English
DfEE - National Curriculum - Primary English section
Support for the literacy hour
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
(Not yet in alphabetical order)
This online collection of easy to navigate Aesop's Fables includes a total of 655+ Fables, indexed in table format, with morals listed. Included are Real Audio narrations, Classic Images, Random Fables, Search Engine, and 127 Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen. A good site from which to select another genre for the Literacy Hour. http://www.pacificnet.net/~johnr/aesop/
This site provides a range of 'ambigrams'; words that can be viewed in different ways, mostly involving rotational or reflection symmetry. If you have a computer in the learning area, this site could be used to demonstrate symmetry in an interesting and different way and could be a fun addition to literacy teaching. It is well worth the pupils looking at and is fun to use at home.
http://ambigram.com/gallery/index.htm
Excellent animation combined with a variety of different approaches for different age groups makes this one of the best educational sites around. Games, puzzles and quizzes for ages 3 to 13+ are backed up with worksheets, software and ideas for teachers. This is a great all round resource, particularly for the Literacy and Numeracy Hours, but you do need an advanced browser with JavaScript to get the most out of it. http://www.argosphere.co.uk/
Ancient
Greek Literacy Hour Resources
Compiled for Year 3 teachers by All Souls School, London, this site offers material for a thematic Literacy Hour. Consult the Ancient Greek Word Book for thesaurus and dictionary work. Try wordsearches from Theseus and the Minotaur, or a cloze text based on the tales of Heracles. Plus many other ideas for individual and whole-class activities. http://www.rmplc.co.uk/eduweb/sites/allsouls/bm/aglithr1.html
An American site dedicated to the famous World War II diarist. There is information about her life and selected extracts from her diary. Many parts of the site are still under construction (October 1998), including an education section. The site is useful for history or literacy at Key Stage 2. http://www.annefrank.com/.
Authors
and Illustrators on the Web
Information on authors of children's books, such as Dr Suess, Lewis Carroll and C S Lewis.
Alice's
Adventures In Wonderland (multimedia)
Every day, a new word and its definition will be sent to you by e-mail. By creating a rota, children can take it in turns to check the e-mail and then deliver the word of the day to the class.
This site provides a useful index to the various online literary resources maintained by the BBC, including indexes to pages on other BBC sites and a guide to book-related radio and television programming, plus features on such subjects as 'romantic fiction' and publishing, which includes help on finding writing courses. http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/bookcase/
If you are just browsing for something interesting, this would be a great place to start. This simple index provides access to all BBC Education's sites, organised by subject. Choose from Health and Age Matters, Families and Relationships, Lifestyle, Art and Literature, History and Culture, Natural History, Business and Employment, Education and the mysterious 'Other'…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/archive.shtml
This is a well-organised and informative site dedicated to the American author Betsy Byars.
This vast collection of illustrated stories to print off is not simply for bedtime.
Better
Reading Partnership Scheme
THE Better Reading Partnership was designed by members of the Bradford Language and Literacy team and is part of Bradford Education Authority's integrated approach to raising levels of literacy achievement.
This website from the BBC tells you how to introduce babies to books and to help them get the most from their early experiences of them.
An online treasure hunt in which viewers must follow the story and answer questions about pirates along the way.
This site covers data collection, sampling, representation and probability through newspaper articles, each of which features a discussion and link to associated topics. An Australian site, the context of the articles may be an occasional drawback but they would make good cross-curricular links. It would be a good resource for tackling interpretation of data, plus it has good links with literacy and general numeracy. http://www.ni.com.au/mercury/mathguys/mercindx.htm
Choose from a selection of wordsearches of varying difficulty, all with a festive theme. The site is suitable at Key Stage 1 upwards for literacy. A useful seasonal resource for developing literacy skills. There are links to other sites, including Castle Oaks where a sample puzzle-maker is available to download. http://www.gamesdomain.co.uk/tigger/xmas/word.html
Cosmic's Yo-Yo Tricks -
The Throws
A site that can be used directly in a KS2 literacy hour, so it must be worth a look! Every junior class is awash with yo-yos at the moment so try these instructions out, discuss the structure of each seperate sentence at whole class level, then get the children to try them out and make modifications. Just tell the class to bring in their yo-yos! http://www.iwc.com/cosmicyo/throws.html
''Crayon'' is a valuable opportunity for pupils to create their own online newspaper. It is a free service encouraging pupils to search the net for news links to include in a paper created by the pupils and updated regularly. The Crayon newspaper could form part of an on-going project looking at web news and media with Key Stage 4 pupils, or simply be used as a writing and comprehension exercise. A very adaptable teaching resource. http://crayon.net/
Hundreds of cryptic and quick crosswords, wordsearches and other puzzles are available on this entertaining British site.
Find illustrated stories, riddles, colouring pages, and an annotated list of related sites written especially for Key Stage 1 pupils.
