resources update issue 18

• Teaching Measures
• The Big Editor
• Welcome to Numberton

• Alphabet Soup
• Spark Island
• I Can Write

Teaching Measures
Primary Games Ltd

Alphabet Soup
2Simple Software

This is an interactive Whiteboard resource covering many of the resources required for this numeracy module. There are enough activities to keep the children interested, the graphics and instructions are clear and unfussy and although clearly designed to be used on an IWB it can easily be adapted to an ICT suite with either Class Demo for class-work or for individual use.

Three areas covering Length, Mass and Capacity have a number of interactive activities with additional worksheets. These can be used prior to the activity to familiarise the child with the task to be undertaken on the IWB or afterwards to consolidate their understanding of the task. Differentiated activities allow more able KS1 and KS2 year groups to benefit from this resource.

Alphabet Soup is an interactive CD-Rom which enables children to access the alphabet in an effective and enjoyable way. Children learn to form letters of the alphabet correctly and recognise their name, sound and symbol. They are also able to build their reading vocabulary using the interactive dictionary part of the program.

Children can work independently because program is simple to use and the spoken text support is clearly delivered – with UK spellings and pronunciation – although texts in other languages can be selected too.

Children learn to form letters of the alphabet correctly by watching a small ball trace the letter shape on the screen and can then use the ‘writemaster’ option to trace the letter themselves with the mouse or finger on an interactive whiteboard.

The Big Editor
Resource Education

Spark Island
Spark Learning Ltd

The ‘Big Editor’ can be used alongside 'I Can Write' or 'Frameworks'. It allows the creation of new frames to be completed as part of a whole-class activity by using a projector and/or a whiteboard. The 'Big Editor' can also be used by groups of pupils working together. Picture prompts can be created or edited as can Writing Prompt frameworks. There are already frameworks both picture and writing frameworks setup.

'The Big Editor' allows individual children or small groups to access all the editing control that 'I can write' offers the teacher. The children can then go on to do individual work using the 'I Can Write'. It does allow teachers to access all the different genre offered in 'I Can Write' and could be used with all activities in the literacy hour.

Spark Island is a continually updated website that consists of collection of interactive learning activities that help children understand core concepts and practise key skills in Literacy, Numeracy, Science and ICT.

The units themselves come with a ‘toolkit’ of teaching suggestions, teacher’s notes and printable, follow-up resources including homework suggestions. There is a very useful ‘personal activity folder’ where each class or teacher can be assigned an area for storing activities that they have previously researched on the site. This function saves a lot of time when directing children to an activity.

This site is very good way of embedding ICT into Literacy, Numeracy and Science.

Welcome to Numberton
IDIGICON (Europe)

I Can Write
Resource Education

This is a series of 9 games/puzzles designed to practise skills in number recognition, addition and subtraction, shapes, sorting and ordering and problem solving. Many of the games are available at different levels.

The games encourage several different skills and are supported by a character that can be ‘clicked on’ offering verbal instructions. For example, in the Matchmaker game you have to find the pairs of objects from a grid of either 12 or 24 squares. This involves an element of counting and number recognition.

As a reward for completing activities successfully ‘stars’ are awarded. The total of these is kept going through the use of the program and once you have collected 6 stars or more there are 2 further games that can be played.

‘I Can Write’ offers two types of help for primary age writers, picture prompt frameworks (eg for KS1) and writing prompt frameworks (eg for KS2). Both can be edited and new frameworks can be set up quickly.

For example the explanation genre can be used when pupils are explaining how or why something has taken place. Some of these genres can also be used for pupils in key stage one and the word lists provided are easily accessible and can be edited.

A list of prompts can be set up for younger children or less able pupils which can support them in the various genres.

Overall this is a useful resource in the classroom.

Think carefully about what type of license you will require

• Do you need it on a network or do you just need a license for your interactive whiteboard, for example?
• It is usually cheaper to allow for as many users as required in the first place, rather than topping up later