Are you looking for images that spark discussion or are a stimulus for creative writing? Using carefully chosen images is a powerful way to inspire talk and story planning.

On LearningGrids, we have six Clicker Talk Sets with which use images for open-ended speaking activities. These sets help learners explore ideas, ask questions, and build confidence. Next, they can develop structured story plans using the related Clicker Boards. The Talk Sets and Boards support a range of ages and abilities.

Using Talk Sets to inspire talk and story planning

Structured talk builds vocabulary, confidence, curiosity, and imaginative thinking. It is especially important for English language learners or students with less developed speaking and listening skills. The Asking Questions Talk Sets encourage students to look closely at an image and generate their own questions. Each recording page includes three buttons under the image.

The three buttons can help learners practice forming different types of questions, such as:

• “What” questions to describe what is visible.
  
  
• “How” questions to explore actions and processes.
  
  
• “Why” questions to encourage reasoning and explanation.

As students become more confident, introduce “What if…?” questions. This expands their thinking and helps develop inference and creativity.

Adapting the activity to encourage talk and story planning

These activities are very flexible. You can adapt them for different learning focuses and abilities. For example, in Edit Mode you can:

• Reduce the number of recording buttons to lower the task demand.
  
  
• Add additional recording buttons to encourage deeper questioning.
  
  
• Focus on one question per character in the image.

Additionally, these sets can support collaborative learning. One student can record up to three questions and their partner can respond. This kind of planned interaction provides a purposeful speaking activity and supports the development of ideas that feed directly into story planning.

Moving from talk to story planning with Clicker Boards

Once learners are confident discussing an image, the next step is to help them develop their story ideas. The Before and After Clicker Boards provide a clear structure for this. They present the image in a simple format that encourages learners to think about:

• What happened before the image.
  
  
• What is happening during the image.
  
  
• What might happen after the image.

This approach shows students how the image fits into a broader story, rather than a standalone moment. As a result, students develop the skills to structure their ideas into a clear beginning, middle, and end.

Initially, learners describe what they can see in the image. They can also explain what is happening and what the characters might be thinking or feeling. They then record or type their responses in the picture cell before generating their ideas about what happened before or after the scene.

Meeting the needs of different learners

The Clicker Boards can be adapted for different levels of confidence and ability. To personalize learning further, you might:

• Add a story starter to reduce cognitive load.
  
  
• Remove the headings to provide more room for writing.
  
  
• Include guiding questions within the heading cells to structure thinking.

However, some students might still find this challenging. For these learners, consider using the image to pre-teach key vocabulary before story planning. The Clicker Board layout can be adapted to support this. For example, you can enlarge the central image, remove unused cells and add smaller ones to hold key words and phrases. Once the vocabulary is generated, the Clicker Board can easily be turned into a Word Bank that supports independent writing.

Using images in this way is an effective strategy to inspire talk and story planning. It helps learners build confidence, language, and creativity.

If you are looking for more activities for creative writing, explore the Story Planning category on LearningGrids.

If you’re looking for inclusive, structured, and engaging reading resources, you’re in the right place.

The Clicker Planet Wobble series began over 20 years ago as printed books accompanied by CD-ROM activities. Today, the series is available online in the Story Corner on LearningGrids.

Let’s take a closer look at the Planet Wobble resources and how you can use them to support literacy progression.

A story world designed for inclusion

The creators designed the series to be inclusive. The stories follow six friends with a variety of backgrounds and experiences. The group also includes twins, as well as Holly, who uses a bespoke wheelchair.

The stories take place in the imaginative world of Planet Wobble. This setting allows the characters to have relatable experiences and adventures without real-world constraints. The collection covers many themes such as time travel, treasure hunting, and mystery solving. The colorful illustrations and varied storylines appeal to both developing and reluctant readers.

Structured progression across four levels

Planet Wobble stories are organized across four levels:

Level 1 – Short, predictable texts

Level 2 – Familiar family experiences with simple dialogue

Level 3 – Group events with richer description

Level 4 – Longer narratives with more dialogue and a clear story structure

How Planet Wobble reading resources support literacy development

Each story includes a book, in addition to a selection of linked activities:

• Read a Book – Read the full story about the characters.
  
  
• Read It Yourself – Read a shorter version (one sentence per page).
  
  
• Talk Set – Talk about a sequence of pictures to retell the story.
  
  
• Sentence Set – Select one word at a time to reconstruct the key sentences.
  
  
• Connect Set – Choose beginnings, middles, and endings to rewrite the story.
  
  
• Matching Set – Match story pictures to spoken sentences.
  
