Update...

Hi All,

Just to let you know that we are (painfully slowly!) making progress with a proper website.  Hopefully we'll be live in late August, just in time for the new academic year.  Will keep you posted,

Marty x
@martymatrs

Horror Writing

Few bits and bobs on their way.  For starters, click the link below for a descriptive writing lesson with a horror theme - pupils describe their walk through a spooky graveyard and towards a haunted house making use of an advanced Language Toolkit as they do so...  Great for levels 5-7 but also workable with level 4 students.  Ideally, it requires you to have pre-taught commas, semi-colons and colons.  Includes 'Mental English' starter, fully annotated model response and an AfL plenary.

Enjoy!

Marty x
@martymatrs


HORROR DESCRIPTIVE WRITING LESSON

Getting there...

A few necessary home improvements have delayed the full website launch but we are getting there slowly!  Hopefully we should be live in May with a whole load of English-tastic resources ready for download for the Summer term and for the dreaded return to the fray in September .

In the meantime, thank you to everyone for your kind words on the TES - my resources have now surpassed 25, 000 views and your reviews are keeping me going!   Here's a quick selection in response to my Commas and Complex Sentences lesson which is available here:

Fantastic! The children will love it. A fun way to learn. from SOFA1, 07 March 2013
Thank you for sharing a fantastic resource. Presentation and content outstanding.... from labrador2, 19 February 2013
I'm currently teaching Y4 for the first time, mostly been in the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1. This is an excellent resources to help me, my GTP and more importantly the children! THANK YOU from zlcooper, 10 February 2013
I'm really impressed wit these resources - they are raelly expert, accessible and the use of PPT is at a standard i've not seen before. Compelled me to write my first review - thankyou very much. from chinuaanderson, 15 January 2013
Fantastic resource! Thank you! from vanixo, 12 November 2012 I've used this to great effect with lower ability year 9 classes - great to see that it's been of use all the way down to year 4. Thanks everyone, more soon! Marty x @martymatrs

Punctuation Masterclass

,                          :                           ;

Click the link below for a free series of worksheets and teaching materials on punctuation covering main clauses, sub-clauses and the comma rules as well as colons and semi-colons.  Examples and learning activities are provided throughout 12 slides (9 of which are printable worksheets - the three with green backgrounds should be used to present model responses to tasks and check understanding).

Ideal for lower ability KS3/4 teaching and revision; many elements quite possibly suitable for KS2.  All tried and tested to excellent effect.

Enjoy,

Marty
@martymatrs

PUNCTUATION MASTERCLASS 1

An Inspector Calls

Really simple little 5-10 mins starter sheet for getting pupils to grips with capitalism / socialism and the contemporary relevance of An Inspector Calls - pupils draw a pie chart to show the distribution of wealth generated from the sale of a pair of trainers; opens up possibilities to discuss sweatshops, labour rights, economic disparity and so on, all tying in to Daisy Renton / Eva Smith's factory life.

More to come soon!

Marty
@martymatrs


Starter Sheet

Why we are doomed to fail...

Reading the below it's a wonder we turn out any literate children at all...!  Received via email so I take no credit whatsoever for its creation but certainly of myriad uses in the classroom.  Whilst I'm at it, the old 'ghoti' spelling 'fish' which many of you are likely familiar with always goes down well when we're working on spelling... if you're lost, think phonemes and if you're still perplexed give it a Google!

Enjoy,

Marty x

@martymatrs

The Nonsensical Joys of English

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,

But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.

One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,

Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,

Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,

Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?

If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,

And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?

If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,

Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and there would be those,

Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,

And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren,

But though we say mother, we never say methren.

Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,

But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. 

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; 

Neither apple nor pine in pineapple. 

English muffins weren't invented in England.

We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,

We find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, 

And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing, 

Grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

 Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend?

If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them,

What do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? 

If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

 Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English

Should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

We ship by truck but send cargo by ship...

We have noses that run and feet that smell.

We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.

And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,

While a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language

In which your house can burn up as it burns down,

In which you fill in a form by filling it out,

And in which an alarm goes off by going on.

And in closing..........

If Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop...?

New Year's Adverbs...

Adverbs are going to be BIG in 2013.  Trust me.  Click the links below for a 3 step lesson (with extension task) that is ideal for upper KS2/KS3; works to teach adverbs from scratch or to review prior knowledge.  Pretty self-explanatory but instructions in the notes to each slide.  You'll need green, yellow and red paper to make the most of it! 

Website still pending... Unfortunately a plumbing problem at casa Marty proved to be a bit of a financial spanner in the works but we're getting there! 

Have a great new year's eve!

Marty x
@martymatrs

Adverbs Lesson

Adverb Worksheets x 3