Some Requests for Mentions...

I thought I'd clear my inbox of some requests for mentions/links on the site. I tend to get quite a lot of these!

WWtbaM Software
http://www.thelogster.com/pc/
I've mentioned some other millionaire quiz creating software in the past that quite a few teachers have said they found useful. Logie Urquhart has emailed me to say that he's created his own program to allow his wife (who is a teacher) to make WWtbaM quizzes. He has made the program available for free on the web. I've not tried this one myself but if you want to give it a go then click on the logster link above.

Josie's Poetry
http://www.whiteheadm.co.uk/html/josies_poetry.html
Josie Whitehead has asked me to give her poetry site a mention. She's been writing poetry for many years and, as the children in her local area really enjoy the poems she has made them available for everyone to read through her website.

Oxfam Teaching Resources Survey

We ran quite a bit of free advertising last year for Oxfam's 'Make Poverty History' campaign. Oxfam have contacted me to ask if I could encourage teachers to fill out their online survey about the type of resources teachers need to tackle issues raised by the campaign.

Full details are below...

If you used Oxfam's resources to teach about Make Poverty History you can win teaching resources for your school.

Please complete our SHORT online survey to help us understand more about what support teachers needed during 2005 to help you tackle issues raised by the Make Poverty History campaign, Live8 and the G8 Summit. Your input will greatly help us to ensure we provide high quality teaching resources in the future.

If you used Oxfam's online support on Cool Planet and can tell us a bit about what you thought of it, you will be entered into our draw to win posters, white bands, and teaching resources for your school.

Please click here to launch the survey.

Do forward this link to anyone you know who may've taught about Make Poverty History in 2005.

To remind yourself about Oxfam's online resources for Make Poverty History, click here.

Site Update: 27th January 2006

Another 40 new resources have been added to the site in this week's update. They're all marked with a blue NEW symbol. Full details are below.

MATHS: Loop Cards mult&div 10 100 / Estimating (ppt) / Repeated Addition as Multiplication (ppt) / Down the Road (nearest 10) Y3 / Area of Regular Quadrilaterals (ppt) / Division by Chunking Y4/5/6 (ppt) / Ratio and Proportion Y5/6 (Activ) / Fractions, Decimals and Percentages Quiz WWtbaM
ENGLISH: Adjective Opposites (Activ) / Spelling Plurals / Persuasive Writing Y5/6 (ppt) / Silent Letters / Paired Reading - Accuracy Chart / PR - Fluency Chart / PR - Punctuation Chart / PR (Charts in ppt) / The Months of the Year (poem) / The Months of the Year Activities / Suffix Cards: er, able / Suffic Cards: ly, ful / Traditional Story Openings (ppt) / Phoneme Cards & Activity Boards / Playscript Checklist / Story Checklist / The Beach Story Resources / Alliteration Word Bank
SCIENCE: Forces Quiz WWtbaM (ppt) / Simple Circuit Sheets / Food Types (Smart)
HISTORY: Howard Carter For & Against
D&T: Alarms: Switches (ppt) / Investigating Cog Rotation
RE: The Jews and Roman OccupationICT: Copy and Paste Poster
MLF: Heads Down, Thumbs Up
PSHE: Elections (ppt) / Community Changes / How Much do Things Cost / Looking After Ourselves - Drugs / Your Lifes Journey

'The Labours of Heracles' Now Available from Primary Extra!

Primary Extra is pleased to announce that their second release 'The Labours of Heracles' is now available. Written and illustrated by Gareth Pitchford this new version of the Heracles (or Hercules) story is told through over 100 full colour cartoon illustrations.

The teaching pack comes with printable colour and black & white versions of the story, an interactive whiteboard/data projector presentation, a teacher's guide, support sheets, reward certificates and copies of the cartoons from the story that you can use in your own resources.

The pack is available through the Primary Extra website. Special offer pricing is available in the Online Store with discounts on individual teacher CD versions as well as on Greg Arious & Heracles double packs.