Candlelight
Stories Kids’ Zone
This is an American site that aims to support literacy. There are a number of short texts for shared and guided reading in the Literacy Hour at KS1 and 2.
Children's
Literature Web Guide
Also Children's Literature Web Guide Story Collection
This site provides links to authors' official websites, collections and stories on the Web.
Come and play in Dynamo's Den where children aged 5-9 can find quizzes, games, stories and much more. This exciting, interactive BBC website will help young children at home improve their literacy and numeracy skills as part of a dynamic TV, internet and book package. There is also help for parents on children's books and games, a Q&A, links, contacts, etc. You need to download the latest version of Macromedia Shockwave/Flash to get the most out of this excellent website. http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/parents/dynamo/
Based on Stevenson's 'Treasure Island', this site encourages students to imagine and 'design' a pirate. It is a great opportunity for exercising descriptive writing skills and improving literacy. Students can send their descriptions to the site and the best will be published online. http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/treasure/projects/design.htm
An online English dictionary from America. Simply enter the word and all meanings are provided. An excellent resource where your classroom dictionary is inadequate. There are links to other online dictionaries and language resources including Roget’s Thesaurus. There is also Doctor Dictionary, who can answer language questions. http://www.dictionary.com/
This is primarily an education Internet service that aims to link members of the education community and provide resources for them. There is an Internet pen-pal service for pupils and teachers and a library of information ranging from careers leaflets to a newspaper and picture archive. They also host school and college websites for free, and have an area for teachers containing online magazines, discussion groups and resources catalogues. A Web-surfing page gives ready access to the well-known search engines like Infoseek and AltaVista. This site has great graphics and is very user-friendly. http://www.eduweb.co.uk/
This is an online club for students and teachers of English as a Foreign Language or English as a Second Language, although some of the exercises could be used in the primary classroom for literacy practice. It abounds with reference and test materials at different levels for students, recommended books and opportunities for discussion, and there are lots of downloadable resources for teachers. http://www.englishclub.net
Gain inspiration from these examples of Ancient Egyptian dictionaries created by students from Urbana Middle School (Illinois, USA).
Articles can be read offline at leisure and online searches will provide extra information for the interested student.
Teachers and pupils looking for fun English language sites on the web will enjoy 'Fake Out!', a language game that improves literacy skills by asking children to guess at the meanings of unusual words. Key Stage 2 and 3 pupils can get involved in the next week's game by suggesting outlandish definitions, 'Call My Bluff'-style. http://www.eduplace.com/dictionary/index.html
Free Email
Hotmail or
'Writing for a purpose' is one of the best ways to get imaginative, inventive and extended writing from your class.
Visit these site sand give children a free, personal e-mail account (some children can set this up themselves). They can write to whomever they like, whenever they like - and more often than not will find regular writing buddies whilst improving their literacy skills.Try pairing up a reluctant writer with a good typist to help motivate children who find writing difficult.
This site teaches young children about opposites through interactive games and animated pictures. Good quality graphics and clear picture clues make this engaging site a useful tool to motivate less able readers. This would be an excellent resource for children struggling with basic literacy. http://www.funschool.com/cgi-bin/ga?ds_rel1,p
Hunt for fifteen royal names in this interactive word search. A fun literacy activity for Key Stage 2 pupils with an Ancient Egyptian theme.
Short fables are used as the basis for language exercises on this well-organised and easy-to-use website.
Provides pupils with many opportunities for having educational fun whilst improving literacy and numeracy skills.
Mystified by Sentence Fragments? Stunned by Plurals and Possessives? Need help with Spelling Rules? Then try this site. Both teachers and children will benefit from a comprehensive and authorititive list of definitions and the workings of English grammar. Quick and easy to access; quick and easy to use. Highly recommended as part of the Literacy Hour. http://webster.commnet.edu/HP/pages/darling/grammar.htm
Grandad's Animal Book
- K to 3
This American alphabet of animals either gives information about the animal or, using RealAudio and animated GIFs, a poem about each animal is read with simple cartoon animations. It is good fun for younger children and could be useful within the Literacy Hour or at home. http://www.maui.com/~twright/animals/ek3.htm
Pronouns; verbs; busy prepositions? It is all at the Grammar Rock site. The intention is to put ideas to music and lyrics, thereby making things easier to remember. Unfortunately, the site is rather Americanised but, used carefully, provides an excellent resource for the Literacy Hour. http://genxtvland.simplenet.com/SchoolHouseRock/index-hi.shtml
Gaggle is a language game that teaches children the names for groups of animals. The new vocabulary is tested with a series of timed, quick-fire, multiple-choice questions. In addition to improving vocabulary, this English activity develops speed-reading skills like skimming and scanning. It is best suited to very able children who can compete to see who can get the best score in the least time; a potential Literacy Hour activity. http://www.learningkingdom.com/gaggle/home.html
Griffin
Logue’s Wild Animal Web Site
See, hear, and learn about a wide variety of wild animals at this attractive, informative site.
