ICT Games is a wonderful site with lots of interactive games and activities for primary children. The site is always growing and James Barrett, the creator, has produced some great resources that children can use at home or at school. Here are some links to a selection of them:

• Saucer Sorter – A counting stick for your interactive whiteboard… using the numbers to practise counting forward and backwards in steps… rearrange numbers and ask pupils to put them in the correct order… hide numbers with the star bar and get the children to say what is missing…

• Mummy Numberline – An interactive numberline for simple addition and subtraction.
• Counting Caterpillar – A wonderful game for KS1/2 pupils which requires them to order numbers.
• Count On Catapult – An exciting game which lets children practise counting on to the next 10.

• Change Exchanger – With three levels of difficulty, this game asks children to scan items on the checkout and calculate the amount of change that is needed.
• Editable Interactive Whiteboard Dictionary – An impressive dictionary which you can show on your interactive whiteboard, to support children with their writing.
• Day and Night – Learn how we get day and night by using this interactive guide.

James has also produced lots of ‘Bingo’ style activities covering a range of topics:

• Sound Bingo
• Letters and Sounds Blending
• High Frequency Word Bingo
• Science Bingo

This is just a small selection of the resources available at ICT Games. Teachers can use the planning guide which links the activities to the Primary Framework.

All of the games are fantastic quality, so schools are very lucky that they are available online for free. You can follow James on Twitter to see when he adds new resources to the site.

The new primary curriculum, which becomes statutory from September 2011, is now online. Its aims are to enable all young people to become:

• successful learners who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve,
• confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives,
• responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society.

http://curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/new-primary-curriculum/

Through the curriculum, children should develop the skills, attitudes and dispositions that they need to become well-rounded individuals and lifelong learners. These include literacy, numeracy and ICT capability, learning and thinking skills, and personal, social and emotional skills. There are also six areas of learning:

• Understanding the arts
• Understanding English, communication and languages
• Historical, geographical and social understanding
• Mathematical understanding
• Understanding physical development, health and wellbeing
• Scientific and technological understanding

Religious education is also a statutory subject, as it is in the current curriculum. However, there will also be a statutory requirement for all children to learn a modern foreign language. Dance, drama and citizenship also become part of the statutory curriculum through the new areas of learning.

Find out more at the New Primary Curriculum site.

Digital Adwise offers teachers a tool to engage KS1 and KS2 students, and teach them about marketing communications. The interactive online lessons can be used by individuals or small groups on classroom computers. The lessons are tailored to teaching needs and are highly flexible for teachers to modify as they see fit. They aim to help children to identify and understand the commercial purpose behind online marketing techniques such as viral marketing, the use of social marketing sites and online games.

The lessons are now available for all schools to access online and free of charge at www.digitaladwise.mediasmart.org.uk

My Chalkface provide lots of learning resources and photocopiables for preschool, Early Years and KS1 pupils.

www.mychalkface.com

A large number of the resources are free (although registration is required before downloading files) and some cost a small amount… the most expensive resources that I’ve seen so far are 10 pence!

They cover lots of different topics and are very easy to find… it’s a very useful site for teachers of younger pupils. My Chalkface is now included in the TeachrSearch results too!

Chris Roland had created a set of Powerpoint stories featuring the characters Reg and Lellow. The stories have been designed to help young children learn English and can be used in class with pre-school, infant and primary levels.

www.regandlellow.com

As they have been written by an English teacher, they also have a number of pedagogical features to aid language acquisition, make in class storytelling as easy as possible for the teacher and story content easily integrated into schools’ English curriculum. There are also teachers’ notes and extra materials to explore.

I’ve had an email from the senior producer of the BBC’s Bitesize websites who wrote to say that the site has recently had a makeover. There is a new look for the KS2 area (for children aged 7 to 11)…

as well as the KS3 area (for students aged 11-14)…

The KS3 pages have lots of new activities (examples here, here and here) and there are also new videos on the KS2 pages. The Bitesize pages are a wonderful resource for schools, covering lots of different subject areas and topics in really interesting and interactive ways, so have a look to see what’s new.