Wikipedia

www.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia is a site I've been using an awful lot lately to research a whole range of different topics. It's is a free online encyclopedia that anyone can contribute to and edit. There's thousands of contributors adding, amending and checking articles them for accuracy.

All the usual subjects you'd expect covered in an encyclopedia are included but, because of the huge community input there's also entries on films, television programmes, hobbies and a multitude of other areas of interest.

Apparently a fairly recent analysis showed Wikipedia had about 900,000 articles with 224 million words. Compare that to the Britannica which has about 85,000 articles with 55 million words and Encarta which has about 63,000 articles and 40 million words to date.

It's well worth having a look at and is also a good alternative to doing an Internet search if you're after a particular piece of information.

Kershaw Kids

http://www.kershaw.dsl.pipex.com
I've been meaning to mention this site for a while now. Barbara Kershaw, a full time mum who also enjoys programming in Flash has put together this set of educational activities for young children. It's likely to be of most use for the Foundation stage as the main section, the playroom has lots of simple drag and drop activities. There are activities for older children, though including a break the code games, test your tables and a online junior Sudoku activity.

Primary Extra News 3

I've had a few people email me asking if they could buy copies of The Labours of Heracles this weekend as they were planning to look at Greek Myths with their class next week. The full teacher's pack won't be finished until the end of next week but as they asked so nicely ;) I've put a pre-release downloadable version online at the Primary Extra Store.

This version includes the colour and black & white printable versions of the storybook in PDF format. It also has the interactive whiteboard / data projector presentation that you can use with the whole class. I've added the first part of the teacher's guide (with notes on each of the labours) into the download as well.

Anyone who does purchase the pre-release will automatically be able to download the full version when it becomes available. I've added a 10% discount on pre-orders to make up for having to download it twice.

I hope that helps those who wanted to use the material sooner than I planned. :)

Primary Extra News 2

The next release from Primary Extra will be a brand new version of 'The Labours of Heracles'. This resource tells the Greek Myth of Heracles (or Hercules if you prefer the Roman name!) through over 100 full colour cartoon illustrations.

As with our last release the CD and the downloadable version will include printable colour and black & white versions of the story (in book form), an interactive whiteboard/data projector presentation of the complete story, a full teacher's guide and a set of activity sheets.

It's been a bit of a... well, Herculean effort to get it done with it including so many images. All the stuff that happened during November & December last year has delayed it a fair bit but I'm hoping to get the completed resource online by the end of next week.

More information will be published nearer the time.

Primary Extra News

I've added a new online store to the Primary Extra site to replace the existing shop links. One of the reasons that I've done this is because we will be launching a second resource soon (more on that later). It also allows me to manage the downloads myself (which cuts costs) and allows me to publish updated versions more easily. Transactions through the site are handled by Paypal (you can use credit and debit cards without having the register for a Paypal account) and there is also an option to print an order form (for whatever items are in your shopping cart) if you wish to pay by cheque or school purchase order.

On the subject of Primary Extra, the special offer price of £10 (compared to the normal price of £12.50) for the 'Greg Arious and the Lexicons' teaching pack on CD will end next week. If you want it at that price then please order it within the next few days.

Site Update: 20th January 2006

Over 40 new resources have been added to the site in this week's update. They're all marked with a red NEW symbol. Full details are below.

MATHS: Types of angles (ppt) / Doubling and halving by partitioning (ppt) / Factors, Primes and Square Numbers (ppt) / Missing Number Addition Y1 / Missing Number Addition Y2 (Easy) / Partitioning to Double (3 levels) Y3 / Dividing and Sharing (3 levels) Y3 / Algebra Preparation / Measuring Different Types of Angles Y5/6 (Smart) / 3 Minute Mental +/- / Brackets Worksheet Y5
ENGLISH: Suffixes -ness -ment -hood (ppt) / Suffixes -al -aray (ppt) / Persausive Texts - Key Features of Adverts (ppt) / 'air' and 'are' / Mixed CVC words / Cinderella Invitiation (KS1) / Cinderella Characters (KS1) / Using Pronouns Instead of Nouns (ppt)
SCIENCE: Unit 5C (Gases around Us) Planning / Healthy Eating Game (Pile it on my plate!) / Human Body Sheets / Humans and plants quiz (ppt) / Seed Dispersal / Does it float or sink? / Changing States / Pulse Rate
D&T: Alarms - Unit 4D (ppt)
OTHER: Lunchtime behaviour certificates (x12)
ICT: Unit 5B Analysing Data Planning

