Websites of the Week 2007

Click here to recommend a site to us

LookyBook
www.lookybook.com
"Picture books are for looking at - so we've made it possible to view entire books - from cover to back, in all their splendor."
LookyBook allows visitors to “flip” through all of the pages of a growing number of picture books. You can even choose ones to keep on your own virtual “bookshelf.”

Rockford's Rock Opera is a FREE unique multi-media musical story, for children and adults. It features Rockford the Dog from Battersea Dogs Home and his adventures on the Island of Infinity, a bizarre world of extinct creatures, amazing music, colourful soundscapes, enchanting illustrations and lovingly animated videos.

Featuring and scripted by BBC respected writer and performer Steve Punt, Rockford's Rock Opera is a story about animals, extinction and the effect man is having on the planet, but it's a positive and hopeful story which is now enchanting children and adults across the world.

Think The Jungle Book' meets 'Jurassic Park' but on the web and FREE!

Click here to download lesson plans to go with the story (PDF) link fixed

Click here for more lesson plans and other free downloads (registration required and thats free too!)

Click here to download the lyrics to the songs

www.rockfordsrockopera.com

Roy The Zebra
www.roythezebra.com
A smashing Key Stage One resource filled with games to support reading.
Go straight to the Reading Games.

Virtual Fireworks over well known places in Kent
www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/festivals/fireworks/
Information about Bonfire Night and traditions surrounding this special day
www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Guy.html

Gunpowder Plot Game
Test your knowledge of the Gunpowder Plot with this interactive quiz. Answer the questions against the clock to track down the fizzing fuse. Fail and disaster is certain!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/

A Maths Dictionary for Kids 2007
www.teachers.ash.org.au/jeather
It is always a gem when you come across excellent resources that are still free to everyone. Jenny Eather has created three such resources. A MathsDictionary - Animated, interactive maths dictionary for kids which explains over 500 common mathematical terms in simple language.

Writing Fun
Using text organizers to assist students with the writing process for common text types taught in schools.

Rainforest Maths
Over 800 interactive mathematics activities for Reception to Year 6 covering Number, Number Systems, Operations, Calculations, Patterns, Algebra, Measurement, Geometry, Data Analysis and Money.

Food Force
www.food-force.com
The Food Force game,developed by the United Nations, puts players into the position of having to be relief workers in distressed areas, and teaches about world hunger issues at the same time. The first mission involves the player using the mouse to control a a surveillance helicopter to count refugees who are in need of food.

The National Geographic site enables the game to be played online. The game can also be downloaded by clicking here.

European /Day of Language
26th September
www.cilt.org.uk/edl/
Join 45 countries across Europe in celebrating language and cultural diversity!
The Cilt website has many resources available to support the day.

Also visit the Teacher.net website for an assembly idea

Turning the Pages
www.bl.uk
The British Library have digitised the pages of fifteen of their most valuable works and created 'Turning the Pages', a browser-based application that allows you to interact with these books in a virtual environment right from the classroom. You can open a book on your desktop and by clicking on a page, physically turn it in a 3D environment.
Click on the audio button to hear what is written on each page or click the text button to see the words in plain text. The British Library holds a copy of every book ever published in the UK, along with 58 million newspapers, 4.5 million maps, and 3.5 million sound recordings.

Window Vista version - ttpdownload.bl.uk/browserapp.xbap

Teach-ict.com
www.teach-ict.com
If you are looking for posters to put up around computers this is the site for you. It contains many inspirational posters which are all free to download. Click on the image on the left to go straight to the display page. Make sure you check out the links on the left hand side of the page too.

Teaching Resources

Global Eye
www.globaleye.org.uk
"The aim of Global Eye Primary is to provide interesting, well-illustrated and interactive material about global issues to tie in with primary curriculum requirements."
The latest addition is all about the Nile, the Nile from source to sea and also focuses on Water.
Click on ‘back issues‘ and you have access to an archive of previous issues covering a range of countries and topics.

mrnussbaum.com
mrnussbaum.com
"On MrNussbaum.com you will find dozens of interactive games, activities, and worksheets that pinpoint essential skills."
My favourite interactive tool on this website is the interactive world map. Students can use it to find out interesting information about each country by scrolling across the map; facts about the selected country appear at the bottom of the page. The data includes the country's capital, population, and size. Other information specific to each country appears in an adjoining paragraph.

