Random Half Term Link #2: BOINC

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/
If you fancy contributing to good causes in a slightly different way then it's worth having a look at some of the distributed computing projects that you can sign up to on the Internet. These projects utilise the unused computing power of PCs all over the world to work on medical and scientific projects. You simply download a small piece of software which works in the background while you get on with other things.

For several years I've had computers running the Grid.org Cancer Research program which is part of an Oxford University project to try and find drugs to fight cancer. Recently I've switched to another piece of software called BOINC. The nice thing about BOINC is that it allows you to run lots of different projects from different organisations. You can choose to help fight aids, investigate proteins connected to diseases such as Alzheimer's, join the search for extraterrestrial life or even take part in the BBC's climate change research project.

Random Half Term Link #1: The Human Clock

http://www.humanclock.com/
As it's half term this week for most schools in the UK I'm going to be putting up some completely random, fun links instead of the usual education ones. The Human Clock tells the time through a collection of photographs from around the world. Beware... it's very easy to sit there for hours watching it! (If you like strange Internet clocks then you might also like the Industrious Clock)

Site Update: 26th May 2006

It's a fairly small update this week with 20 new resources added to the main site. Full details are below. There won't be an update next week but normal updates will continue after half-term.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed material this academic year. Since September 2005 we've added well over 1500 new resources to the main site! Your support is really appreciated, not just by me but by the thousands of teachers who use the site every day.

MATHS: Pie Charts (Smart) / Y5 (LA) Addition & Subtraction (ppt) / Coin Recognition and Addition Game Y1 / Fruit Sudoku (x2) / Number Sudoku (x3) / Class Shop Resources (Y3) / Tables of Measurements & Area Y6 / Word Problems Length Y4 / Word Problems Money Y4 / Cake Stall (Money) Y4 / Equivalent Lengths (cm/m) Y4 / Complements to 20, 100 and 1000 Y4
ENGLISH: Recount Planners Scottish Level A & B / Recount Text Marking Y4
HISTORY: Ancient Egyptian Facts / Ancient Egyptian Vocab Cards
D&T: Breads and Spreads Evaluation Sheets
MFL: French Directions (Jenny Symmons)
PSHE: Who are you? (ppt) KS1 / 'Blessed are the Peacemakers' (ppt) Y5

WMnet Resources

http://www.wmnet.org.uk/
I've been taking a look at the resources on the West Midlands RBC site. There's a lot of useful weblinks, many files to download and an interesting selection of resources from the member LEAs on the site. As well as the printable resources there's a nice collection of interactive whiteboard files including this interactive whiteboard clock.

Royalty Free Illustrations from LTS

Early Years / Key Stage 1 & 2
The Learning & Teaching Scotland has a collection of great royalty free illustrations for primary schools. Some of the themes in the Early Years section include minibeasts, people who help us and signs (for the classroom). The 5-14 section has lots of history and science material.

SEGfL Birdbox Project Update

http://www.segfl.org.uk/birdbox/
I've mentioned this site a few times before in the blog. There's a lot of activity going on in the nests at the moment so it's worth popping along to the site to watch the chicks hatching or being fed. The SEGfL is also running an ask the expert day, see the information below:

"The South East Grid for Learning 2006 Birdbox Project will be running an online Ask an Expert day on Friday 26th May. Just before the first chicks are expected to leave their nests, ornithologist and ranger Peter Haynes will be online to answer questions via the forum from his office in the Hurtwood, in the Surrey Hills.
Visit the SEGfL Birdbox site for further details, or view the webcams and children's work. You may send questions before the event direct to bird.box@segfl.org.uk"

Modelling Effects on Screen

Here's some useful sites for early work modelling effects on screen, working towards using turtle graphics/LOGO programs...

Little Red Ship (NGfL)
Avoid the rocks and guide the ship to the lighthouse. This activity uses directions in relation to the position of the ship on the screen.

Robot Dog Virtual Walk
Guide the dog to the object using forward, back, right turn 90 degrees and left turn 90 degrees.

Virtual Ladybird
Guide the ladybird around the screen by creating a program from a sequence of steps.

