The creators of the popular resource site Edgalaxy have recently created a number of new sites that teachers can use:

• Ultimate Titanic has appeared just in time for the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.  It contains great content for teachers and students to learn about the most famous maritime disaster of all time. There are a number of amazing images, videos and text based content that will definitely appeal to teachers and students without overwhelming them with irrelevant information on Titanic. Best of all Ultimate Titanic must have one of the biggest collections of lesson plans and teaching resources based around the Titanic covering all key learning areas and ages. The Titanic is one of the most amazing industrial feats of all time wrapped up in a story that Shakespeare himself could not have scripted and still appeals to students and learners of all ages. There is something here for everyone.

• Scribbled.com.au is a highly creative site for those who want to learn about innovative art and craft ideas. Scribbled is packed with activities to suit all abilities but best of all everything is laid in step-by-step directions with photographs to support them.  There are a number of themed ideas for all major events of the year with new crafts and activities being added each week. Teachers will also love the video tutorials and printables to jazz up their classrooms.  There are also  activities and games particularly aimed at younger children. Take a look at scribbled today and release some of your creative energy.

A new competition has been launched across Britain asking schools to create their own denim works of art to help change the lives of children with genetic disorders. Launched Jeans for Genes Day last week, the competition asks schools to produce their own artistic masterpieces using denim and other fabrics. Winning schools will be decided regionally and will be awarded an arts & craft prize worth nearly £500, featuring a range of Avery Trimmers & Guillotines and Hobbycraft vouchers.

The theme for entries is ‘The Future’, with schools encouraged to be as imaginative as they can. Entry possibilities range from denim murals and school hall landscapes to fabric sculptures and art installations. What’s more, schools are free to enter as many times as they wish, meaning pupils from different year groups, lessons and art clubs can all take part. All a school needs to do to enter is take a picture of their finished project and upload it at www.jeansforgenesday.com/averycompetition by the end of December 2011, with a short explanation of the entry. Judging will take place in January 2012 and the winners from six regions across Britain will be announced in February. Good luck!

Here are links to five great new resources that I’ve found online this week:

1) Classdojo (shared by Lara Savory) – Classdojo is a wonderful online behaviour management system. When you set up your class you can give points for positive behaviour (and remove them for negative behaviour). You can also track the children’s scores over time which could be useful for reporting to parents. It’s even possible to use a mobile device to add rewards to the system. Watch this video to find out more:

Click here to view the embedded video.

2) Pictograph Generator – The amazing John McClear has created a simple online pictograph generator. It’s easy to use and customise and is a great resource for Maths (data handling / problem solving) and ICT work. Watch this video to see how it works:

Click here to view the embedded video.

3) The Water Cycle - This great animation (shared on the great The Kids Should See This blog) shows how the water cycle works. It is very visual and could be used as part of Science work. Could your pupils write some narration for the video? I’ve added this video to Teaching Videos, so don’t forget to look there for more educational video resources.

Click here to view the embedded video.

4) Your Paintings – This is a wonderful resource from the BBC, sharing 77,000 paintings online. You can find paintings by artist or features and you can also look at items within paintings that have been tagged. There are some ideas for teachers on the site’s blog.

5) Young Science Investigators Project Kit (shared by Sophie Bessemer) – This free resource is focused on science at work in the real world and scientific enquiry skills, based around three topics: electricity, forces and materials. It has lots of hands on activities for the children to do in or out of the classroom, with some accompanying animations, teachers notes, worksheets and curriculum links.

Which of these is your favourite resource?

myDrawings.me allows schools and nurseries to create their own galleries to share pupils’ artwork online. Class and genre specific galleries are easily created and edited, allowing on-going individual or group projects to be safely stored and viewed.

Invitation links can also be sent out to invite friends and family members to view their progress in thumbnail or slideshow format. Parents and friends will also be able to buy prints, books and calendars which feature their children’s artwork.

A few months ago, Rommie Corso kindly contributed a free page from her book to my Teaching Ideas site. The page, which has a picture of a turtle to colour and a related drawing activity, has been downloaded and used by lots of teachers. Rommie has now offered five copies of her book as a competition prize for readers of Teaching News. The book is full of creative pictures to colour in, plus ideas to encourage children to create their own works of art.

Find out more about ‘Colour to Life’ at www.hardshellpublishing.com

UPDATE – This competition has now closed.

I am really pleased to announce the availability of the second ‘Teaching Themes‘ section on my Teaching Ideas site. Last month’s World Cup theme was incredibly popular and the resources are all still online if you would like to use them. This month, the theme is Myst:

www.teachingideas.co.uk/themes/myst

The Myst series of computer games can be extremely valuable teaching tools and they are becoming incredibly popular in classrooms around the world, thanks to Tim Rylands. The characters, landscapes and storylines in the games can all be used to enhance learning in a wide range of curriculum areas. My new Teaching Theme area currently has more than 80 Myst-related teaching ideas, display resources, educational videos, online applications, photographs of classroom displays and links to other useful sites. I hope that the new theme will help you to use these wonderful games with your children.

We’ve already started working on next month’s theme, which is ‘Summer at the Seaside‘. If you have any ideas, resources or links which might be useful for the World Cup, Myst or Summer themes, please get in touch. Thank you!

For the fifth year running, development charity Sightsavers, is inviting primary school children across the UK to take part in the 2010 Junior Painter of the Year competition and paint their vision of the future.

The competition, run by Sightsavers in partnership with the Royal Academy Schools, aims to promote the use of paint in school classrooms, whilst encouraging children to reflect on sight and blindness amongst their peers. Last year over 15,000 entries were submitted by children aged 4-11 and this year’s theme Visions of the Future is set to generate even more.

The winning young painters will have their work exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, alongside works by the famous artist and illustrator Quentin Blake CBE, and the renowned artist and Keeper of the Royal Academy of Arts, Professor Maurice Cockrill RA.

www.sightsavers.org/juniorpainter

Three national winners, one from each category (4-7 years, 8-9 years and 10-11 years), will be selected from a list of regional winners.  They will then enjoy a fun-packed day out in London with their teachers in the autumn and attend the awards ceremony at the Royal Academy of Arts where their paintings will be the central focus of the exciting exhibition. Plus one lucky teacher will win a one-of-a-kind painting by Professor Cockrill in a new award category for 2010 called the Maurice Cockrill award. This will be presented to the teacher who has inspired their pupils’ creativity the most when developing the theme.

Schools interested in participating in the awards this year can find more at: www.sightsavers.org/juniorpainter or by contacting the Junior Painter of the Year competition Helpline on 01444 446 768 for a free awards pack.  Entries must be submitted by 14 September 2010.

Cyberkidz is a Dutch ‘edutainment’ site with lots of educational games, covering Maths, Literacy, Geography, Art, Music and more. The games are sorted by subject and age range, suitable for children aged 4-11.

www.cyberkidz.net

The site has recently been translated into English, so even more children are now able to take advantage of these resources.