Year 3 and 4 Programme of Study
Year 5 and 6 Reading – Word Reading
Pupils should be taught to:
Statutory requirements:- apply their growing knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes (morphology and etymology), as listed in English Appendix 1, both to read aloud and to understand the meaning of new words that they meet
Runs from EYFS through to Year 6 covering all the spelling rules and patterns.
Introduction to Suffixes, Prefixes and Root Words
Contains worksheets, activities and discussion points, aimed to introduce students to root words, suffixes and prefixes.
Year 5/6 Spelling Booklet
Lists link to all sets in the Year 5 and 6 lists.
Year 6 Spellings Words Lists
Spellings words lists, worksheets and dictation sentences based on the new national curriculum.
Year 5 and 6 – Reading – Comprehension
Pupils should be taught to:
Statutory requirements:- maintain positive attitudes to reading and understanding of what they read by:
- continuing to read and discuss an increasingly wide range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books or textbooks
- reading books that are structured in different ways and reading for a range of purposes
- increasing their familiarity with a wide range of books, including myths, legends and traditional stories, modern fiction, fiction from our literary heritage, and books from other cultures and traditions
- recommending books that they have read to their peers, giving reasons for their choices
- identifying and discussing themes and conventions in and across a wide range of writing
- making comparisons within and across books
- learning a wider range of poetry by heart
- preparing poems and plays to read aloud and to perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone and volume so that the meaning is clear to an audience
A great way to create a culture where everyone reads for pleasure.
Reading Challenge Booklet
Encourages students to read more books, and to read more widely.
Activities for Responding to Reading in Year 6
Useful questions to use in guided reading sessions.
A Glossary of Poetry Types
This glossary briefly explains poetic forms from acrostic and haiku, to kyrielle, rondeau and terzarima.
Performance and Conversation Poetry
An interactive whiteboard resource, including a weekly plan and audio files.
Reading Journal Activities
Activities to be completed independently or in pairs/groups.
Book Review Frame for KS2
A more detailed book review frame for older children.
Book Review Mind Map
An appealing and accessible alternative to a formal written book review.
Reading Corner: Author information posters
Information posters about famous authors.
- understand what they read by:
- checking that the book makes sense to them, discussing their understanding and exploring the meaning of words in context
- asking questions to improve their understanding
- drawing inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justifying inferences with evidence
- predicting what might happen from details stated and implied
- summarising the main ideas drawn from more than one paragraph, identifying key details that support the main ideas
- identifying how language, structure and presentation contribute to meaning
An alternative to book reviews.
Seventy-two Independent Reading Activity Cards
Independent reading cards perfect for follow-up activities.
Reading Between the Lines Lesson
Encourage students to understand how to make inferences and deductions when reading a text.
Reading Work Booklet: Develop Reading Skills
A booklet designed to help students develop their reading skills.
- discuss and evaluate how authors use language, including figurative language, considering the impact on the reader
A variety of activities you can use to structure and encourage discussion in the classroom.
Posters for English Classrooms
Definitions of English and literary terms.
Guided Reading Differentiated Role Cards
Encourages structured discussions.
Checklists for 14 Different Genres
Has the author included all of these features?
- distinguish between statements of fact and opinion
This persuasive-writing plenary gets students to create radio advertisements to encourage others to visit a mystery location.
Fact and Opinion Game
This Powerpoint-based game includes lots of examples.
Facts and Opinions Template
A good template for children to use with newspaper articles.
Fact or Opinion – a Multi-sensory lesson
An introductory lesson to help students understand the basic difference between a fact and an opinion.
- retrieve, record and present information from non-fiction
Pupils must consider what will be of interest to the reader and compose a balanced report, sifting through available information and taking notes to write and lay out their final report.
Writing an Information Leaflet
Recap the features of information texts.
Non-fiction Toolkits
Revision of different non-fiction texts, based on idea from Pie Corbett.
Non-fiction Genre Posters
Six posters covering the purpose, language, structure, writer’s knowledge and skeleton structure for recount, non chronological report, explanation, persuasion, discussion and instructions.
- participate in discussions about books that are read to them and those they can read for themselves, building on their own and others’ ideas and challenging views courteously
Useful set of prompt questions for guided reading.
Guided Reading Question Cards
A set of question cards for reading both fiction and non-fiction texts.
Guided Reading Key Questions
Numerous questions to prompt discussions.
Comparing Two Versions of the Same Story
Editable worksheet to compare books.
- explain and discuss their understanding of what they have read, including through formal presentations and debates, maintaining a focus on the topic and using notes where necessary
An editable resource that can be used to hold a debate
Seven Arguments and Discussion Activities
These resources provide worksheets for persuasive language activities.
Responding to Reading
Useful questions and activities to use in the guided reading sessions.
How to Present Your Ideas
A guide to pitch and present your ideas.
- provide reasoned justifications for their views
Provide a structure for children to provide reasoned justifications.
Writing a Review
Editable book-review worksheets.
World Book Day
This lively collection of teaching resources can be relevant all year round.
Book talk: Pupil Prompts
This booklet provides sentence starters and key vocabulary for pupils to talk about and discuss books.
Year 5 and 6 Writing – Transcription
Pupils should be taught to:
Statutory requirements:Spelling(see English Appendix 1)
- use further prefixes and suffixes and understand the guidance for adding them
- spell some words with ‘silent’ letters [for example, knight, psalm, solemn]
- continue to distinguish between homophones and other words which are often confused
- use knowledge of morphology and etymology in spelling and understand that the spelling of some words needs to be learnt specifically, as listed in English Appendix 1
A booklet of etymology resources comprising a 7-8 lesson sequence.