BritKid

http://www.britkid.org/
The Britkid website is about race, racism and life as seen through the eyes of nine fictional children. Students can either choose to explore the site by following one of the children or by exploring the town of Britchester. The site covers PSHE, citizenship and religious education objectives. Some of the issues explored include understanding of different religions, racism in sport, prejudice, immigration and harassment. It's an interesting site that may work best as a whole class focus where you can pick and choose the material on the site and carefully discuss some of the issues involved.

Site Update: 19th May 2006

We've added another 30 new resources to the main website this week. Full details are below. Thanks to everyone who sent in contributions!

MATHS: World Cup 2006 Flags and Countries Info / Multiplying and Dividing by 10 (Smart) Y3/4 / Money Word Problems Y2/3 / Scottish Level A Maths Assessment / Measuring Angles Y4 / Ordering Angles Y3/4 / Calendar Activities Y3/4 / Reading Scales (Smart) Y3/4 / Accessory Investigation / Time Word Problems Y5
ENGLISH: The Boy Who Cried Wolf (cloze) Y2/3 / Plurals Y3/4 (Smart) / Writing Frames / Story Planning Sheet / Correct the Homophones Story / 'age' and 'ake' (a-e) Words / 'ale' and 'ame' (a-e) Words / 'ea' (as in head) Words / CVC Cloze middle 'i' / CVC Cloze middle 'e' / CVC Cloze middle 'a' / Scottish Level A Reading Assessment / How to Write a Letter (ppt)
GEOGRAPHY: India Facts Comprehension / Darjeeling Facts Comprehension
RE: Yom Kippur (ppt) / The 10 Commandments (ppt)
OTHER: Talk Time
WELSH: Expressing Likes/Dislikes (ppt)

Football 4 Charity

http://www.football4charity.co.uk/
Football 4 Charity are raising money for Tommy's (our favourite charity) by running a World Cup Fantasy Football League. It's completely the wrong shaped ball for my tastes but if you're into 'soccer' then why not submit a team and help raise some money for Tommy's and Hope HIV?

Teethwise

http://www.teethwise.org/
This website accompanies the BCCCA's healthy teeth teaching materials. It contains key information for teachers, clip art and downloadable versions of the 32 activity cards in the teaching pack. You can also download seven different computer programs that look at different aspects of teeth including the structure and type of teeth, tooth decay and all about animal teeth. A card pack, video, big book and CD-ROM are available for purchase from the BCCCA (the Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate and Confectionery Association!)

WritingFix

http://www.writingfix.com/
This US site can be a little tricky to navigate but contains a great selection of material that is designed to spark the imaginations of writers, teachers and students of all ages. Many of the resources take the form of games where you click buttons to create random words, phrases or sentences until you find something to inspire you. There are story starters, poetry prompts, great sentence creators and lots more. It's unlike anything else I've come across and it's very easy to spend a long time on the site!

Net Neutrality

I've been meaning to write a post about the important issue of Net Neutrality for some time. This article from the BBC sums it up a lot better than I could...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4700430.stm
Please take some time to read it. Net Neutrality isn't just a US problem. To me the Internet is great because it allows everyone to have an equal voice. It allows ideas to be shared freely.It allows small companies to compete with large ones. The changes proposed in the US could change the Internet forever. http://www.savetheinternet.com/

The Artist's Toolkit

http://www.artsconnected.org/toolkit/
This US site allows young artists to explore all the fundemental visual arts elements and principles. There's material on line, colour, shape, shape, balance, movement and rhythm. Each section starts with a short animation demonstrating the principle being studied before allowing the students to identify these elements in the work of famous artists. The final task allows students to create their own work. It's a nice site to use on a big screen or interactive whiteboard.

Primary Worksheets

http://www.primaryworksheets.co.uk/
Primary Games produce superb flash activities for whole class, group and individual work. They also offer lots of free worksheets on their website which are made even more useful by the fact that at a click of the button you can randomly generate another set of questions!

Site Update: 12th May 2006

We've added 35 new resources to the main website this week and also over 100 new images in the photograph section. Full details are below. Thanks to everyone who sent in contributions!

