Learning Clip Numeracy Activities

The Numeracy Activities from Learning Clip come highly recommended. Each activity is linked to an objective from the Renewed Framework for Numeracy and, once you have registered, are free to use during the trial stage . All they ask in return is that if you have any feed back, positive or negative, you let them know.

Each clip comprises a short introductory video, an interactive activity and a set of notes.

New clips are being added to the site every week so keep checking for the latest releases.

Primary MFL Resources

It was great to get a (2nd!) mention on the ictopus news blog this week. All the Primary MFL Resources from a recent ictopus sharing good practice newsletter along with others from a previous post have been put together on a new Primary MFL Resources page which is found under ‘Quick Links’ on the right hand side.

Electronic Texts and Stories

Thanks to Oxfordshire Online who have put together a useful collection of online texts and stories to use on Interactive Whiteboards. The page aims to take the time out of finding suitable ICT-based texts on the Internet to use in shared, guided or independent reading.

ArtisanCam Competition

Take part in this fantastic new competition and you could see your work displayed at the world famous Kew Gardens in London.

In 1936 artist Edward Bawden designed a new poster to encourage people to visit Kew Gardens using London transport. Now ArtisanCam wants you to investigate Bawden’s brilliant use of linocut, before producing your own design for a new poster using the same lino printing processes that he used.

Learners can submit their designs simply by clicking on the ’send to competition’ button. The winner will receive an iPod nano and the winning entry will be displayed at Kew Gardens and seen by hundreds of thousands of visitors.”

The competition is open to everyone of school age across the UK and you can enter as many times as you like. The competition closes on 18th July 2008, so get printing! Visit the web site now to get started: www.artisancam.org.uk/flashapps/explorelinoprinting/index.php

                                   

Modelling and Simulations

Two new simulation websites have been added to the page of links to modelling activities.

The Parachute Game allows you to design your parachute before going sky diving. Or, if that isn’t daring enough, then choose your horse, select your armour, and ride into combat in the Tudor Joust. Have fun!

Hector’s World

Hector’s World is a great resource for introducing internet safety issues to key stage 1 pupils.

It comprises of five state-of-the-art, animated episodes. It takes children on a journey with Hector and his friends as they explore issues such as personal information, trustworthiness, making positive choices online and how to be open with a trusted adult when they use the internet.

The animation has been adapted for a young UK audience following successful running of the programme in New Zealand and is backed up by a series of free resources available to parents and teachers via the dedicated CEOP education website – thinkuknow.co.uk. All materials have been developed in consultation with Becta and with teachers.

In addition, Hector the dolphin, can be downloaded onto your computer and will then float over internet pages. If anything appears on the screen that makes children feel uncomfortable then they can click on Hector Protector who will cover the page and give them a positive message for doing the right thing.

 

SMART Notebook 10

The latest version of the SMART Notebook has been released and it is a major upgrade from the previous version. It can be downloaded from the Smarttech Website. 

Some extra steps have been added to the download process and you now need your Smartboard serial number which is located on the whiteboard frame. A product key is also required to activate the software and this is emailed to you once you have completed the customer information form.

1. Enter hardware product serial number
2. Complete customer information form
3. Download Notebook software 10
4. Enter product key to activate the software

The Smart Technologies website contains an overview of the new features and some video demonstrations of the software in action. For a detailed review of the new tools see the Spencer’s post on the BaNES Blog.

 

Primary Music Websites

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony are both brilliant free music resources. They include recordings of instruments to help students to listen to and recognise the instruments of the orchestra. There are also some great activities including the Sfskids ‘composerizer‘ area where melodies can be composed.

DSO was one of the first websites highlighted on Primary Nuggets back in September 2006, for a list of all the music websites mentioned so far, click on Music under Quick Links.

 

Film Clips for Visual Literacy

There are a number of web sites which host a range of film clips and movie trailers. I especially enjoy the trailers and short animations found at www.pixar.com

 

For old television clips try the TV ARK pages. It used to be possible to view old adverts here too, lets hope it isn’t too long before they are back online :-).  

Other collections worth a look include Screen Online and Film Education which both include lesson ideas and teacher’s notes for use with film. Alternatively www.arkive.com offers a glimpse of life on Earth.

Our friends in the Bristol ICT Team have started to collect together a range of film clips which they are generously sharing at:

http://whiteboard.bristol-cyps.org.uk/vis_lit2/

Images of film clips can be captured into Interactive Whiteboard flip charts by pausing the clip and using the software’s camera tool.

 

Roy the Singing Zebra

There are some wonderful interactive games, stories and resources to help emerging readers on the Roy the Singing Zebra website. The site is free to use at school or at home and is alot of fun.

Thanks to the Teachers Love SMART Boards blog for mentioning it.