Go Green Week is People & Planet’s annual national week of action on climate change in schools, colleges and universities. It takes place from 6th to 11th February, so here are a selection of resources if you would like to use the event in your classroom:

1) People and Planet – The official site has lots of great ideas and activities. Take a look at the suggestions for themed days and download Action Guides that are filled with resources.

2) Teaching Themes – The Environment – You can also find lots of ideas, resources and activities by looking at our themed page on Teaching Ideas.

3) Climate Chaos – Oxfam have published a set of resources called ‘Climate Chaos’ which are intended for use with children aged 9-11.

4) Twinkl - There is another large collection of eco, recycling and environment resources here.

5) Topic Box – This wonderful site lists lots of interactive tools that teachers can use. Here is their list of ‘environment’ resources.

6) BP – There are lots of interactive resources linked to energy and climate on the BP Young Science Investigators site.

7) Are you Eco Friendly? – Help the Environmental Intelligence Unit with this interactive game from the BBC.

8 ) Teaching Videos – There are a large collection of videos linked to different environmental issues on our Teaching Videos site. There are also lots of examples of ‘environment’ classroom displays on Teaching Photos.

9) Communication4All – There are lots of great display resources on this popular site.

10) RecycleNow – Get involved in recycling activities at your school using the information and activities on this site.

Do you know about any other great environment / climate resources online?

]]> http://www.teachingnews.co.uk/2012/02/10-resources-for-go-green-week/feed/ 0 http://www.teachingnews.co.uk/2011/12/download-free-resources-about-migration-and-development/ http://www.teachingnews.co.uk/2011/12/download-free-resources-about-migration-and-development/#comments Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:00:49 +0000 markwarner http://www.teachingnews.co.uk/?p=9568

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.

I’ve come across lots of fantastic new resources over the past few weeks, so here are some of my favourites:

1) QR Code Treasure Hunt Generator (shared by Christine Cox) – This wonderful tool lets you make your own treasure hunts… children have to answer questions (which you provide) but the questions are in the form of QR codes which they have to scan with handheld devices (e.g. an iPod Touch). You can hide the QR codes around school and get them to find the answers as they search around school. A great use of mobile technology.

2) Report Comment Bank (shared by Kristian Still) – Although many schools have now finished writing reports for a while, here’s is a site which can be saved for future use. It is a bank of report comments which cover a huge range of subject and topic areas. Registration is required but the site is free to use.

3) Duck Duck Go (shared by Darcy Moore) – Duck Duck Go is a clear and simple search engine which is less cluttered than many other popular search tools. The site gives dictionary definitions as well as search results and there are ‘Safe Search’ options too. Has anyone used this in the classroom yet?

4) If It Were My Home (shared by Lucy Gray) – If you were not born in the country you were, what would your life be like? Would you be the same person? This site lets you compare living conditions for people in countries around the world. It’s a fascinating way to find out about life in other places.

5) Wild Earth (shared by Lucy Gray) - This site has lots of live webcams showing animals in their natural habitats around the world. You can even watch a live safari from the Sabi Sands Game Reserve. There are also profile pages for many of the animals that you might see on the cameras to help you to learn more about them.

What is your favourite recent discovery?

Here are five great new resources that I’ve found online this week:

1) Quadblogging  - David Mitchell has set up Quadblogging as a way of encouraging pupils to publish online and comment on each other’s work. Lots of schools have already signed up and you can too! It’s a great idea and you can find out more about it in the Youtube video here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

2) Worldometers (shared by Dominic Tremblay) – This site shows lots of statistics about the world, which change in real-time. It’s fascinating (but slightly scary) to see some of the numbers rising so rapidly and it would be great for looking at data handling or geography / environmental work.

3) Plot Device – This video was featured on Tom Barrett’s blog. It’s a fantastic story, covering a range of genres, which could be used in a huge variety of ways in the classroom. Enjoy!

Click here to view the embedded video.

4) Animaps (shared by Malcolm Wilson) – This site lets you create animated maps for free. Could you use it to report on a school trip somewhere, to retell a historical event or to tell a story about a fantastic journey?

5) Comix – Danny Nicholson wrote a blog post about this great comic creation tool, which is aimed at younger children. The rest of the site has lots of other tools which could be used in the classroom too.

If you’ve found something useful recently, please consider sharing it in the comments. Thank you

ActionAid have produced a new, free section on their website about Chembakolli – a village in India. The section contains downloadable PowerPoints and lesson ideas to help teach about life in a village in India, as well as slideshows and a live blog from the community out there. The content is suitable for KS2 and supports Geography teaching on India.

Find the resources at www.actionaid.org.uk/schools

The UK SoundMap is a new community-led survey in sound of the acoustic landscape (‘soundscape’) of Britain. The interactive map allows you to listen to recordings that were taken in different parts of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Why not use it with your class and explore the audio from different parts of the country. View the full map at http://sounds.bl.uk/uksoundmap/fusionmap.aspx.

You and your class can also help to add to the SoundMap by recording and uploading your own sounds. Simply follow the instructions here.

Practical Action are inviting schools to take part in their Small Is…Challenge.  This is based on their founder’s philosophy that even a small change can have a big impact on people’s lives. The challenge for students is to look at technologies from the last 100 years and invent a product that could help us all lead a more sustainable future.

Lots of resources are available to support this challenge, including downloadable timelines, presentations and worksheets.

The KS2 winner will be awarded a microscope and KS3 winners could receive a solar media player and £150 of vouchers for their school. The closing date for entries is 30th April 2011… find out more on Practical Action’s site.

Sky Rainforest Rescue aims to engage school age children with the problems facing the Rainforests by including a fun series of projects on the Amazon Rainforest in the National Curriculum.

The Rainforest Rescue Schools Challenge helps children to understand how the things we eat, buy and use everyday are linked to the rainforest and think about how we can help protect it. It’s a great way to get kids more excited about Green issues as the Challenge will allow them to explore the animals as well as the landscape of the Amazon and apply the things they learn to their own school environment. There is also the chance for the schools involved to win some great prizes for their pupils and to take the children’s ideas to key political decision makers so that they could have real impact.

The Challenge, organised with Global Action Plan, is web based and interactive and will involve aspects of geography, citizenship, science, numeracy and PSHE. You can find more information on the challenge, how schools can get involved and the prizes available to the participating teams on the website at www.skyrainforestrescueschoolschallenge.org

Mr. Thorne (whose phonics videos were previously featured on Teaching News) has continued to make lots of fantastic phonics videos which can be used in the classroom. Over the summer, he also published his first book which you can now buy online.

www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1528325

The book follows the story of Geraldine the giraffe (who also features in some of the phonics videos) who decides she wants to find her home back in the jungalow. The book is themed around journeys and relationships with family, which are key themes in Key Stage One Geography and Personal Social and Emotional understanding.

You can preview and buy a copy of the book at Blurb.com. Don’t forget to look at Mr. Thorne’s channel on Youtube or follow him on Twitter to keep updated.

Today is Earth Day, a day designed to increase awareness of the issues affecting the environment, to inspire positive actions in individuals and business, and to begin the process of reversing the current climate change trend.

www.healthyplanet.org/earthday.aspx

The Healthy Planet Foundation has produced a set of lesson plans and resources for each primary year group, which you can use today, during Earth Week (next week) or as part of curriculum activities throughout the rest of the year. You can download these resources in the Geography section of Teaching Ideas.