Homophone Puzzles
A Powerpoint presentation with 50 homophone puzzles.
Read, Write and Spell Words with Silent Letters
The resource includes numerous examples of words with silent letters.
Year 6 Spelling Lists
These spelling lists are up-to-date with the requirements from the 2014 national curriculum.
- use dictionaries to check the spelling and meaning of words
- use the first three or four letters of a word to check spelling, meaning or both of these in a dictionary
- use a thesaurus.
A set of worksheets designed to help children practice using a dictionary.
VCOP Resources – The Complete Works
Dictionary activities linked to VCOP work.
KS2 Dictionary Work
Lists of tricky words to define and then put in alphabetical order.
Using a Thesaurus to Improve Word Choice
A simple start to teach children to improve their writing by using a thesaurus.
Year 5 and 6 writing – Handwriting and presentation
Pupils should be taught to:
Statutory requirements:- write legibly, fluently and with increasing speed by:
- choosing which shape of a letter to use when given choices and deciding whether or not to join specific letters
- choosing the writing implement that is best suited for a task
Teach all features of handwriting with this set of lessons.
Cursive Handwriting Booklet
Some simple booklets for students to practice cursive writing and printing.
Good Handwriting Presentation Posters
Poster sets with tips on good handwriting.
Pen Licence
A system to reward neat handwriting with a pen licence.
Year 5 and 6 writing – Composition
Pupils should be taught to:
Statutory requirements:- plan their writing by:
- identifying the audience for and purpose of the writing, selecting the appropriate form and using other similar writing as models for their own
- noting and developing initial ideas, drawing on reading and research where necessary
- in writing narratives, considering how authors have developed characters and settings in what pupils have read, listened to or seen performed
A template for children to plan stories, with room for details on setting and characters.
Creative writing imaginative stories
A series of lessons for creating a story; includes a story planner and character designer.
Biography and autobiography
A three-week unit with resources.
Purpose, audience, format, tone
A useful Powerpoint presentation to introduce the new ideas of analysing text.
- draft and write by:
- selecting appropriate grammar and vocabulary, understanding how such choices can change and enhance meaning
- in narratives, describing settings, characters and atmosphere and integrating dialogue to convey character and advance the action
- précising longer passages
- using a wide range of devices to build cohesion within and across paragraphs
- using further organisational and presentational devices to structure text and to guide the reader [for example, headings, bullet points, underlining]
Powerpoint presentations with ideas based on those in the Igniting Writing series by Pie Corbett, Sue Palmer and Ann Webley.
Storywriting tips
A Powerpoint presentation that goes through the stages of writing a story.
KS2 English – Covering the genres
This workbook is intended to help pupils become familiar with the requirements of different genres.
Adding characters – action and dialogue
Task cards used as mini lessons to teach students to describe a character’s traits with action and dialogue.
- evaluate and edit by:
- assessing the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing
- proposing changes to vocabulary, grammar and punctuation to enhance effects and clarify meaning
- ensuring the consistent and correct use of tense throughout a piece of writing
- ensuring correct subject and verb agreement when using singular and plural, distinguishing between the language of speech and writing and choosing the appropriate register
- proof-read for spelling and punctuation errors
- perform their own compositions, using appropriate intonation, volume, and movement so that meaning is clear
Contains a lesson plan and a Powerpoint presentation for pupils to work through individually and as a class.
Writing success criteria grids
Can be used by the pupil to self-assess their work and for the teacher to check.
Editable marking ladders
Really help children see the success criteria for their written work.
Proof reading – Missing words
In this lesson, students use their language skills to work out where a missing word should go in a short news article.
Year 5 and 6 writing – Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation
Pupils should be taught to:
Statutory requirements:- develop their understanding of the concepts set out in English Appendix 2 by:
- recognising vocabulary and structures that are appropriate for formal speech and writing, including subjunctive forms
- using passive verbs to affect the presentation of information in a sentence
- using the perfect form of verbs to mark relationships of time and cause
- using expanded noun phrases to convey complicated information concisely
- using modal verbs or adverbs to indicate degrees of possibility
- using relative clauses beginning with who, which, where, when, whose, thator with an implied (ie, omitted) relative pronoun
- learning the grammar for years 5 and 6 in English Appendix 2
Have a look at this TES bank of English grammar resources.
Grammar Posters
Useful and adaptable for any Year 5 and 6 classroom.
SPaG – Fix the Sentences
An interactive teaching activity where pupils must correct sentences that contain errors
Expanded Noun Phrases – Narrative
A grammar resource intended for use as a 20-minute starter.
- indicate grammatical and other features by:
- using commas to clarify meaning or avoid ambiguity in writing
- using hyphens to avoid ambiguity
- using brackets, dashes or commas to indicate parenthesis
- using semi-colons, colons or dashes to mark boundaries between independent clauses
- using a colon to introduce a list
- punctuating bullet points consistently
Could be used as starters in skills-based lessons.
Higher-level Punctuation
A guide to explain the correct use of punctuation marks.
SPaG Matrix and Glossary of Terms
A glossary of terms, with examples and linked to grammar for writing.
Grammar, Punctuation and Vocabulary Terminology Posters
Each poster has the terminology as a heading followed by a brief description and example.
- use and understand the grammatical terminology in English Appendix 2 accurately and appropriately in discussing their writing and reading
Sets of useful, high-quality resources and activities have been mapped to key statements of writing development in sentence structure and punctuation.
SPaG: Who Wants to be a MillionaireQuiz
This fully animated activity comes with the sounds from the popular television show.
SPaG Daily Workout
A Powerpoint presentation following the structure of the SPaG materials.
Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar SATs Revision Aid
Revision aid for the spelling, punctuation and grammar KS2 test.