This is an alphabetically-arranged collection of animal poems, each letter illustrated with a different animal.
This is a varied and up-to-date collection of children's book reviews, mainly of US origin. Recent reviews include 'Behind the Bedroom Wall' by Laura F. Williams which is critically and fully reviewed for teenage readers. This is a good book- browsing site for mid-teenage students with particular reading interests, and it also has a section of children's fiction. http://www.bookwire.com/hmr/
Harper Collins Children's Books
From the title page at this site follow the link to 'how a book is made' to find a child-friendly 7 stage journey into the making of a book. Great to use with a book study, the literacy hour or as a sequencing exercise. Children can follow the process as a book idea travels from publisher to designer to artist, then moves into production and then finally to print. Why not make your own book in class as you follow the process. http://www.harperchildrens.com
This site is simply a text of one of the Rudyard Kipling ‘Just So’ stories, but is beautifully illustrated. Key Stage 3 pupils working on storytelling would find this site attractive and appealing and it could be used to supplement Literacy Hour work. There is also a link to ‘How the Ant Made a Bargain’. http://www.sff.net/people/karawynn/justso/leopard.htp
Houghton Mifflin Spelling
and Vocabulary
This educational publisher offers a site of engaging word games and exercises designed to provide Key Stage 3 pupils with strategies for dealing with complex spellings. While the games focus on spelling patterns, the pupils are also developing their vocabularies through a series of progressively harder units. This could be a useful site to enhance the Literacy Hour as well as general English teaching. http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/hmsv/index.html
Harper Collins Children's
Site
A great educational site from this publishing company. There are sections on maths and reading both with activities, exercises and games to keep the user interested. There is a section on how books are made, and also teacher's guides to accompany most sections. A good primary level resource for English and maths. http://www.harperchildrens.com/index.htm
Using this site can enhance the Literacy Hour. It is a simple game of hangman. Be warned, though - words can be difficult and there is some advertising. However, given a limited amount of time, neither of these should present a problem and the site can be used effectively in English lessons. http://www.networkessentials.com/hangman.cgi
Into the Wardrobe: The C S Lewis Web
Site
An attractive site with plenty of information and illustration for pupils reading the ‘Chronicles of Narnia’. Pupils can browse through a photo gallery, hear readings by the author and find answers to frequently asked questions about C S Lewis. Teachers and parents should be aware of a linked chat room which they may wish to monitor. Useful for the Literacy Hour. http://cslewis.drzeus.net/
Internet Public Library Story Hour
A selection of stories, including 'Little Red Riding Hood', at the Internet Public Library. Some are text and images only, while others use audio files of various formats, including RealPlayer, with American voices. Useful where the stories are being used in the Literacy Hour at Key Stage 1. http://www.ipl.org/youth/StoryHour/
Also http://www.ipl.org/cgi-bin/youth/youth.out.pl?sub=rzn0000
Teachers interested in ideas and techniques in storytelling should visit this site for a library of information to help in the classroom.
Specifically designed for the Literacy Hour at Key Stage 1, this site includes two online Big Books, and the opportunity for children to respond to the books by e-mail.
Children can investigate word structure, letter relationships and letter patterns.
Internet
Library
Well worth revisiting. The idea is to get any books that are out of copyright
on to the Internet. It is a breathtaking, scholarly under- taking. Sceptics
will say, who wants to read a book from a screen? The chances are that many
of us will soon as screen technology improves. All books are free and will
never go out of print or be confined to libraries.
Judy Blume’s Official Web Site
A well organised and informative site dedicated to the American author Judy Blume. Judy gives writing tips, for example, on how she uses her notebook. There are answers to favourite questions, biographical details and information and comment about all her books. A great resource for teachers at Key Stages 2 using her books in the classroom for literacy. http://www.judyblume.com/
The home to numerous links to official and unofficial author and book series websites. There are well over 100 authors listed.
K.
This is an online magazine with poems and stories written by and for children. It is useful to compare paper-based magazines with this interactive, non-linear one. Classroom discussion could highlight the differences in navigation, advertising and layout between the two media, and use the content to improve literacy skills. http://www.cyberkids.com/ReadingRoom/ReadingRoom.html
Year seven and eight pupils will enjoy this site which keeps young readers up to date with recent book releases.
Excellent resource for developing library and literacy skills with printable activity pages. Targeting 8- to 12-year-olds, but adaptable for both adults and younger children, the Starter level introduces history, word searches, quizzes and basic library functions whilst the Explorer level offers more challenging exercises - book reports, non-fiction, contents activities and reader profiles. Plus notes for further development and suggested extension work. A very useful package. http://www.heinemann.co.uk
Many links to other literacy sites.
