets
10 Miced SH/CH worksheets
14 TH worksheets
14 Mixed SH/CH/TH worksheets
Each of the single sound worksheets is discrete, not requiring knowledge of any other digraph.
These Th Ch Sh Phonics Worksheets give simple, but effective practice in:
Reading and spelling basic SH, CH and TH words
Tracking the SH, CH and TH sounds in words and sentences
Proofreading
*Reading sentences and longer passages
Comprehension
Writing sentences using SH, CH and TH words.
All are provided through a variety of exercises - no room for boredom - and plenty for those who challenging along with those who need more practice.
These worksheets can help you teach the SH, CH and TH sounds to any ability or age including EFL/ESL learners.
Find SH, CH and TH activities suitable for all abilities, especially special needs including dyslexia.
The worksheets assume no knowledge of other digraphs
Two SH, CH and TH worksheets for most activities: one without consonant blend words, and one with consonant blend words
Suitable for Special Needs/intervention work
Suitable for homework to practice work given in class
These worksheets have been made as I have worked with children of differing abilities, finding out the things that children get stuck on and need help to work through, as well as those things that help to integrate phonic skills into reading and writing. Find the right worksheet for each child, so that every child can succeed.
164 fully differentiated Phonic Worksheets to teach the Special Friends: sh, ch, th, ng and ck. Meeting the needs of the average class and special needs, including dyslexia and EFL/ESL.
For all phonics programmes, especially:
Read, Write Inc. Set 1 Special Friends
Letters and Sounds Phase 3 Set 3
Can also be used with other phonic programmes.
See individual packs for details and to preview the worksheets.
In time I intend to add: qu and nk.
Take your children on a nature hunt with our FREE spotting sheet.
Very often, when you take young children out to look at nature they cannot see anything. Telling them to ‘look’ is not enough as they do not know what to look for. This handy spotting sheet will help. By asking the children to see how many of the things on the sheet they can find, you are focusing their attention. This will make the walk of far more value to the child, as having personally found an item will mean that s/he feels much more related to it and be ready to learn more about it.
See more resources at KS1 Nature.
Six phonics games to help children learn initial sounds for use with Read Write Inc Learning Set 1 sounds or any phonic programme. You may think up others of your own using the materials given.
It contains games:
to help with ordering the alphabet,
learning initial sounds,
helping children with b/d confusion and
learning the vowel sounds.
Matching objects to letters
Easy to make and play!
These games are very versatile: they can be enlarged for whole class/small group use, or used by parents/classroom assistants on a one-to-one basis, or with a pair of children. They could even be sent home in book bags for the child to play with a parent, reinforcing classroom work.
They provide the teacher with ample assessment while working with the children.
The games are already coloured in. Just print, cut and play! All you need is in the pack. Full instructions provided and tips on how to help your child/ren.
These games work well with my Initial Sounds Worksheets - 70 differentiated phonic worksheets for all ages.
/teaching-resource/resource-11998343
See how a frog grows with our 18-slide, Frog Life-cycle PowerPoint.
Beautiful, original photos/drawings.
See the frog develop from the eggs, through tadpole, froglet to the adult frog.
Full suggested narration notes provided both in PDF form and under each slide for use in presentation mode.
For Year 1 pupils, why not use our Frog Life-cycle activity pack to follow up?
See our other life-cycle Lesson resources and Powerpoints:
Life-cycle of a Horse Chestnut Tree
Apples
Daffodils
Apples
Butterflies
This powerPoint about Light and Dark can help children to begin to understand the relationship between all living things and the sun; our need of light and the sun. This PowerPoint can help pupils learn or revise some aspects of the Y1/Y2 curriculum providing continuity of learning, and setting the context for Y3 work.
Simply explained, children will learn:
Darkness is the absence of light
The sun is the main source of light on Planet Earth
Reminds pupils never to look directly at the sun
The sun provides warmth too - or Earth would be very cold
Why plants need the sun: to make food to help them reproduce
Creatures of the day (the need for survival)
Shadows - how they are formed
Plants and animals that prefer the shade and why (the need for survival)
Creatures of the night
Nocturnal (the need for survival)
KS1 children can also learn:
To name some common animals
Why certain creatures/plants come out in the daytime/night time
Why plants need light
The basic needs of animals for survival
This PowerPoint is silent but comes with full narration notes, both under each slide for use in Presenter View, or as a PDF.
