Flash Classroom

http://www.flashclassroom.com/
I quite often get emails about creating resources using Macromedia Flash (and using the package with students) as this is something I did a lot of when I was at my first school. I've barely used Flash during the past couple of years so if you're interested in learning about the software you might like to take a look at this Australian site. It's got downloadable tutorials on all the basics of the last three versions of Flash. Even if you're not interested in using the software yourself it's worth visiting the site and looking at the huge collection of example resources in the gallery, many of them could easily be used in the classroom.

Multiple Intelligences Quiz

Click here for the link.
These pages from the Birmingham Grid for Learning have information on Gardner's eight multiple intelligences. You can also take a short test to produce your intelligences wheel.

Friends of the Earth: Learning

http://www.foe.co.uk/learning/
Friends of the Earth have just re-launched their learning website for educators and young people. For primary schools, there are some colourful factsheets and a collection of useful lesson plans on topics such as air pollution, climate change and natural habitats. The case studies section showcases the work of Brill CofE Combined School which has implemented an energy saving project and also has an organic garden and a teaching pond.

Site Update: 23rd February 2007

Over 90 new resources have been added to the main website this week. Full details are below. My thanks go to everyone who took the time to send in resources. Keep them coming please!

ENGLISH: 'Beauty and the Beast' Sequencing / How Darkness Came Myth / Possessive Pronouns / Six Dinner Sid Comprehension / Powerful Verbs for Said / Discussion Planning Sheet: Bed Times / Discussion Planning Sheet: Circuses / Discussion Planning Sheet: Mobile Phones / Discussion Planning Sheet: Uniforms / Alphabetical Order / Setting the Scene / Connectives (Story) (Activ) / Contractions (Activ) / Nouns and Adjectival Phrases (Activ) / Intensity of Adjectives (Activ) / Instructions (Coin Rubbings & Sandwiches) (Activ) / Nouns and Verbs to Adjectives (Activ) / Use Some Pronouns (Activ) / Who and Which (Activ) / Magic 'e' (with u and i) (Activ) / -nd Words (Activ) / Consonant Blends (Activ) / Magic 'e' (with a) (Activ) / More Consonant Blends (Activ) / ow - oa - ai - ay - magic 'e' (Activ) / Soft g and Soft c (Activ) / Vowels followed by r (Activ) / Word Bingo (HF Words) / The Birth of the Rainbow (ppt) / Coyote Brings Fire (ppt) / Fruit Dictionary Tasks
MATHS: Tally and Bar Charts / Line Symmetry / 1 Less Dice Games / Choose the Product Games / Multiplication Games / Dice Subtraction Games / Tens and Units Abacus Sheets / Missing Numbers Addition Sheets / School Shop (Giving Change) (ppt) / Problem Solving (ppt) / Ordering Numbers (TU) / Mr Odd & Mrs Even (ppt) / 2 Step Money Problems / Basic 2D Shapes (Smart) / Y5 U2 Problem Solving Day 1 7 2 (ppt) / Counting On and Back / Money Toy Sheets / Number Lines / Division Word Problems / Adding 3 Numbers (Making 10 First) (ppt) / Clocks (Easiteach) / Compass Points (Easiteach) / Egyptian Themed Word Problems / Probability (ppt) / Money Percentages Problems / Days, Dates & Months Cards
SCIENCE: Teeth & Eating WWtbaM (ppt) / Materials Vocabulary / Properties of Materials / Properties of Materials Database (xls) / Bicycles and Jeans (Smart) / The Water Cycle Story (Cloze) / Pollution / Rainbow Experiment / Batteries (ppt)
ICT: Datalogging Planning
HISTORY: Ancient Greece Planning / Mummification (ppt) / The Pyramids (ppt) / Great Fire of London WWtbaM (ppt) / World War 2 Facts (ppt) / Roman Wordsearch / Ancient Egypt Social Organisation (Easiteach) / Ancient Egyptian Farming (ppt)
GEOGRAPHY: Contrasting Locality (Llandudno) Planning
ART: Colour Wheel
D&T: Musical Instruments Planning / Smoothie Evaluations Sheet / Shelters Booklet
RE: Pillars of Islam (Smart) / The Story of Moses / Hanukkah / The Good Samaritan / Introduction to Islam (ppt) / Key Religious Symbols (Smart)
PSHE: Drugs (ppt)
OTHER: Friendship Fairy / Individual Goals
ASSEMBLY: Chinese New Year Assembly / Fairtrade Assembly

Mr Pearce's Blogs

http://jpearce.suprglu.com/
This Suprglu aggregator site collects together all the posts from the blogs of Australian primary teacher John Pearce. I've been reading his sites for quite some time now and they are definitely well worth a visit. John used his Mr P's SMART Board blog to produce a super record of introducing a Smartboard into his primary school classroom. His Simply Science blog has some great weblinks and posts about teaching primary science. His more current 'My Other Blog' site discusses the use of ICT in the classroom and has lots of interesting material about Web 2.0 technologies. While you're visiting his sites, have a look at his excellent collection of educational links on Furl.

