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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Number and Place Value Worksheets - Year 1
8 number and place value worksheets linked to the Australian Curriculum.
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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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Split Strategy Addition Worksheet Pack
Practise using the split strategy with this worksheet set.
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Plant and Animal Adaptations - Reading Comprehension Passage
Boost reading comprehension skills with a comprehension passage, with questions, about structural, behavioural and physiological adaptations.
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Plant Life Cycle Worksheet - Cut and Paste
Help your students cement their understanding of the plant life cycle with a cut and paste worksheet.
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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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Phoneme Spotter Story - Long 'a' Sound
A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the long 'a' sound.
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Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives – Sorting Task
Help students learn the difference between nouns, verbs, and adjectives with this cut-and-paste sorting worksheet.
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Transformation Poster and Worksheets
A poster and worksheets to teach children about transformations.
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Two-Digit Addition Using Partitioning – Poster and Worksheet
Teach your students how to use partitioning for two-digit addition with this ice cream-themed poster and worksheets.
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3-Digit Number Forms Worksheet
Help students practise their knowledge of 3-digit numbers with this place value worksheet that covers MAB blocks, standard form, and expanded form.
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Comprehension - Should Smart Phones Be Allowed in Classrooms?
Decide if cellphones should be allowed in class and boost comprehension skills with a reading passage and comprehension test.
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Rounding Numbers Cut and Paste - Worksheets
Provide your students with engaging practise to help them understand rounding with a set of differentiated rounding worksheets.
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Adding and Subtracting Integers - Codebreaker Worksheets
Crack the positive and negative number code with four adding and subtracting integers worksheets.
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Free Story Prediction Worksheet
Encourage students to think critically before reading with this Story Prediction Worksheet.
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Animal Adaptations for Kids - Worksheet Pack
Identify and label different animal features and discover how these adaptations help animals survive with a pack of printable lift-the-flap matching worksheets.
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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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Animal Adaptations - Worksheet Pack
Use these animal adaptation worksheets when teaching students about the structural, behavioral, and physiological adaptations of animals.
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Split Class/Fast Finisher Booklet - Lower Years
A booklet to use when classes are split or as fast finisher activities.
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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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Vocabulary Activity Choice Boards - Differentiated
Use our Differentiated Vocabulary Activity Choice Boards to give your students daily independent vocabulary practice.
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Measuring Length with Dinosaur Footprints - Hands-on Maths Task
Engage your students in learning about informal measurement with a 'Dino-Mite' hands-on measurement activity in which they use dinosaur footprints to measure objects around the classroom.
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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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How to Write 2-Digit and 3-Digit Numbers Worksheet
Explore how to represent number values in standard form, word form, expanded form, and picture form with this multipurpose place value worksheet.
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Inflectional Endings - Spelling with Suffixes Worksheets
Spell words with the inflectional endings -ed, -ing, -s, -es and -ies with a pack of printable practise worksheets covering inflected endings.
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Ordering Decimals on a Number Line — Year 4 Worksheet
Practice ordering decimals on a number line with this worksheet.
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Equivalent Fractions Chart – Differentiated Worksheets
Use a fraction wall to practise finding equivalent fractions and comparing fractions with this set of differentiated worksheets.
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Tracing and Drawing 2D Shapes Worksheet
A simple trace and draw worksheet for 2D shapes.
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Location and Transformation Worksheets - Year 2
6 location and transformation worksheets linked to the Australian Curriculum.
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Data Representation and Interpretation Worksheets - Year 6
8 data representation and interpretation worksheets linked to the Australian Curriculum.
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Skip Counting Robot Worksheets - 2s, 5s and 10s
A set of 4 robot themed worksheets to help students skip count by 2s, 5s and 10s.
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Draw The Line of Symmetry Worksheets
Use this lines of symmetry worksheet to help students practise drawing lines of symmetry on 2D shapes.