Christmas videos on The Literacy Shed website

There are some great little video clips on the Literacy Shed website's Christmas page which could be used as stimulus for writing. The clip from The Chronicles of Narnia could be used alongside the book to look at how the author uses words to create a scene, and there are lots more. Not so sure about the Christmas version of the 3 Little Pigs though...
There's a spooky little wintery story below which is on the Literacy Shed's Ghostly page which I've used before to look at the emotion of fear and how to listen to our internal warning signs, although you might just want to look at the wintery street at the beginning. It's probably best for middle/ upper school - it's pretty scary!.

Create a festive atmosphere

Yule Play is a website where you'll find a huge range of Christmas songs to sing along to, with hundreds to choose from arranged in a variety of categories, from old classics to current pop songs with a bit of punk too if it takes your fancy.

City Creator

City Creator is a great wee game, where (you've guessed it) you construct a city. There are options to create a medieval city (great if you're doing a castles project), a futuristic city or a snowy city as in the picture above - perfect for this time of year. Children could use the snipping tool and save or print their city.

Children around the world

 This article to promote a new book 'Where Children Sleep' is a fascinating insight into the lives of children around the world - could prompt some interesting discussion in class.

It reminded me of this article from last year, showing classrooms around the world. Might be fun to provoke some thought in your classroom.

How many people are in space right now?

At this moment in time the answer is 6. If you ever look up and wonder just how many folk are up in Space, then click here to find out.
You can click on each person's name to read a biography.

ICT Advent Calendar

Come back every day for a treat in the ICT Magic 2013 advent calendar. Sadly some of these are blocked in school due to their categegorisation as 'games' according to our filter :(