Clicker, a literacy support tool from Crick Software, is currently used in over 90% of UK primary schools. It helps pupils to achieve reading and writing success and the latest version, Clicker 6, is about to be launched at BETT 2012.

A key focus for Clicker 6 is independent learning. The new Quick-Start Screen enables pupils to work on activities straight away without teacher assistance, whilst built-in support tools like the updated speech feedback and new word predictor enable them to overcome learning barriers that would previously have prevented them from putting great ideas into writing.

Clicker 6 also has new activity wizards which guide teachers through the activity creation process, automatically transforming their content into Clicker Sets, and makes tailoring these activities to pupils’ needs quicker and easier.

For further details on Clicker 6, visit Crick Software on stand F40 at BETT 2012, where you can also find out about exclusive upgrade discounts. You can also visit Crick Software’s site for more information.

Documentary Tube is a free site which allows you to watch over 1000 documentaries, covering a variety of subjects and topics. The videos are easy to find and you can also subscribe to receive the latest updates via RSS, email, Facebook or Twitter!

The site is popular with teachers and the developers are currently preparing a new ‘Schools Zone’ which will include documentaries on core subject matters, and those outlined in the curriculum.

Don’t forget to visit our Teaching Videos site to find shorter videos and clips, all of which are organised by curriculum subject and topic too.

Christmas is approaching quickly, so here are ten sites which offer Christmas resources for you to use:

1) Teaching Ideas – My wife drew some wonderful Christmas cartoons last year and I was able to use them to make some popular Christmas resources. I’ve also spent the past few weeks making another new collection of content, including some ‘Christmas Inspiration posters’ which you can download free. Take a look!

2) Primary Resources - An enormous collection of Christmas resources are available to download here. Highly recommended.

3) TPet – The Teachers Pet team have been really busy making lots of Christmas display resources and activities over the past few weeks. They all look fantastic!

4) Twinkl – Lots of printable and editable activities and resources are available for download from Twinkl… and more are added on a regular basis.

5) TES – The TES resource bank is an immense collection of teaching material and there is a special Christmas collection which you can explore.

6) Mrs. Pancake have lots of lovely craft activities which you can download and print. Try the 3D Christmas cards or Dancing Santa!

7) Woodlands Junior School – This is a wonderful resource for children, offering a guide to Christmas, in child-friendly language with lots of images and illustrations. There is also a special page of resources for teachers.

8 ) The North Pole – This site is full of Christmas games and activities. One of my favourite sections is the ‘Christmas around the World’ section which explains how people in different countries celebrate Christmas.

9) North Pole – Northpole.com has lots of Christmas stories, recipes and activities that you can use.

10) RE:Quest - You can download a number of great Christmas resources here and watch videos of Christmas services and events. A great resources for Christmas RE activities.

11) Sing Up – The popular ‘Sing Up’ site has a special Festive pack of resources which you can download too.

What is your favourite Christmas resource site?

Christmas is just over one month away and lots of schools are getting ready for their Christmas-themed lessons and activities! Our popular Christmas theme was published last year and the resources were downloaded many thousands of times. I’ve recently made a new set of resources and added them to the page. Take a look!

I’ve also made a set of ‘Inspirations’ posters linked to Christmas. These can be used as lesson starters… to stimulate discussion… to review what children know… as a starting point for creative writing… or for classroom display. If people like them, I’ll try and make some more Inspirations for the other sections on Teaching Ideas.

I’m sure that I’ll be making more Christmas resources over the coming weeks, so stay tuned to our RSS feed, Facebook and Twitter pages to receive the latest updates!

I get to watch lots of online videos in my search for new additions to my Teaching Videos site. The site now has almost 2,500 educational videos, so I thought that I would share some of my favourites… the most inspirational… the most incredible… the most beautiful… and the most entertaining. Here they are:

1) Try to Do – This wonderful video tells a great story about a baby squirrel who tries to climb a big wall. It is a fantastic way of encouraging children to think about perseverance and determination, as well as exploring ways of helping others.

Click here to view the embedded video.

2) I’ll Be Gone - This video could be used to discuss how sounds and music are made… watch the rhythm of each sound played out in the video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

3) Steve Spangler Science – Steve has a huge collection of online videos which teach Science in very exciting ways. Lots of his experiments can be tried at home or in the classroom, but some (like the one below) are definitely not appropriate!

Click here to view the embedded video.

4) Landscapes: Volume Two – This is a beautiful video which features stunning time-lapse video of landscapes in Arizona and Utah. It would be great for inspiring descriptive writing about settings and locations.

Click here to view the embedded video.

5) The Water Cycle stop motion – I love stop-motion animations and we make lots of them at school too. This video is a great animation about the water cycle which is perfect for Science lessons:

Click here to view the embedded video.

6) The Balloon Lady - Can you write a story about the Balloon Lady? Why is she so cheerful? How does it make the other people feel to be given a balloon? What happens to the balloons after the end of the film?

Click here to view the embedded video.

7) Kuroshio Sea – This looks incredible in full-screen HD on an interactive whiteboard. I’ve shown this to classes a number of times and the reaction is always ‘WOW!’.

Click here to view the embedded video.

8 ) The Highwayman – Lots of schools use ‘The Highwayman’ by Alfred Noyes as part of their Literacy lessons and this animated video is a great accompaniment for any work using the book. Don’t forget that there are more teaching ideas linked to The Highwayman on my Teaching Library site.

Click here to view the embedded video.