This exciting and visually appealing picture dictionary site provides a superb introduction to navigating on the WWW. Each picture, when clicked on, links to a relevant website, giving students a feel for 'Net surfing'. Some text may need adult help to be read. This flexible resource is good for use with small groups to explore the possibilities of the internet whilst improving literacy. There are also French, German, Portugese and Spanish versions which may be useful for teaching basic vocabulary at secondary level. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Dictionary.html
This is a newspaper written by and for kids. Each issue has a central theme which teachers can use as a basis for lesson plans or discussion ideas. The activity page could be used as the starting point for interactive, online lesson plans for creative writing, English or language arts as part of the Literacy Hour. There is also a section for teachers, a resources page of classroom products and the chance to write letters to the editor. This is a good site for classes developing an internet project of starting their own paper. Suitable up to KS2. http://littleplanettimes.com/
This is a stunning site and an invaluable resource for teaching literacy. It is based on the schools television series and children embark on an animated comic strip adventure with contextualised rhyming, phonic, dictionary and story-writing activities. The site could be used to motivate reluctant (or able) readers and to test and reinforce word and text level work. This is a must. http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/lookandread/
Little Animals Activity
Centre
Enter the world of Foxy Dancer, Digby Mole, Story Bear and other friends and experiment with a fun way to learn and play at home. There are loads of activities and exercises for 4- to 8-year-olds, ranging from literacy and numeracy tests to reading skills and musical recognition. A Shockwave extravaganza, this site will keep even adults interested for many hours with its fun graphics and lovable characters. http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/laac/
All Souls School (London W1) offer Literacy Hour resources for Key Stage 1 and 2 teachers. They provide worksheets and activities on grammar, alphabetical order and sp/sh phonics. Also included is material relating to books such as 'James and the Giant Peach', 'The Hobyahs' and 'The Beast with a Thousand Teeth', plus links to other resources. http://www.rmplc.co.uk/eduweb/sites/allsouls/english/literacyhr/literacyhour.html
Literacy
activities from the Standards and Effectiveness Unit
Masses and masses of classroom materials to support the teaching of literacy. Classified by activies and levels. The files are PDF files which means that they are Acrobat files and will require downloading before they can be printed out.
This site shows children a picture which illustrates a simple three-letter word, e.g. 'key'. The word appears with the first letter missing. An animated picture rewards the student when the correct letter is selected to complete a word. It would work well as a teacher-led group activity with different pupils taking turns to fill in the blank. It contains some US vocabulary, e.g. 'bug' for 'ladybird'. It could be useful as part of the Literacy Hour or for young children learning at home. http://www.funschool.com/cgi-bin/ga?az_match1,p
Great site for finding links to sites to support the curriculum. Lots of literacy links.
There is a whole wealth of material available to support literacy. This is only a small section. A good place to start might be Literacy support materials
A multi-lingual dictionary and thesaurus are available on this site for wordsmiths everywhere. There are also word games, 'Word of the Day', radio transcripts, products and all sorts of other things to interest the general reader and seasoned author alike. Children of all ages would enjoy using this site to find new words for their own creative work.http://www.m-w.com/home.htm
This is a useful booklist for Nursery and Primary teachers enabling mathematical concepts to be introduced or extended through stories. It broadly divides mathematics into the following categories: addition, counting, estimating, fractions, geometry, graphing, measurement, money, multiplication and division, and number sense. There are plenty of suggestions for each category, and the site is a good way to combine the Literacy and the Numeracy hour. http://archon.educ.kent.edu/Oasis/Resc/Educ/mathkidslit.html
This Mark Twain home page offers the full range of information on the American author, including a biography and famous quotes as well a selection of vintage photographs.
NALD gathers, sorts, stores and makes available information on literacy programming, resources, services, contacts, events, awards, funding sources, and, most importantly, resources that can be used in the classroom. A thorough and informative site that it is an excellent teacher's resource. http://www.nald.ca
This is an alphabetical listing of nursery rhymes, some with their historical context given. It could be the basis of a project for pupils researching the origins of various nursery rhymes and discussing their findings as a group. An accessible way for children to study English language and a useful aid to the Literacy Hour. http://www-sqi.cit.gu.edu.au/~tracy/rhymes/list.html#p
Native
American Bedtime Story Collection
A number of original tales, from a variety of tribes, have been collated here, plus some inspired by Native American folklore.
The site offers links, writing and publishing tips, as well as competitions and requests for submissions.
NativeTech:
Native American Poetry and Stories
NativeTech publishes beautifully illustrated stories and poems, and welcomes submissions from writers of all cultures.
The National Literacy Trust is a charity set up in 1993 to work in partnership with others to enhance literacy standards throughout the UK.
North Pole
Christmas activities
Newspapers
on-line from Europe and the US.
This excellent site lists all the world's major newpapers.