Why not follow this up with our Seasons PowerPoint?
/teaching-resource/resource-12761222
Frog-life-cycle worksheets for Y1:
Stick the pictures of the frog’s life-cycle in order - 2 choices of format.
A life-cycle mat for display, or to stimulate discussion/writing
A frog development poster/mat for display/discussion
A sheet on which to write descriptive words about a frog.
A picture to colour for early finishers.
Use with our Frog-Life-cycle PowerPoint for Y1 and Y2!
/teaching-resource/resource-12410937
Young children are always fascinated by frog spawn and frogs.
Life-cycles is not just for Y2!
These sheets help teach the Science National curriculum for Y1:
KS1 Overview:
To enable pupils to experience and observe phenomena, looking more closely at the natural and humanly-constructed world around them. They should be encouraged to be curious and ask questions about what they notice.
*
Y1: Animals, including humans
Statutory requirements
identify and name a variety of common animals including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals
identify and name a variety of common animals that are carnivores, herbivores and omnivores
These frog Life-cycle worksheets can be used in mixed Y1/Y2 classes when Y2 children are learning about frog life-cycle, or in Y1 classes.
A bumper pack of 70 differentiated phonics worksheets to support the teaching and learning of blending and segmenting cvc and consonant blends words with a short vowel sound (not including special friends sh/th/ch/qu/ng/nk and ck).
Suitable for use with Jolly Phonics and Read, Write, Inc. Blending Level 1 sounds and any other good phonic programme, including Reading Made Simple.
Also suitable for use with Letters and Sounds
Note - this pack is for use during Phases 2 and 3 once the initial sounds have been learned. It also teaches Phase 4 consonant blends with words with a short vowel sound. It does not include the digraphs from Phase 3. These can be found here.
Here are worksheets to give plentiful blending and segmenting practice for all abilities. Written to meet the needs of the average class, with a range of differentiated worksheets from which you are sure to find one to meet the needs of every pupil.
Some children breeze through this stage quickly and you will find material to challenge them and to assess their readiness to move on. Others need much more reinforcement work and you will find here plenty of that too - a bountiful supply!
Some sheets focus on blending, others on segmenting and some on both. Other sheets encourage the child to see letter patterns and similarities between words including a focus on rhyming.
Hints on the best use of the sheets are provided - not least how to use them as an assessment tool. Suitable for use with SEND pupils and for reading catchup.
The sheets can be enlarged for guided literacy sessions/whole class work.
Find my decode-able FREE to download CVC Words reading books here.
/teaching-resource/resource-12636791
Have you seen ‘Sound-it-out’ Pack of CVC Games, and the ‘Sound-it-out’ Pack of CVCC Games’ which complement these worksheets making a good fun way of reinforcing learning? They are ideal for sending home for extra practice after a lesson, or for use by classroom assistants.
Also Sound-it-out Initial Sounds Worksheets for those children not yet ready for blending.
Take EYFS/KS1 children on a journey through autumn, finding out why leaves change colour and fall
Teaches:
Why trees have leaves: to make food so that trees can do their work
How the leaves capture light and air and roots take in water What work trees do - making seeds
Kinds of seeds: nuts and berries
The difference between deciduous and evergreen trees
Why the leaves change colour - changing season and shortening hours of daylight
Are the trees now dead? What happens next?
30 full-colour slides
Animated
No sound - teacher/pupils to read the simple text on each slide
Ideal as a springboard to outdoor learning - get out of the classroom this autumn!
No cartoons, no music, no dumbing down - for we must present learning as serious if it is to be credible and to nurture life-long, thinking, learners.
See our popular Free Leaf Sorting activity
See also our Horse Chestnut Tree Life Cycle Lesson Resources Pack
Find out more at KS1 Nature.
A bumper pack of 50 pages of differentiated Weather ideas for Y1 and y2, to aid project planning plus helpful differentiated worksheets and puzzles to make learning fun.
