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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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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Letter Sound Worksheets - Initial, Medial, and Final Positions
Practise isolating initial, medial, and final letter sounds with a fun set of Letter Sound Worksheets for Year 1.
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Year 5 Mental Maths Drills Workbook
Get the mental strategies flowing with this ten-page mental maths booklet covering the four operations.
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Dotted Numbers 0-20 Handwriting Sheet
Get your students writing numbers from 0-0 with this number formation worksheet available in Australian school fonts.
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Adding and Subtracting Fractions Worksheets
Three worksheets to use when teaching your students how to add and subtract fractions.
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Year 4 Mental Maths Drills Booklet
Jump into your maths lessons with this ten-page maths mentals booklet covering the four operations and number patterns.
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Determining Elapsed Time-Word Problems Worksheet
Print an elapsed time word problems worksheet to provide students with practise measuring the passage of time.
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Leisure Land - Map Skills Worksheet
A map and worksheet for students to practice cardinal directions.
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Multiplication as Repeated Addition Worksheet Pack
Strengthen student understanding of multiplication and repeated addition with this worksheet pack designed for year 2 and 3 students.
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Mother's Day Questionnaires
Celebrate the special ladies in your students’ lives with a fun and funny Mother’s Day Questionnaire.
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Measuring My Body – Length Worksheet
Explore linear measurement with an engaging collaborative activity where students measure different body parts and compare them.
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Facts and Opinions - Caterpillars
A fun activity for students to use when identifying facts and opinions about caterpillars.
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Fractions and Decimals Assessment
Assess students' knowledge of various decimals and percentages concepts with this four-page worksheet.
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Alphabet Handwriting Sheets - Individual
Handwriting sheets for each letter of the alphabet.
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Skip Counting by 2,3,4,5, & 10 Mystery Picture
Have your students uncover a mystery picture by solving skip counting problems to and multiply by 2,3,4,5 & 10.
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Subtraction Strategies – Assessment
Assess your students’ knowledge of subtraction strategies with a subtraction assessment.
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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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Identifying Descriptive Language Worksheets - Nouns, Adjectives, Verbs and Adverbs
A set of 5 worksheets to help your students identify descriptive language in narrative texts.
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Unit Fraction Spin and Colour Activity
Read and colour unit fractions in this fun spin and colour activity with your students.
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Year 2 Reading Comprehension Test - Being a Good Pet Parent
Build comprehension skills and learn about being a good pet parent by limiting pets' impact on ecosystems with a reading passage and comprehension questions.
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Colour-Coding Summarising Nonfiction Text Worksheets
Practise summarising small nonfiction texts with this fun colour-coding set of worksheets.
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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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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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Making Monsters Subtraction - Worksheet
Have some spooky subtraction fun with three differentiated Halloween subtraction worksheets.
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Identifying Prime and Composite Numbers – Worksheet
Use understanding of factors to identify composite and prime numbers with this worksheet.
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Daily Maths Word Problems - Year 5
A set of 20 problem solving questions suited to year 5 students.
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Identifying Dependent Clauses Worksheet
Practise identifying dependent clauses in complex sentences with a dependent clause worksheet.
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Decodable Text Worksheets – Common Consonant Digraphs (Set 2)
A set of 10 decodable text worksheets for early readers.
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Fact or Opinion - Sentence Sort Worksheet
A worksheet to use when teaching students how to distinguish between fact or opinion.
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Sequencing Activity - Roald Dahl (Informative Text)
A sequencing task using an informative text.
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Tenths and Hundredths as Decimals Worksheet Pack
Get your students representing tenths and hundredths as decimals using concrete models, visual models and money with this set of Year 4 maths worksheets.
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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.