  
• Make a Book – Create a personalized book using the pictures and Word Banks.

This range of scaffolded tasks not only boosts confidence, but also enables learners who need to revisit language and story content to embed their learning.

Enhanced comprehension support

In addition to the resources above, most of the stories also include a Questions activity and a Do You Remember activity. These sets offer short quizzes requiring recall and comprehension skills. For young readers and learners with special needs, the pictures provide an additional layer of scaffolding. However, all Clicker resources are easy to edit and adapt to suit individual needs. For example, you can reduce the number of incorrect choices or remove the picture if you want the task to evidence a student’s comprehension ability.

Additional resources for Level 4

Two extra activities are also included for the Level 4 stories. Firstly, to support planning for writing, students can use the Story Elements Board to note the characters, setting, problem, and solution. Secondly, the related Word Banks provide key story vocabulary and character names to support students as they write more independently.

What’s coming next?

More Level 4 stories are on their way:

• The Wobble Lands takes the characters on an unusual and exciting day out.
  
  
• The Game features a unique sports competition.

These two stories and their related activities will soon complete the Planet Wobble collection.

To explore all the Planet Wobble reading resources, visit the Planet Wobble section on LearningGrids.

To discover another group of Clicker reading materials, check out our Clicker Friends blog.

Weather is something we all experience. It's familiar, universal, and suitable for all ages. It can also be a fantastic tool to get children thinking, talking, and writing. Since students already understand what it feels like to be cold, wet, or hot, educators can use these everyday experiences to engage learners without needing to explain complex concepts.

To support this, LearningGrids offers a wide range of ready-made weather resources. The sets are designed to help you personalize learning, promote independence, and nurture writing success.

Introduce the topic of weather with a Clicker Book

Clicker Books are a great starting point for a literacy lesson. Simply choose your topic and select the level of difficulty that works best for your learners.

Teddy’s Weather - Read a Book 

This book introduces weather vocabulary through simple, repetitive sentence structures. Each page names a type of weather and shares how Teddy responds to it. This makes it ideal for young readers and English language learners. The related writing sets reinforce the sentence patterns to support overlearning. They also help boost early writers’ confidence in sentence writing, vocabulary, and comprehension.

Weather and Climate - Read a Book

This book contains longer and more complex passages, which are ideal for older students. The book provides clear explanations of key vocabulary and concepts, such as the difference between weather and climate and what a meteorologist does. You can use the related sets to help learners communicate their understanding through writing.

Engage learners with interactive activities

We have published lots of activities that focus on the topic of weather and offer scaffolded writing support for learners of different abilities.

Weather Symbols – Look and Read

This Matching Set features recognizable weather icons with labels. To complete the activity, students need to select the word from the list to match the weather shown in the main image. This helps learners with the recognition and reading of simple weather words. In “Edit Mode,” the difficulty of the task can be easily adjusted to suit different learning levels.

Good and Bad Weather

Explore the positive and negative sides of different weather conditions using this Talk Set and Clicker Board. Each set includes a graphic to spark ideas and provides varied ways to record discussions and research findings. Students can capture their thoughts orally or in writing. Additionally, you can turn their Clicker Board ideas into a Word Bank for added scaffolding to support independent writing tasks.

Today’s Weather

This Connect Set offers a great short task for the start of each day. This activity can be especially engaging for neurodivergent children who often benefit from structured routines. The resource reinforces days, months, and common weather vocabulary. Sharing the student’s completed sentences on your interactive whiteboard is a great way to celebrate success and give your reluctant writers a positive start to the day.

Build up topic-specific vocabulary

Building strong vocabulary skills boosts confidence and helps learners express their ideas. You can help students acquire the necessary vocabulary with the help of resources like the ones below.

Weather Words

Ideal for writing story settings or comparing different weather types, this simple Word Bank includes key words for each type of weather. In “Edit Mode,” a sentence starter could be added to offer more scaffolding and support literacy development.

Describe the Weather

Building on this, these differentiated Word Banks are designed for more confident writers. They include familiar vocabulary alongside more expressive language, such as” sludgy” and “scorching,” to inspire writers to be more adventurous with their word choices.

Shades of Meaning

To enhance vocabulary development further, encourage learners to consider word intensity by using one of these Clicker Boards alongside the Word Banks above. This task can expand students’ word choices and improve the quality of their writing.

You can explore the full Weather & Climate category on LearningGrids.

