Dangerous routes to School

Next time I'm finding it hard to get up in the morning, I'll be thankful that my route to school doesn't involve any of these methods. Some fantastic images to share with your class - I imagine they might find some of these exciting though! You could use these as a basis for discussing risk assessments when planning a trip, looking at risks in road safety, or in learning about other children around the world. You could also look here for more images of children around the world to compare to our homes and classrooms.

Creativity with road signs!

The picture below shows some uncropped road signs - might be useful for an art lesson, or work on signs! (Click on the image, then right click to save it.)

Google Street View

This article links to several new views within Google Maps which enable you to see down streets, paths and other places inaccessible to the Google car. Google employees have carried cameras mounted on backpacks to let you see Venice, the Grand Canyon the Amazon basin and more.

Commonwealth Games

Some resources for teaching about the Commonwealth and the Commonwealth Games:
 
Game On Scotland website

 Commonwealth Class Education Pack (pdf)

 Red Cross website - Teaching activities linked to the Commonwealth Games designed to help young people explore the idea of a welcoming refugees and asylum seekers.

 Countries of the Commonwealth flag printables - colouring pages, bookmarks, booklets and themed writing paper for every Commonwealth country.

Commonwealth Games page on Twinkl - mainly display resources, but also a bingo game and some themed writing paper.

Primary Treasure Chest website - lots of display resources, also wordsearches and worksheets.

All about Clyde, the Commonwealth Games mascot - games to learn about the Commonwealth countries. Might be good to explore with your class on the Smartboard.

New Years Resolutions and Setting Goals

Chris Hadfield is a Canadian astronaut who was the Commander of the International Space Station in 2013, and became a celebrity due to his use of social media to share photographs and videos of his time orbitting Earth. There are photos he took of Scotland here, and a slideshow of other photos here. His YouTube channel is worth a visit too. He was in Edinburgh in December and visited Liberton High School to speak to pupils - many of our pupils will have friends or older brothers or sisters who heard him speak. The comic below shows the answer he gave to a child who asked online for advice on becoming an astronaut. I think it'd be great to use to talk about aiming for your goals in life - and how even small steps and determination can help shape who you want to become. Click here for a larger version.

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.

Google Earth

Google Earth is now installed in the ICT suite, and is an essential resource. Here's a quick video to get you started navigating in Google Earth if you've never used it before:
There are now a huge range of things you can do in Google Earth:
 * Click here for some highlights including maps of the Moon, Mars and the sky!
 * The showcase page here is an impressive way to start, from discovering shipwrecks on the ocean floor to zooming in on 3D cities around the world.
* Click here for a gallery of maps, including maps relating to history, science and nature, travel and recreation and many more.
* Click here for the learnign page, full of tutorials to help you explore as many of the features of this amazing resource as you like.

The 3 Pyramids

The 3 Pyramids looks amazing - a game from the National Museums of Scotland.
You are Ahmose, a priest in a temple. The high priest has died and you must prepare him for his journey to the afterlife by collecting all the objects required to get him there. Be warned~ you have only got until sunrise to complete your mission.
Find out more about the objects you collect in the Three Pyramids game HERE.
The Three Pyramids in the game are based on real Ancient Egyptian pyramids and you can find out more about them on the pdf you can download HERE, Then test your Ancient Egyptian knowledge with the online Three Pyramids quiz.

3D Toad

3D Toad is a collection of rotatable, three dimensional, artefacts that it is possible to spin and zoom in on. A good set of objects to use in many learning opportunities.
Investigate 360° models (some of which have alternate 3D views that can be viewed with 3D glasses) of disections, animal and human skeletons, goelogical and fossil specimens, historical object and more.

Why it's a toad, I've no idea.

Time Toast - make timelines

Timetoast is an online application which makes it possible for users to design and build their own interactive timelines. These timelines can then be shared on the internet by embedding them into any site. Timetoast is free and the only thing a teacher needs to register is an email address.

Once you create your timeline, viewers can click on date points to see what is significant about the event. From there they can expand the entry to see pictures and additional information. Timetoast is free to register and use.

There are some timelines already online, for example this one on the chronology of the Moon Landings. 

Timelines are a great way to see what happened when and get all that information in perspective. There are other timeline services which offer more advanced features like adding video, but Timetoast allows you to
 * Create online time lines
* Share your time lines with the world
* Embed your timeline onto other sites
* Add images to your timeline

Create a planet!

This is a fab website, which I'll probably be using with classes in ICT this term - you can create a little mini planet from Google Maps. You can go anywhere in the world to make your mini planet, and then use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move around it. Brilliant for discussion and writing inspiration.

Infant encyclopedia

This is a lovely site for Smartboards - a clear visual encyclopedia on a range of topics.

Exploring the World from Your Classroom

Geoguesser is an addictive and fun game which involves guessing where in the world you are. You're shown a place in Google Street View, and can turn 360 degrees, or continue on down the road in search of more clues as to which country you've landed in. You may be in a snow covered or sun-baked landscape, so it's really a case of narrowing down which continent you're in by using clues such as the climate, which plants are growing, what the landscape looks like, what language road signs are in and any more you can find. You then click on a map to place a marker close to where you think the view is, and are shown how far away your guess is and are awarded points for how close you got. This will be hard for Primary children, (I'd recommend for Primary 5 and up) but will be great fun with more practise, and could generate some great discussion.

Edinburgh History

I was reminded of these fantastic websites recently. Click here for Our Town Stories which is full of fascinating stories, maps and images. Whose Town can be accessed through Glow. It's an amazing resource, with interactive resources on 14 real people who lived in Edinburgh from 1850 to 1950. A personal archive is collected in a digital box - one for each person. Each Life in a Box is stored in one of four different attics, each attic representing a different era in history. The eras are named as Victorian Edinburgh (1870s - 1890s, Brave New World (1900 - 1914), Carrot Jam and Pudding Pie (World War 2), and Change in the Air (1950s).

Chinese New Year

I've listed below some websites with interactive activities and videos to show your class. These would be good to share together in your classrooms, or could be used as lessons in the ICT suite. The BBC Learning Zone Class Clips website has many more videos about China here

Yong's China Quest Adventure is a fantastic game for children to play and learn about aspects of China as they solve puzzles. Probably suitable for p4 and up.

One of my favourites - The Poisson Rouge website has a section with Mandarin here where children can click on pictures and hear how to say the word in Mandarin - while best for nursery, P1 and P2, this would probably be great for all ages!

The fab Language of the Month website (which Jane mentioned at our development session recently) can be found here, and has Cantonese and Mandarin. These would be great to use on your Smartboards.

The Mylo website has some activities that children could work through on their own in the ICT suite. While the site is designed for Secondary school, children in P5-7 would probably manage some of the simpler activities.

Websites for Africa week

 
This is the 'Introduction to Kenya' video from the fab BBC Learning Zone class clips website. There are a further 32 clips relating to Kenya here which are suitable for all stages of school.

This site has lots of information and printable activities to use during Africa week: Young Africa

For lessons based on Kenya, the Christian Aid site has some interesting looking things: Christian Aid





A simple (but fast!) Kenyan song to learn.