Early Years Experience

http://www.bigeyedowl.co.uk
This site has been designed to help those involved with young children be it in playgroups, nurseries or schools. It contains book reviews, craft recipes, songs & rhymes lyrics as well as lots of activity ideas. There's also a multi-cultural resources section, a small collection of fundraising ideas and lots of useful weblinks.

FunBrain

http://www.funbrain.com
This US website includes some good maths and English online games as well as several storybooks and comics. Advertising is minimal and all the games in the Flash-driven 'Math Arcade' can be adjusted for difficulty depending on the age of the student.

BAFTA Nominees

Three sites that have been mentioned in past blog entries have been nominated for the Learning Primary category of the British Academy Children's Film and Television Awards. They all deserve to receive the top prize and are worth paying a visit to if you haven't already.

• ARTISANCAM
  (www.artisancam.org.uk)
• FILM STREET
  (www.filmstreet.co.uk)
• MAPPING OUR WORLD
  (www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/mappingourworld)
• AROUND SCOTLAND - MONEY MATTERS

K12 Online 2006

http://k12onlineconference.org/
Anyone interested in using tools like blogs, podcasts and wikis in the classroom should take a look at this online conference for teachers, administrators and educators around the world. The "virtual conference" is running over the next two weeks with the theme of “Unleashing the Potential.” Conference presentations are delivered online which means you can watch them when and where you want.

Site Update: 20th October 2006

Over 70 new resources have been added to the main website this week. Full details are below. Thanks to everyone who took the time to send in resources. Keep them coming please!

MATHS: 2D Shapes (Smart) / Addition Squares Worksheet Generator (xls) / Addition Worksheet Generator (xls) / Sums Square Multiplication Bingo (xls) / Multiplication Worksheet Generator (xls) / 3 in a Row Decimals Game / Smartie Party / Decimals and Fractions (ppt) / Tessellation (ppt) / Equivalent Fractions (ppt) / Chocolate Fractions / Shape Colouring / Grid Method Multiplication / Division Chunking Method / Fractions and Decimals / Money Addition / Addition and Subtraction Word Problems / Multiplication and Division Word Problems / Fraction of Amounts Word Problems
ENGLISH: The Iron Man's Menu / Homophone Riddles (ppt) / Persuasive Brochures (ppt) / Add an Adjective (ppt) / Adjectives (ppt) / Alliteration (ppt) / -ight Words (ppt) / oo Words (ppt) / -tion Words (ppt) / Iron Man Powerful Verbs / Colons and Semi-Colons (ppt) / Persuasive Writing Advertisements (ppt) / Non-Chronological Reports (ppt) / Direct and Indirect Speech (ppt) / Planning a Story (ppt) / Active and Passive Verbs (ppt) / Conditional Sentences (ppt) / Colour Poem Plan / sh Words / Adjectives / Mnemonics Posters / Question Words / 'Nice' Warning Poster / Greek Myth Characters / Kensuke Poem / Short Vowel Sounds / Rhyming Words Quiz / Simile and Metaphor Cards / Commas (ppt) / Colons (ppt) / Semi-Colons (ppt) / Recounts Marking Ladder
SCIENCE: Habitats and Food Chains (ppt) / Food Web Game
HISTORY: Who Was Boudicca? / Roman Invasion Game / Britain Before the Romans / The First Roman Invasion of Britain
ICT: Athletic Gods Spreadsheets (3 levels) / Olympus Party Spreadsheets (3 levels) / Creating an Information Magic Database
LANGUAGES: French: Sports (ppt) / French: Match Sports Cards / French: Sports & Opinions
RE: Diwali / Sacrifices (ppt) / Giving to Others (ppt) / Beliefs (ppt) / Inspirational People (ppt)
FOUNDATION: Weekly: Literacy: 'No Lunchbox' / Weekly: Maths: Counting (wk1)
PE: PE Skills Certificate
OTHER: Visual Timetable

Docklands Light Railway

http://www.dlr.co.uk/dlr/about/teacherspack.shtml
If you're based in or around London you may be interested in the teachers pack that's available from the Docklands Light Railway website. The pack contains lots of useful information for teachers about the railway together with tour directions, maps and teachers notes. There's also lots of activity sheets for KS2 students. Besides the obvious geography/transport links, the DLR should provide a useful real-life example of control technology systems.

BM&AG for Kids

http://www.schoolsliaison.org.uk/kids/preload.htm
Part of the Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery site, these pages contain some fun activities based on different periods of history as well as games based on specific Birmingham museums. Activities include an Egyptian mummy quiz, dressing the Roman soldier and designing a greek pot. Each history section also features an nicely illustrated interactive timeline. A second site, Alien Adventures contains more history and art activities.

English Heritage Kids Zone

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.1579
English Heritage's Kids Zone contains some fun online games for students including a game where you have to prepare your castle for a visit of Elizabeth I and several activities looking at the life of a monk.

