Worksheets Teaching Resources
Did someone say printable worksheets? From year 1 maths worksheets to reading comprehension worksheets to printables for kindergarten and beyond, our collection of teacher-created teaching tools is ready to make learning fun and engaging for your students in all subject areas and on all primary year levels.
Explore printable activities, free worksheets, homework sheets and more — all aligned to the Australian curriculum and all created by teachers, for teachers just like you!
Teach Starter worksheets undergo a careful review process by our expert teacher team to ensure they're ready for your lesson plans ... and your students! Best of all, you know each printable is designed with the goal of turning on that lightbulb over your students' heads and producing more of those 'aha!' moments in the classroom!
Curious about how to make worksheets more engaging? Or maybe you're just wondering how worksheets became a tool used in schools? Read on for a primer from our teacher team!
Why Do Teachers Use Worksheets?
Worksheets are an important part of any teacher's toolkit — and yes, we say part because we believe in the importance of hands-on learning too (explore our full collection for plenty of student-led activities!) — but do you ever wonder how they ended up being so ubiquitous?
It was back in the mid-20th century that worksheets started to take hold in education.
The concept of individualised instruction was gaining traction, and educators recognised the need to tailor learning experiences to students' unique abilities, interests and learning styles.
Worksheets started to emerge because they were a means to provide students with both individualised practice and reinforcement of skills. Psychologists like Jean Piaget (you may know him best for his theories on children's cognitive development?) played a role here. The Swiss psychologist suggested teachers should be providing their students with materials that would advance their thinking, and worksheets offer a means for students to assess their own learning.
The real win for worksheets, however, was the invention of the photocopy machine! It made it easy for this supplemental tool to spread like wildfire!
How Do You Make Worksheets Engaging?
You already know educational printables are a beneficial learning tool. They enable students to work independently, practising and applying the concepts they've been learning in your classroom.
So how do you keep them from putting your students in boxes?
At Teach Starter, our worksheets aren't 'just worksheets.' Our expert teacher team works every day to create the tools you need to create impactful classroom experiences. That means our teacher team creates our school worksheets specifically to engage students with eye-catching graphics and creative formats. Here are some of their tips to ensure worksheets are used effectively in the classroom — and truly help engage your students!
- Use worksheets as just part of your toolbox. These are great tools to support classroom instruction and provide independent practise, and they should be balanced with a mix of other teaching tools!
- Mix up your worksheet types. Teach Starter's cut-and-paste worksheets, for example, add an interactive element to help hold students' attention.
- Encourage students to doodle. Doodle notes have taken education by storm in recent years as the visual note-taking method has been proven to improve students' focus and memory. Apply those benefits to your worksheets, and you may be surprised by how it pulls kids' attention to the page!
- Add plastic sleeves. Slipping worksheets into plastic sleeves and allow students to use wipe-away pens on the sleeves is a good way to extend the life of a worksheet — and it adds and element of fun for kids who love the chance to use pens!
- Use digital worksheets. Allow students to fill out their worksheets on classroom tablets as a means to add an extra level of engagement.
It's Not Just a Worksheet
The key to effective worksheets comes down to how you use them — a balanced approach to education combines worksheets with other instructional strategies — from hands-on activities to group work to project-based learning.
So what can you get from worksheets?
Consider this — early years students can work on their fine motor skills with our mini books, cut-and-paste worksheets and more while their upper years peers get pulled into the fun of vocabulary fun with word searches and crossword puzzle worksheets. Printable puzzles that engage students in the form of a brain game and colour by worksheets that bring art elements into maths and reading.
Worksheets also provide the opportunity for formative assessment and give your students a chance to practice problem-solving while they work independently.
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Year 1 Spelling Words - Weekly Lists
Create successful spellers with printable weekly spelling word lists for Year 1.
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Telling Time Test - Nearest 5 Minutes
Assess your student's abilities to tell time to the nearest five minutes with a printable telling time assessment.
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Poison Dart Frog Adaptations – Year 4 Reading Worksheets
Explore the adaptations of a poison dart frog with printable reading comprehension worksheets for Year 4.
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Patterns in Place Value Worksheet
Use this place value worksheet to get your students analysing decimal place value in numbers.
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Days of the Week Playdough Mats
Use playdough mats to help your students identify, sequence and spell the days of the week.
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Persuasive Device Definitions – Match-Up Worksheet
Have students match the persuasive devices with their definitions using this simple one-page worksheet.
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Number Line Multiplication – Worksheet Pack
Guide your students to solve number line multiplication problems with this worksheet pack.
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Skip Counting and Multiplication Differentiated Worksheet
Use this differentiated worksheet set to provide independent practise using skip counting to solve multiplication expressions.
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Multiplication Using Arrays Worksheet
Encourage your students to practise multiplication using arrays with this worksheet.
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Parts of Speech Word Search (Nouns, Adjectives, Verbs and Adverbs) – Worksheet
A word search where students find and categorise nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs.
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Scarecrow Division Colour by Number Worksheet
Have fun with your Halloween maths practice with a division colour-by-number worksheet!
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A World Without Right Angles – Worksheet
Help your students explore the vital role that right angles play in our environment with this differentiated maths worksheet.
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Plant Life Cycle Passage and Graphic Organiser
Give your students an opportunity to sequence the life cycle of a plant with a reading passage and worksheet.
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2D Shapes in the Environment Cut and Sort Worksheet
Students will categorise and sort 2D shapes using this ability-levelled worksheet set.
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Level 3 Decodable Readers - Worksheet Pack
A set of one-pager worksheet versions of the texts from our Level 3 decodable readers
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Spring Writing Prompts
Celebrate Spring with Spring writing worksheets for the early years.
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Labelling the Continents and Oceans Worksheets
Turn Geography into a fun and educational learning experience with our cut-and-paste worksheets!
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How Do Rocks Form? – Explanation Text Structure Sorting Task
A sorting task to help students learn about the structure of an explanation text.
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How Many Bears? Graphing – Worksheet
A hands-on picture graph worksheet for students to sort and count coloured bears.
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Imagine Conjunctions Worksheet
Spark students' creativity with this conjunctions worksheet containing four images to prompt students to write compound sentences.
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Fractions of Whole Numbers – Worksheet
A set of differentiated worksheets that focus on finding simple fractions of quantities.
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Multiplication and Division Speed Drill Worksheets – Facts of 9
A set of worksheets to help students develop fast and accurate recall of the nine times tables.
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Phoneme Spotter Story – 'er' Sound
A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the ‘er’ sound.
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Natural, Managed or Constructed? - Worksheet
A worksheet that explores natural, managed and constructed features.
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How to Make a Paper Plane – Procedural Writing Worksheet
Explore how to make a paper plane while your students fine-tune their procedural writing skills.
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Numbers 0 to 20 Handwriting - Worksheet
Activity worksheets to use in the classroom when learning about the numbers 0 to 20.
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-Ment Suffixes Worksheet
Improve students' understanding of the suffix -ment with a printable suffix worksheet.
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Elements of Poetry Worksheet - Figurative Language
A worksheet to help students understand figurative language in poetry.
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Complementary Angles – Year 6 Maths Worksheet
Teach your students to identify and calculate complementary angles with this one-page maths worksheet.
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Measuring the Area of a Desktop Worksheet
A worksheet to use when exploring the concept of measuring area with informal units.
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Pets and Their Needs - Worksheet
A worksheet for students to identify the four basic needs of living things.
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Three Little Pigs – Sequencing Worksheet
Identify the story beginning, series of events and ending with this narrative text sequencing activity.