If you want to learn more about the resources we offer on LearningGrids, you can read our blogs:

• LearningGrids: Reading and writing resources for adaptive teaching
  
  
• Farm Animals: Adaptable resources to meet learners’ needs
  
  
• Adapting Clicker LearningGrids resources with Widgit Symbols

Let’s explore how Clicker resources can make learning times tables fun and interactive. We have a range of resources on LearningGrids to support learners in understanding and remembering multiplication facts.

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Visual Aids

Seeing a mathematical concept in pictures helps to break down a complex idea and improve memory retention. The Repeated Addition Using Arrays – Read a Book and related resources offer a visual way of grouping and counting items in sets – it is also a great way to relate addition to multiplication for children who are in the early stages of learning the multiplication facts.

The Repeated Addition Using Arrays Two Clicker Board includes graphics that can be used to visually represent a calculation. All Clicker resources can be edited - you can add a cell showing the related multiplication calculation and children can represent the targeted times table using the pictures.

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Regular Practice

For homework or as a reinforcement activity in the classroom, use the Times Table Practice One/Two/Three/Four Connect Sets. Each grid offers the multiplication calculations and answers. This means children are only manipulating the numbers in the targeted times table – promoting success, building confidence and aiding overlearning. Why not add challenge and excitement by encouraging children to beat-the-clock with each grid!

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Group Collaboration and Peer Support

Foster peer learning through group challenges with resources such as the Common Multiples and Factors Clicker Boards. They offer a great way to structure an investigation into the products and factors of given numbers. Each team could have one or more Boards to complete. (Don’t forget, all LearningGrids resources can be printed so that everyone can get involved.)

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Deepening Understanding

It's vital for children to recognize how multiplication relates to other mathematical skills. Encourage them to explore these connections by applying their knowledge to concepts such as division. The Multiplication Fact Families Connect Set guides children to explore the links between the two operations.

Clicker resources can make mastering times tables enjoyable for learners of all abilities. To see many more activities related to times tables, browse through the Multiplication & Division section on LearningGrids.

Have you seen the new DocsPlus Myths and Legends section on LearningGrids? As well as being an important part of English and History lessons, myths and legends are valuable for developing students’ understanding of social norms and moral boundaries. The Echo and Narcissus DocsPlus resources can be used to support the analysis of the text and to explore the important life lessons within this Greek myth.

Let’s start with developing students’ knowledge of the key vocabulary used in the Echo and Narcissus myth. The Key Concepts Wordbar and WorkSpace support students to write the definition, synonyms, and antonyms of the key concepts addressed in the myth. This pre-reading activity can increase students’ reading confidence and improve their understanding and analysis skills.

Students can use the Echo and Narcissus Wordbars and WorkSpaces to recall and storyboard the main events in the myth. Headings are used to help them identify the progression of events through the story.

The Questions Wordbar encourages students to interpret and analyze the narrative. They are supported to respond to questions about the events, identify the myth’s theme, and consider how the myth might relate to their own lives. The Echo and Narcissus - Life Lessons resources focus on the flaws of the main characters and how students can learn from their mistakes.

This myth can be used to spark discussions about social customs and values, while encouraging students to reflect on how their decisions impact themselves and others. You can use the DocsPlus resources to encourage learning and debate around the themes of love, vanity, self-love, and obsession - to name a few! For other themes, check out the Beowulf resources on LearningGrids.

Keep an eye out for more stories coming soon in the Myths and Legends category.

Number tiles offer a multisensory approach to learning mathematical concepts. The new Number Tiles resources on LearningGrids complement the use of practical apparatus and can enhance your learners' early number and calculating skills.

The Number Tiles 1 – 10 Talk Set and Number Tiles 1 – 10 Matching Set can be used to practise the recognition of the number each tile represents (subitising), as well as to reinforce the reading of numbers up to 10. The sets also aid the transition from using concrete resources to pictorial resources. The record feature of the Talk Set is ideal for capturing a child’s mathematical knowledge. You can also use the set to extend a child’s mathematical thinking – for example, ask them to record one more or one less than the number tile they can see.

The Number Tiles – Addition Board is a great whole class or small group teaching tool. Children can follow along with physical resources while you demonstrate how two pictorial tiles can be placed together to find a total. The chosen addition number sentences can instigate discussion about the different ways the second number tile can be placed (above, below or turned around) to mirror the tile shape of the answer. This set also offers the opportunity for investigating how addition is commutative.

For children practising addition with numbers up to ten, use the Number Tiles – Addition Connect Set. On each grid, the numerals in the number sentence are supported by the corresponding number tiles – this aids the visualisation of finding the totals. Learners choose the answer from the range of numbers provided. They can also be encouraged to notice the difference between odd and even number tiles and which number tile “looks” like the right answer. What a great way to further develop calculating skills as well as offer the opportunity for discussion and reasoning about numbers!