Bee-Bot

http://www.bee-bot.co.uk/
I thought I'd quickly give the Bee-Bot a mention. It's something that I would hope everybody has seen by now. The winner of a BETT award last week, the Bee-Bot is a relatively new control device that's perfect for introducing the idea of control in the Foundation Stage and early Key Stage 1.

Check out the official website above for more details. Plenty of educational suppliers are stocking it, including RM.

timeforcitizenship.org

http://www.timeforcitizenship.org
I've been asked to give this website a mention. It's run by primary schools in the UK and features links, resources and project ideas to do with teaching citizenship. There's sections for pupils, parents and teachers. Registration is required (by post) to access the teaching resources.

Quiz Busters

http://www.teachers-direct.co.uk/resources/quiz-busters/index.aspx
Quiz Busters is based on a popular quiz show that regularly included the phrase "Can I have a 'P' please, Bob?". It's great for plenaries. You can use one of the ready made question banks or very easily create your own. Well worth checking out.

Teachers Direct have made available this Word Search game as well.

Di-Lite Creations

http://uk.geocities.com/dilite_creations@btinternet.com/
Diana Tunnicliff produces worksheets and graphics for use in special schools. They're also really useful for foundation stage work as well. I've included some of her worksheets in the update that will go online at the end of the week (Click here for a zipped file containing lots of Diana's human body sheets). Diana also provides lots of free worksheets through her website and also sells CDs of the material.

Icons.org.uk

http://www.icons.org.uk
Red telephone boxes, bowler hats, Big Ben, the pub, Sherlock Holmes, fish and chips and a good old cup of tea. What objects, people, places and ideas represent English culture to you?
This CultureOnline sponsored site aims to put together a collection of icons that represent the rich cultural heritage of England.

12 icons have already been chosen and hundreds of others have been nominated. It's interesting just to browse through (and vote on) the nominations as it really makes you think what it means to be English.

Background information, audio and video, 3D models and timelines help bring the nominations to life and provide some useful material for classroom use. The teaching resources on the website are mostly aimed at Key Stage 3 but I'm sure Key Stage 2 teachers could come up with many interesting ways of using this site.

Site Update: 13th January 2006

There have been over 70 new resources added to the site in this week's update. They're all marked with a green NEW symbol. Full details are below.