The Mouse Club
www.themouseclub.co.uk
The Mouse Club is an inspirational website for 3 - 8 year olds. This safe, fun, learning environment offers interactive games, software, stories and lesson plan.
Lesson plans cover th.e main curriculum areas of ICT, Maths, Literacy, Music, Art and PSHCE. Visit the homepage for ideas on how to use the site

Create a Noisy Painting
www.nationalgallery.org.uk
The National Gallery website is full of wonderful resources. One activity I came across this week was Noisy Paintings. Pupils can choose a painting, and then add many different sounds to it.
The finished noisy paintings could then be used as a stimulus for creative writing or emailed to a teacher, along with a description the pupil has written about their creation.

Spin and Spell
www.spinandspell.com
Spin and Spell is a fun free spelling game that is ideal for a 5 minute lesson filler. It has more than 200 commonly used words divided into five sections: The Animal Kingdom, In and Around the House, What We Wear, How We Get There and What We Eat.

Pupils click on the image to hear the word, select each letter on the dial to spell it, and then click"Submit". If the word is spelt correctly, the enlarged image and word appear with the words "Very Good!". If the word is spelt incorrectly, the words "Sorry. Try again" are spoken and appear.

It is a shame that letter names are used rather than sounds, but it still a game all pupils will enjoy.

Promethean board users can download a flipchart here with a link to the Spin and Spell game.

More Literacy Games for interactive whiteboards
You can find this activity and other Literacy games for the interactive whiteboard on the Woodlands Junior website:
www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/literacy/

Stop the Disaster Simulation
www.stopdisastersgame.org
Take charge of an area prone to natural disasters and help them prepare, and hopefully prevent at least some damage. "Stop Disasters" is a game aimed at children to teach them about prevention and show them what could happen. It's very easy to start playing and has you preparing for multiple types of disasters.

NinjaWords
Fast Online Dictionary
www.ninjawords.com
NinjaWords is an easy to use online dictionary with no advertisements. It is designed to be smart, accurate, and really fast "like a ninja".
Each definition you look up remains online so you can easily compare or compile a list of words. You can also look up several words at a time by separating them with a comma (e.g. Dover,Kent,Maidstone).

The Children's Museum
www.childrensmuseum.org
The Children's Museum has a website with some very fun games and activities.
Our favourite is - Bones: An exhibit inside you.
www.childrensmuseum.org/special_exhibits/bones/
There is also a good webquest on dinosaurs - Dinosphere
www.childrensmuseum.org/dinosphere/webquests/gorgo/
There are other activities on dinosaurs too Click here

To see all the other games and activities visit www.childrensmuseum.org/games/

Bembo's Zoo
www.bemboszoo.com
Each letter of the alphabet, when clicked, gives the name of an animal. The letters in the name then are rotated and resized into a picture of the animal. Very cool use of Flash!

Arts Alive
www.artsalive.ca
ArtsAlive.ca is a performing arts educational website produced by the National Arts Centre of Canada. The Music section of the website contains games and activities to brush-up pupils knowledge of music, instruments and more.

Easter Resources
www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/festivals/easter.htm
The Kent NGfL websites contains a pages crammed full of activities to do on the Eater theme.

CBBC Newsround - The End of the Slave Trade
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/
25 March 2007 (next Sunday) marks 200 years to the day of the 1807 Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. This Act outlawed the slave trade throughout the British Empire and made it illegal for British ships to be involved in the trade, marking the beginning of the end for the transatlantic traffic in human beings.
The CBBC Newsround site contains facts, photographs and lots more information in a child friendly format.
Click here to go to the CBBC Newsround Teachers' Page

Resource Pack for Year 6 Teachers
www.durhamlea.org.uk

Background information:
www.globaldimension.org.uk
www.understandingslavery.com

Writing Fun
www.teachers.ash.org.au
Writing Fun is another fantastic resource made by the Australian teacher Jenny Eather. (Her other site is the well know Rainforest Maths)
Writing Fun uses text organizers to assist students with the process of writing fiction and non-fiction. It shows the steps in the writing process, along with examples, writing tips and a planning framework. Each part of the example texts can be highlighted by clicking on the links to the right of every screen.

Cleoflics
www.cleo.net.uk/resource/ cleoflics /
A highly original animation project showcasing best practice in claymation, stop frame animation and Flash. It also includes workshops taking you through the process of animation.

For more information on ideas about creating animations visit:
www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/ict/animations
www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/ict/digitalblue

Kent and Sussex Pictures
www.kentandsussexpics.co.uk
This weeks featured website has been recommended by Val at Sandown Primary School. The site contains a large variety of beautiful photographs taken across Kent and Sussex by the author of the site Colin Ballard.

