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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Adding Fractions with Unlike Denominators Worksheet Pack
Download this set of adding fractions with unlike denominators worksheets to help your students practise this important maths skill.
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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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Telling Time in 24 Hour Format Worksheet
Practise converting between 12 and 24-hour clock times with a printable Year 5 time worksheet.
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Cursive Handwriting Worksheets - Days, Months, Colours, and Numbers
Trace and write days of the week, months of the year, number words, and colour words in cursive.
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Cursive Writing Worksheets PDF - Alphabet
Practise writing the alphabet in cursive with a pack of printable cursive alphabet writing worksheets.
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Interpreting Line Graphs Worksheet Pack
Use this set of 4 Grade 5 worksheets to help students practise interpreting real-life data represented as a line graph.
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Jump Strategy Addition Worksheet Pack
Practise using the jump strategy with this worksheet set.
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3D Objects and Their Nets - Worksheet
Connect 3D objects with their nets and other 2D representations with this differentiated worksheet.
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Mars vs. Earth - Differentiated Paired Passage Worksheets
Learn about the planets with differentiated compare and contrast passages, activities and writing opportunities.
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Spelling CVCC Words - Worksheets
Develop students’ ability to segment and blend the sounds in CVCC words with this set of differentiated worksheets.
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Multiplication and Division Speed Drill Worksheets – Facts of 3
A set of worksheets to help students develop fast and accurate recall of the three times tables.
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Perfect Punctuation Volume 1 – Worksheet Book
A workbook packed with 50 punctuation activities for use in the classroom.
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Split Class/Fast Finisher Booklet - Upper Years
A booklet to use when classes are split or as fast finisher activities.
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The Three Little Pigs – Comprehension Worksheet
Develop your students' reading comprehension skills with a well-known fairy tale.
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Cartesian Plane Worksheet Set (Real-World Scenarios)
Differentiate with our Cartesian plane worksheet set full of real-world maths scenarios.
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Paragraph Editing - Quotation Marks Worksheets
Practise using quotation marks to signify dialogue in text with a set of printable Paragraph Editing Worksheets.
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Mass Calculations Word Problem Worksheets
Put mass understanding into practise with this set of three word problem worksheets.
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Mixed Operations - Length Word Problems Worksheets
Solve multi-step length word problems with a printable pack of 3-act Maths Word Problem Worksheets.
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Learning Reflection Templates
When finishing a unit or particular piece of work, have your students show you their understandings on a 3-2-1 Feedback Plan.
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Area Model Multiplication – Colour by Number Worksheet Pack
Download this colour-by-number worksheet pack for your students to practise using the area model when multiplying multi-digit numbers.
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Which Homophone? Worksheets
Download this differentiated homophones worksheet to help your students become more familiar with this tricky vocabulary!
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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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Twelve Days of Kindness – Christmas Challenge Worksheet
Challenge your students to commit 12 random acts of Christmas kindness with a printable kindness activity .
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Simile and Metaphor Self-Portrait Worksheet
Teach students about similes and metaphors by asking them to describe... themselves!
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Reading Scales – Measuring Mass Match-Up Worksheet
A worksheet to give students practice at reading scales to measure mass.
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Complete the Sentences – Worksheets for Beginning Writers
A set of 10 worksheets for students to practise completing simple sentences.
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Sequencing Activity - Dogs Make the Best Pets (Persuasive Text) - Simplified Version
A sequencing task using a simple persuasive text.
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Measuring, Comparing and Ordering Capacity Worksheet
A worksheet that explores the concept of capacity using informal units of measurement.
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Adding and Subtracting Fractions Worksheets
Use these adding and subtracting fractions worksheets to enable your students to practise this important skill.
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Patterns and Algebra Worksheets - Year 5
4 patterns and algebra worksheets linked to the Australian Curriculum.
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Telling the Time Worksheets- Quarter Hours
Tell and write time to the nearest quarter-hour and half-hour with printable telling time cut and paste worksheets.
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Grammar Practice Worksheets - Vocabulary Cut and Sort
Review parts of speech and vocabulary skills with a pack of cut-and-paste grammar practice worksheets.