The creators of the popular resource site Edgalaxy have recently created a number of new sites that teachers can use:

• Ultimate Titanic has appeared just in time for the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.  It contains great content for teachers and students to learn about the most famous maritime disaster of all time. There are a number of amazing images, videos and text based content that will definitely appeal to teachers and students without overwhelming them with irrelevant information on Titanic. Best of all Ultimate Titanic must have one of the biggest collections of lesson plans and teaching resources based around the Titanic covering all key learning areas and ages. The Titanic is one of the most amazing industrial feats of all time wrapped up in a story that Shakespeare himself could not have scripted and still appeals to students and learners of all ages. There is something here for everyone.

• Scribbled.com.au is a highly creative site for those who want to learn about innovative art and craft ideas. Scribbled is packed with activities to suit all abilities but best of all everything is laid in step-by-step directions with photographs to support them.  There are a number of themed ideas for all major events of the year with new crafts and activities being added each week. Teachers will also love the video tutorials and printables to jazz up their classrooms.  There are also  activities and games particularly aimed at younger children. Take a look at scribbled today and release some of your creative energy.

I’ve mentioned the free content from the Red Cross on Teaching News before and they have now published a new resource called ‘Positive Images’. It is designed to help teachers, youth workers and other educators teach young people (aged 12 and over) about migration and development.

The resource includes clear lesson ideas and plans with accompanying resources. There are also relevant video resources on the Red Cross’ Youtube channel and these are also embedded on the download page for the resource. Find them all here.

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!

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been busy working on a new set of themed resources for my Teaching Ideas site. I’m pleased to say that the new theme is now available!

The theme has over 100 teaching ideas, activities, display resources, videos and photos… all of which can be used to support teaching about healthy eating, the human body and exercise. There are lots of posters which you can print and put on your classroom wall, as well as activity sheets for children to use.

Teaching Ideas now has 14 themes and I’m planning some more themes which will be published over the next few months and in 2012. If you’re starting to think about Christmas lessons, don’t forget to look at the Christmas theme!

The British Library site is a wonderful resource for teachers. It’s full of different activities and content which cover different areas of the curriculum.

Some of the resources include:

• Victorians – A huge collection of digital resources which children can use when learning about the Victorians.
• Playtimes – Explore 100 years of children’s songs, rhymes and games. The Kids’ Zone has some great video clips of children playing in the past… how do they compare with children playing on your school’s playground today?
• Sounds Familiar? – This area of the site shares sound recordings which highlight the different regional accents and dialects around the UK.
• Mapping History - A large assortment of digitised maps and information about mapping over hundreds of years. This also includes an exploration of how and why maps lie between fact and fiction.
• Visits and Workshops – The British Library also offer free workshops, tours and activities for groups.

The Champion Hare is a colourful rhyming picture book about a young hare who enters a sports contest and finds himself racing a cheetah and throwing shot put with a gorilla. The story aims to show children that competing can be fun, even when you don’t win, and that perseverance sometimes pays off!

The author recently posted on our Facebook page about the free resources that are available to accompany the book. All of these can be downloaded from the Champion Hare site. You can also find out about the latest resources on the Champion Hare blog.

Don’t forget that you can also find free teaching ideas and resources which are all linked to popular children’s books on our Teaching Library site. Take a look!

The amazing Simon Haughton has completed his Primary School History Encyclopedia. The site is perfect for primary children, giving them a place to research different historical periods. Teachers can be confident that the information there is appropriate for young pupils to learn about history independently. Each period in history has pages about a number of related topics with easy-to-read text and photos / illustrations too. The site has taken over a year to create and you can read about its development here.

Simon has a number of other great resources for schools, including:

• The Infant Encyclopedia - http://www.parkfieldict.co.uk/infant/
• Primary School Geography Encyclopedia - http://geography.parkfieldict.co.uk
• ICT Club Activities and Games - http://www.parkfieldict.co.uk/ictclub/
• Junior ICT Companion - http://www.parkfieldict.co.uk/ictcompanion/

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been busy working on a new look for Teaching Ideas and I’m really pleased that the updated site is now online.

The site has a much clearer layout and I’ve reorganised the ideas and resources according to their relevant age ranges to make them easier to find. I’ve also gone through the code throughout the entire site which means that it should be quicker to load.

To celebrate the launch of the new site, I’ve also made a new set of my popular ‘Inspiration’ resources… this new set give ideas for inspiring Maths lessons. They can be used as lesson starters to stimulate discussion about Maths concepts. You could also put them on your classroom displays to get children thinking about Maths! I’m also working on a new set of ‘History Inspiration’ posters which should be online very soon!

I hope that you like the new site. The new layout is also much quicker for me to update, which means that I can spend more time making free resources for you!

Over the summer holidays, I set up a new site to add my existing collection of Teaching Websites. The Teaching Library is a place to find free lesson ideas, activities and resources linked to popular children’s books. The lesson ideas are all organised by subject and there are also related videos and other material which can be used in the classroom.

www.teachinglibrary.co.uk

The site has been extremely well received so far and I’ve had lots of positive comments from teachers and authors! If you have any book suggestions or relevant lesson ideas / resources, please get in touch. You can also use the ‘Add a Book‘ form on the site to help the site to grow. Thanks!

I hope that the new site is useful to you.