Sacred Stories

This is a beautiful website, showing stories within books from Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity and Sikhism. Probably best for upper school.

Using Film in the Classroom

The Guardian published a couple of interesting articles this week about teachers using film in the classroom - could be a good use of your CPD time if you want to take a look.

The role of film in school

10 ideas for using film - We have the Lego resources mentioned here in a folder in the staffroom which came in last year, and digital copies are in the shared drive.

Website recommendation

The EAL service recommended the collaborative learning website for printable resources to support all pupils.

Diwali

Some resources for teaching your class about Diwali - click the link below the picture:

A great video on Diwali as a festival of light:
You can also watch it here and find more videos on Diwali.

Background information on Diwali

Interactive Story and quiz

Background information on Hinduism - there is a link to further resources on Diwali on the page.

Book Creator

We talked briefly about the Book Creator app at our recent development session. I though it might be worth posting more information here for anyone that wasn't there, or anyone who wants to revisit what was shown and learn more about how to use Book Creator.

I think involving our classes in making books in Book Creator is a great way for them to plan, record and evaluate their own learning - much like with making a floorbook. I think using Book Creator is quicker and easier than making a floorbook though, as you don't need to print out photos, and you can also record audio and video of the children talking about their learning, so younger classes can be actively involved without having to write.

You could use Book Creator for anything though - it wouldn't need to be like a floorbook. You could use it to keep a record of a lesson, a series of lessons, a trip, a Libby Leaders session or anything really.

I've made a short 5 minute video to explain why and how to use the Book Creator app - was a bit easier than typing out instructions and adding screenshots. It's a bit rambly but should show you how to get started.

I've also added a video below  of the book we're making in P6 (still a work in progress) to let you see how it works as a video if you didn't see it at the development session. I'll post up the finished video to our website once it's done. If you want to use this and need a hand, please let me know. Or if you make a book and have any suggestions for things that worked well, please let me know too.

Sounds for your classroom

Noisli is a lovely website where you can play a variety of different sounds, and mix them together, combining them to create background sounds to create atmosphere in your classroom (or at home if you like!)
Once you've selected your sounds, the website changes colour to suit the mood. This could be a lovely way for your children to talk about what helps them concentrate and they could try mixing sounds to get the balance right, or you could use it in Big Writing lessons either as background noise or as inspiration when writing about settings.

Colour thesaurus for writing

This website has a beautiful visual thesaurus of colours, which would be great to use in lessons to get interesting vocabulary and also great for metaphor and simile work too. The author has made one for each colour which you could display on your Smartboard from the website, or you can right click (PC) or tap and hold (iPad) to save the images.