On LearningGrids, we have similar Clicker resources for the inverse calculation strategy, subtraction. Take a look at the Number Tiles – Subtraction Board and Connect Sets. Remember you can easily personalise the resources to suit the ability of your learners - for example, you can change the number sentences on the Clicker Boards to include larger numbers.

We know there are many more ways that number tiles can be used to support mathematical understanding, so we also offer a Number Tiles 1 - 10 picture bank. This can be useful for children who find it more challenging to use the physical tiles. The set can also be used for more complex calculating. And don’t forget this set and all resources on LearningGrids can be printed out!

These sets have been designed to complement the practical teaching and learning strategies you already use in the classroom. We would love to hear about how you use them to support your learners’ mathematical thinking.  

Happy calculating!

Let’s explore how our Great Barrier Reef Clicker resources can be used to develop children’s understanding of the importance, beauty and threats faced by this spectacular underwater world.

“It's surely our responsibility to do everything within our power to create a planet that provides a home not just for us, but for all life on Earth.”

(David Attenborough, Planet Earth II, BBC, 2016)

The Great Barrier Reef – Read a Book offers an overview of life in this extraordinary coral reef system. Children find out about the Great Barrier Reef’s location and ecosystem, the coral and its symbiotic relationship with algae, and the impact of human activities and climate change on the reef system. For developing readers, we have an engaging Read It Yourself Book that encapsulates the key information into nine illustrated sentences.

Encourage your learners to share what they have found out using the Talk Set. The pictures may help to jog their memory, while their recordings can be used as a plan for writing. The completed Talk Set can also provide evidence of children's comprehension skills.

Use the Great Barrier Reef Clicker Board to collect key vocabulary and information that your class have learned from the Clicker Books or other non-fiction texts. The set helps to organise facts and vocabulary into different areas; the location and climate, plants and animals, and threats posed to the health of the reef system. This offers a great planning approach for writing leaflets or books about this natural wonder of the world.

Learners needing support can use the Great Barrier Reef Sentence and Connect Sets to write about this unique area. The sets provide illustrations and content and help develop an understanding of sentence structure. For more independent writers, the vocabulary offered in this Word Bank is organised under three headings to help structure information into paragraphs or pages.

These colorful and informative resources are a great stimulus for a mini project or could be used to enhance extended research on climate change, biomes, ecosystems, interdependence or Australia. Be sure to take a look at the other Great Barrier Reef resources by searching for reef on LearningGrids.

There has been a (much–needed) focus on developing early language skills recently. Through my research, I discovered that experts are talking about the power of nursery rhymes. Did you know that a child who knows eight nursery rhymes in their early years will be among the higher achievers in reading and spelling when they are eight years old? This inspired us to create nursery rhyme resources for LearningGrids! Let’s look at how the new Itsy Bitsy Spider sets could help your learners.

Reading a short nursery rhyme gives children a bite-sized activity that can offer even the reluctant reader a sense of success. The repetition and patterns in language help children to hear the phonemes and syllables in words, building the foundations for reading and spelling. In the Incy Wincy Spider - Read a Book, each page focuses on a line of the rhyme with a picture to illustrate the text. The last page shows the sequence of the pictures and the complete rhyme. There is also a button so that children can hear the rhyme sung - this is great for encouraging children to sing along, improving word memory and articulation.

We have created a range of related resources to encourage children to associate the spoken rhyme with the written words. With the Incy Wincy Spider - Make a Book One, children write each line to correspond with the picture on the page. The word banks offer the beginning, middle and end segments of each line. To support children to explore rhythm, rhyme and structure of the verse, use the Connect Set - it shows the beginnings and endings of each line, all on one grid.

The Incy Wincy Spider Clicker Board helps children recognize that nursery rhymes are short stories and have an order to their events. On the Board, children sequence the lines of the rhyme by moving the text alongside the corresponding picture (or they could drag a line from the text cell to the picture). To create a more challenging task, you can jumble up the picture cells too! Using the microphone, children can add a recording to complete their presentation of the nursery rhyme.

Another fun activity related to nursery rhymes is creating word families or rhyming strings. Using the Incy Wincy Spider – Rhyming Strings Talk Set, encourage children to record a string of rhyming words for each of the pictures - these could include real and nonsense words because the focus is on hearing the rhyme, rather than spelling the word. Children will have fun listening back to their own and others’ wordplay!

