Terrific Teaching Resources from Twinkl

I have two go to websites when I'm looking for new teaching resources, or something for a particular topic, lesson or activity.

Teachers Pay Teachers and Twinkl (actually three if you count Pinterest. Teachers - what did we DO before Pinterest?? LOL!).

At Twinkl you will find so many amazing resources (much more than just worksheets, but I'll elaborate on that in a minute). The website is easy to use and navigate with ages, learning areas and various headings. My favourite feature is the 'save' disc icon. At first glance you may think this means to save the resource to your computer, but it's like a 'like' button, where you can save something to your profile to download later allowing you to continue to browse.

During my browsing, I found play dough recipes with all sorts of creative combinations of colours, scents, flavours and textures like strawberry sparkle, coconut cloud and ocean marshmallow! Plus, great play dough activity mats to go with these recipes as well. Just print, laminate and play! We practised making letters and numbers on ours (obviously these come in colour - but we don't have a colour printer!!)

I also found some yummy edible recipes such as chocolate puffy paint, crackle and pop sensory play and scented pavement chalk (YES edible believe it or not!) There are busy bag ideas, baby sign language videos, songs and rhymes as well as all the early learning categories you'd expect to find.

Twinkle is a UK website, however for me as an Australian teacher, their resources are all still really useful and relevant (we all have to learn the alphabet right?) and they have a fantastic Australian Curriculum resource section. There are also visuals and displays for classrooms, labels and organisational tools. The Rio Olympics are fast approaching too - and Twinkl has got you covered.

By the end of my browsing session I had saves so many things!! I'll be all set when I return from maternity leave with renewed enthusiasm to try out some of these new resources and ideas! (And lots of fun things to keep Miss M busy in the meantime.)

Here's just a few (of many) I loved!

Roll the dice and colour the picture! I like worksheet activities that are more than just colouring.
Anything with a die is great for subitising and number recognition. 

These numbers would be great for a 'Living Things' or 'Minibeasts'
unit of work as a display or an ordering numerals activity. 

Parents! Check out these fantastic book covers for each subject!

I couldn't help but include this one being a South Aussie!
Great for a Geography lesson for children to identify their part of Australia. 

I was really impressed to find a section on Growth Mindset which is a really big focus in many schools at the moment.

Another really clever feature of Twinkl is the 'create your own' option where you can customise and create resources exactly the way you want them to suit your class colour scheme, theme, or individual child. Just some of the options are

• displays, bunting, posters, labels etc
• word searches, crosswords and story patterns
• colouring sheets, page borders, 
• certificates & flashcards

I had a play around and made my own word search... Imagine spending a couple of minutes plugging in all your class list words for the term and instantly having a set of sheets ready to go! Make it easier or harder by changing the size or having diagonal/backwards words. Remember fonts and colours can be easily changed to suit.

Finally, Twinkl have a whole range of apps too for all the ages and stages right from the little people up to the big kids. We had fun learning letters and words with Phonics Suite.

For use at school or home - you can learn more about the apps here.

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I was kindly given a platnimum subscription for the purpose of this review so I was able to access all of the brilliant content at Twinkl. And my honest opinion for teachers, is that it's totally worth it! For parents, I'd suggest having a browse around at the freebies to see if you can get what you're looking for. However for other professionals such as child care educators, family day carers or homeschooling parents - I'd recommend the platnimum subscription to you also. 

"Twinkl changes lives by providing instant access to a complete range of teacher created, engaging and inspiring teaching, planning and assessment materials."

Thanks to the team at Twinkl. I'm proud to be representing your website to my readers today.

Lauren xx