9) Test Your Awareness – This extremely popular video is a great test of children’s observation skills!

Click here to view the embedded video.

10) Haerskogen – These amazing little creatures could be used in the classroom in lots of ways. Can your children write a description of them, or a story about their lives? Could they design their own creatures in Art, DT or ICT? Could you use them in Science for work on habitats and adaptation?

Click here to view the embedded video.

What are your favourite online videos?

Did you know that the Guinness World Records is the third biggest selling book of all time. It’s also the most borrowed book from school libraries! Schools can currently enter a competition to win a visit from the world’s tallest man, Sultan Kosen. Guinness World Records officials will also visit the winning school to adjudicate a series of world record breaking challenges.

You can enter the competition on the Guinness World Records Schools page, which also has a selection of lesson plans and resources for you to use. There are also some free online ‘page spreads‘ which include 26 pages of facts from the book. Take a look!

If you’re planning some spooky lessons as part of Halloween this week, try some of these great resources:

1) Learn about Halloween and how it is celebrated on the fantastic Project Britain site.

2) There are lots of great craft ideas on LessonSense.com with clear instructions and photos to follow along with.

3) Primary Resources have a section of Halloween resources. Find them all here.

4) The TES have also created a handy list of the Halloween resources on their popular site.

5) Teaching Videos has a number of Halloween-themed videos, including this Skeleton Dance video which your class could join in with!

Click here to view the embedded video.

6) Mrs Pancake has a set of instructions which children can follow to make their own Halloween bats!

7) Twinkl also have lots of Halloween resources, including banners, vocabulary cards, recipe sheets and colouring pictures.

8 ) This interactive site lets you carve your own pumpkins online!

9) Apples4theTeacher also have a large collection of interactive Halloween activities, including online colouring pages and jigsaws.

10) PrimaryGames has a HUGE collection of online Halloween games!

11) You can also download a number of Halloween resources from Primary Treasure Chest.

12) If you would like to try some Halloween origami, Activity Village have lots of different instructions, including this video which shows you how to make a Halloween Cat!

Click here to view the embedded video.

13) There are lots of Halloween craft and activity ideas on TheIdeaBox.com.

14) If you’re able to make some Halloween food and snacks, you could use some of these wonderful recipes.

15) Could your class write their own Halloween poems? Use some of the examples here for inspiration.

What are your favourite Halloween resources?

The Book Club offer a great service for schools, helping them to find and buy books quickly and easily. Schools are able to send them a list of the books that they need and The Book Club will organise a quote (with a 10% discount on all books), source the books from the publishers and deliver them free to schools. Their site also has lots of useful lists of suggested books, which are all organised by age group and subject area / topic.

Take a look at their schools page for more information or browse around their site to find some relevant books for your current topics. You can also follow their book suggestions on Facebook and Twitter. The Book Club have also kindly offered to support my new Teaching Library site, enabling me to continue adding new books on a regular basis.

The new academic year has started for many schools here in the UK, with lots of other schools opening again next week. For those who are new to the teaching profession (as well as other more experienced members), I thought that it might be useful to make a list of some of my favourite resource sites. All of these offer free ideas and resources which you can use in your classrooms…

Teaching Ideas

I have to start by mentioning my Teaching Ideas site. It’s been online since 1998 and offers free lesson ideas, activities and resources. Lots of these have been contributed by teachers around the world and the site is organised by subject / topic to help you find things easily. Don’t forget to look at my other Teaching Websites too.

Primary Resources

Primary Resources is another popular resource site which was set up at the same time as Teaching Ideas, by Gareth Pitchford. The site is enormous and is one of the best places to look for content to use in your classrooms.

Communication4All

Bev Evans makes this wonderful site which is full of fantastic resources. You will find lots of great material to print and laminate here!

TES

The TES has a wide variety of resources, all contributed by teachers and other education professionals. They also host videos from the Teachers TV archive, which are a great source of advice and information.

TPet

TPet make resources of the highest quality. They have a wonderful selection of display resources and activities as well as a blog which is a great source of inspiration too!

Twinkl

The Twinkl site is growing at an amazing rate and they have a wide variety of resources. Take a look!

Teaching Search

As there are so many great resource sites, it sometimes takes a while to search through all of them. So, I created a search engine which searches a number of the most popular ones. It’s free to use and gives results from a special selection of top quality sites.

Primary Teacher Resource Centre Forum

There are a number of educational forums online, but my favourite is the PTRC forum. It’s full of lovely people who are always willing to offer advice and share their resources.

Twitter / Facebook

Don’t forget that there are also lots of great teachers using social networking sites to share ideas. Take a look at Teaching Ideas on Twitter and Facebook to get some ideas about who else to follow.

Are there any other great resource sites that I have missed? What are your favourites?

I add new videos to my Teaching Videos site on a regular basis, using a number of Youtube subscriptions to find useful videos (as well as videos shared on Twitter and in my RSS subscriptions). One Youtube channel that I particularly enjoy checking is for Steve Spangler Science.

Steve is a science author, teacher, professional speaker, toy designer, a television personality… and a big kid! His Youtube channel shares lots of big Science activities and events that he has been involved in. However, there are also a number of ‘Sick Science’ videos which feature tricks and experiments that can be played in the classroom. They’re great for provoking discussion about how the ‘trick’ works and talking about the Science concepts involved.

You could also try to recreate the experiment yourself as lots of them involve everyday classroom objects. Here’s an example:

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you have any favourite educational Youtube channels, please get in touch as I would love to hear about them!