Online Exhibits @ the Exploratorium
Published by a museum in San Francisco, this site contains investigations and puzzles for Key Stage 2 pupils in a variety of disciplines, many of which require Shockwave from Macromedia. Others use MPEG, Quicktime movies or RealPlayer. Most of the investigations themselves will complement work in the classroom. The collection is well worth a browse. http://www.exploratorium.edu/exhibits/
Official
Guide to Northern Ireland
This website describes Northern Ireland in just a few paragraphs, which could form the context for a locality study. Alternatively, it could inspire a 'home page' writing exercise for the students' own county or region. Simply written and well illustrated, this site is a good starting point to help spark students' interest in the province. http://www.interknowledge.com/northern-ireland/index.html
Have fun inputting English words or phrases of up to fifteen characters and discover the endless possibilities for creating new words by merely rearranging the letters.
The Oxford Reading Tree is a well used core reading scheme throughout the UK. This is a site full of excellent teacher, parent and pupil resources. Most useful in the present climate is a section devoted to the Literacy Hour. Teachers of all Primary age pupils will find it most helpful. http://www1.oup.co.uk/ort/
Navigate around this colourful house to find book reviews, jokes, games, puzzles and biographies, including top tips on writing from popular children’s authors. With stimulating activity sheets, poems to finish, links to other sites and a teachers section, this offers many fun suggestions for expanding literacy skills. It could be useful in KS2 classrooms and as resource material. http://www.puffin.co.uk/
This American site contains some good ideas for classroom and field activities to introduce Key Stage 1 and 2 children to botany, chemistry, literature, geology, physics and zoology. There is also an interesting treatise on constructivism. http://www.owu.edu/%7Emggrote/pp/frames.html
Yet another Web encyclopaedia, but one which is extremely well organised. As well as having access to an index, the home page is broken down into topic headings and is especially useful for the primary classroom. Scroll down and find topic headings further broken down into alphabetical order. A useful site for general knowledge, literacy and reference for all subjects. http://www.servilesoftware.ndirect.co.uk/
Parents and
Children Together Online
This American online magazine is aimed at primary school-aged children, and their parents and teachers. There are entertaining stories in many genres for children and articles for adults on literacy and teaching. There are also links to other websites of interest. You could even have a go at submitting your own story if you are a budding children's writer. http://www.indiana.edu/%7Eeric_rec/fl/pcto/ish3.html
Share playground activities around the world. A rich source of games and activities for the Primary school playground, to which you can add your own games. A great site for spicing up your lessons with interesting tasks or for giving an interactive dimension to the classroom. http://www.richardsonps.act.edu.au/pals/
One of the best practical classroom activity sites for primary level teachers. The server will generate a large variety of word puzzles, cryptograms and number puzzles based on your input. Pupils can download the puzzles and work on them from the screen or on paper. Some preparation and care is needed to make the best use of the site. This site could provide excellent resources for the Numeracy Hour and Literacy Hour. http://www.puzzlemaker.com/
Purim: Class
and Group Activities
Provides activities and suggestions for introducing or studying in greater detail the Jewish festival of Purim. Excellent activities on offer include: letter-writing, drama, board games and wall charts. A knowledge of Purim is pre-supposed. http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/festivls/purim/pureng6.html
A literacy project from New York. Classes of children from around the world wrote poems and produced pictures about pumpkins, which were then published here.
Poetry Post invites year seven pupils to write poetry describing their corner of the world.
An educational publishing company specialising in copymasters for primary schools.
Subscribe to Quotation Central and daily you will recieve a thought-provoking and discussion initiating quotation.
Teachers involved in Literacy Hour work will be pleased with this site, which offers short stories and extracts with straightforward comprehension questions. The site can be used by teachers looking for Literacy Hour texts for lower ability pupils, as well as by parents keen to do extra reading work with their child at home. There are also some useful pages of maths worksheets, but you have to watch out for Americanisms like using dollars instead of pounds. http://www.rhlschool.com/reading.htm
Aimed at parents of young children, this website from the BBC will give you all the help you need to support your child in learning to read and write. Set out in a question and answer format, it covers how to encourage your child's reading, letter- and word-forming and spelling skills and gives guidance as to how they will be taught at school. The suggested activities will help develop these skills when you are at home or out and about together. Teachers may also find this site to be a good resource for the Literacy Hour. http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/readandwrite/index.shtml
This site opens with the remark, ''The search for the mot juste is not a pedantic fad, but a vital necessity.'' Indeed, words are our precision tools and this site enables you to find just the right one. As well as being a good reference site, it is quite fun to browse through and discover words you never knew existed. Appropriate for anyone who speaks English. http://www.thesaurus.com/
Resolving Children's Reading
Difficulties
The resources at this site will resolve all non-specific reading difficulties quickly, effectively and at about 20p per pupil. Of particular interest is the extensive User Database. The User Reports page lists all schools world-wide that use this resource and which can be contacted for unbiased opinion. Listed at the site is a UK school which has offered to let anyone watch their children at work with the Electronic Libary through their teleconferencing facilities. This is a useful resource for teachers coping with lower ability readers and those teaching literacy. http://www.carr.demon.co.uk
A series of online wordsearches using days of the week, names of months and the different seasons. There are lots of games, some interactive images, and intriguing animation and sound let the child know that the puzzle has been correctly completed. A useful resource for motivating reluctant readers which may be of value as part of the Literacy Hour. http://www.funschool.com/cgi-bin/ga?wf1_ds1,1
Rebus Rhymes: Mother
Goose and Others
Over 40 nursery rhymes designed to help children who are learning to read. Illustrations accompany key words and enable even very young children to join in. Useful resource for the Literacy Hour. As pictures are quite small, this site is most suitable for a small group of pupils reading with an adult. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Rhymes.htm
This fun site contains games and competition trivia based on the familiar characters from Dr Seuss's books. It is a useful literacy resource for developing phonics and rhyming cues with children under 7 using 'The Cat in the Hat' and other familiar friends. The site also includes printable materials (e.g. dot to dot, mazes), plus ideas for activities. A great resource for the Literacy Hour. http://www.randomhouse.com/seussville/
A brilliant site being developed by a school in North Yorkshire. It conatins many child centred resources that can be used in the classroom.
