Starfall-a website to use to younger children

www.starfall.com is an American website with a lot of different things to do. It has got 4 levels, ABCs, Learn to read, It´s fun to read and I´m reading. There are printed materials , online stories, games, drama, dialougs and songs. It is to be used from kindergarten to grade 2 but also for struggling readers. In Sweden I suppose it is meant for children in pre-school and grade 1-3. This website reminds me a bit of a of the Swedish programme called "Fem myror är fler än fyra elefanter" which made a lot of children learn to read during the 1970s.

The starfall reading programme seems to be funny and easy to use. The children can do the reading exercises on the computer on their own, together with other children or with the teacher. There are lessons and samples to use which are made for kindergarten but some of them could be useful in the lower grades in a Swedish school.
You get precise information of what grammar the task includes.

Most tasks are free but there are also more to do if you are a member but this will cost. I think there are enough tasks that are free, there´s no need to become a member. The pupils can listen to voices (other children) who give the information about the tasks and they can read short texts, write words, make drama, make finger dolls for the drama and much more.

There are also a printout function where you can get a lot of exercises to do. These printed materials are effective tools for learning and as I can see it, it can be used to check what the children have learnt. You can download and print out simple books to make. It´s the same books as you can read on the computer monitor.

There are also some tasks in maths too. You learn the numbers 1-100 for example and you learn to write the numbers in letters.

What the website do is to learn English to children as we learn young Swedish learners Swedish.

If you miss anything, you can buy things in the starfall-store but then you must be a member.

Titti Eriksson

UR - Språk

http://www.ur.se/sprak/engelska/  as a source for ICT.

This is a great site for the languageteacher to use. Often we search for good things to listen to with the pupils. This site gives you a big opportunity to listen to different variety of speaking English and do different thing afterwards. 

For to use this site of course you need a computer and Internet. If you have a cleverboard or a projector that’s nessecary to use when you want to show any film or something like that. The first thing you need to do is to choose which level you want to work on. There are four levels to choose between. The levels are graded in A1, A2, B1, B2. On this site you find links to same activity or almost the same but in Germany, French or Spanish.

You could listen to someone who talks about her country and guess which the secret country is, listen to children songs, someone talk about a book or listen to news that are easier for the children to understand. It’s called newsreel junior. I’ve used newsreel in my 6^Th grade. They understood these news more than the news from SR even that these aren’t about Sweden. There is also a game about decoration to play. 

There are also a radiotheater- Blaze. The theaterparts are about 5 minutes long and suits for year 4-6. It’s easy to listen to it. They talk not to fast.You could also watch shortfilms about different things.

You could get worksheets for the activities if you want. You could search for something in ur.play but you need to know what to search for otherwise you can use the link for ur.play. 

There’s a Tv- serie about a English Speaking Countries for year 7-9 and it’s about two young people who travel around the word and meet people with second name Foster. There is also a link to Anaconda. There you find games and activities for year 7-9 about fashion and music.

There is a special link to a pedagogical site. On this site you find a lot of things that’s useful for a language teacher. There are games for year 1-3 ( go yoyo go) and games for 7-9. 

Ingela Hammarsten

Photo story

Photo story is a software where you can make a slideshow with photos. You can take photographs yourself or use photos from internet. But remember that you have to know if you are allowed to use the photos you have downloaded from internet. You can also choose if you want to put words to the photos and even use a microphone recording your own voice narration to the photo story. If you want you can put background music into the presentation.

This software is free to download and it takes only a few minutes. You only need a computer with 400MB available hard disk space and of course a microphone to record narration.

As teacher you can make an inspiring photo story you can show your pupils before starting a new theme or project. You can also use photo story to make a presentation to learn the pupils something in a funny way. I think this is a good possibility to show the parents what`s happening in school. You can show it on a parent-teacher association meeting or the pupils can send the story by mail to their parents. You have to be careful when you will present the stories. It´s important to have permission showing the pupils in the photo stories for other people.

The pupils can make stories about what they are doing in school. They can tell stories about their lives, interests and so on. This would be a different way to report to their classmates, and maybe an easier way for the more shyer pupils.