The rest of the kids zone is slightly disappointing with the 'To print' and 'Visit' links merely taking you to more adult orientated sections of the main English Heritage website. The downloadable resources search (in the 'to print' section) wasn't working this morning so unfortunately I wasn't able to view any of the worksheets.

English Heritage allow free entry for educational groups to over 400 historic properties across the country so it's well worth visiting their website to see what's in your local area.

Count Me In Calendar

http://www.countmeincalendar.info/
Did you know that today is World Food Day? Or that it's Parents' Week, Local Democracy Week, BackCare Awareness Week and National Giving Week? If you'd visited the Count Me In website you would know this and a lot more.

The site features a selection of different calendars. The first lists UK campaign information including events like the ones given above. There's also a calendar focusing on environmental campaigns (it's Bear Necessities Month by the way!) as well as one listing charity challenges (fancy trekking across Peru?). A separate US Campaigns calendar is included for our transatlantic colleagues.

Probably the most useful calendar for primary teachers, though is the Holy Days and Holidays one. It lists the important events by date and you can also browse by religion.

Site Update: 13th October 2006

There's been 45 new resources added to the main site and 38 new pictures added to the photograph bank this week. Full details are below. Many thanks to everyone who has taken the time to email in contributions this week.

MATHS: Addition and Subtraction Number Puzzle / Division Using a Numberline (ppt) / Percentages (Fractions of 100) (ppt) / Divide & Multiply by 10 and 100 (ppt) / Travelling Distances / Match the Shape / Magic Squares (Smart) / Y4 Word Problems / Y3 Word Problems / Y4 Money Word Problems / Ordering Temperatures / Fractions of Shapes / Fractions of Numbers / Finding Change / Taste Test Ratios / Sums Square Additions (xls) / Squaring Off (Smart) / Algebra Sort (Smart)
ENGLISH: Note Taking Sheet / Postcard Template / Fairy Tale Anagrams (ppt) / Personification Car Poem (ppt) / Film Review (ppt) / Five Minute Quickies: Persuasion (ppt) / Five Minute Quickies: Stories (ppt) / Adding -ing (ppt) / Apostrophes (Contractions) / Apostrophes / Commas (Harder) / Story Planning Hill / Playscript Evaluation / Instructions Evaluation / Michael Morpurgo Website Work
SCIENCE: Producers & Consumers (Activ) / The Story of Scurvy (ppt)
HISTORY: Aztec WWtbaM (ppt) / Aztec Planning
GEOGRAPHY: Deserts (ppt)
ICT: Adding Clipart Using Word
LANGUAGES: French: Classroom Objects (ppt) / French: House and Garden (ppt)
RE: What Do You Know About Jesus? (ppt) / Jesus Activity & Lesson Plan
WELSH: Maths: Time
PHOTOS: Art: Patterns (1), Sculptures (2) / RE: Churches (4), History: Castles (1), Romans (3), Stuarts (3) / Geography: Switzerland (2), Italy (5), Germany (1) / Display Photographs: Foundation (1), Geography (1), Science (1), Art (3), PE (1), D&T (1), PHSE (7)

Gunpowder, Treason & Plot

http://www.show.me.uk/gunpowderplot/
There's been a few updates to the Parliamentary Archives Gunpowder Plot website that many of you may have used last year around the 5th of November. The KS1 & 2 site now features a simplified interactive timeline similar to that found on the KS3 version of the site. They've also made the timeline available as a poster and a factsheet.

Digital Palette

http://www.content.networcs.net/digipal/
Digital Palette is a site for art teachers that's been created by Worcestershire LEA. There's a small collection of case studies on the site together with some really useful activity ideas. One of the best features on the site is the extensive imagebank which covers themes such as texture, shape, pattern and line.

SCRIB Education Zone

http://www.scrib.org/education_zone/education_zone.asp
SCRIB is Corus' Steel Can Recycling Information Bureau. In the Teachers' Zone there's five nicely illustrated activity sheets (with teachers' notes) on the history of recycling, rubbish and recycling.

Flash Clocks

http://www.csmith.info/clocks
Chris Smith has put together a huge selection of Flash powered clocks and timepieces from all over the Internet. It's a great site for brightening up those numeracy lessons. Your students will love some of the more unusual ways of telling the time! The pages also contain a good selection of countdown timers and stop watches.

National Schools Film Week

http://www.nsfw.org/
Next week (16th-20th October) is National Schools Film Week, an event organised by Film Education. It's the largest programme of free schools film screenings in Europe. Tickets for the screenings are still available online and the site also features a small collection of ideas for activities based on each movie. You can find more film teaching resources at the main Film Education website.

Site Update: 6th October 2006

There's been 86 new resources added to the main site and 66 new pictures added to the photograph bank this week. Full details are below. Many thanks to everyone who has taken the time to email in contributions this time.

