resources update issue 66

• British National Space Centre - The Learning Zone
• Cambridge Training and Development - The Spelling Disc
• Spiny Software - Ponds & Streams
• Rigby Educational Publishers - Navigator Dimensions - Interactive Teaching Software: Year 3/P4
• Nelson Thornes Ltd - Horizons: Electronic Resources CD-ROM - Geography 11 - 14
• NAACE - Primary Focus on Geography
• National Theatre - Stagework.org.uk
• Jubilee Kids Project - The Way2Go Website

This is a very interesting website which contains loads of information about space and space exploration. It is aimed at students, teachers and parents but teachers are particularly well catered for with ample worksheets and lesson plans for the various activities. The website can be used for whole class teaching and individual work. Main curriculum subject areas covered include science, maths, ICT and to a lesser extent geography, history and design technology.

The website contains a wide range of materials and activities including challenging games to test knowledge, improve numeracy skills, modelling simulations, programming and prediction skills. The Learning Zone materials have been written to meet the requirements of both the National Curriculum and Scottish Curriculum. This site is well worth a look for holiday projects, too!

The Spelling Disc program targets improving spelling skills by incorporating information, examples, exercises and interactive activities. Designed primarily for adult learners, I envisage that it would also be a useful resource for Special Needs students in both Key Stages 3 and 4. Students would use The Spelling Disc to reinforce their knowledge as and when they needed to do so.

The introduction, featuring video presentations and multiple-choice questions, provides students with an opportunity to discover their preferred learning style. In each topic area there is an explanation, with examples, practice exercises, games and follow-up activities, e.g. worksheets. The games and activities are simple to complete successfully. The product offers support for the current emphasis on Literacy in all Key Stages.

This is a great CD-ROM resource, particularly for non-specialist teachers wishing to make Geography interesting and relevant for the pupils.

It is a comprehensive catalogue of photos, documents, interactive files, PowerPoint presentations and very useful web links to be used across KS1 and KS2 Schemes of Work.

In KS1 its application is very clear for Unit 5 - ‘Where in the world is Barnaby Bear?’ where children follow Barnaby’s adventures and develop the enthusiasm to start their own story. There are further examples of work supporting Unit 1 ‘Around our School’ and Unit 3 ‘An Island Home’.
KS2 children are further supported across Units 6, 8, 12, 19 and 21. Of particular note are the interactive weather files that leave children fired with enthusiasm for wind speed and cloud formation.

Ponds & Streams

Stagework.org.uk

Spiny Software

Spiny Software’s Ponds and Streams is an excellent environmental game and reference CD-ROM for ages 7-11 and supports Key Stage 2 of the National Curriculum and is both Mac and PC compatible. It is an exciting interactive journey of discovery of life in ponds and streams. It includes a virtual version of their best-selling fold-out identification sheet and fact-filled reference sections with over 60 video clips, activities such as virtual pond dipping, making a scrapbook and using a key to identify pond animals, plus a game section where the pond animals need help making their pond look nice. Once the tasks are done, mini-games become available to play. The text, graphics and video clips have been thoughtfully presented to stimulate a responsive working relationship with the user.

Stagework is a web-based service which allows insight into the rehearsal process and the technical aspects of staging dramatic performances at the Royal National Theatre and other leading Repertory Theatres. Stagework attempts to increase awareness and encourage young people to consider the theatre as a career choice. Stagework also offers downloadable lesson plans, units of work and video clips for teachers of English, drama and citizenship, based on productions such as Henry V, His Dark Materials and The Crucible, with helpful National Curriculum links and clearly defined learning objectives. Workshops offer innovative approaches to teaching these texts, as well as an archive of filmed discussions based on issues raised by interpreting them. Authors, playwrights and directors also offer their views and explain the process from conception to performance.

Navigator Dimensions is an interactive literacy teaching resource, which links to the NC. This blended program adopts a thematic approach to teaching literacy and includes pupil books to support independent and collaborative work. The themes include using drama, writing reports, stories, poetry, Myths and Legends, writing play scripts and instructions. The teaching CD-ROM is a whole-class English teaching tool, designed to provide visually stimulating experiences, for use on an IWB or with a data projector.

Dimensions contains a variety of interactive resources including video clips, animated stories and poems, interviews with leading authors and a variety of pictures to encourage children to think about their writing. There are many great resources that accompany this software providing cross-curricular links and ideas to develop all the children’s writing in an imaginative way.

The Way2Go website is an interesting and thought provoking RE web based resource which provides an introduction to Christianity, primarily for pupils aged 8 to 12.
There are many aspects to this website; some sections are useful for introductions to important religious events, some sections contain information about God and Jesus, and it has valuable sources of reference. Many of the sections have practical tasks together with plenty of information and pictures to serve as excellent preparation for Religious Education topics.

The website can introduce a theme, identify further aspects during a lesson, be a reference tool or aid plenary sessions. The information will directly deliver key concepts and provide many useful references. This website should prove to be an extremely valuable and free resource to aid curriculum planning.

Hardware and planning issues

• Check your hardware is compatible with the resource – for both stand- alone machines and the network.
• Check that all teachers who’ll be using the resource have reliable and regular access to necessary equipment, eg a whiteboard for whiteboard software.
• Check whether the resource requires a licence, which states how many people may use a piece of software.