I think this is a funny and delightly way to work in school. It´s simple to use both for adults and children. You need to know some English, but have you done it ones you are able to make it the next time without difficulties. You can do a photo story in about 15 minutes, depending on how big and extensive story you want to make. You can save it and come back later finish it.

Photo story doesn´t contain many different funtions, but it´s enough making a very nice presentation.

Active Board - ICT resource in the classroom

Active Board

Active Board is an interactive whiteboard where you use a computer connected to a projector. You use a stylus that is specially prepared for the Active Board and when you write on the Active Board you convert your text into digital text. To the Active Board there is a software which contains many different things that are useful in a classroom and to various subjects.

There are many advantages of an Active Board. An Active Board can catch today's IT children living in a technology world. It becomes more visual for the pupils and they can work more actively together. It may include the use of educational programs in which the students can act together to solve problems or create something. There are many programs on the Internet that is free, which means that there are infinitely many possibilities to use an Active Board in a classroom. There is a greater sense for the pupils when they can be active by pick and pull out different things on an Active Board than it would have been if they sat on their own at a computer. With an Active Board you can do mind maps and one advantage is that you save it on your computer and can pick up the mind map again if needed to a whole class for a repetition or students who have been away at the time when you made the mind map. Everything that you write can be saved to be picked up for repetion or what ever purpose you may have. A good thing with an Active Board is that it is durable so you don´t need to be afraid to let pupils use it.

What you need to be aware of when it comes to an Active Board is that it can take quite a long time to start using it fully. You have to expect that it takes up to one year provided that you spend time to familiarize yourself with all the possibilities that exist with it and that you get the right education. It can also take a little longer to prepare lessons in the beginning but once you have your lessons saved you can use them again in another class after perhaps some changes. The most important thing about an Active Board is that the technology is with you. If there is something wrong with the technology when you are going to have a lesson you need to have a back up plan for the class.

Most children have used a computer and the Internet for several years before they start school. How can we meet these children when they come to the world of school? One way might be to have classrooms with Active Boards.

By Louise Johansson

Learn and have fun with LearnEnglish Kids from British Council/BBC

http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/

LearnEnglish Kids is a site from British Council/BBC. It is directed to children, in the age of 1-11 years old, all over the world, who are learning English as a second or foreign language.

It is a free website and you can use it without to register an account, but if you do, you get access to more parts. You need an internet connection and Adobe Reader. The children can use it at home, alone or with friends. They can also use it in school, individually or in groups. If you, as a teacher, use it in school with a group of students, a projector would be a useful tool and, of course, a computer to each pupil would be a dream for this, as well as for all ICT-uses in school.
Except for the children, the site has two target groups, teachers and parents. As a teacher, you are free to use any materials on the website in the classroom, as well as the children are free to use it in school or at home, as mentioned above.

The site's structure and uses

LearnEnglish kids is divided into five sections. These sections are;

Games: There you can find online games and activities about different topics. Games are divided into fun games, learn words, find words, play with words and spell words. There are a lot of games with different themes, such as colours, animals in the sea, the world, the spring and the classroom and so on. Sometimes you have to read, other times listen or be quick on your keyboard. Also, there can be a combination of these skills.

Listen and watch: In this section there are animated stories and songs. Listen and watch are divided into songs, short stories, kids talk, kids news and tongue twisters. You can watch and listen to songs and short stories with the aim to learn counting, the alphabet or names of the animals in a zoo for instance. Many of these have also worksheets that you can download and use in the classroom. There are also videos and online activities designed to practise listening skills.

Read and write: This section has worksheets to download and use as a help for the pupils to develop their reading and writing skills. This section has a part called your turn, which also invites students to write contributions to the site. They ask the children to write about different things relating to the particular task. All a child has to do is to find a question that interests them and write as much as they can about it on the site. Word of the week explains a word, awesome for instance, with the help of a short video clip.

Make: This is a creative section. You can find online activities, such as creating your own story in story maker. You can also make a crazy animal in a game called animal maker or do your own comic strip. You can also find arts and worksheets to download and you can see videos of children who are making things.

Explore: This section is where children can find help when using the LearnEnglish Kids website. They can also find a list of links to other useful websites for their learning.
As a teacher, you can find tips about how to use the material on the site, called Teaching kids section. These tips you can find on the British Council/BBC website Teaching English, which is an external link. There are a lot of detailed lesson plans for instance. Additionally, there is also a special link for parents in order to get optimal use of the LearnEnglish Kids website.

