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).

Heritage Key allows users to explore virtual reconstructions of great historical sites from around the world. At present, Heritage Key features a highly accurate 3D reconstruction of Stonehenge and the tomb of the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun. The site also provides a wide range of educational resources and community tools for those interested in learning about history.

http://heritage-key.com

I’ve just spend some time wandering around the environments within Heritage Key and I’m impressed so far. It’s great to be able to walk (virtually) around these different locations, whilst learning the history behind them. This is something that could definitely be of great value in the classroom.

Percy Parker is a groovy grandad who has been popular in schools for many years now. He sings songs which help children to learn their times tables and there are some free downloads from Percy’s CD on Teaching Ideas.

Percy is now back with a brand new cross-curricular resource called ‘Percy Parker’s Flying Bathtub’. There are songs and resources covering a wide range of history, geography, science and other curriculum topics. If you’re studying the Tudors in class, for instance, there’s a fifteen-minute scene (including two songs) based on the Tudors that you can read through in your classroom and perhaps perform simply in an assembly. If another year group is studying Food Chains or Vikings or Outer Space, there are scenes for them too. And if you want to put on a full-scale school production, just put everyone’s scenes together and hey presto – a musical!

Andrew Holdsworth, the creator of Percy Parker, has kindly allowed me to have a look at the resource and I’m extremely impressed. It includes:

• A folder full of scripts, musical scores, lyrics, costume ideas, production and choreography advice. There is also background information about the curriculum area that each scene relates to.
• An audio CD containing all 15 tracks from the production (with and without vocals) as well as relevant sound effects which you can use.
• A CD-Rom with teaching ideas, choreography ideas, editable scripts, projectable backdrop images and lots more.

Percy Parker’s Flying Bathtub (Tudors to 20th Century) is available now here. Two other packs have also been produced:

• ‘Ancient History and Invaders’ will be available from May 2010.
• ‘Science and Nature’ will be available from September 2010.

FREE DOWNLOAD – You can also find out more at Teaching Ideas and get yourself an exclusive free download from the resource.

Here are details of two fantastic resources for those teaching Literacy / Music / History linked to the topic of Ancient Greece:

‘Heroes of Troy‘ is a music resource for school children aged 9 to 11 and offers 7 songs to learn, each linking to an episode of the Trojan War. The website is audio-based, but also includes Teachers’ Notes, words and music for the songs, backing tracks…and well-known music presenter David Grant is on hand to teach all of the songs.

www.bbc.co.uk/schools/troy/

It’s intended to target a range of music objectives at Key Stage 2 but also links to the history topic Ancient Greece while offering opportunities to link music with literacy and performance.

Winged Sandals offers animated versions of different Greek myths, along with games and other online activities to try. This has always been popular with children whenever I’ve used it at school.

www.wingedsandals.com

A new series of virtual field trips is being distributed over the Internet as video podcasts on the web site www.meetmeatthecorner.org. Each video is linked to fun websites and a Learning Corner of questions and extended activities. New episodes are uploaded every two weeks.

This week you can take virtual field trip to San Diego. The young host Robert interviews and tours the USS MIDWAY and learns what life was like aboard a city at sea.

Here in the UK, we have a special day this week. It’s on Thursday 5th November and it’s called Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Bonfire Night. Here are a selection of links that might be useful for schools who are celebrating the event.

Interactive Fireworks – This is a popular site which has been online for years. Just click on the screen to set off a firework! For best effect, show it on an interactive whiteboard with your classroom lights turned off and the volume turned up!

History of Bonfire Night – Some wonderful child-friendly information from Woodlands Junior School.

Welephant – This site tells the story of how Welephant and his friend Spikey enjoyed a safe bonfire night and firework display. It has many fire safety messages particularly to do with fireworks and the firework code.

Have a safe and enjoyable Fireworks night if you’re getting involved!