I’ve been noticing on playground duty recently the lack of games the children seem to play.  There’s always the obligatory football and netball match going on and a few chasing games, but other than that not much.  There also seems to be an increasing number of children who just stand around bored or walk around with me.  When asked to go and play they say they’ve got no-one to play with or don’t know any games to play.

With this is mind I’ve started teaching them a few games that I used to play – Blocky 1,2,3 and Lobbers to name a few.  (Did anyone else play these games?)  While researching this and other games I came across Playground Fun – a site dedicated to playground games.  So if you’re not sure of the rules of a game or want a few more ideas for the children at playtime visit this site.

Remember playing is part of the fun -  join in with the children!

Link: http://www.playgroundfun.org.uk/default.aspx

Lazy Town is a CBBC programme which encourages children to eat healthy and keep fit.  After a suggestion for Julie I had a look at the Sportacus workout.   Julie commented on the Dame Kelly post that:

"My Y6 class are going mad for the Sportacus workout!!! The other night during Book Club we went into the ICT suite and one of the girls with a toddler-age brother showed some of the children the website and now they are all going on it at home! Bizarre – but it gets them moving!"

It’s certainly different and funny to watch. I’m tempted to use it at school in a PE lesson to see how the children respond!

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/funandgames/lazytown/

An intersting email from Teachers’ TV came though today advertising a new program presented by Olympic Champion Dame Kelly Holmes. The Get Physical series is a unique resource developed to help teachers at primary and secondary level raise standards in PE and school sport. The comprehensive twenty part series shows how different schools from across the country use truly creative approaches to engage pupils with sport. The sporting activities have great effect on pupils and the programmes demonstrate how learning can improve in all areas of the school curriculum as a result.

The series will be broadcast on Teachers’ TV starting from 15 January 2007.

Whole-School Effect : 15 January at 12.15
Firm Foundations : 16 January at 12:00
Engagement at Key Stage 1 : 16 January 12.15
The Two-Hour/Four-Hour Challenge – Primary : 16 January at 18.30
Healthy Primary School : 16 January at 18.45
Active Lunchtime : 17 January at 18:15
A Place for Competition : 17 January at 18.45 
Taking the Lead – Primary : 18 January at 18.00
Playing it Safe – Primary : 18 January at 18.15
The Inspector Calls – Primary : 18 January at 18.30
Everyone’s Included – Primary : 18 January at 18.45
Primary/Secondary Transition : 19 January at 12.00
Adults Other Than Teachers : 19 January at 12.15

For more information go to www.teachers.tv.

With sports day coming up for most of us don’t forget your certificates.  Sparklebox has released a set of free sports day certificates to save you time.  You can also create your own certificates online at http://www.senteacher.org if you want something a little bit different.

Are many people taking part in the Great School Run sponsored by Tesco on the 21st June.  It’s a 2km run that hopefully encourages the children to get fit and healthy!  Ordering the pack gives you a five week ‘work out’ leading up to the day. 

I don’t really understand it – money for taking children swimming through school has been cut back over the last few years.  Result = less children can swim = the Government blaming schools. 

How do they fix it?  By putting money back that was originally there! The Government have decided to invest £5.5 million pound to help teach those children that can’t swim 25m at the end of primary school.  Statistics say that one in five 11-year-olds in England cannot swim the required 25 metres.   Why didn’t they just leave the money there in the first place and allow children to have swimming lessons through the whole primary age phase.  I love the comment made:

"Trials have already proven that with extra lessons and smaller group numbers
more children are able to meet the minimum 25 metre requirement"

Why not have smaller groups in primary schools and give children extra lessons?  Sorry – one of those days!

Continue Reading

I found more World Cup resources in my pigeon hole today in the form of the Teacher magazine.  The resources are also available on the internet via the teachernet website.  What isn’t included on the internet is a large A1 World Cup poster.  The poster has each of the World Cup countries located with a space for each child to find where their country is, write the capital and some information they have found out about it.  On the right hand side is a space to record the results of all the matches leading up to the final.

You can order copies of this poster free from Prolog on 0845
602 2260, quoting reference DfES 0461 2006 POS-EN.  Don’t forget to check out the other resources available on the site.  These include: links to stats about each team / country, the national anthems among other ideas for lessons.

With football being on everyone’s minds at the moment with Arsenel’s loss (unlike Liverpools!) last night and the forthcoming World Cup it is likely to generate lots of opportunities for ICT within the classroom.  The NAACE working group has produced a bank of resources in the form of activities, web-links and ideas contributed by members.  The resources are mainly suited to KS2 but could be used by younger or older children with some creative thought.

All the resources are available for download from the MAPE site: http://www.mape.org.uk/WorldCup2006/index.htm

I’m trying to get
some money together to fund our climbing club, currently the children are paying £10 per week – most of the cost being the hiring of the equipment.  I’m hoping to ask some companies to donate to help us purchase our own equipment and thus making our club accessable to more children. I’m wondering how poeple
think is the best way to ask for donations – should we write letters, ring
or visit?  Or can we apply to the national lottery, etc?  Any help
would be great – or if you want to sponsor/help us please get in touch!

The TES is reporting on a new DVD in which England footballers are encouraging children to read more books.  Top players including Joe Cole, Rio Ferdinand and David James feature in the short film talking about their favourite books and why it is important to
read. The film titled, "Reading The Game", is available free to every state
school in England. It has been produced by the National Literacy Trust with
funding from the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) and the Department
for Education and Skills (DfES).

It reminds me of a display that I had up in my classroom once.  I’d bought a pile of pop magazines and football magazines and cut out different famous personalities.  Then I created some speech bubbles in OpenOffice and added some witty comments.  The children loved them.  I had characters like David Beckham saying, "I enjoy reading the dictionary before I go to bed each night" and so on!