Worksheets for Teachers
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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Hooray Arrays! Multiplication Worksheet Pack
Download this set of array worksheets to use when teaching your students how to relate addition and multiplication.
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Reading and Interpreting Timetables Worksheets
Five pages of worksheets that allow students to work on reading and interpreting timetables.
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Analysing Persuasive Devices Worksheets
Get students analysing persuasive techniques and their effects on audiences with this set of three texts with accompanying questions.
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Exploring Rotational Symmetry Worksheets - Drawing Prompts
Encourage creativity and practice knowledge of rotational symmetry with a set of exciting symmetry drawing worksheets.
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Decodable Text Worksheets – Common Consonant Digraphs (Set 1)
A set of 10 decodable text worksheets for early readers.
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List of Persuasive Devices
Download this list of persuasive devices for your students to refer to when writing a persuasive text.
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Colour by 2D Shape (Basic Shapes)
A set of five colour by shape worksheets.
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Auto-Fill Customisable Spelling Activity Worksheets
Save time making custom spelling lists and spelling practise worksheets with an editable auto-fill spelling worksheet pack.
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Writing the Alphabet Chart - Tracing
A chart to assist students when learning how to form letters.
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Fluency Reading Passages - Year 5
Assess student fluency with a printable pack of reading fluency passages for Year 5.
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Fluency Reading Passage Pack- Year 1
Assess student fluency with a printable pack of reading fluency passages for Year 1.
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Free Telling Time to the Minute Worksheets
A worksheet for telling time to the minute and converting between analogue and digital times.
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Area Worksheets
4 area worksheets.
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Multiplication and Division Minute Maths Booklet
A maths mentals booklet with ten pages of multiplication and division questions.
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Emotive Language Cloze Passage Worksheet
Get students using emotive language examples in their persuasive writing with this differentiated cloze passage worksheet.
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Introduction to Unit Fractions Worksheet Pack
Introduce your students to unit fractions with this set of teacher-created worksheets.
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Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives Cut and Paste Worksheet
Have some fun identifying parts of speech by sorting school-themed nouns, verbs, and adjectives with a cut-and-paste worksheet.
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Build a Procedure Text – Cut and Paste Worksheets
Use these different examples of procedure writing to teach your students about the structural features of procedure texts.
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Using Persuasive Devices Worksheet
Use this persuasive devices worksheet to help your students create persuasive device examples based on a specific topic.
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Fractions on a Number Line Worksheets
Represent fractions greater than zero and less than or equal to one with a pack of fraction number line worksheets.
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Phoneme Segmentation Worksheets - CVC Words
Use this worksheet pack to give students practice at segmenting words into phonemes.
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Simple Addition and Subtraction Questions
Use this versatile worksheet with your students when exploring early addition and subtraction number sentences.
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Differentiated Number Pattern Worksheets for Year 3
Use this differentiated year 3 maths worksheet to allow students to practise completing number patterns and determining their rules.
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Daily Writing Prompts Calendars - Upper Primary
Inspire your students and encourage them to write regularly with a set of printable Daily Writing Prompts in calendar format.
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Metaphors Worksheet
Practise identifying and using metaphors with this differentiated metaphors worksheet.
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Number Line Addition Worksheet
Practise adding two-digit numbers with regrouping using a number line and the jump strategy with a printable number line worksheet.
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Measurement Worksheets for Foundation - Mass, Length, Capacity
Practise comparing units of mass, capacity, and length with a printable pack of foundation measurement worksheets.
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Year 6 Mental Maths Drills Workbook
Incorporate this mental maths drills booklet into your maths lesson warm-up routine.
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Adding Fractions With Like Denominators Worksheets
Download this set of adding fractions with like denominators worksheets to help your students practise this important maths skill.
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Symmetry Worksheets
Use this set of eight symmetry worksheets to help students understand symmetry, the line of symmetry, and symmetrical objects.
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CVC Beginning and Ending Letters Worksheet Pack
Practise identifying missing beginning and ending sounds and letters in this set of 10 CVC worksheets.
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Identifying Procedural Language Worksheets
Help your students identify procedural language with this set of three worksheets.