MATHS: Measuring Mass Y2 (Smart) / Angles (Smart) / England Squad Data (World Cup 2006) Y5/6 / 'Reverse Rounding' Shopping Questions / Multiplication Real Life Problems Y5 / Area and Perimeter Y5 / Reading Scales / Angles (Smart) / Direction (Smart) / Reflections Y4 / Teddy Bear Subtraction Y1 (ppt)
ENGLISH: 'If' Sentences (ppt) / Plurals Branch (ppt) / Plurals Branch (Smart) / Persuasive Writing Features (ppt) / Anti-Smoking Campaign (ppt) / Ingrediants for a Myth (Smart) / Homophones / Haiku Examples
SCIENCE: Bean Plant
D&T: How to Make a Torch / Packaging Booklet
RE: Easter Presentation (Smart)
OTHER: Classroom Labels / Christmas Possibilities (Numeracy)
MFL: German: Planning Lessons 1 - 3 Y4/5 / German: Characters on Your Keyboard / German: Pronunciation Guide / German: Vocabulary / German: Word Jumble / German: Numbers Vocab
PSHE: Friends Y2/3 (ppt) / Being Deaf Y2/3 (ppt)
PHOTOS: Geography: Coastlines (2), D&T: Bridges (4), Playgrounds (10), Maths: Car Maths (5), Chocolate Fractions (27), Everyday Measures - Distance (4), Everyday Measures - Mass (1), Everyday Numbers (15), Everyday Shapes (1), Everyday Symmetry (10), Time - Clocks (14), Time - Other (10)

Stoke-on-Trent CLC Weblog

http://www.citylearningcentre.org.uk/blog/
If you're interested in the use of technology in schools then you may find this City Learning Centre's blog interesting. It discusses issues such as podcasting, blogging, digital media and the benefits of using Firefox.

Spinnaker Trust

http://www.spinnaker.org.uk/
The Spinnaker Trust site has lots of free RE resources on Christianity. There's three terms worth of assembly ideas, pages of information about different aspects of the Bible and a large selection of stories with a Christian message. Definitely one to dip into every now and then.

Adrian Bruce's Resources

http://www.adrianbruce.com
Adrian Bruce is an Australian teacher and his website has a truly unique collection of primary teaching resources! There's art ideas (and examples of work), maths games and resources (including a great section on symmetry), reading material (lots of phonics sheets), science resources (check out the science scripts), a great page with links to free software you can use in the classroom and links to other material such as Adrian's wonderful photography, his class website and their podcasts. I've certainly not seen a collection of material quite like this anywhere else on the Internet and it's well worth checking out.

Sport Relief 2006

http://www.sportrelief.com/schools/
Sports Relief 2006 is on July 15th this year and you can check out all the details of the campaign at the link above. The website has lots of fundraising ideas, interactive stories, powerpoints, assembly plans and phtocopiable sheets. A brand new site aimed at students will also be launching this month. You can register for a free activity pack and DVD online, enter a competition to have a celebrity visit your school and you can also download a form to order your red Sports Relief socks!

Site Advisor

http://www.siteadvisor.com/
If you're concerned about Internet safety or want to avoid spam or spyware then it might be worth checking out this free security site.

Type in a URL and Site Advisor gives you feedback on the website. It checks out email sign up forms (if you give this site your email details will they send you lots of spam?), scans downloads from the site and also looks for links and affiliations with other sites. There's also a facility for users to submit reviews and feedback on sites as well.

As with any automated service it's not 100% accurate (and there are also differences of opinion about the security risk of things like advertising cookies) but it seems like it may be worth taking a look at.

To me it seems that the best way of using the service is by downloading the free Internet Explorer or Firefox plug-in. This sits on your web browsers bar and glows green for safe sites and red to show security warnings. Even better, though... when you do a search in a search engine like Google it colour codes all your search results!

Good Luck with the SATs

Good luck to everyone involved with Key Stage 2 SATs today!

Remember that you can share your experiences in the Primary Resources Forums and that Andrew Ross of Primary Teacher UK is hosting a SATs Skypecast on Tuesday evening.

Save the Children: School Link

http://www.school-link.org.uk/
School Link is a new project from the Save the Children charity for Key Stage 2 students. It has been developed to give teachers and pupils a better understanding of the lives of children in other countries. Through the activities and materials on the site, pupils will be able to learn about the children in countries where Save the Children works. The first schools to be profiled are in rural farming communities in the Punjab province of Pakistan or Yunnan Province in Southern China. Children can learn about these schools, the communities, the children who live there and the country they live in.