MATHS: Place Value (Easiteach) / Pen Pie Chart / Maths Cross Puzzle / Multiplying by 10 Y4 (ppt) / Equivalent Fractions (ppt) / Time Y3 (Easiteach) / Intergalactic Temperature Quest / Fractions - thirds and fifths (ppt) / x10 Starter (ppt) / div10 Starter (ppt) / Near Doubles (ppt) / Finding quarters by halving (ppt) / Doubling/Halving Starter (ppt) / Doubling Halving (ppt) / Bridging through 10 / Blank Thermometers / Interpreting a Pie Chart
ENGLISH: Adjectives (Spelling) / Collective Nouns / Blodin the Beast GRR / Cool GRR / Saint George and the Dragon GRR / The Village Dinosaur GRR / The Paperbag Prince GRR / Esio Trot GRR / Blends bl br cl cr / Non-Chronological Report Features / Non-Chronological Reports - Badgers / Verbs (Y3 LA)
SCIENCE: Rocks I Spy, Rocks and Soils (Unit 3D planning) / Changing Circuits Medium Term Plans / Circuit Diagrams (flp) / Circuit Diagrams Symbols (flp) / Circuits Mind Map (flp) / Dim It Investigation (flp) / Label Circuit Diagrams (flp) / Variable Resistor (flp) / Changing Circuits (Smart) / Testing Rocks / Keeping Healthy (ppt) / Y6 Revision Quiz (ppt)
HISTORY: Ancient Egypt Links (ppt) / Roman Mosaics (ppt) / Roman Centurion
ICT: Internet Search Tips / Ergonomics
ART: Pencil Sketching Table
RE: The Covenant
PSHE: Feeling Good Y4 (ppt) / Keeping Safe Outside School Y4 (ppt) / Looking Ahead Y4 (ppt) / Ups and Downs in Relationships Y4 (ppt) / Changes in Relationships Y4 (ppt) / Focus on Feelings Y3 (ppt) / Keeping Safe in School Y3 (ppt) / Making Friends Y3 (ppt) / People and their Work Y3 (ppt) / Being Involved in my Community Y5 (ppt) / It's My Body Y5 (ppt) / Looking at the World Y5 (ppt) / Risks and Pressures Y5 (ppt) / Who Decides? Y5 (ppt) / Rights and Responsibilities Y6 (ppt) / Taking Responsibility for my own Safety Y6 (ppt) / Transition and Managing Change Y6 (ppt) / The World of Work Y6 (ppt)
MFL: German: Months & Seasons / German: Months & Seasons Vocab / German: Describe Yourself

UNICEF: Day for Change

UNICEF’s annual Day for Change is a fun educational fundraising event for pupils and staff in schools throughout the UK. It’s easy to organise – children donate a small amount of money in exchange for wearing something different to school. It raises about half a million pounds each year and UNICEF provides schools with materials for discussion around a central theme (or two) and a country/countries affected by it. In 2006 the Day for Change countries UNICEF is focusing on are Madagascar & Niger and the themes are Health & Immunisation.

However, UNICEF’s ‘Day for Change’ is about more than just having fun and raising funds. Pupils will be encouraged to learn about the lives of the children in the countries they are supporting. Free education resource packs crammed full of curriculum-based lessons and activities are available on registration. They contain ready-made lessons, case studies, posters, photos, classroom activities and assembly ideas about health and immunisation issues in Niger and Madagascar.

Day for Change 2006 will be taking place on February 3rd
http://www.unicef.org.uk/tz/teacher_support/day_for_change.asp

Fluxtime Studio

http://www.fluxtime.com/
Try out this fun site where you can create, edit and play your own animation clips and even send them as e-cards to your friends and families. It's incredibly easy to use and the basic version is free. To save and create more complicated animations you need to sign up.

Wordsearch Generator

http://www.stinkybearsoftware.com/
This free software allows you to generate wordsearches. You can create them in word mode (just give it a list of words), question mode (write questions with the answers appearing in the grid) and snake mode (all words or phrases are joined together and snake across the grid). Options allow you to specify whether you want things in upper case or lower case and whether you want words only to appear in a forwards direction. Well worth checking out.

Kayte's Kards

www.kayteskards.co.uk
There's a new addition to our family of websites. Kayte's Kards provides competively priced handmade cards for all occasions.

The Guardian: A Teacher's Guide to Blogging

http://education.guardian.co.uk/appleeducation/story/0,16926,1682441,00.html
I was a little surprised to see a link to this blog at the end of the above article. Mainly because I wouldn't even consider this a proper education blog, certainly not something like Andrew Ross' blog or Little Miss Teacher's. So if you've come to this blog from that article then why not check out their blogs instead.

There's also a whole collection of talented teachers using blogs with their students... see the links on the wonderful Alan November's site for some great examples.

Food - a fact of life

http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/
Lots of information about healthy eating with material for 5-7 and 7-11 that links in nicely with the Science and PSHE curriculums. Each key fact has lots of downloadable support material and there are also games for your students to play online.

