The fantastic Twinkl resources

A few months ago, I blogged about Twinkl Teaching Resources (you can read my review here - Twinkl review). Since I wrote the review we've had such a lot of use out of the resources on the Twinkl site, and we have also very kindly been provided with some bespoke resources, so I thought that I would write an update post with some of the things that we've been using since then. Some of the resources are only available to Premium users, but there are also tens of thousands of resources which are completely free.

Over the summer I organised some theme days. We had a Dinosaur day, a Space day, an Antarctic day and an Under the Sea day. For each themed day I found resources that matched the topic that we were learning about. Harry is only 4 so we stuck with the simple ones, and among many other things I found themed pencil control worksheets, colouring pages that we used to make posters and games to print out and play. You can find links to the themed resources that we used in the individual posts.

Then in September Harry started school, and I was very excited to find that his entire classroom was filled with Twinkl resources. I looked on the Twinkl website for resources matched to the subjects that he was studying, and I founds loads. He spent a good few weeks looking at different nursery rhymes and fairy tales and there was plenty there to support his learning. In particular he liked the nursery rhyme sequencing cards that I downloaded, which he could cut out, colour, and then arrange in chronological order.

Harry is also making an excellent start on his reading and I've found lots of resources to support him. I really like these Home Word Cards (free download). They are a series of labels for common items around the home which I have printed, laminated and stuck up in his room and bathroom. Harry learned them really easily, and it's really funny to watch Mia trying to copy him, pointing at the letters and going 'b..b..b..bed!' I've also printed out some word mats for him to put on his wall. The Foundation Stage 2 Word Mat (free download) has all the key high frequency words that children should be able to read by the end of their reception year, and it's really useful to have a pretty and nicely arranged poster as a reference. There are lots of other word mats available for all different stages of reading and also plenty of themed ones too. Last month I printed out the Christmas word mat (free download), and he has picked up a lot from it.

We used a lot of other Christmas themed resources too - I found Christmas bingo and a Nativity word mat and game which I turned into a matching game to tie in with learning about the Nativity story. There are themed resources for all important dates and festivals, pretty much anything that you can think of!

The lovely people at Twinkl have also been kind enough to make Harry some bespoke resources. I do really like the wide range of pencil control worksheets available, and he now has worksheets that help him to trace out his own name, as well as those of other family members. They also made him a lovely reward chart, featuring his picture, which I am using to help persuade him to get dressed for school in the mornings without any fuss.

If you have a young child I would definitely recommend having a look at the Twinkl website. There is so much there, and you can tailor the resources for children of all ages, even those that are some way off starting school.

I was given a premium subscription in return for my previous Twinkl review and I have also received some bespoke resources. I was under no obligation at all to write this post, but I am such a fan of the Twinkl website that I wanted to share some of the lovely resources that we have found and enjoyed recently.