Charity Fundraising Days

I just thought I'd flag up a few charity fundraising days that take place during the next few months...

Red Nose Day - Friday 16th March 2007
http://www.rednoseday.com/
I'm sure I don't actually need to mention that "The Big One" is coming soon. However Comic Relief does produce some superb web resources that occasionally teachers miss out on because the information about them isn't passed on. There's absolutely loads of new teaching material on the Red Nose Day website this year.Don't forget to visit the excellent PaPaPaa Fairtrade Resources site as well. One thing I do wish Comic Relief would do is archive some of the past resources. I was particularly fond of the 2005 material which worked well with my Year 3 class.

Friendship Friday - Friday 25th May 2007
http://www.school-link.org.uk
I wrote about Save the Children's Friendship Friday last year in the blog. It's the fundraising day associated with the excellent School Link website which allows students to find out what life is like for children in China and Pakistan. Unlike some other fundraising days, Friendship Friday is quite easy to set up and can fits in well with normal curriculum work in Geography and PHSE. Why not pop along to the site and register your school to get full access to the web resources?

Animals and Us

http://www.petaref.org.uk/Kit_AnimalsAndUs.asp
PETA have produced this "Animals and Us" pack, which contains eight lesson plans for key stages 1 and 2. It looks at issues including the role of zoos, companion animal care and elephants in captivity. According to the PETA website, the lessons are designed to help students learn how to evaluate information and opposing views, treat animals with care and respect, make choices within a moral framework and examine how animal issues are portrayed in the media Follow the link at the top to view the pack online and order a free copy for your school.

It's worth checking out the main PETA education site, http://www.petaref.org.uk/ for more resources. There's also a standalone website, Share the World, which was produced to help pupils better appreciate the animal kingdom.

Writing Fun

http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/jeather/writingfun/writingfun.html
I've mentioned some of the websites by Australian Jenny Eather in previous blog entries. Writing Fun is another great site that uses text organisers to assist students with the process of writing fiction and non-fiction. The section for each genre features writing tips, a planning framework and lots of examples of each type of text. You can even choose to highlight highlight the structure of each of the example texts. All of the text organisers are available for download as handy Microsoft Word form templates.

Site Update: 16th February 2007

Over 100 new resources have been added to the main website this week. Full details are below. I'm still working through all the material that has been sent in during the past few weeks. Many thanks to everyone who has taken the time to contribute to the site. Your resources are greatly appreciated by teachers all over the world.

ENGLISH: Singular Word Cards / Fairy Tale Smart Club / Fairy Tale Maths Problems / Hansel and Gretel (ppt) / Planning Stories (Smart) / Verbal Story Telling (Smart) / 'Seth and the Strangers' Guided Reading / 'Strange Creatures' Guided Reading / 'The Bad Dad List' Guided Reading / Phoneme Frame CVC (Smart) / Second Grade Dolch Words (ppt) / Prefixes re- non- / Prefixes al- de- / "igh" Words / "ir" Words / "ar" Words / "ou" Words / "-ew" Words / "dr" Words / "gl" and "gr" Words / "pl" and "pr" Words / sc or sk? / "or" and "oor" Words / Phonics: -ell, all, ill, ull (Smart) / Silly Poetry Unit / "Said" Mnemonic / Features of Non-Chronological Reports / b d Card / Interesting Connectives, Adjectives and "said" Words Sheet / More Interesting Words for Said / Extending a Simple Sentence (ppt) / Creating Playscripts from Stories (ppt) / Making Jelly Instructions / Note-Taking (ppt) / Non-Chronological Reports (ppt) / Writing Genres (ppt) / How to Write a Fable (ppt)
MATHS: Adding 9 & 11 to 2 digits using a numberline / Havling (up to 20) / Adding 10 / Addition Language / Multiplication Puzzle (x2, 5, 10) / Multiplication Crossword (x2, 5, 10) / Shape Assessment (Level C) / Purses (Totals to 10p) / Money Problem Cards (HA) / Money Problem Cards / 2dp Random Number Target Board (xls) / Random Negative Number Target Board (xls) / Random Whole Number Target Board (xls) / Choose the Total Game / Choose the Difference Game / Pairs Which Total 100 Game / Adding to 1000 (Multiples of 50) / Ordering & Comparing Fractions and Finding Decimal Equivalents (ppt) / What's the Time? (Analogue and Digital) / Y4 T2 U1 Ordering & Rounding Numbers (Activ) / Y4 T2 U2 Addition & Subtraction (Activ) / Y4 T2 U3 Written Addition & Subtraction (Activ) / Y4 T2 U4 Measures (Activ) / Division by Repeated Subtraction / Formal Written Multiplication / Multiplying by 4, 5 and 20 / Introduction to Fractions (Smart) / Paying with Coins (Smart) / Multiples of 50p / Take Away Teddy Bears / Follow Me: Doubles and Halves / Adding and Dividing by 10 (U, TU) / Problem Solving Steps (Smart) / Problem Solving Steps / Multiples of 50
SCIENCE: Solids, Liquids & Gases Assembly / Match the Senses / Animals Move / The Parts of a Plant/Flower (ppt) [Welsh] / What do Plants Need to Grow? (ppt) [Welsh] / Parts of a Plant [Welsh] / Variation (ppt) [Welsh] / Concept Map Materials [Welsh] / Separating Materials (Smart) / Labelling Forces (Smart)
HISTORY: "The Romans" Scheme of Work / WWII Evacuation Assembly / Make a "Vindolanda Tablet" / The Spanish Armada: You Decide
GEOGRAPHY: Kenya Webquest (ppt) / Kenya Webquest Sheet / Kenya Topic Planning
RE: Purim Assembly
LANGUAGES: Large Coloured Shapes Flashcards / Coloured Shape Sequences Flashcards / German: Seasons Flashcards / German: Colour Bingo / French: Days of the Week Cards / French: Months of the Year Cards
PSHE: Bullying (ppt)
OTHER: "Ourselves" Special School Planning / "People Who Help Us" Special School Planning / Book Corner Signs / Class Rules / Class Timetable / Table Mats / Tables Challenge Sheets