We hope the Itsy Bitsy Spider and Hey Diddle Diddle resources enhance your learners enjoyment of language and learning. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Humpty Dumpty and The Kookaburra Song rhymes are coming soon to LearningGrids!

Have you seen the 3-D Shape Hunt Clicker resources? These colorful sets are great for helping children to identify, name and write about shapes that can be spotted within everyday objects. Read on to see how this can be a fun activity to carry out during the school holidays.

The 3-D Shape Hunt – Read a Book introduces the visual skill of identifying the 3-D shapes seen in common items. It focusses on a few familiar things found within a bedroom scene. The related Make a Book and Connect Set support children to write about the cubes, cuboids, cones, cylinders, pyramids and spheres they can see within the given pictures.

Using the 3-D Shape Hunt Talk Set, children can practise recognising, naming and saying the 3-D shapes they can spot within the bedroom scene - there are many examples of the common 3-D shapes included.

Learning outside is a great motivator - turn an ordinary walk into a fun shape-learning game by encouraging children to join you in a shape scavenger hunt! The 3-D Shape Hunt Clicker Board is great for supporting children to sort and record the shapes they collect or see. They can write the names of the objects or insert photos into the cells on the appropriate shape tab.

For similar sets about a 2-D shape hunt, take a look at the What Shapes Do You See sets. For other resources to help children to identify, talk and write about 2-D and 3-D shapes, search for shapes on LearningGrids.

Have fun shape hunting!

Recently, I read an article written by teacher, author, poet and playwright Michael Morpurgo. He wrote about why schools should move away from teaching writing through a grammar-focused approach and, instead, encourage creativity and children’s love of reading and writing. I believe Clicker can help in this mission! Read on to find out ways that Clicker can empower children to express their thoughts, develop ideas and discover the joy of writing.

For some children, starting with oral storytelling is much more fun - it can enhance creativity and confidence! We have many Talk Sets to inspire storytelling, such as fantasy creatures and the story settings sets. We also have many Talk sets related to well-known stories which encourage children to retell or adapt a story they have heard.

Using a stimulus helps to inspire writers to be more descriptive and sparks imaginative ideas. Many of our Clicker Boards contain pictures and information to start discussions and aid the generation of ideas. For story planning, try out the various Before and After sets - they have illustrations that represent the middle of the story and children can discuss, write or record descriptions of what led up to and followed the event. Our Story Step Boards encourage children to think about the steps that connect two pictures of a story. For younger children this could be a simple sequence of events; for others it could form the outline of a story plot.

We know the feeling of success is a huge motivator. For some, writing a whole story is daunting and a challenging task. Our story writing Connect Sets offer a structure and ideas, while giving the writer control over the details and construction of the story. These sets enable children to write a whole story within a manageable number of sentences – this success is sure to encourage them to write another story!

Blank page syndrome is very real for many writers, but Clicker can hopefully help to avoid it! Before asking children to write a story, browse through LearningGrids. We have many Word Banks that can be open at the bottom of the document, offering children inspiration and support to start writing the story. These sets may also introduce new vocabulary and increase confidence.

Let’s increase enjoyment and success by ensuring the level of scaffolding and support is presonalized to the writer’s needs. Clicker’s Document has many word processing tools that can be activated or deactivated. The predictor and spell checker tools offer extra guidance and might increase the writer’s pace and flow. The speech feedback can help with the detailed editing of the story. This reflects how good authors write – start with creativity and then focus on the grammatic details!

Try out some of the above suggestions and watch as your writers’ enjoyment and creativity grow. At Crick, we also hope to inspire story writing through this year’s Summer Story Share competition. Encourage your children to write an adventure story on the theme “If I could go anywhere...”. We look forward to reading their stories, and hopefully your school will be a winner of £250 worth of books!

Engaging children in topical debates and discussions is a great way to build their confidence and skills in speaking and writing. We have many Clicker Boards (planners) and related Word Banks (frames) to support the planning and writing of an argument or discussion text.

Are you debating the construction of a building on wasteland or other environmental issues? Our Persuasion Planner can be used with a class, group or individual to identify the main reasons and evidence that support their point of view. Children can then use the Persuasion Frame to write their persuasive text. Topic-related vocabulary can be added to the final tab to offer more specific terminology if needed - what a great way to prepare for a class debate!

When asking children to voice their opinions around a scenario or question, they are often very keen to give an immediate response. However, by using our Discussion Planner, you can promote the construction of a more reasoned, evidence-based answer. Children list the key ‘for’ and ‘against’ arguments related to a question or issue and then create a conclusion. To help children write a balanced argument or discussion text, use the related Discussion Frame.