Teaches the Weather element of the Science and Geography UK National Curriculum, but can be used with any curriculum.
Tried and tested in KS1 classrooms
All the resources you need in one place for a super project on Weather!
Covers:
General weather activities
Rain
Wind
The sun
Ice and Snow
Cross-curricular activities
Weather and plants and animals activities
See also our Cloud project that will go well with this Weather Pack.
/teaching-resource/resource-12056090
Our Cloud Power Point presentation:
/teaching-resource/clouds-powerpoint-presentation-for-y2-3-12056140
And our Weather related FREE Easy Readers:
Clouds: /teaching-resource/resource-12263077
Water (including the water cycle): /teaching-resource/resource-12263066
This is a pack of 12 phonic worksheets to teach ‘U-E’ (silent ‘e’, Magic ‘e’, long vowels, split digraphs) words.
These ‘U-E’ Phonic Worksheets can be used with very young children, although I made them for children who have processing difficulties and need more systematic teaching.
They are:
highly systematic
have a limited amount on each page as these pupils tire easily.
Pupils should be confident blending with consonant blends (Phase 4 Letters and Sounds for example).
I use ‘Sound-it-out boxes’ for new words, where digraphs are grouped together to give the child the visual reminder to make one sound.
The worksheets include activities to:
Develop blending and segmenting
Give needed repetition to to develop word recognition
Develop phonemic awareness - much needed by early learners
Tracking activities - to see and recognise the new sound in words
Comprehension activities
Writing practice
Reading of longer passages
Fluency triangles
Lots of repetition builds confidence and success! Help a struggling reader today.
You will find it hard to find such a comprehensive programme of systematic phonic instruction for a special needs child for such a price.
For Phases 3 to 5 of Letters and Sounds, here are over 270 fully differentiated worksheets to take pupils from Phase 3 to phase 5, passing through the introduction of consonant blends words in Phase 4.
Help every child to succeed by selecting the worksheet that is right for each pupil.
Here are two of our most popular books bundled together so that you save money!
A bumper pack of 75 differentiated Initial sounds phonics worksheets for Phases 2 and 3 of Letters and Sounds but can be used with any phonic programme.
Suitable for all abilities + SEND
This pack contains at least two sheets for each letter of the alphabet:
One worksheet for children learning to write the letters as they learn the initial sounds
One worksheet for children who can already write the letters to practice giving the correct initial letter.
PLUS…
General worksheets, for practicing mixed sounds.
The sheets, which although arranged for ease of reference alphabetically, have been written to support ‘Letters and Sounds’ (UK) in the progression of sounds.
Therefore, they can be used in the Letters and Sounds order ‘s,a,t,i,p etc…’ but they can also be used if teaching the sounds in order of the alphabet.
Hints on the best use of the sheets is provided.
The sheets can be enlarged for guided literacy sessions/whole class work
Use for homework/ESL/EFL etc…
See our initial sounds games here.
Help your child/ren learn to count and write the numbers 0 to 5 - suitable for home or school use. 28 worksheets.
Each number is introduced and then practiced to build confidence and ensure success.
Includes:
Learning to write numbers
Matching 1 to 1
Ordering
Biggest/smallest
Number patterns
The easy, clear format is suitable for all ages and abilities - including those with learning difficulties.
Reinforces classwork - schools can print individual pages for home or school use.
Parents can download and print themselves as a first maths workbook.
See also:
Count 6 - 10
Beginning addition and subtraction
60 ‘ck’ fully differentiated worksheets, for use with any phonic programme. Written for those just beginning to blend, e.g Letters and sounds Phases 2 -4 and RWI Speed Set 1, Special friends. These worksheets cater for the needs of the average class and special needs.
The worksheets give practice in:
Reading and spelling ck words
Tracking the ck sound in words and sentences
Proofreading
Reading Comprehension
Writing sentences using ck words.
These worksheets are simple, but effective. For use by teachers and private tutors.
Find activities suitable for all abilities
Assume no knowledge of other digraphs
Two worksheets for most activities: one without consonant blend words, and one with consonant blend words.
