ICT Games is a wonderful site with lots of interactive games and activities for primary children. The site is always growing and James Barrett, the creator, has produced some great resources that children can use at home or at school. Here are some links to a selection of them:

• Saucer Sorter – A counting stick for your interactive whiteboard… using the numbers to practise counting forward and backwards in steps… rearrange numbers and ask pupils to put them in the correct order… hide numbers with the star bar and get the children to say what is missing…

• Mummy Numberline – An interactive numberline for simple addition and subtraction.
• Counting Caterpillar – A wonderful game for KS1/2 pupils which requires them to order numbers.
• Count On Catapult – An exciting game which lets children practise counting on to the next 10.

• Change Exchanger – With three levels of difficulty, this game asks children to scan items on the checkout and calculate the amount of change that is needed.
• Editable Interactive Whiteboard Dictionary – An impressive dictionary which you can show on your interactive whiteboard, to support children with their writing.
• Day and Night – Learn how we get day and night by using this interactive guide.

James has also produced lots of ‘Bingo’ style activities covering a range of topics:

• Sound Bingo
• Letters and Sounds Blending
• High Frequency Word Bingo
• Science Bingo

This is just a small selection of the resources available at ICT Games. Teachers can use the planning guide which links the activities to the Primary Framework.

All of the games are fantastic quality, so schools are very lucky that they are available online for free. You can follow James on Twitter to see when he adds new resources to the site.

The BBC’s School Report News Day takes place on Thursday 11th March. Is your school taking part?

For those who are new to the project, it aims to turn classrooms into newsrooms, giving children a chance to make the news. Pupils are given opportunities to make news reports about things that are important to them, through the radio, TV and online. You can find out more in this video which explains more.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/school_report/

The BBC site has some useful links and resources for those planning to take part:

• Advice about getting ready for the day,
• Posters to decorate your newsroom,
• Reward certificates for those taking part.
• Suggestions for stories that the pupils could report on.
• A suggested timetable of activities.
• Lots of other resources for teachers.

The School Report site is an extremely useful resource for those taking part in the day, but lots of the content could also be used at other times of the year too.

Here are links to a selection of online resources which can help with the teaching and learning of spellings:

• SpellingCity.com – Teachers can register on this site and add spelling words for their pupils to learn. Children can then try a range of activities and take part in tests.

• SATs Spelling Tests – @arsenalchris has added all of the spelling words used in KS2 SATs tests to SpellingCity and made them available for others to use. Mrs Aviss has also created a set of 10 spelling revision lists which will give more practice.
• BBC Skillswise – The BBC have lots of spelling resources on their Skillswise site, covering a wide range of spelling patterns.
• Youtube Spelling Bee – An interactive spelling bee is available on Youtube. Click on the correct answers to go to the next video. There is a prize at the end!

• Lisa Dubernard has recommended some spelling resources on Promethean Planet.
• Don’t forget the ‘Ways to Support Spelling in the classroom’ presentation on Ideas to Inspire.
• St Ambrose Barlow Catholic Primary School have lots of Year 6 spelling resources on their school website.
• Teaching Ideas – Lots of spelling resources are available to use in the classroom. Also try searching for spellings with TeachrSearch.
• Teaching Videos – There are a number of teaching videos which can be used to help children to learn spellings.

What are your favourite spelling resources?

Caitlin’s Wish is a new book written for children who have a sick / disabled parent, sibling, relative or friend, and are finding it hard to come to terms with being a young carer. Caitlin’s Wish is a magical fairy story with a twist!

www.caitlinswish.co.uk

It has been written for young carers, and has an underlying message within it to help the child to see their life more positively! A useful resource for schools and their pupils.

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.

Simon Haughton has put together a really useful site for children to use at home or at school as part of preparations for their SATs. There are links to some wonderful educational sites which primary children (and teachers) will enjoy exploring.

www.parkfieldict.co.uk/sats/

Although there will not be Science SATs this year, those who want some extra Science practice should take a look at the Science Boot Camp.

BETT, the ‘world’s largest educational technology event’ took place last week and I was very lucky to be able to spend a few days there. Here are some of the things that I discovered:

• Anithings – A ‘creativity tool’ which lets children create animations by simply dragging objects around on screen. It costs £250 for a site licence, but there is a 10% discount during January.