Find these resources and many more planners and related writing frames in Planners and Frames on LearningGrids. Have fun preparing for and carrying out your class discussions!

Let’s take a closer look at the new Planet Wobble Books … The three new stories involve the Planet Wobble characters having an adventure or solving a problem - they are ideal for readers aged 5-7. Each title has a related Talk Set, a comprehension-based Custom Set and numerous writing sets that support children to recall and write about each story.

The Wrong Bag contains a mystery story where one of the Planet Wobble children picked up the wrong bag and it resulted in a crime being solved. One of the related sets, The Wrong Bag – Make a Book, enables children to insert pictures and write their own version of the story supported by word banks.

In the adventure story, The Fossil, the Planet Wobble children go back in time and they meet a wobblesaurus! After reading the story, children can retell it using the picture stimuli in the Talk Set or write the story using one of the related writing sets.

For a story about community, read The Old Man. The Planet Wobble children help an old man to tidy his garden and assist him in contacting an old friend. Using The Old Man – Questions Custom Set, children are supported to answer literal comprehension questions and write their answers in full sentences.

We hope you enjoy using these resources in shared or guided reading sessions, or during reading interventions. You can find these new books and many more in the Planet Wobble category on LearningGrids. Also, be sure to check out our Story Corner for a variety of stories for all ages.

When teaching children with spelling difficulties, we can't use a “one size fits all” approach. So, I have highlighted a few ways that Clicker tools and resources can be used to give these children presonalized tasks and support, enabling them to experience success.

Children with significant spelling difficulties may have many different barriers to their learning. It may be that they are struggling to understand phonemes (letter sounds) and graphemes (letter shapes) and how they correlate to each other. They may also have poor visual memory affecting the misspelling of high frequency words. For these children to be successful writers, we need to consider using a variety of tools in Clicker to offer scaffolding, differentiation and overlearning opportunities.

As we know, spelling skills are dependent on a growing knowledge of spoken and written word structures. Children need to see, read and use words that are spelt correctly in many different contexts. A good starting place for younger children would be to use our Alphabet Animals sets. These sets enable children to hear and read a Clicker Book, practise saying the sounds and words using the Talk Set and write the sentences using the Sentence Set. All 26 groups of sets use four words – is, likes, can and has – to form repetitive sentences. As children become immersed in these sentences, they will become confident at reading the repeated words and begin to recognize the letter and word order required. Also, importantly, children will be experiencing success, and this will spur them on further.

With any Sentence Set in Clicker, there are various setting options – such as adding a model sentence or using guided order – which enable children to repeat the set with different scaffolding features. This overlearning also helps children to develop working memory and build confidence in their writing.

Another way to reduce the writing anxiety of a child with poor spelling skills is to offer Word Banks with relevant keywords or phrases. We have many Word Banks (and other resources) relating to a range of topics on LearningGrids. Word Banks can also be made quickly and easily by a supporting adult during the lesson. This way, the words given to the children are completely related to the learning experience in the classroom.

As children become more independent, they will be typing words into the document. It can be demoralising for poor spellers to see lots of red squiggles on all their misspelt words. Instead, it may be more helpful to target certain words for them to focus on. Within Clicker’s Spell Check settings, there is an option to “Ignore misspellings unless word is in the Word Pool.” By adding specific words to the Word Pool (such as the key words that children are learning that week), the red squiggle will only appear for those words – this acts as a good reminder of their target spellings!

Let’s remember that children really benefit from the chance to express themselves without worrying about their spelling or writing difficulties. Using Clicker’s Voice Notes or a Talk Set enables learners to record their ideas without their spelling difficulties slowing down their thought processes. Using dictation (speech-to-text) can also help them to get their ideas onto the page – see Sergio’s blog post on how to do this in Clicker on a variety of devices.

These are just a few of the many presonalized scaffolding and differentiation techniques available in Clicker to support children with spelling difficulties. Visit our website for further ideas to support learners with special needs, including children with dyslexia.

For the many people who have asked us for resources about the Tudors, we now have a new Tudor category on LearningGrids. We have added some great resources that support children to learn, read and write about Tudor Towns and Tudor Leisure.

To help children to learn about aspects of life in Tudor towns, read Tudor Towns – Read a Book. It is an illustrated non-fiction text that includes information about Tudor houses, streets, shops and people. Encourage children to use the differentiated sets to communicate their knowledge of Tudor towns.