My thoughts about LearnEnglish kids

For teachers, there are an enormous variety of uses to explore of the website LearnEnglish Kids. Some parts fit in to the early years of teaching and others can be used up to 12 to 13 years of age. You need to explore a lot to find all the possibilities that the site offers.

One of the most interesting things I found about the site was the possibility to find ways to integrate other school subjects. For example, if you read about the human body you can find numbers of exercises relevant to that topic. Or if you read about different religions you can listen and watch a little story about the Islamic festival called "Eid al Fitr" in a series called my favorite day. If you found an activity in a topic which fitted your wishes you get suggestions on more activities for similar topics.

The parts that invite kids to write contributions are very good for their training in how to express their opinions or their thoughts in written English also, they have a great opportunity to interact with other children.

If you as a teacher have a clear goal with your lesson planning, this site may be a great complement to other things the pupils does in their process to learn English. It would be a good idea to introduce the web site for the pupils the first time, individually or in a group. You could introduce them to the website and show them what they specifically should focus on. Let the pupils become aware of what they are supposed to practice in each particular activity so they not just "do" things. Once the activities are introduced to a pupil, he or she can use them in school or as homework, to reach every pupil’s special needs.

LearnEnglish kids has an appealing layout and colours and in my opinion, one of the best things, compared to other websites is that you do not get lost among a numerous of advertising windows. To summarize, I think it is well worth for a teacher to take the time to explore what British Councils website LearnEnglish kids have to offer.

Elisabeth Wikström

The Wonderful World of National Geographic

The wonderful world of National Geographic

Do you want to learn English and find out something about our amazing world at the same time? If the answer is "yes" have a look at this website www.kids.nationalgeographic.com.

The only thing you need is a computer with an internet-connection. If you are going to use it together with all your students at the same time, a projector is also a good idea.

The site has got ten sections such as games (of course), videos, animals and pets, photos, countries etc. The students can probably learn some English by navigating any of the sections but the most useful for you as a teacher are videos, animals and pets, countries and fun stuff.

You can train listening comprehension in the video-section where you can choose from categories such as Science and Space, People and Places, Animals and Pets etc. You can find the subject Animals and Pets at many places in this website, but here it focuses on watching videos.

The next section is Animals and Pets and if you click on "All" you can choose from over a hundred species of animals categorized in mammals, birds, bugs etc. You can also read about different habitats like Arctic, Freshwater, Grassland and more. When you click on an animal, you can read about it, watch a short video and look at a map to find out where in the world it lives. You can even send an e-card to a friend with a nice picture of the animal. There are also suggestions on other species who live in the same kind of habitat, that you can click on to and read about.

Continuing our expedition you can read about many different countries if you click on Countries - All. If you are looking for a specific country, you can easily find it since they are sorted in alphabetical order or in continents. This section is built up in the same way as Animals and Pets, with texts, short videos, a map and with the possibility to send an e-card to a friend.

The last section that I will talk about is Fun stuff. Here you can find instructions on how to make some science experiments, creative ideas for crafts, recipes, contests etc. So if you want to do something funny together with your pupils at the end of the semester for example, you might get some inspiration here.

I think this is a good opportunity to work with English at the same time as another subject in a funny way. All these sections can be explored by individual students, but also in groups or together with the whole class. 

As a kind of follow-up, there are quizzes for the students to test themselves in different subjects, for example geography quiz under the Game section. These are quite difficult, but clever students in year 5-6 can absolutely do them and enjoy it. As a teacher you can make small cards with different questions like "What did you enjoy most?", "Did you learn any new words, and what words in that case?", "Was there anything that you would like to know more about?". After each session, they have to answer one or two of these questions so that you can give some feed-back. A good idea is to let the students tell each other about it as well. 

If you watch or read something together with the whole class, you can use it for communication and discussions with the students. You can for example give them questions to discuss in groups and then give the opinions in the class. 

As you can see, there are many ways of using this web-site, and I'm sure that you can come up with some more. Good luck!

/Lina Sandberg