Suitable for Special Needs/intervention work/homework.
If you have already purchased our big book of Phases 3 and 4 worksheets for Letters and Sounds, you may have a few of these sheets, but this pack contains mainly new/changed material.
A set of 20 entertaining Initial Consonant Blends Find and Colour Worksheets to prepare children for more advanced blending work involving four phonemes, This is a great way to introduce them orally to initial consonant blends and help them develop the necessary phonemic awareness.
If you are looking for an easy to start to work on consonant blends, look no further!
The pack contains one sheet for each of the following blends:
tw, sw,
sk, st, sn, sm, sp
bl, cl. fl. gl, pl, sl,
br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr
On each worksheet, students have to blend the two letters and then search for objects that begin with that blended consonant. After then, only these objects should be colored; the others should remain uncolored.
Once they are given instructions, children can readily work on the sheets without assistance; nevertheless, for the most benefit, it is strongly advised that an adult work with special needs children.
It is necessary to introduce the idea of early blends in detail. Upon working with kids, particularly those who have special needs, my first preference is to teach them how to blend two consonant letters. Next, I focus on enhancing the kids’ phonemic awareness, which is the capacity to distinguish each blend of consonants at a word’s beginning.
Some students find this challenging, and it requires a lot of practice. The purpose of these worksheets is to help students hear the blend at the beginning of a word by first encouraging them to blend the two consonant letters. Encourage the kids to blend the letters in each initial blend by practicing as often as you can. Modeling, in my opinion, is essential.
A colourful chart to show the sounds of Levels 1 and 2 of Reading Made Simple - a 100% FREE phonic reading and spelling prgramme that works where others have failed.
Use as handy prompt, to help the pupil find the correct digraph when spelling
Use to practice saying the sounds made by each group of letters
Laminate and use as a place mat, or pin it up as a poster!
Learners will enjoy tracking their progress each week and testing themselves!
Reading Made Simple: https://readingmadesimple.weebly.com/
Find the FREE word lists to accompany the Level 1 teaching programme here:
/teaching-resource/resource-12889313
This Leaf Sorting lesson pack can help you to deliver the National Curriculum for Science in Year 1. The Leaf Sorting Pack includes
12 pictures of varying leaves, suitable for sorting according to vein pattern, formation and leaf properties (e.g. prickly/rounded edges, deep cut edges etc…) - in two sizes for whole class/group use or display.
a My leaf recording worksheet
a sheet of 12 small pictures to sort, cut out and stick.
See also our Why do leaves fall ? PowerPoint, which goes well with this pack of resources.
Full lesson notes are provided at KS1 Nature.
A bumper pack of 70 differentiated phonics worksheets to support the teaching and learning of blending and segmenting cvc and cvcc/ccvc words with short vowel sounds (excluding ‘ck’), including a focus on consonant blends.
Here are worksheets to give plentiful blending and segmenting practice for all abilities. First blend CVC words with a short vowels sound, add in consonant blends.
The sheets can be used with any synthetic, systematic phonic scheme and work well at stages 2, 3 and 4 of letters and sounds, once all of the initial sounds have been learned. Many also find them helpful for older special needs pupils.
Written to meet the needs of the average class, with a range of differentiated worksheets from which you are sure to find one to meet the needs of every pupil.
Some children breeze through this stage quickly and you will find material to challenge them and to assess their readiness to move on. Others need much more reinforcement work and you will find here plenty of that too - a bountiful supply!
Some sheets focus on blending, others on segmenting and some on both. Other sheets encourage the child to see letter patterns and similarities between words including a focus on rhyming.
Hints on the best use of the sheets is provided - not least how to use them as an assessment tool. Suitable for use with SEND pupils and for reading catchup.
The sheets can be enlarged for guided literacy sessions/whole class work.
Have you seen ‘Sound-it-out’ Pack of CVC Games, and the ‘Sound-it-out’ Pack of CVCC Games’ which complement these worksheets making a good fun way of reinforcing learning? They are ideal for sending home for extra practice after a lesson, or for use by classroom assistants.
Also Sound-it-out Initial Sounds Worksheets for those children not yet ready for blending.