Site Update: 25th May 2007

I've added over 30 new resources to the main website and over 60 new images to the photograph section in this update. Full details are given below. Thanks to everyone who sent in contributions this week!

ENGLISH: Active and Passive Whodunit (Smart) / "Rainbow Fish" Templaye / Synonyms (ppt) / Similes and Metaphors (ppt) / Prefixes (ppt) / Triple Blends (ppt) / k and ck Words (ppt) / "oa" Words (ppt) / "oo" Words (ppt) / "ou" Words (ppt)
MATHS: Directions and Angles / Rounding Up and Down to nearest 10, 100 (Ancient Egypt Theme) (Activ) / Ratio and Proportion / Converting Money (£->p) / Number Bond Rhymes / Lines of Symmetry (Smart) / Division - Showing Remainders (ppt) / Rounding Numbers (ppt) / Word Problems (ppt) / Fractions of Quantities (ppt) / Connecting Fractions, Decimals and Percentages (ppt) / Y3 Division Test / Fractions and Decimals Posters / Word Problem Solving
RE: Christianity (ppt) / Sacraments (ppt)
FOUNDATION: Our Jobs Today / Caterpillar / Autumn 1: Nursery Rhymes - Autumn / Autumn 2: Traditional Tales - Christmas / Spring 1: Ourselves / Summer 1: Minibeasts
OTHER: Pre-Report Self Assessment Sheet
ASSEMBLY: Pets (ppt)
PHOTOS: Classroom Display Ideas: Art (4), English (5), Geography (1), Maths (1), PSHE (1), RE (2) / Geography: Nigeria (10), Rivers (6), UK (5) / Maths: Everyday Numbers (4), Everyday Shapes (2), Everyday Symmetry (1) / Science: Insects (1), Mammals (3), Trees (10)

Zamzar - File Conversion

http://www.zamzar.com/
A user of the Primary Resources site kindly let me know about this excellent Internet resource. Zamzar allows you to convert different types of text, image, music and video files. There's no need to download any software to your computer as everything is done online. It's free and seems to work very well. I tested it out yesterday with several of the PDFs from our site and they were all converted to Word documents without any problems.

Site Survey 2007

Tell us what you think of Primary Resources and win a £25 Amazon gift voucher!

In March last year I put together a survey to find out what users thought about the Primary Resources site and how I could make it more useful.

It was great to receive feedback from so many users of the site and it really helped me decide what work I needed to do in order to improve Primary Resources. The changes made as a result of survey comments last year included the addition of a display section, clearer labelling of interactive whiteboard resources, the introduction of a search facility and (finally!) the use of special icons to denote the age range that specific resources were targetted at.

I'd be really grateful if people could spend a few minutes responding to this year's version of the survey. Please help shape the future of the Primary Resources site!

Click here to open the survey page.

It shouldn't take more than five or ten minutes to complete so I'd be really grateful if you could find the time to take part. Everyone who leaves an email address will be entered into a draw for a £25 (or equivalent) Amazon gift voucher for the Amazon region store of their choice.

Bird Box 2007: Ask an Expert

http://www.segfl.org.uk/birdbox
The South East Grid for Learning have been organising their excellent birdbox project again this year. They've got a live 'Ask an Expert' session running on the Bird Box website on 25th May between 10am and 12pm (GMT+1). Peter Haynes, a well known ornithologist and former ranger, will be on hand to answer your pupils' questions which can be posted online in advance or during the live session.

Site Update: 18th May 2007

Over 50 new resources have been added to the main website in this update. Full details are given below. Thanks to everyone who sent in contributions this week. Please keep the submissions coming! If you've got any questions about contributing resources or any other aspect of the site than please check out our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section.

ENGLISH: English SATs Writing Test Revision (ppt) / Homophone Searches 2 / Homophone Searches 3 / Homophone Searches 4 / Finding Words in a Dictionary (ppt) / Writing Sentence Openers (ppt) / Shorter Writing Task (ppt) / Apostrophes and Plurals / ORT Stage 6 More Stories A Comprehension / ORT Stage 6 More Stories B Comprehension / ORT Stage 7 More Stories A Comprehension / "The Owl Tree" Reading Activities / "Answer the Phone, Fiona" Activities / "Robby in the River" Activities / "Lion's Lunch" Activities / "The Dream Team" Activities / Long Vowel Words (ppt) / Was/Were / Haiku (ppt) / Homophone Picture Cards
MATHS: Division by Repeated Subtraction (with a Number Line) / Maths SATs Revision (ppt) / Double Your Money (ppt) / Co-ordinates (Activ) / Maths Card Games / Multiplication Facts Posters / Ways to Make 20 (Smart) / Simple Proportion (LA) / Rounding Up or Down After Division / Days of the Week (ppt) / x2, x5, x10 Sequences (ppt) / Solving Equations
SCIENCE: Y5/6 Science Revision Quiz Part 1 (ppt) / Y5/6 Science Revision Quiz Part 2 (ppt) / Change When Heated / Changing State (Water) / Opaque, Translucent or Transparent? / Materials (End of Topic) / Materials Vocabulary / Phases of the Moon
ICT: Blank Branching Database Sheet / Keyboard Assessment
HISTORY: Henry VIII WWtbaM Quiz (ppt) / Florence Nightingale - A Brief History / Florence Nightingale Research Booklet
RE: Bible Quiz / Hanukkah (ppt)
LANGUAGES: French: Phrase & Word Mat
WELSH: Colours
OTHER: Football Starter (Smart) / What Have We Learned Today? Poster / Smiley Face Chart
ASSEMBLY: Chinese New Year Class Assembly