As well as looking at the photographs, have a look at the 'Painting Effect Pics' These would be great examples to show the pupils before they had a go at creating some themselves.

Colin has given permission for all his photographs to be used in the classroom for display and topic work. However they must not be published anywhere including on websites.

Shrove Tuesday
www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk
Shrove Tuesday, also known as Pancake Day is on Tuesday February 20th. Our sister website, Woodlands Junior School has a lot of information that is suitable for KS2 children to use and complete their own research. The website also contains information on Ash Wednesday and Lent.
(The websites of Woodlands Junior School and Kent NGfL are both run by Mandy Barrow)

Chinese New Year Teaching Resources

Winged Sandals - Greek Mythology
www.wingedsandals.com
Winged Sandals is a prize winning interactive created by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in collaboration with Melbourne University. The site explores the magical world of Classical Greek mythology, a place filled with awesome gods, daring heroes and fabulous monsters. It contains some great background material and superb animations

· Animated stories, including ‘Perseus and Medusa’, ‘Orpheus and the Underworld’ and ‘How Apollo got his Oracle’
· A Who’s Who of gods, heroes and monsters from Classical mythology
· An interactive Delphic Oracle allowing the audience to ask questions about the future
· A detailed history section looking at life in ancient Greece
· Games and creative activities for primary and secondary aged children.

Channel 4 - Modern Languages
www.ltscotland.org.uk
This web site is based on the Channel 4 language learning series "Chez Mimi" and "Hennings Hause". It uses games to consolidate learning in key areas such as family, food, weather, colours, clothing. There are also teachers' notes and useful vocabulary lists.
In Chez Mimi we recommend the Who’s Who where you can use the 16 pictures of different faces to teach and practise facial descriptions. Pupils could take it inturns to describe a person for the rest of the class to guess who it is. (Click on the man standing at the door to start Who’s Who)
Also visit the main Modern Foreign Languages page for more resources
www.ltscotland.org.uk/mfle/

RSPB Big Schools' Birdwatch
www.rspb.org.uk/schoolswatch
22 January 2007 - 2 February 2007
The Big Schools' Birdwatch has grown steadily over the past five years, and is part of the world's biggest bird watching event; the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch. This is a fun way of supplementing the school curriculum and involves pupils counting birds for one hour in school. It's simple and easy to do, and you can get more information on the RSPB website (www.rspb.org.uk/schoolswatch)
Need help identifying the birds? Visit the Top school birds page or the A-Z of UK birds for photographs, description and to listen to the sounds of each bird.

The RSPB site also contains a Learning Zone with games and activities.

E2BN Gallery
http://gallery.e2bn.org/
The E2BN gallery is a free resource to schools containing over 7000 high quality images, all copyright free for use in Education. The gallery covers topics such as landscape and geology, places and travel, animals and plants, history and war, work and everyday life, and science and technology. Teachers and pupils can browse through the thousands of high quality images, or use the search facility to locate specific resources of interest. Teachers can also register free to upload their own images at camera quality and share them with other schools across the National Education Network. (See Pets Corner where schools have uploaded their pets and written about them.)

The gallery has been especially designed for educational use; there is a slide show feature, the ability to upload an annotated version of a picture and the flexibility to turn on and off explanatory text for use with whiteboards. Over the next year E2BN will be working with local libraries and museums to further extend the educational resources.

If you register (free) you will be able to add your favourite photographs to "My Album".

Quikmaps
quikmaps.com
If you looking for web based tool which allows pupils to annotate maps for their work, quikmaps.com is an excellent free site that does this.
Using Quikmaps you can add your own labels and symbols to maps generated by Google Maps. You can then print the map off, put it on your school website or export the information into Google Earth. You can even add photographs to your maps too, although this is not as straight forward. See my example of buildings in Tonbridge.
http://www.quikmaps.com/full/20868

Other examples:
Redbridge ICT
Tom Barrett - ICT in my Classroom
Juicy Geography

Have a question or need more help?
Visit our QuikMaps post on the Kent Teachers Blog and leave a comment.

Colour Launcher Game
www.bravia-advert.com
This weeks website of the week comes from Diana Marsden, HoS Project Office for Swanley and District Cluster.
You may have seen the advert on television where buildings are covered in paint. The Bravia website contains a simulation game where you can have a go yourself at covering buildings. It is not as easy as it looks. To play the Colour Launcher Game, select your country on the homepage and then click go. Position the paint devices on the ground near the building. Use the arrows to move around the buildings. You will need Adobe Shockwave Player installed to play. This may already be installed on your computer. If not, it can be download from the above website.

Websites of the Weeks 2006