Quiz Buzzer is a new interactive whiteboard resource from TeacherLED. It’s perfect for running class quiz activities where you have two individuals / teams answering questions quickly. Children have to press their button as quickly as possible and answer before the coloured lights disappear. There are also alternative suggestions for using the resource on the TeacherLED site.

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.

My Life is a free interactive resource produced by The Children’s Society which aims to help children aged 7 to 11 develop the skills they need for a healthy, happy childhood.

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.

Many Year Six classes put on a performance at the end of the year to mark the end of their time at their primary school. Although the end of the academic year is still a few months away,  here are details of a new musical for those teachers who want to plan ahead!

‘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.

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.

The Jewel of Muscat is a reconstruction of a 9th century trading ship that sailed the Maritime Silk Road from Arabia to China. The Jewel is currently recreating the spirit of naval adventure by sailing from Oman to Singapore. You can follow the journey of the ship and find out all about it’s creation on their website which has lots of videos, daily logs and photos from the ship, a real-time route map, and interactive games for children.

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).

Practical Action are a development charity who are offering lots of free resources for schools, linked to their work in helping some of the world’s poorest people to transform their lives for the better.

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.

National Science and Engineering Week takes place this year from 12-21 March. This is a nationwide celebration of science, engineering and technology involving people of all ages in thousands of events across the country.

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.

Following the creation of the Teaching UK iPhone application, I decided to investigate other apps that might be useful for teachers and schools. As well as finding some wonderful new applications, I also found lots of really useful iPhone+education related sites:

• Educate 2.0 is an application for teachers, giving them access to timetables, student data, teaching strategies and elearning tools. Find out more in this Youtube video:

• World Maths Day 2010 has a dedicated application which you can use to practise your Maths skills.

• iPhone for Kids is a wonderful blog which shares ideas and advice for ‘iParents’… those parents who want to give children opportunities to use their iPhones. It shares useful applications and offers advice, much of which will also be helpful for teachers.
• The Random Activity Generator generates thousands of learning challenges for students to try. There are over 50,000 combinations of activities.

• There are lots of language applications which would be useful for MFL classes. Free French Tutor is the most popular free education app at the time of writing this, but lots of other language apps are available.
• Don’t forget that podcasts are also a wonderful teaching tool for pupils, whether you are making your own or downloading / listening to those made by others.
• I also use these applications in my own classroom occasionally:
  • Ambiance – An ‘environment enhancer’ which lets you find / download / play a wide range of audio which can be played whilst children are working, or to set the scene as part of role play / drama activities.
  • Announcer – A fun app which lets you play announcements by the voiceover man from lots of popular TV shows. Some of them are not appropriate for use in the classroom, but imagine your pupil’s surprise when they hear ‘Ladies and Gentlemen… please welcome… that’s right… fabulous’ (etc) played out occasionally through your classroom speakers when connected to an iPhone.
  
  • Memiary – We use the online version of Memiary to record five achievements every day. This app lets you record this information using your iPhone / iPod (I’m also helping to set up a version of Memiary especially for use in the classroom so look out for information about this soon!).
  • eduTecher – A wonderful tool which lets teachers find (and share) useful resources and web tools that can be used in the classroom.
• BullyingUK have an iPhone app which shares the latest advice from the site for teachers, parents and pupils.
• Many schools are now developing their own applications for teachers, parents and pupils to use. Take a look at this example from Porchester Junior school.
• EducationApps produce a selection of mobile applications for teachers and students. At present, these cover GCSE Geography and AS Level Economics.

• In the iTunes App store, remember that there is a section for Education applications. There is also a special ‘Apps for Kids’ area at the moment which is worth exploring.
• Don’t forget the ‘Interesting Ways to use an iPod Touch‘ presentation on Ideas to Inspire.
• Here’s a useful presentation which gives advice for managing the iPod Touch in the classroom. Thanks to Ian Williams for sharing this on Twitter.

• Macworld have a HUGE list of Education apps, which have all been rated and reviewed.
• John Johnston is involved in a project to use iPod Touches in the classroom. Find out more on his blog.
• Adrian Bruce has shared 16 applications that can be used to support Problem Solving. Brighthub also have a list of the Top 10 apps to use in Maths classes.
• Eric Sailers has also produced a fantastic list of apps that could be used in education:

• Claire Barnes has suggested Labyrinth and Labyrinth2 which allow you to develop levels on the website and then download them to the device. She also recommends mathemagics, brain exercise games, word games (e.g. Textropolis and Boggle) and MP3 stories which can be played using the iPod.
• Finally, here’s a wonderful concept called ‘Phone Book‘. I’m not sure when or even if it’s available to buy, but it made me smile:

UPDATE – An ‘iPod Touch Conference‘ took place recently, allowing educators to discuss the use of these devices in education. The accompanying web site has lots of useful information, videos, links and discussions which are worth exploring. One of these includes a link to Apple’s own PDF guide to using iPods and iTunes for teaching and learning. Thanks to Julian Coultas for bringing this to my attention.

UPDATE 2 – I’ve also discovered an amazing Google spreadsheet which lists useful apps for different curriculum areas.

UPDATE 3 – Since writing this post, our school has received six iPod Touches which I’m planning to use in my own classroom. I’ve posted some initial thoughts about this project in a mindmap and PrimaryPad. I would love to hear your thoughts about these.

Do you know any useful iPhone applications that can be used in the classroom? Please let us know in the comments…

QuadKids is a new athletics concept designed to give more children the opportunity to participate in and enjoy the benefits of track & field athletics and also to identify the stars of tomorrow. The scheme aims to be inclusive, competitive, quick, fun and simple to run. It is a team based quadrathlon competition where each athlete does a sprint, a middle distance run, a long jump and a throw, and it is primarily targeted at pupils aged between 7 and 13.

www.quadkids.org

Find out more about the scheme in the ‘About‘ section of their site, or register to download information about running a Quadkids event at your school.