This site stimulates even reluctant writers by giving them a potential audience. Students can read stories written by their peers and submit their own creations to this online anthology. The best stories submitted will be published on the website. Very useful for collaborative or individual creative writing projects for the Literacy Hour at primary level. http://www.thekids.com/kids/kidsstuff/soundoff/
An ideal accompaniment to Literacy Hour work, Spelling Lessons provides a thorough database of rules and exceptions to rules in English spelling. It is aimed at year 7-8 pupils who can choose from lessons on prefixes, suffixes, silent letters, origins of words and more. The site is helpfully split into sections of interest to teachers and to pupils. An excellent resource. http://www.hmco.com/mcdougal/lit/spelling/gr7toca.htm
An international online literature and arts magazine (sample only provided) written by and for English-speaking children up to age 13. The site gives children an opportunity to read a wide variety of good quality writing, including poems, short stories and book reviews, and includes illustrations. Subscription is needed for the full magazine. Project suggestions for teachers are provided. The site could help children to develop their creative skills. http://www.stonesoup.com/links2/activities973.html
For the younger reader this site offers another way to stimulate interest in the written word and improve literacy. There are numerous activities which aid the development of reading - including matching games, story time and colouring downloads. A little Americanised but worth a look. http://www.pbs.org/kcet/storytime/
Stories and poems for all ages
This is a theatre group that focus on performing Shakespeare to children and who produce material to help children to perform Shakespeare themselves. The site is mainly an advertisement for the theatre company and its innovative work, which it does very well. There is an online ordering and booking service, with details of the company’s schedule, a competition and information on how their work will fit in with the Literacy Hour. http://www.shakespeare4kidz.com/
A comprehensive four-issue site covering the Literacy Hour, giving examples, planners, activities and assessment for teachers.
For those classes who are writing to Santa this year, why not e-mail your requests?
Teaching English Ideas
for UK Primary Teachers
A collection of ideas for the busy Primary teacher. This collection of English lesson suggestions would work well in the Literacy Hour. There are activities for speaking and listening and reading and writing. For example there are tasks on sequencing, prediction, shared and creative writing. It is part of a very useful collection of resources for the whole curriculum. http://www.warner.clara.net/english.htm
The Oxford Reading Tree is a well used core reading scheme throughout the UK. This is a site full of excellent teacher, parent and pupil resources. Most useful in the present climate is a section devoted to the Literacy Hour. Teachers of all Primary age pupils will find it most helpful. http://www1.oup.co.uk/ort/
This is the International Kids' Space
An attractive website with bright, clear screens where children can submit stories for publication online, or your class can submit a group writing project to the Story Book section as part of the Literacy Hour.http://www.kids-space.org/
Giving children a 'reason for writing' will often stimulate ideas and encourage literacy skills in reluctant writers, so why not drop into ToonaCat's creative place for kids. As well as giving children somewhere to display their writing, the site allows children to read other childrens' work, post artwork, email Toonacat and answer quiz questions. Weekly updates mean children can become regular visitors to this site. http://www.toonacat.com/kids/index.html
Special Needs pupils working on sentence construction will enjoy this playful site, which employs cute graphics in a game that tests knowledge of grammar terms and improves overall literacy. The game is helpfully differentiated into Beginners and Advanced stages, with pupils aiming to feed the Grammar Gorillas by correctly identifying nouns, verbs and other parts of speech. http://www.funbrain.com/grammar/index.html
A list of children's nursery rhymes, songs, and poems classified by subject. Currently being updated, this page promises to provide music and history to accompany many of the rhymes in the near future. Performance tips are given for reading out rhymes and a teacher could discuss these with a class before children choose and read their choice out loud. May be integrated into teaching the literacy hour. http://www-personal.umich.edu/~pfa/
Designed with young readers in mind, this site offers interesting background information plus a variety of activities to develop children’s understanding of the book and literacy skills. Pupils can follow the suggestions to write reviews, character studies and draw maps of the island, as well as check out links to other relevant sites.http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/treasure/setframe.htm
The BBC and the Year of
Reading
