Children and classes around the UK are invited to write a short story and enter it into the BBC’s 500 Words writing competition. Winners will receive a large collection of books for themselves (and for their school library) and the site has lots of writing tips to help children create an amazing short story.

Teachers and librarians throughout the UK are also invited to volunteer their time to help whittle this year’s submissions down to a shortlist, which will then be judged by some a team of popular authors. Entry to the competition is open to persons aged 13 years and under on the 1st March 2012 who are living in the UK. Children can submit their story using this form. Good luck!

Write Path is an exciting Literacy event that takes place in October. The event started in 2008 and is organised by Bev Humphrey, an independent literacy and technology consultant. Schools who take part in the project will be able to take part in different writing activities, including an opportunity to complete stories that have been started by authors, special poetry day activities and awards to win.

There is a charge of £50 for participation but all schools that take part are sent a copy of the project’s specially published book that their students’ writing appears in. You can find out more about Write Path by visiting their Ning site or by contacting Bev by email. You can also get advice from those who have already taken part by browsing through the posts in the forum.

Here are five great new resources that I have discovered online this week:

1) 100 Most Beautiful Words (shared by @LibWithAttitude) – This list of 100 beautiful words was chosen by Robert Beard, who has been making dictionaries, creating word lists, and writing poetry for 40 years. It’s a great selection of vocabulary which can be used in a number of ways. You could ask children to try and guess the meaning… or work out how to spell each word… or make flashcards which will help people to remember the definition / spelling… or use it as a starting point for discussing the children’s own favourite words.

2) Red Riding Mood – There are lots of great Internet Safety videos and resources online and I’ve recently discovered a series of three new videos from Facemoods. They highlight key safety messages for people to remember when using Facebook so they are probably more relevant for older pupils (although lots of younger children also seem to have Facebook accounts, despite their Terms of Service stating that under 13s should not join).

Click here to view the embedded video.

3) 25 Superb Optical Illusions (shared by Larry Ferlazzo) – These fantastic optical illusions are perfect for use in the classroom. Can your children see all of the illusions straight away? Can they explain how they work?

4) Online Storytime (recommended by 2sparkley) – This wonderful site has videos of famous stories being read aloud. The stories are all popular books and the videos show the original illustrations. You can also embed the videos, so they could be posted on a school website to share with your pupils and their parents.

5) Polyphonic Kids (created by Chris Leach) – Chris has created this blog to introduce children to a wide range of music… from different styles and artists. It’s a great place to share a variety of music with your pupils. They can also add comments to share their opinions or vote in the poll on each day’s post.

What have you discovered recently?

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

1) Metropolis II video (shared by Alec Couros) - Here is an amazing video of a ‘kinetic sculpture’ which has thousands of cars racing around an enormous track:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Could you use this in the classroom to… estimate the number of cars on the track… calculate how many cars pass each point in a given period of time… identify the most common colours of cars… discuss how the machinery might work… explain how gravity makes the cars slide down the ramp… discuss which materials would be the best for the surface of the track… design and build your own track?!

2) School Clip Art (shared by Mrs Angell) – This site has lots of fun clip art that can be used free of charge for educational purposes. It looks very useful for adding illustrations to your lesson plans, resources or whiteboard slides.

If you need more clipart, don’t forget to follow Bev Evans’ blog where she is posting new clipart every day!

3) Map of Outdoor Learning Experiences (shared by Peter Richardson) – This fantastic map is a collaboration between teachers all around the UK. It is a place where they are sharing places where they have taken classes for educational visits for different areas of the curriculum. The map is now expanding into other countries too and you can add your own suggestions easily. Find out more on Peter’s blog.

4) Teach Parents Tech (shared by Tom Barrett) – This site is intended for people who want to provide technical support to their parents in a quick and easy way. However, it has lots of tutorials which could also be used in the classroom.

5) Storynory (suggested by On the Classroom Wall) – Storynory publish free audio stories (with accompanying text) every week. You can subscribe (for free) to receive the latest stories by email or using iTunes and other services, and then use them in your classroom. Use the buttons at the top of the the site to explore all of the available stories by different categories.

What have you discovered this week? Leave a comment to share something with others…

Signed Stories is a free storytelling website with some of the best of contemporary books in English, subtitles, voice-over and sign language translation. It’s won four awards in 12 months – including Royal Television Society best on-line production.

www.signedstories.com

It’s now being used all over the world by children learning English, and is recommended by the British Council. Could you use this wonderful resource in your classroom?

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.

learndirect has launched two FREE online storybooks to help families make the most of their time together and have fun while learning.

learndirect research has revealed that almost one in three parents admit to wanting to brush up on their basic English and maths to support their children’s learning and development. Backed by celebrity mum and Waterloo Road actress, Angela Griffin, the new storybooks “The Journey to Darkest Somewhere” and “The House of Scary Words” let kids become the lead characters and change details within the stories.

Here’s a video which gives more information about the project:

The books also encourage readers to use basic English language while they play, so kids and parents can learn together. The new storybooks are available at www.learndirect.co.uk/readtogether. Kids also have the chance to win a professionally printed version of their book. Entrants simply need to register their personal storybook on the website before 31 December 2009.

This month, the Children’s Society is running its annual National Bedtime Reading Month, which started yesterday.

They have teamed up with a host of stars from TV, pop, stage and celebrity gossip who have recorded a bedtime story for the nation. ITV’s This Morning presenter, Eamonn Holmes, Jade Goody’s former partner Jeff Brazier, the star of West End musical Hairspray, Brian Conley, and pop superstar Damon Albarn of Blur can all be seen reading Roald Dahl’s classic story, Fantastic Mr Fox, on their new YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/childrenssociety.

Here’s a preview of one of the videos:

The Bedtime Reading campaign is designed to encourage parents, especially fathers, to read to their children and coincides with the launch of 20th Century Fox’s latest animated movie, Fantastic Mr Fox.

There is an online resource with some hints and tips at www.childrenssociety.org.uk/reading.