Children can find out information about Tudor sports and leisure activities by reading Tudor Pastimes – Read a Book. They learn how the rules of the sports differ from today’s rules and how the rich and poor people enjoyed different pastimes. Using a related set, children can talk or write about the pastimes or plan a comparative piece of writing using the Tudor Pastimes – Rich v Poor Clicker Board.

Have fun using our new resources and look out for more history resources coming soon on LearningGrids.

Teachers and support staff use many strategies to support children who have English as an additional language (EAL) or children who have a speech or language delay. Read on to find out how the resources on LearningGrids can be used during intervention sessions.

In our New to English category, we have a range of sets that help children learn specific vocabulary related to familiar settings - a school, shopping mall, house, supermarket and street. The Custom, Talk and writing sets offer illustrated activities that enable children to learn the names of everyday objects as well as practise speaking, reading and writing of the focus vocabulary.

You can use the groups of related Clicker sets to structure a set of intervention sessions for individuals or groups of children. For example, the Patch the Cat resources can be used to teach the naming of household items and rooms in the house. To introduce the vocabulary, encourage children to listen, read and repeat the patterned language and predictable sentences in the story Patch Likes This – Read a Book.

Encourage children to practise saying and recording what they can see in the pictures using Patch Likes This – Make a Book. When children are ready to move on, they can write the words in sentence order using the related Sentence Set. The set currently provides a View and Remember model which develops children’s retrieval and memory skills, while learning the patterns of word order. This level of scaffolding can be adapted in Edit View to suit the needs of the learner. As children become more independent, use the Connect Set to construct the practised sentences using the “This is” and “Patch likes” sentence starters.

This approach helps children to overlearn the focus vocabulary, phrases and sentences. From my experience, this repetitive approach builds confidence and accuracy while developing speaking, reading and writing skills. Children will be applying their newfound vocabulary and language skills in no time!

For many more groups of ready-made resources with specific repetitive vocabulary and sentence structures, browse through the Clicker Friends, Planet Wobble and More Stories sections in our Story Corner category.

Visit our Money category on LearningGrids to find a variety of resources that support children’s understanding of basic money concepts. We have resources for naming and recognising the values of coins, as well as counting and creating combinations of coins to total different amounts.

Our Recognising Coins – Read It Yourself Clicker Book offers children clear graphics and simple text that reinforces the names of coins up to the value of two pounds. The related Talk, Sentence, Matching and Custom Sets encourage children to recognize the values of the coins.

To support children to problem solve and record addition calculations with money, use the differentiated Money Targets Connect Sets. Children select from different coins, an addition and equals symbol and the target number to create money calculations. These resources can also be printed and used as a table top activity.

For a great way of reinforcing place value concepts with money, children can read the Clicker Book Tens and Ones Coins – Read a Book and use the related resources to find totals and create calculations with groups of ten pence and one penny coins.

Browse through our Place Value and Counting categories on LearningGrids for more valuable maths resources.

May 12^th is International Nurses Day - a great time to value nurses of today and celebrate pioneering nurses from the past. We have recently published some differentiated Florence Nightingale sets that are a fantastic resource for supporting students to read, write, and talk about this famous nurse and how she improved hospital conditions and developed training for nurses around the world.

The Clicker Book Florence Nightingale – Read a Book offers a great starting point for learning about Florence’s life. The chronological text and illustrations provide information about her early life, her experiences during the Crimean War and how she influenced changes in the hospitals and healthcare around the world.

To develop children’s knowledge, discussion and observational skills, use the Scutari Hospital – Before and After Clicker Board. The first detailed picture is a representation of the hospital when Florence arrived in Scutari. Use this to note the poor conditions and reasons why wounded soldiers were not getting better. Extra cells can be added if required. The second picture represents the improved hospital - explain how Florence influenced the changes in hygiene and patient care. When the Boards are complete, they can be exported as a Word Bank and children can use this to support their follow-up writing. Children can write a letter from Florence explaining the poor conditions and how she aimed to improve them, or write a before and after comparison of the hospital.

Take a look at the other new sets we have in the Florence Nightingale category and visit Famous People on LearningGrids for other Clicker sets about significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements.

As many of you already know, using traditional tales as a starting point for learning is a fantastic way to engage children of all ages. Below I have highlighted a few of our recently published sets based on the Norwegian folktale the Billy Goats Gruff.

Introduce your learners to the story with the Clicker Book The Billy Goats Gruff – Read a Book. The text follows the classic fairy tale structure with repetitive phrases and alliteration. It is a great resource for encouraging discussion about the story elements and inspiring children to become storytellers.

We have also created lots of activities to help your children jump into the story, empathise with the characters and develop their comprehension skills. Children can retell the story with the Talk Set, answer questions with Can You Remember and take on the role of different characters with Character Talk.