Bunny's Guide to the Internet

The cartoon at Bunny today is quite fun. Click here for a diagram that shows the current state of the Internet. :)

PlanetArkive

http://www.planetarkive.org
A great little site aimed at 7-11 year olds. It's part of the bigger Arkive.org site that was set up to collect together film and photographs of UK and Worldwide endangered species. The PlanetArkive site has loads of useful material about habitats (perfect for science lessons) as well as the usual mix of games and animal facts. It also has a great little search engine that I'm sure your students will find very useful.

Read It Swap It

http://www.readitswapit.co.uk
Despite the absence of Noel Edmonds and lacking the same colour scheme that used to induce migraines, this site evokes memories of Saturday morning television with it's simple swap shop approach. Got a book that you've finished? Then swap it for another one you've not read. There's no charge for this service - all you pay is the postage. Sounds very interesting and there is a large range of books available (including many children's books).

Site Update: 6th January 2006

New at Primary Resources!
The first update of 2006 sees over 80 new resources added to the site. They're all marked with an orange NEW symbol. Full details are below.

MATHS: Disappearing Man +- Y2 (ppt) / Y5 T1 Unit 11 Addition & Subtraction Days 1-5 (ppt) / Y5 T1 Unit 9 Measures Days 1-5 (ppt) / How to tell the time (ppt) / Crisps Graphs (3 levels) / Y5 T1 Unit 1 Place Value (ppt) / Coordinates (ppt) / Mixed Maths Millionaire (ppt) / Y3 Fractions (flp) / Y5 T2 Greater Than or Less Than (ppt) / Understanding Negative Numbers (ppt) / Ratio Y5/6 (ppt) / Writing Decimals (ppt) / Problem Solving Strategies
ENGLISH: NLS Speaking & Listening Activities KS2 (flp) / Literacy Resource Card (MSWord version) / Adding 'ing' (Smart) / Making Toast / Joining Sentences Y2/3 / Reading Record 'p' levels to Level 2a / Possessive Nouns (ppt) / Story Openings (flp) / 1st and 3rd Person (flp) / Goldilocks & the Three Bears (Smart) / Collective Nouns / Little Red Riding Hood (Smart) / Charlotte's Web Questions / The Illustrated Mum Questions
SCIENCE: Butterflies and Frogs (ppt) / Mixing & Dissolving Y5/6 (flp) / Testing Solutions - Salt & Sugar (ppt) / Separating Materials (ppt) / Changing Water / Quiz: Keeping Healthy / Quiz: Gases Around Us / Quiz: Life Cycles / Natural or Man-made Light (ppt) / How do Plants Make Food? / Seed Germination / Seed Dispersal (Wind) / Seed Dispersal (Animals) / Seed Dispersal (Other) / Air (ppt) / Small Creatures in the Home (ppt)
HISTORY: Tudor Banquet Costume (ppt) / Tudor Food (ppt) / Ancient Egypt - Pyramids (ppt) / Victorians Web Links
GEOGRAPHY: A Village in India (planning) / Rainforests Lesson 1 & 2 (ppt)
ICT: Blank Keyboard / Greek Plate Fragment
ART: Landscapes Y5/6 / Take a Seat! (ppt)
D&T: Cam Mechanisms (flash) / Torches Design Sheet
RE: Places of Worship (ppt) / Hajj (ppt) / Judaism Artefacts (ppt)
PSHE: Special Places (ppt) / In Someone Else's Shoes (ppt) / Keeping Healthy (ppt) / We're All Different (ppt) / Managing Conflict (ppt)
MFL: French Maths Loop Game / French General Loop Game / French Class Objects Lopp Game / French Numbers in the Classroom / French Sports (opinions) / French 'In My Pencil Case'
OTHER: Bookmarks: Boys 1 & 2 / Bookmarks: Girls 1 & 2 / Being Good x4 / Being Helpful / Sitting Well / Behaving Nicely / Christmas Counting (ppt)