Site Update: 10th February 2007

I've added over 100 new resources to the main website this week. Full details are below.

Thank you for your patience during the past fortnight (while we adjusted to life with our new arrival!) and also to everyone who left nice comments on the blog pages and forums. I'm hoping to get back to regular weekly updates from now on. My thanks also go to all the wonderful teachers who have continued to send in resources during our brief hiatus. Don't worry if your material hasn't appeared yet... I've still got quite a large number of emails that I need to work through!

ENGLISH: Handwriting Scheme: Term 1 Sheets, Term 2 Sheets, Instructions, Assessment Criteria, Letter Formation Display, Letter Formation Guide, Handwriting Lines / RSPCA Comprehension (Non-Fiction) / Discussion Texts - Zoos (Smart) / Discussion Texts - Planning (Smart) / For & Against School Uniform / The Gingerbread Man (Activ) / Collective Nouns (Activ) / Said Words Display / Nouns / Verbs / Word Opposites / Using a Dictionary / Story Writing: Mountain Adventure (ppt) / Mountain Adventure / The Hare and the Tortoise (ppt) / The Frog and the Scorpion (ppt) / Were, Where, Wear and We're / Their, They're and There / Apostrophes / Story Settings Descriptive Language / How to Make a Paper Snowflake
MATHS: Shapes in the Classroom / Right Angles in the Classroom / 2D Shape Matching Properties / Pentagons and Hexagons (Easiteach) / Heptagons and Octagons (Easiteach) / Naming Coins and Matching Totals (Easiteach) / Addition Bonds to 10 (Smart) / Ratio and Proportion / Shape Vocab Display / Number Bonds to 5 (Activ) / Measuring Mass g/kg (Smart) / Number Bonds to 100 Loop Cards / Changing Adding to Multiplication / Multiplying Sets / 2D Shape Display
SCIENCE: Solids, Liquids & Gases (Smart) / Healthy Foods Venn Diagram (Smart) / Adaptation (ppt) / Absorbency (ppt) [Welsh] / The Life Cycle of a Butterfly / Alive or Not Alive / Smells Experiment / Electrical Safety (ppt) / Changing State Vocab Display / Food Groups (ppt) / Food Groups Worksheet / Growing up (ppt) / Life Cycles / Medicines (ppt) / Soap Lather Experiment
HISTORY: WWII Main Events Timeline / Queen Victoria Bookmark / Mary Slessor / Roman Baths / Roman Soldier Story / Class Timeline (ppt) / Victorians Internet Search
GEOGRAPHY: Seasons (ppt) / Year 3-6 QCA Unit Assessment Sheets
ART: Natural Material Sculptures (ppt)
D&T: Slippers Booklet / Vehicles (ppt)
RE: The Origins of Hinduism (Smart) / Hindu Teachings (Smart) / The Persistent Widow / Adam and Eve Questions / What Jesus Said about Himself (ppt) / The Qur'an (ppt) / Muhammad and the Horan / Inside the Mosque / Muslim Prayer Times / Eid ul Fitr (ppt)
MUSIC: Child Friendly Music Levels / Child Friendly Music Levels Posters / Music Progress Recording Sheet / Giving Constructive Criticism / Listening Challenge / Keyboard Quiz / Pitch Notation (ppt) / Music Patterns (ppt) / Musical Elements Poster / Tempo Poster / Using Beaters / Percussion Instruments (ppt) / Graphic Scores / Name the Symbols and Instruments (Smart)
LANGUAGES: French: Colours - Gender Agreement
PSHE: Y5 BASEAL Theme 5 Lessons 1 - 6 (ppt) / Y5 BASEAL Theme 6 Lessons 1 - 4 (ppt) / About Myself
WELSH: Asorbency (ppt)
OTHER: Spelling Certificates / Star of the Week Certificates
ASSEMBLY: Sight Assembly (Bartimaeus)