There are lots of other resources available at TeacherLED. Teachers can download an index for the resources to explore what is available and identify what might be useful for their lessons.

What’s involved?

The Travelling to Teach programme works with a number of charity/community schools in India, Nepal and Tanzania which provide education to children from some of the poorest backgrounds.

This is a three week long trip which will see selected volunteer teachers visit and work in a school in India, Nepal or Tanzania educating the local children and working with the existing teaching staff. The aim of the volunteering programme is to provide interactive and interesting lessons to the children, bringing amusement to their classes.

Here is a video where teachers share their experiences from previous trips.

www.mylife4schools.org.uk

The content is separated into different units, covering friends, family, learning, beliefs and keeping healthy. There are links to the National Curriculum, Every Child Matters and SEAL.

The resource has information for:

• Teachers – with online activities, case studies, activity sheets and teachers’ notes.
• Children – including animations and online storybooks.
• Parents – showing what the activities are about and how to get information and support.

‘Fame Idle is the story of three kids who are confused why everyone around them seem obsessed by celebrity culture and they are not. It’s a musical comedy with a moral message… “Fame ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.” It has a modern score and a witty script that follows Bobby, P.J. and Smudge as they discover what friendship means when faced with a chance of fame – but at what cost?’

Here is a video which highlights some photos and audio from the production:

Many schools have already put on their own performances of the musical and received extremely positive feedback. To find out more for yourself, visit www.fame-idle.co.uk.

• 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.

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.

www.jewelofmuscat.tv

The site also features free lesson plans and fun class activities covering geography, history and technology for students aged 6-16 (appropriate for KS1, KS2 and KS3).

www.practicalaction.org.uk/education

The Education area of their site has a wide range of content for teachers and pupils, including:

• Videos showing how designers make their sustainable products (useful for DT).
• A sustainability handbook for teachers of Design and Technology.
• Free posters, homework activities, wordsearches, classroom activities, videos and songs linked to renewable energy.
• A selection of experiments, demonstrations and activities which can be used to support work linked to climate change.
• Cross-curricular videos and lesson activities.

“Newsround sent a questionnaire to 1,000 children aged between nine and 11 at schools across the UK. Most said they went to bed at 2130, but a quarter said bedtime was 2200 or later and half said they were not getting enough sleep and wanted more.

Health experts have linked a lack of sleep to problems with concentration, behaviour and school work. About half the children asked said they were staying up to play on computer games or their mobile phones or to watch television.”

Image - Dreaming Children

The article goes on to explain that:

“Scientists have linked a lack of sleep in children to problems with concentration and schoolwork. Energy levels can be lower and sleep-deprived children can be irritable or behave badly. A recent study by academics in Finland suggested a good night’s sleep could reduce hyperactivity and bad behaviour among children.”

Does this affect the children in your classroom?

Lots more information, along with free resources, can be found at the British Science Association site.

www.britishscienceassociation.org

They also run different projects. One of these is called ‘What on Earth‘ and it allows users to upload photos of local wildlife they have spotted and their photos are identified by experts. Anyone who sends a photo will also receive a free packet of seeds to encourage more creatures to inhabit their local space.