• Interactive Resources – This company makes the (extremely useful) Maths Packs, Teaching materials and Primary Games which can be used on interactive whiteboard and / or individual computers. During BETT, I was given a quick tour of the new online version of their site, allowing teachers (and pupils) to access the resources online at home and school. Teachers can also filter all of the resources by subject / topic and allocate activities to students who can try them when they next log in.
• Story Stage – I watched a demo of this software from Scholastic and was really impressed at the ability to connect multiple mice to the same computer, allowing children to work collaboratively. Why doesn’t all software allow multiple users like Story Stage?

• Smart – It was nice to hear about the release of Smart Notebook 10.6 (available now) which brings compatibility with Windows 7 and Snow Leopard on the Mac. It also has a ‘transparent’ tool which makes the Smart Notebook interface disappear, as well as a number of new Maths tools.
• 2Simple – I managed to get a final copy of 2Create a SuperStory, as well as trials of 2Assess ICT and the Online Tools. I’m really impressed with the potential of the online tools, allowing children to use creative software at home and school and save their work to an online storage area. Anthony Evans showed me 2Design&Make (built into the online tools) to make some fantastic 3D models.

• Linkbun.ch – Allows you to share lots of links with one small link which can then be shared via email / Twitter etc. Thanks to @ianyorston for sharing this gem.
• Stupflix – This looks a little like Animoto (as both allow you to combine audio / photos / video) but Stupeflix seems to have more customisation options. Shared by @digitalmaverick.

• Dabbleboard – An online collaborative whiteboard. I’ve used Dabbleboard at home once or twice, but never in the classroom. @bevevans22 talked about this during a Teachmeet Takeover session and I can definitely see it being a valuable addition to a lesson.
• Scratch – Scratch is a programming language which I’ve always thought was a bit complicated. However, @mberry gave us all an entertaining 7 minute demonstration of the program and made it all look incredibly easy. Downloading and trying Scratch is now high up on my ‘to do’ list.

• Newseum - @digitalmaverick mentioned this during his Teachmeet Takeover session about Glogster. The Front pages section lets you view the front pages of a huge collection of newspapers from around the world.
• Class blogging - Oliver Quinlan gave a really inspiring presentation about his class blogs and how time is given for the children to respond to each others’ blog posts. We regularly post items on our school website / blog but children rarely have time to add their own thoughts… something that is sure to change now!

Did you go to BETT? What did you discover?

The BBC recently reported an increase in children’s book sales, which they say is partly due to the success of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series. Sales of picture books have also increased.

The top selling books were:

• Top 5 – all Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series – various editions
• 6 – Beano Annual 2010
• 7 – Miles to go by Mylie Cyrus
• 8 – Mr Gum in the Hound of Lamonic Bibber /Sephir the Storm Monster by Andy Stanton and Adam Blade
• 9 – Peppa Pig official annual
• 10 – New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
• 11 – Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K Rowling

Image - Reading in the round

The best selling books for younger children were:

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
• The Tyrannosaurus Drip Song by Julia Donaldson
• Stick Man by Julia Donaldson
• Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sandak
• The Gurffalo’s Child by Julia Donaldson

My Year 3 class are currently enjoying the books in the Beaver Towers series by Nigel Hinton. I’ve also been gripped by the books in the Percy Jackson series, which I’m trying to read before the film is released soon!

Which books are popular with your children? What are your own favourite books?

The site ‘What a Hullabaloo‘ is running a poetry competition for children under 11. To enter, pupils should finish a poem that has been started by the author Phillip Whittington.

To find out more about the competition, which closes on 8th January 2010, visit the site at www.whatahullabaloo.com.

Phillip has also contributed a set of plans and poems to Teaching Ideas which you can download here.

Chris Roland had created a set of Powerpoint stories featuring the characters Reg and Lellow. The stories have been designed to help young children learn English and can be used in class with pre-school, infant and primary levels.

www.regandlellow.com

As they have been written by an English teacher, they also have a number of pedagogical features to aid language acquisition, make in class storytelling as easy as possible for the teacher and story content easily integrated into schools’ English curriculum. There are also teachers’ notes and extra materials to explore.