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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Stretchy Sentences Worksheet
Use this worksheet to help your students write detailed and descriptive sentences.
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Picture the Dialogue - Quotation Mark Printables
Improve students’ abilities to write dialogue using correct punctuation with a set of ‘Picture the Dialogue’ writing worksheets.
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Year 3 Using Units of Measurement Worksheets Bundle
Download year 3 worksheets for using units of measurement that are linked to the Australian Curriculum.
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Primary, Secondary, Warm and Cool Colour Worksheets
Teach about primary, secondary, warm and cool colours with this worksheet pack.
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Changing Indirect Speech to Direct Speech Worksheets
Practise converting indirect speech to direct speech with this worksheet.
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Line Plots / Dot Plots - Year 5 Assessment
Assess student understanding of reading and creating dot plots/line plots with a printable assessment for Year 5.
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Bumblebee Contraction Worksheets
Practise creating contractions from two words using this set of cute bumblebee worksheets.
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Composing and Decomposing Fractions Worksheets
Use this set of decomposing fractions worksheets to enable your students to practise this important skill.
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Compound Word List Bundle
Introduce your students to different levels and types of compound words with a pack of printable compound word lists.
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Time Conversion Maths Mazes
Convert units of time while finding your way through this set of 3 Time Conversion maths mazes.
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Orbital Period of Planets Poster and Worksheet
Learn about the time it takes each planet to orbit the sun with this poster and cut-and-paste worksheet for your students.
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Naked Mole Rat - Reading Comprehension Worksheets
Read and learn facts about the naked mole rat with a printable reading comprehension worksheet pack for year 4 and 5.
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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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Inference Detectives Worksheet Pack
Guide your students to use personal experiences and text evidence to make inferences with this set of reading worksheets.
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Let's Infer! Reading Worksheet
Boost reading comprehension with our 2-page writing worksheet that helps students practice making inferences.
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Colour by Number – Repeated Addition and Multiplication
Guide your students to connect repeated addition with multiplication by completing this colour-by-code multiplication worksheet.
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Object Movement Investigation Worksheets
Get students to push or pull on an object with this forces investigation for early years science lessons.
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Forces and Motion Scavenger Hunt Worksheet
Use these forces and motion scavenger hunt worksheets when exploring push and pull forces in your early years science lessons.
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How Do Circuits Work? Worksheet for Year 6
Guide your students to create a diagram that shows complete and incomplete circuits and explain their function with this worksheet.
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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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Empathy vs. Sympathy Reading Comprehension Worksheet
Challenge your students to learn the differences between empathy and sympathy with this reading comprehension worksheet.
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Rounding Whole Numbers Word Problem & Error Analysis Worksheet
Print a maths worksheet with variety of rounding word problems and error analysis challenges.
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Plant Adaptations - Reading Comprehension Worksheets
Read and learn about unusual plants and their adaptations with a pack of printable reading comprehension worksheets.
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Story Elements Worksheets – The Goose and the Golden Egg
Practise identifying the story characters, settings and main events with this set of worksheets based on a traditional tale.
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Text Connections Clouds Craftivity
Enjoy this fun literature craftivity with your students, which prompts them to answer comprehension questions for making personal connections to text.
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10 More, 10 Less Differentiated Mazes
Delight your students with this maze challenge, to practise calculating 10 more or 10 less than a value within 120.
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10 More, 10 Less Colouring Worksheets (Differentiated)
Use this ten more, ten less worksheet set to engage your students while they practise computing 10 more or 10 less than a number within 120.
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Forest Food Chain – Cut and Paste Worksheet
Create a forest food chain to show how energy flows between organisms with this cut-and-paste worksheet.
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Rainforest Food Chain - Cut and Paste Worksheet
Create a rainforest food chain to show how energy flows between organisms with this cut-and-paste worksheet.
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Plant Growth Chart Worksheet
Record the growth and changes in a plant over time with one of our differentiated plant growth charts.
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Finding the Main Idea in a Literary Text Worksheet
Find the main idea and supporting story clues of a literary text passage and answer the comprehension questions.
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Think Addition - Fact Family Worksheets
Use addition to solve subtraction problems with this worksheet.