This is the introductory page that leads you to the BBC's literacy and reading websites. It will evolve as new sites are added and is a useful place to start for teachers looking for classroom resources and ideas. There are links to the National Poetry Day, Bookworm, What's On, Books for Babies and DynaMo websites for literacy. http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/yor/
The Write Site is a multimedia language arts curriculum that makes the process of telling a story fun. Students take on the role of journalists generating leads, gathering facts, and writing stories using the tools and techniques of real-life journalist. The Write Site is specially designed for secondary level students - the instructional activities will improve students’ skills while helping teachers integrate technology into their classrooms. A fantastic resource. http://www.writesite.org/default.htm
Treasure
Island- Do a Book Review
Based on Stevenson's Treasure Island, this site gives readers a chance to write a review of the novel and have it published online. Students can copy and paste reviews from their own files and the best will be published online -- a great motivator! http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/treasure/projects/review.htm
Theodore the Tugboat Online Activity
Centre
This site offers large-text, well-illustrated interactive stories which the user can alter by choosing an alternative at the end of each page. This site is particularly suitable for children who are helped in their reading by pictures. The stories could be used many times with the same group of children to explore the decision-making process. There could be whole class sessions - teacher reading, children choosing the options to direct the story. A potentially valuable resource for the literacy hour. http://www.cochran.com/theodore/
The Big Busy House-How
a Book is Made
Site of publishers HarperCollins, this covers HP books, features, games, and a tour written in child-friendly language. It takes you through the main stages of book production from the author's idea to the finished product. The illustrations help younger users to understand the processes and the small chunks of text identify the separate stages easily and can be downloaded and photocopied to look at in the classroom. Could be used by small groups independently, compiling the story of a class book versus a commercial book. http://www.harperchildrens.com/index.htm
Based on Stevenson's Treasure Island, this child-friendly site identifies and describes each character as well as giving an excerpt from the novel to support the descriptive sketch. Ideal for developing the concept of character traits, this site can be used for comparison after children have drawn up their own character descriptions. http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/treasure/book/chars.htm
Based on Stevenson's 'Treasure Island', this site tests comprehension with a multiple choice quiz about the novel and general questions about pirates.
Treasure
Island - Do a Book Review
Based on Stevenson's 'Treasure Island', this site gives readers a chance to write a review of the novel and have it published online.
Giving children a 'reason for writing' will often stimulate ideas and encourage literacy skills in reluctant writers.
Theodore
the Tugboat Online Activity Centre
This site offers large-text, well-illustrated interactive stories which the user can alter by choosing an alternative at the end of each page.
A simple, multi-page site with poetry written by children.
Students take on the role of journalists generating leads, gathering facts, and writing stories using the tools and techniques of a real-life journalist.
The
Official Eric Carle Web Site
The 'Caterpillar Exchange' is a truly cross-curricular treasure trove of ideas for developing literacy, numeracy, science and the arts using Eric Carle’s appealing books.
The
Complete Works of William Shakespeare
The
Big Busy House - How a Book is Made
HarperCollin’s site takes you through the main stages of book production from the author's idea to the finished product.
Discover the important people of the time, significant events and life as an Aztec child. Examples of Aztec writing and counting methods are included.
Teaching
English Ideas for UK Primary Teachers
A collection of ideas including sequencing, prediction, shared and creative writing. It is part of a very useful collection of resources for the whole curriculum.
This site is a visually appealing interactive dictionary for young children with brightly coloured pictures to illustrate each letter.
Designed with young readers in mind, this site offers interesting background information plus a variety of activities to develop children’s understanding of the book and literacy skills.
This
is the International Kids' Space
An attractive website with bright, clear screens where children can submit stories for publication online.
Poetry is a big feature of this BBC site. There are transcripts of some famous poems and audio clips of celebrities reading their favourites.
Lots and lots of different word games can be found here which will be very useful for fun word level work.
Creative Kids is a showcase of young writing, and has plenty of examples of stories and poems from all over the world.
