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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Analysing Data Worksheet Set
Share this analysing data worksheet set with your students to give them varied practice interpreting multiple data representations.
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Drawing Angles Activity Sheet Set
Use our drawing angles activity sheet set to give students differentiated practice in classifying and constructing angles.
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Fact Families Multiplication and Division Worksheets
Download these fact families multiplication and division worksheets to help your students visualise fact families with arrays.
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Single Digit Addition and Subtraction Worksheets
Share these single digit addition and subtraction worksheets with your foundation students to give them practice adding and subtracting with a wide variety of representations.
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Comparing and Ordering Decimals Worksheets
Utilise these comparing and ordering decimals worksheets to introduce your students to multiple decimal representations.
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Year 3 Reading Fluency Passages
Assess student fluency with a printable pack of reading fluency passages for Year 3.
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Measuring Area Using Informal Units Worksheets
Use this set of area worksheets to help your students practise measuring the area of regular and irregular shapes using informal (square) units.
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Metaphors Worksheet
Practise identifying and using metaphors with this differentiated metaphors worksheet.
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Grandparents Day Card - Mindful Colouring
Practice mindfulness and make Grandparents Day gifts with a printable greeting card.
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Identifying Procedural Language Worksheets
Help your students identify procedural language with this set of three worksheets.
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Analysing Figurative Language in Literature Worksheets
Explore figurative language in literature with engaging reading passages and targeted worksheets that help students identify, analyse and explain how authors use figurative devices to create meaning and impact.
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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.
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Today Is…Calendar Worksheet Set
Support calendar maths routines and daily number sense development with this printable worksheet set that helps students explore dates, weather, time and number concepts.
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Analysing Informational Text Worksheets
Use these informational text worksheets and information text examples with your year 1 and Year 2 students to analysis text features and language features of informative texts.
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Country Information Report Project
Get your students to create a high-quality country information report with accompanying text features using this fully scaffolded writing project booklet.
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Position Worksheets
Use these position worksheets to make sure your students are ‘on top of’ their spatial awareness skills.
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Converting Time Worksheet - 12 to 24 Hour Time
Review how to convert 12-hour to 24 hour time with a printable converting time worksheet.
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Halloween Word Ladders Worksheet Pack
Scare up some exciting Halloween Vocabulary Practise with printable Halloween Word Ladders Worksheets.
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Dealing With Direct Speech - Worksheet
Use this worksheet when teaching students the rules for punctuating direct speech using double quotation marks.
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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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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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Angle Word Problems – Worksheet
Download these angles word problem worksheets so your students can practise calculating missing angles.
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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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Graph It! Worksheet (Many-to-One Graphs)
Draw a scaled picture graph and bar graph to represent data with this worksheet.
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Australia and Its Neighbours - Poster and Labelling Activity
A set of maps and worksheet for students to use when looking at Australia and its neighbours.
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Shopping Catalogue with Worksheet
A shopping catalogue and worksheet to use when working on financial mathematics.
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Narrative Structure Worksheet
Use this narrative structure worksheet to teach your students about the characteristic stages of narrative texts.
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Year 6 Area Worksheets
Support upper-primary maths lessons with these area worksheets.
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Interpreting Timetables — Error Analysis Worksheet Pack
Practise interpreting timetables with this engaging error analysis worksheet pack.
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Adding and Subtracting 2-Digit Numbers Worksheet Pack
Practise 2-digit addition and subtraction with regrouping with this worksheet pack.
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Following and Creating Patterns Worksheet Pack
Support number pattern understanding with this following and creating patterns worksheet pack.
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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.