An important part of the project is Friendship Friday, a fundraising day for schools in Pakistand and China that will be held this year on Friday 19th May.

Site Update: 5th May 2006

There are over 30 new resources on the main website this week. Full details are below. Thanks to everyone who sent in contributions!

MATHS: Division Problems Y3/4 / Add and Subtract 9&11 / Place Value Cards / Decimals Number Square / Fractions Wordsearch / Fractions of Money / Fractions of Numbers / Long Multiplication (How To) / Long Division (How To) / Right Angled Objects / Mathematical Symbols Sheet / Venn Diagrams Y4 / Place Value TU/HTU Y4 / Word Problems Y5/6 / Simple Fractions Word Problems Y3
ENGLISH: Words in Words (Smart)
SCIENCE: Virtual Pond Dip Activity Booklet / Virtual Pond Dip Teaching Notes / Minibeasts Wordsearch / Comparing Minibeasts / Minibeast Parts / Minibeast Hunt / Minibeast Facts /
HISTORY: The Beatles (ppt)
MUSIC: Exploring Pulse Rhythm pt2 (ppt)
ICT: Graphical Modelling with Colour Magic
PE: Dodgeball
D&T: 'Lighting it Up' Evaluation Sheet
OTHER: Teacher's Planner Sheets / The Plenary 'R' Rules / Alphabet Frieze / Days of the Week / Months of the Year

Epilepsy Action

http://www.epilepsy.org.uk
The 14th - 20th May is National Epilepsy Week. The theme this year is children, young people and education so it has particular relevance to those working in schools. In the UK, 42,000 children under the age of 16 have epilepsy but only 19 per cent of schools who responded to a questionnaire by Epilepsy Action felt that staff awareness of epilepsy is good.

The Epilepsy Action website has some resources on their website to help increase the knowledge of the condition including a schools policy and details of the pilot 'Epilepsy in Schools Awareness Programme'. An online resource is being developed that aims to provide school staff with all they need to maximise the potential of a child with epilepsy’s education, as well as lesson plans to help them teach other children about epilepsy to reduce stigma and bullying.

Some facts about epilepsy, taken from the website:

• Epilepsy is the tendency to have recurrent seizures.
• There are around 40 different types of seizure and a person may have more than one type.
• Epilepsy can affect anyone, at any age and from any walk of life.
• 456,000 or one in every 131 people in the UK has epilepsy.
• Epilepsy is a neurological condition.
• Only 52 per cent of people with epilepsy in the UK are seizure-free. It is estimated that 70 per cent could be seizure free with the right treatment.
• One in 20 people will have a single seizure at some time in their life.
• Many people who develop epilepsy below the age of 20 will ‘grow out of it' in adult life.
• Many people with epilepsy are still discriminated against due to ignorance about the condition.
• Epilepsy is covered by the Disability Discrimination Act.
• The vast majority of people with epilepsy can take part in the same activities as everyone else, with the help of simple safety measures where appropriate.
• People who have been seizure free for a year can re-apply for their driving licence.

On a final note about epilepsy, the Epilepsy Action website has this to say about a certain piece of political correctness propaganda:

"We are often asked about the word 'brainstorming' and whether its use is acceptable. Our view is that it depends upon the context: if the word is being used to describe a meeting where participants are suggesting ideas, then its use is not offensive to people with epilepsy. However, it should not be used to describe a seizure or the electrical activity within the brain during a seizure."

REfuel

http://www.refuel.org.uk/
This site has lots of resources for religious education in the classroom. The best section has got to be the Key Stage 1 area which includes eight online books about Christianity. There's also plenty of KS2 resources on the site and more material can be found on the parent site, REonline.

The Birdbox Project 2006 - Update

I mentioned this site last week but there wasn't much going on in the nests at the time. Now Solent Infant School's box has some blue tits nesting in it. Click here to visit the website and view the live video feed.

Schools Links

http://www.schoolslinks.co.uk/
This site has a nice collection of links (including an easy way to view the QCA schemes of work) together with some useful resources for primary teachers.