This is a useful site for teachers or educators involved in youth arts or classroom drama. It has some news items which are up to date, and lots of drama classroom activity ideas. There also also links to amateur drama groups around the country for those keen on treading the boards. http://members.aol.com/theatreuk
Virtual Classroom- Classroom Resources
This site encourages children to arrange pictures into the correct sequential order to form a simple four frame story. It could be used as focus for group discussion about what would change in the story if the pictures were in the wrong order and why it would/wouldn't work. It would be good for use with a primary English class doing several stories in a session. http://www.funschool.com/cgi-bin/ga?sqk_ds1,k
A high-tech puzzle that allows children to click on the differences between two pictures and rewards them with an animated "Well Done" message when the puzzle is correctly completed. If needed, the '?' button gives simple instructions. The activity can be done in small groups and the differences between pictures can then be discussed. http://www.funschool.com/cgi-bin/ga?wdp_ds1,p
This is an American on-line dictionary and thesaurus and is a fabulous resource for children and teachers. Results include British meanings. The site also includes Java word games, that are changed daily, which would suit older Key Stage 2 children. http://www.m-w.com/
A celebration of books is the theme of this BBC website and it is relevant to all readers even though World Book Day has been and gone. Take a Macromedia Flash animated journey through the history of books with actor Craig Charles (there is also a lo-tech option), find out celebrities' favourite books, and discover how libraries came to be in this fascinating website on all things bibliographic.http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/worldbookday/index.shtml
Key Stage Three pupils working on spelling and vocabulary can find light relief at this site, which helps create word searches and puzzles. Pupils simply feed the page the words they have been working with, and the site builds it into a puzzle for others to solve. Useful for fun end of unit revision pieces. http://www.funbrain.com/detect/index.html
Excellent resources for teachers.
Wild World of Words
Challenges
A colourful site that allows Key Stage Three pupils to enjoy themselves whilst learning key spelling rules. The site includes games covering homophones, silent letters, prefixes/suffixes and compound words amongst many others. This is a useful activity for pupils working on key skills. http://www.ash.udel.edu/ash/challenge/word.html
Pupils studying origins of language at Key Stage Three will be interested in this site, which covers the changing nature of the English language. The site is dedicated to the origins of new words and phrases such as ‘mouse potato’ and ‘culture vulture’. For older pupils there are more in-depth articles on new word usage and origin. http://clever.net/quinion/words/
This site encourages children to arrange pictures into the correct sequential order to form a simple four-frame story.
A high-tech puzzle that allows children to click on the differences between two pictures and rewards them with an animated 'Well Done' message.
This is an American on-line dictionary and thesaurus and is a fabulous resource for children and teachers.
A useful resource for activities based around journal writing. Follow the daily account of a science teacher aboard the 'Song of the Whale' as it sails amongst the Azores.
Words and Pictures is aligned to the BBC Education Schools TV series Words and Pictures.
Within this site can be found a really useful rhyming dictionary.
The site has nine easy to follow poetry activities ranging from limericks to rhyming-fun to the epic poem Beowulf. Each activity is hot-linked to helpful pages, useful for the older KS2 children.
The site offers an amusing and interactive way of reinforcing aspects of grammar and literacy.
Part of the National Year of Reading, this site provides teachers and parents with down-loadable reading ideas and literacy resources for those of all ages. Teachers and parents can use the site to keep up-to-date with news and ideas surrounding the Year of Reading campaign. http://www.yearofreading.org.uk/
Relive childhood memories at this site, which has nineteenth-century, illustrated German stories including the Brothers Grimm’s fairytales. Read 'Schneewitchen' and 'Hansel und Gretel' in their original language. If you can remember the story then it will be easier to follow the German. You can also access the stories in English which would make a good resource for literacy teaching. http://www.vcu.edu/hasweb/for/menu.html
An opportunity to discuss books by e-mail with other children around the world. The site lists books for future Book Rap, along with the opportunity to become a co-ordinator for a particular book. A fabulous way to encourage children to discuss books with others. An excellent resource for literacy and English at Key Stages 2 and 3. http://rite.ed.qut.edu.au/oz-teachernet/projects/book-rap/br.html
Reading
Information on the most popular reading programme in UK primary schools.
Traditional Copyright -free
stories
The text can be cut and pasted so that teachers can make BIG books. Stories can be listened to if you have Real Audio installed on your computer.
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This site is put together by the Shakespeare Birthplace Foundation in Stratford-Upon-Avon. This site will give you information about the life and times of this great man.
This provides a convenient clearinghouse to many popular documents, displays and discussion areas.
An opportunity to read fairly long excerpts from recent bestsellers to help you to decide whether to buy or not.
This is one site you definitely won't mind your children viewing unsupervised. Scholastic Central, the online site of Scholastic Books, houses pages for the popular book series "Goosebumps" and the "Magic School Bus." Teachers can purchase books online and check out online educational publications. A great site for kids and educators.
Writing
BBC Education - Look
and Read Spywatch
This fun-packed interactive site is based on the popular BBC Schools Television series "look and Read Spywatch."
A range of literacy activities are contextualised in a lively comic strip adventure brought alive by colourful anumation, atmospheric music and sound effects. The activities teach grammar, story-writing and I.T. skills and are based on the requirements of the National Literacy Project. Most suitable for 7-9 year olds, but has something to offer older age groups.
This site requires Macromedia Shockwave to run properly. Shockwave needs to be downloaded before using the site. Download Shockwave now.
The history of the Parker pen in tandem with major world events.
Dead links deleted 11th December 2000
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