Scratch

http://scratch.mit.edu/
MIT's Media Lab in the US have just made this brilliant piece of software available as a free download. It allows students to make their own animations and games by slotting together program building blocks. It's graphical interface is incredibly easy to use, there's a full set of help and examples on the website as well as printable instruction cards that students can use to learn new features of the software. It's perfect for KS2, especially Years 5 and 6. Why not get some of your class to look at it after the SATs?

(See the article the BBC wrote about the software by clicking here)

Site Update: 11th May 2007

I've added 30 new resources to the main website this week. Further details are given below. Thanks to everyone who sent in contributions this time!

ENGLISH: Making Tea Photos (ppt) / Comparative Adjectives / Subtracting HTU / Explanations (ppt) / How to Write an Amazing Story (Activ) / Phonic Knowledge (ppt) / Kipper's Family (Smart) / Product Review: Broomstick
MATHS: Numbers 1 to 10 (ppt) / Recognise Lines of Symmetry (ppt) / Reflective Symmetry / Ratio and Proportion (ppt) / Reading and Writing Numbers (ppt) / Remainders (ppt) / Handling Data (Pictogram and Bar Chart) / Money (p in a £) (Smart) / Number Facts (Smart) / Multiplication and Division Word Problems / Probability: Likelihood and Chance (ppt) / Quadrilateral Diagonals (ppt) / Quadrilateral Investigation (Tangrams) (ppt)
SCIENCE: What Tree am I? / Minibeasts / Solid, Liquid or Gas?
HISTORY: Evacuee Suitcase Contents
LANGUAGES: French: The Time (ppt)
WELSH: Weather
OTHER: Book Organisation / Table Mats (A3)

Site Update: 4th May 2007

I've added 50 new resources to the main website this week. Full details are below. Thanks to everyone who who supported the site by sending in contributions this time around.

ENGLISH: Standard English (ppt) / Ordering Sentences (ppt) / Explanation Writing Checklist / Fishy Spelling (ppt) / No More Playtimes / Biography & Autobiography Checklist / Descriptive Writing Checklist / Explanation Checklist / Newspaper and Magazine Checklist / Non-Chronological Reports Checklist / Persuasive Writing Checklist / Recount Checklist / Discussion Texts Checklist / Intructions Checklist / Letter Checklist / Playscript Checklist / Descriptive Writing / Spring Haiku / "George Speaks" Resources / "The Tree House" Activities / Riddles (ppt) / Story Shopping Trolley / Literacy Pyramids / Colours Spelling (ppt) / Homophone Searches
MATHS: Coin Cards / Number Sequences / Mental Addition (TU + TU) (ppt) / Drawing Bar Charts Correctly (ppt) / Patterns and Sequences (ppt) / Properties of Numbers (ppt) / Add and Subtract 9, 11 / Column Addition / Comparing and Ordering Fractions (ppt) / Numeracy Card Games / Right Angles Challenge / Adding 9, 19, 29 to 2 Digit Numbers / Carroll Diagrams (Smart)
SCIENCE: Light and Sound WWtbaM (ppt)
ICT: Y5 Y6 ICT Key Skills Planning
HISTORY: Florence Nightingale Diary / Boudicca (LA) Worksheet / Tudor Inventories (ppt) / Dr Barnardo (ppt)
GEOGRAPHY: European Capital Cities / World Capital Cities / Village and City / Life in India
LANGUAGES: German: The Weather
PSHE: Growing Up (ppt)
WELSH: Weather Game

Second World War Memories

(Click here for the link)
I've had an email from Alan Howarth about the Heritage Lottery Trust project he's recently been involved with. Alan was asked to interview Blackpool residents about life during World War II. He's produced some edited compilations of the interviews (on subjects such as evacuees, the day war broke out and being frightened) which he's made available through his website. They should be a useful resource for anyone studying this period in history.

Video interviews are a great way of capturing the memories of local people and they help bring history alive for students. I know there's a fair amount of material like this available on the web already. You might also like to take a look at the North West Learning Grid's video interviews at their Liverpool in the Blitz and their The Home Front websites. If anyone knows of any similar sites then please pass on the details.

Primary Resources wins Hitwise Award!

Primary Resources is a Hitwise Top 10 Award winner! The site was ranked in the top ten of the most visited UK Education - Reference websites during the last quarter. This is no mean feat when you consider that the category usually includes big companies such as the TES and eteach.com.

According to the people at Hitwise, "The Hitwise UK Top 10 Awards Programme celebrates the most successful UK websites in 160+ online industries. As Hitwise reports on the anonymous online usage and search behaviour of more than 8.43 million UK Internet users—the largest online sample of its kind—this unique awards programme recognises excellence in online performance through public popularity."

Thanks for all our visitors and contributors who made this achievement possible and also to everyone at RM.com for their continued support of the Primary Resources website.