The Billy Goats Gruff Sentence Set offers a simplified version of the book text and allows emergent or reluctant writers to practise their sentence skills – watch their faces beam with pride when they have written the whole story! The Connect Set also helps children to write the story using their own, more detailed sentences.

You’ll find other activities designed to enhance literacy learning in the Billy Goats Gruff category on LearningGrids. Our Story Corner is a growing collection of story books and related Clicker Sets - look out for more resources coming soon!

When children return after a long break away from school, they will be buzzing and wanting to share news with their friends, peers and school adults. Let’s utilise this enthusiasm and channel it to recap and improve their vocabulary, sentence structures and writing stamina. We have many resources on LearningGrids that support learners to express their preferences and opinions, both orally and in writing.

Our Show and Tell Custom Set is a good tool for helping children to transition from home learning to learning in school. It enables the child to insert photos or paintings of their special objects and record information about them. The recordings can then be used to create a piece of writing.

The Clicker Books Photo Album One or Photo Album Two also enable children to add photos and talk or write about important items or events they wish to share with their classmates.

The next step would be for children to write about their preferences. To support children in this, use the My Favourite Things,  Food Likes and Dislikes, and My Spare Time Connect Sets. The resources offer sentence structures and vocabulary to enable children to write about their favourite things.

Music is a good stimulus for discussing and recording personal responses. The Responding to Music Custom Set provides a selection of music pieces for children to listen to, and after each piece they add a symbol to indicate how it made them feel. Pupils can also record an oral response to each piece of music. This offers a fantastic opportunity to spark discussion about how items and experiences make the children feel.

The My Favourite Sport A-Z Word Bank supports children to write about their favourite sporting activities. They can use the Clicker Board My Favourite Player to create a fact file about their chosen sportsperson. The central image can be changed to represent a different sport using the CrickPix Library or an imported graphic. My Favourite Team Word Bank provides sentence starters and vocabulary to support writing about a football team.

Using these resources will give learners a voice and a feeling that they are sharing and rebuilding their relationships with people in school. The completed work, along with Clicker Analytics data, can provide evidence of attainment and support you to identify the next learning steps the children need in literacy. Browse the About Me category to find more resources to support learners to express their preferences, opinions and feelings.

At the start of a new year, many of us look for ways to lead healthier lives and we often encourage children to do the same. There are a variety of resources on LearningGrids to encourage children to talk, read and write about the importance of making healthy choices.

Our Keeping Healthy – Read a Book is a great resource for introducing the importance of good hygiene, sleep, regular exercise and a healthy diet. The related Talk, Make a Book,  Connect, Sentence and Word Bank sets enable children to record their understanding of how to lead healthy lives. We have also recently published Washing Hands – Read a Book with linked resources to support children in writing about another way to help keep themselves and others healthy.

Brushing My Teeth – Read a Book focuses on good dental hygiene. The Clicker Book is supported by Sentence and Connect sets so that children can write about a simple tooth brushing routine. Older children can read about the location and function of different types of teeth in the Find Out About Teeth Custom Set. Search for teeth on LearningGrids for more related resources.

Our Human Body 1/2/3 differentiated Find Out and Write About activities encourage children to read and write about how other parts of the body work. For more independent writers, there are also Word Banks such as Human Health and Development to support writing about healthy growth and development.

Use the Exercise and Pulse Rates Talk Set for an active way to investigate the effects of exercise on the body. Children talk about the different exercises and predict what changes might happen to the body after the exercise, and then they record the pulse rate and body changes that actually happen. The Pulse Rate Investigation Word Bank supports learners in writing up the investigation and their findings.

There are also a lot of resources on LearningGrids that focus on food and healthy eating, such as the Food Groups and Food A - Z Word Banks. The Food and Nutrition-Sorting Connect Set encourages children to sort foods into how nutritionally valuable they are. For an engaging way to encourage children to explore the impact of unhealthy snacks and whether they should be allowed in schools, read the Clicker Book Junk Food – Viewpoints. Children consider the different viewpoints on the Junk Food - For or Against Clicker Board. Their completed mind map, along with the Junk Food – Persuasive Writing Word Bank, can be used to plan a speech or to structure a piece of persuasive writing.

As you know, a healthy lifestyle also includes a focus on mental wellbeing. We have many resources in the Feelings category to encourage children to be aware of their feelings and to talk or write about them. Browse the Our Bodies or Keeping Healthy categories on LearningGrids for many more resources available to support learning about being healthy.