Happy New Year!

For the first post of 2010, I wanted to highlight an amazing new resource that is being made by Mandy Barrow (who makes the wonderful Woodlands Junior school and Project Britain sites).

Mandy is making a month by month calendar for 2010 with a picture and a link related to each and every day. The calendar is still under construction but the first few months are now complete.

http://www.projectbritain.com/calendar/

Look at the calendar every day to see what is happening and ask your children to report to others about what they find. Can they discover any other interesting facts about the day?

The team from Sparkteaching are aiming to put together an online advent calendar, which schools are invited to take part in.

As their website explains, “each day, from December 1st to 25th, the calendar will display a piece of artwork uploaded by elementary / primary aged children from anywhere in the world on the theme “What Does Christmas Mean To You?”

Any children can take part, the incentive being that they could see their artwork online, viewed by hundreds, as part of the advent calendar.

It’d be great to see you get involved, particularly if the children in your class might provide a different perspective on what Christmas means to them. Obviously we’re looking for the first pieces of artwork by the 1st and then on throughout December (if you get in first, your artwork will be displayed for longer!)

Any artwork will be accepted (if it’s scannable, it’s acceptable!) Please scan and send as an attachment to: competition@sparkyteaching.com together with the artist’s first name and location (and age if you wish) and your school’s website address (we’d be happy to link to this if you’d like us too!)”

Even if you don’t take part, don’t forget to visit the online advent calendar from the 1st onwards to see what Christmas means to those who do…”

Find out more about the competition on Sparkyteaching’s site and view the calendar here.