MATHS: Quadrilaterals (ppt) / Money Snap Cards / A4 Number Cards / Multiplication as Repeated Addition (Smart) / Data Handling Introduction (Smart) / Fractions (Quarters) / Fractions to Decimals / Remainders as Fractions and Decimals / Missing Numbers (BODMAS) / Y5 Equivalent Fractions (Smart) / Number Snap / Animal Money / Shopping Target Boards / Doubles Game Y5/6 / Blank Grid Multiplication Sheet / Totalling 20 / FDP Equivalence Triangles / Measuring Lengths (NS Units) / Multiplication and Division Mental Methods Revision / Maths Challenge / Telephone Number Challenge / Multiplying TU x U / Time Homework Sheet / Fractions Sale / Year 2 Money (Smart) / Halving by Partitioning / 100 Square Addition and Subtraction
ENGLISH: Biased or Balanced / Compound and Complex Sentences / CVC -ad -ap / CVC -ed -en / CVC -id -it / -ir- Words / Alphabet Strips / Writing an Argument / Year 4 Poetry (Smart) / The Butterfly Lion Reading Log / Points of View (Humpty Dumpty) / Handwriting Font / Appealing Adjectives / Powerful Adjectives / Prefixes and Suffixes
SCIENCE: Healthy Eating Plate / Teeth and Eating Coversheet / The Skeleton / Tasting Apples / Food Groups / Food Journal / Variation Y2 (ppt) / Teeth Poem
HISTORY: Ancient Egypt Introduction (Smart) / Y5/6 Tudor Planning / Tudor Rich and Poor Comparison / Henry VIII Description / Henry's Wives / Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon / Ancient Egypt Project Y4 / Egyptian Burial / The Great Fire of London / The Wives of Henry VIII (Questions) / Victorian Working Life / Victorian Website / Victorian Handwriting / Barley Hall / Egyptian Mummy (ppt) / Why Do We Remember Some People? (ppt)
GEOGRAPHY: Local Survey
ICT: How to use Powerpoint / Evaluating a Simulation /Turtle (Logo) Worksheet x2
LANGUAGES: French: Days of the Week (Smart) / French: Numbers (Smart) / French: Months / French: Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes
D&T: Biscuits Planning Y5/6 / Biscuit Design Booklet /Photograph Frames Investigation
PE: PE Cupboard Labels
RE: Y6: Worship and Community / Y6: Sikhism - Special Times / Y5: Sikhism and Judaism - Sacred Writing / Y4: Sacred Places - Sikhism and Judaism / The Golden Temple (ppt) / Buddhist Marriage (ppt)
OTHER: Christmas Tree Thinking Skills / Listen to Me
PHOTOS: D&T: Bridges (2), Geography: USA (1), Berlin Wall (2), Weather (1) / Science: Insects (15), Reptiles (1), Scottish Wildflowers (30) / Display Ideas: Foundation (2), Art (3), Other (2), Geography (2) History (1), English (4)

Everyclick.com

http://www.everyclick.com/uk/primaryresources
I came across Everyclick a while back but put off mentioning it in the blog because, although the idea behind it was great, the actual search engine seemed a bit slow to me at the time. However, Everyclick has now teamed up with a major search engine and as a result it's now quick enough to use as your main way of exploring the Internet.

Basically every time you use the search engine you generate money for charity. Simply search and surf as usual and the charities benefit... it doesn't cost you a penny!

There is no need to register, but if you do then you can choose to support a particular charity. My personal choice of charity at the moment is SANDS, http://www.uk-sands.org/

Oxjam Global Music

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/resources/global_music_lesson_plans/
The Oxjam Global Music Lesson Plans are a new addition to Oxfam's excellent Cool School site. There's ten lessons suitable for primary students (five for each key stage) that look at music from all around the world. Some of the themes include singing games, songs of greeting and lullabies. Many of the songs are provided on the Oxfam site but you will have to get some of the music elsewhere. Even with that minor drawback this is still a great way of bringing a more global perspective to your music lessons.

Virtual Victorians

http://www.victorians.org.uk/
This great museum site has lots of interesting material for covering the Victorians topic in history. The day in the life section takes you through a typical week as a Victorian. There's a whole gallery of objects on different themes such as childhood, factory life, Brunel and leisure. You can read a Victorian newspaper, compare photographs of now and then, flick through a factory log book and even play online with Victorian toys and games. Excellent stuff.

BBC Scotland: Feelings

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/health/feelings/
The new site from BBC Scotland has been designed to cover areas of PSHE for primary students. It's a very attractively put together site using cartoons and real photos together with lively audio. Students are invited to take a trip down to the virtual park and meet some of the characters wandering around. Each person is displaying a different emotion and by talking to them you learn why they're feeling that why. It's a great site and although it seemed a little buggy when I tried it no doubt they'll iron out the kinks as time goes on.

Fairy Tale Land

@ Lancashire Grid for Learning
This Lancs grid site contains eight traditional tales including the Ugly Duckling, Sleeping Beauty and Jack and the Beanstalk. Each story comes with two audio tracks, one reading the story as it is written (in English) and one that reads the story both in English and Punjabi. There are also printable and online activites for year 1 & 2 children to accompany each of the tales.

The main LGfL Literacy Activities and Resources pages also have a great collection of material.