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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Comprehension - Tia's Tantrum
A comprehension activity using a narrative text.
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Colour by Sight Word Worksheet Pack
Use this set of colour by sight words worksheets to help students master the tricky elements in each word.
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Factors and Multiples Worksheet and Flowchart
Download this factors and multiples worksheet and flowchart to give your students a systematic way to use divisibility rules to discover the factors 1-10.
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Months of the Year Worksheets - Ordering
Use these Months of the Year printables to help your students with the months of the year.
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Kind or Unkind Cut-and-Paste Worksheet
Explore kind and unkind scenarios with your students using this engaging cut-and-paste worksheet.
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Find and Colour – Prime and Composite Numbers
Encourage your year 6 students to identify prime and composite numbers up to 100 with this free find and colour worksheet.
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Finish the Drawing - Worksheets
Get creative and finish the drawings with a set of five art worksheets.
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Producer, Consumer, Decomposer - Comprehension Worksheets
Explore the role of producers, consumers and decomposers within ecosystems with this comprehension task.
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Cartesian Plane Mystery Pictures
Practise graphing on the Cartesian plane with this set of differentiated mystery pictures.
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Australia-Centred World Map
Teach your students about the continents, oceans and countries of the world with this Australia-centred world map.
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Colouring 2D Shapes Worksheet
A worksheet to consolidate students' understanding of rectangles, squares, circles and triangles.
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Cursive Alphabet Worksheets – Letter Groups
Use printable cursive writing worksheets PDF files to learn how to write in cursive.
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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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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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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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Find a Friend - First Day of School Scavenger Hunt Grids
Play a back-to-school find-a-friend game for students to get to know their classmates.
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Epic Editing Workbook – Year 2
Use these Year 2 editing worksheets to get your students practising and refining their proofreading skills.
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Tracing Lines - Fine Motor Activity
Tracing lines for students to develop their fine motor skills.
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Tenterfield Oration - Fact Sheet and Comprehension
A fact sheet and comprehension task to use when learning about The Tenterfield Oration.
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Year 6 Fractions, Decimals and Percentages Worksheets
Use these fractions, decimals and percentages worksheets in your Year 6 classroom for independent practice or as an assessment activity.
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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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Uppercase and Lowercase Matching Worksheet Set
Use these uppercase and lowercase matching worksheets to help students identify and name both forms of each letter.
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Readers' Theatre Scripts - Year 1 and Year 2
Boost reading fluency and confidence with this set of Readers’ Theatre scripts designed for Year 1 and Year 2 students.
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Sentence Fluency Reading Cards Set
Make fluency practice engaging with our Sentence Fluency Reading Cards Set.
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Tessellating Shapes Worksheet Set
Download this tessellating shapes worksheet set to introduce your students to the beauty of tesselations.
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Number Patterns Year 5 Worksheet Set
Explore algebraic ideas with this number patterns year 5 worksheet set that provides practice extending patterns, writing equations and completing number sentences.
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Beginning, Middle End Worksheets
Explore the main structure and story elements in a short story with these beginning, middle and end worksheets.
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Graphing Data Worksheets (Cartesian Plane)
Introduce these graphing data worksheets to your students to give them practise graphing real-world situations on the Cartesian plane.
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Giant Squid Reading Comprehension Worksheets - Year 5
Read and learn about the features and adaptations of the giant squid with reading comprehension worksheets for years 5 and 6.
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Persuasive Device Examples – Cut and Paste Worksheet
Match the persuasive writing techniques with the correct examples using this simple cut-and-paste worksheet perfect for your persuasive writing unit.
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Numeracy Assessment Tool - Year 5
A set of 6 numeracy assessment tools suited to Year 5 students
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How Many Bears? Graphing – Worksheet
A hands-on picture graph worksheet for students to sort and count coloured bears.