The Ultimate Guide to Teaching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

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Charlie and the Chocolate factory is one of the most popular children's books of all time.  It is a brilliantly written story by Author Roald Dahl and there has been two starkly different, but very popular films based on it.

Therefore "Charlie" offers a multitude of teaching and learning opportunities based around the themes of bad parenting, mischievous children, greed, gluttony and much more.  Roald Dahl uses little Charlie Bucket as a role model to oppose all of the horrible aspects of the other children selected to enter Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.

This Grid I have constructed uses Blooms Taxonomy as a framework to study the book and films and has 42 excellent teaching and learning ideas.

It would be recommended that the book and both films are watched to get the most out of this grid, and there is more than enough here to keep your students busy and enthused for a fortnight depending upon how you structure your learning sessions.

I hope you like the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Learning Grid and if you have any fresh ideas to add to it we would love to hear them.

Download the grid here.

TEACH YOUR STUDENTS TO WRITE FABLES WITH THIS GREAT TOOL.

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Fables are a great way for young readers to about some of learn life's important lessons.  They are also an excellent opportunity for writers to share important messages that are relevant to them now. 

Last week we used TheFable Planning Toolto construct fables with my grade 6 students, learning about messages, symbolism and even reading some of Aesop's work to learn how to construct a fable that will stand the the test of time. 

The at the end of the week we published our fables as picture story books and read them to our junior school.  The kids loved the process and it was a nice change in their narrative writing schedule at their age.

This planning tool includes a storyboard, examines characters and, setting and includes a large range of morals to get children in the right frame of mind. 

You can download theFable Planning Toolhere.  Enjoy.

* Please note all of our posters are originally designed using high resolution images and fonts at A3 paper size.  Be aware it will be automatically resized to your default paper size when using Adobe Acrobat Reader without any loss of quality.  If you would like to print these documents at larger sizes you can read theAdobe Resize & Scaling FAQhere.

Finally if you would like to purchase a completely editable version of this document to alter without any restrictions you can purchase it for $10.00 simply byemailing us.

The Snapshot Writing Tool for Teaching English

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The Snapshot Writing Toolis designed to put students in a specific moment in time using a visual prompt such as a photo or video and then write about what you see?  What you hear?  What you smell?  What you taste?  and what you feel?  Drawing upon all 5 senses.

The snapshot writing tool will really encourage your students create visual imagery within their writing, and they have a great deal of fun putting themselves in the perspective of the picture.

Students can either use a photo of their own anlongside the tool or alternately you can access my collection of150 Amazing writing prompts here.

Download the Snapshot Writing Tool here

* Please note all of our posters are originally designed using high resolution images and fonts at A3 paper size.  Be aware it will be automatically resized to your default paper size when using Adobe Acrobat Reader without any loss of quality.  If you would like to print these documents at larger sizes you can read theAdobe Resize & Scaling FAQhere.

Finally if you would like to purchase a completely editable version of this document to alter without any restrictions you can purchase it for $10.00 simply byemailing us.

EXCELLENT SPELLING TEST

The South Australian Spelling Test has been around for a number of years and is a staple of nearly all Australian primary and early secondary teachers assessment schedule. 

The test consists of 70 words and when completed allows the teacher to generate a spelling age for that student based upon their score.

It is a great tool for quickly identifying students who need assistance with their spelling skills.

The test and it's complete instructions can be downloadedhere.

It takes around 15 minutes to administer to a class.

USING WIKIPEDIA AS A READING AND WRITING TOOL

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Wikipediahas really cleaned up its act over the last couple of years to become a far more reputable site than it ever has been. As a teacher I now feel far more confident in letting my students use it for researching general information as long as they are aware of the model upon whichWikipediais built and recommend verifying a fact from a second source such as a .edusite.

I recently put this activity and worksheet  together for my students to use in our reading hour to give them a platform for generating ideas for the writing hour.  It works as follows usingWikipediaor any other great information sites you feel comfortable with.

Students have to spend 15 minutes researching something onWikipediathat personally interests them.  It can be absolutely anything.  This covers the text-to-self element of the activity.

Secondly students will look at the Text-to-World element of reading for fifteen minutes by researching and reading about events that affect our world.  This could both a recent event or an ongoing issue such as climate change.

Finally students will make a link to a book that they are currently reading by researching a person, place or event that is related to their text being read or maybe recently finished.

When Students have completed the 45 minutes of reading they bring their sheets back to the group to discuss what they have found and also outline one of the three writing ideas they generated by completing the attachedwikipediarecording sheet.

The next phase of the task is to begin putting those writing ideas into action.

I hope you find this reading activity useful.

15 GRAMMAR GOOFS THAT MAKE YOU LOOK SILLY.

Believe me, the English language is a complex beast.  I teach it and regularly get feedback from readers who point out the errors I make in my blog posts that have been a little too rushed.

This infographic below highlights some of the most common grammatical errors we make.  Feel free to contrubute others below.

15 Grammar Goofs That Make You Look Silly

BASIC GUIDE TO ESSAY WRITING

An essay can have many purposes, but the basic structure is the same no matter what. You may be writing an essay to argue for a particular point of view or to explain the steps necessary to complete a task.

Either way, your essay will have the same basic format.

If you follow a few simple steps, you will find that the essay almost writes itself. You will be responsible only for supplying ideas, which are the important part of the essay anyway.

Don't let the thought of putting pen to paper daunt you.

Get started!

PRINTABLE GRAPH & GRID PAPER OF ALL SIZES

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It can be hard to find simple graph or grid paper when you need it in the classroom or if you are working at home.  So I have made up a variety of common sized graph paper for you to download and use for FREE.

These can be used for a variety of maths, science or design purposes.

Please select the appropriate size below

A4 PAPER (210 X 297 MM) OR (8.3 X 11.7 INCHES)

5mm Squares

10mm Squares

1/4 Inch Squares

A3 PAPER (297 X 420 MM) OR (11.7 X 16.5 INCHES)

5mm Squares

10mm Squares

1/4 Inch Squares

U.S LETTER(216 X 279 MM)  OR (8.5 X 11 INCHES)

5mm Squares

10mm Squares

1/4 Inch Squares

U.S LEDGER (279 X 432 MM) OR(11 X 17 INCHES)

5mm Squares

10mm Squares

1/4 Inch Squares