Christmas Resources

As Christmas is almost upon us, Topmarks Christmas pages have been bustling with traffic. This year we have added instructions for making four new Christmas Cards designs that you could try in the classroom and a new page, featuring Christmas games and Advent Calendars for young children, which is proving to be one of the busiest on Topmarks already!

Parents' Articles

We have added two new parents' articles, 'Learning through Cooking' and 'Choosing a Primary or Secondary School'. We explain the many beneficial learning experiences that cooking activities provide, including developing mathematical vocabulary and give guidance to parents on how they can promote their child's learning. Early years practioners may like to tell parents about this.

Additions to Our Search Engine

As usual we have been adding lots of sites to our search engine and our interactive whiteboard pages. There are too many for me to mention here but I have selected some of my favourites from the latest additions to tell you about.

Early Years - Ages 3 - 6

Mr Tumble and the Minibeasts
A CBeebies story on the theme of minibeasts. Children need to help the character Mr Tumble on his way to find his missing juggling ball. By clicking on the minibeasts children can hear familiar songs. This is a delightful, animated story includes Makaton signs.

Maths - Key Stage 1, P2 - P3, Ages 6 - 7

Shark Numbers
A tens and units maths game. Children need to count carefully otherwise the shark will bite their boat.

Maths Key Stages 2, P6 - P7 Ages 9 - 11

Little Ernie's Daily Maths Tasks
Here you can create unlimited printable daily maths tasks for your pupils. Select the topics you want to cover, print it off and photocopy for your class. Good for SATs revision too.

Maths KS3, S1 - S2, Ages 11 - 12

Addition and Subtraction of Integers
Do your pupils have trouble with addition and subtraction of integers especially involving positive and negative numbers? This site will allow them to visually understand the concepts that are in place behind the scenes. It works well on an interactive whiteboard.

English KS3 KS4, S1-S5, Ages 11 - 16

Short Story
An animated, interactive teaching unit which looks at the elements of a short story and then provides a breakdown of three popular short stories. Students and teachers can use all or part of the resource. Includes teachers' notes.

English - Key Stage 3, S1- S3, Ages 11 - 14

What is a Clause?
This interactive animated tutorial explains the difference between independent and dependent clauses. There are activities where pupils need to identify types of clauses and to make sentences involving clauses. It is suitable for use on an interactive whiteboard.

Biology/Science - Key Stage 2, P4 - P7, Ages 8 - 11

Parts of a Flower and Pollination Activity
An animated matching activity about the parts of a flower which has a narrated explanation and a drag and drop matching activity. It also illustrates the pollination process.

Physics/Science - Key Stage 2, P3 - P7, Ages 7 - 11

Light and Shadows
A series of animations showing how light and shadows behave. A useful teaching aid particularly on an interactive whiteboard. It has teachers' notes.

Look out for more new additions next month in my Best of December post.

October has been a busy month for us and as promised I want to let you know about some of the recent resources that we have added to Topmarks.

Interactive Whiteboard Resources

We have added an additional subject to our Interactive Whiteboard pages, namely music at Key Stages 1 - 3 (ages 5 - 14). We have organised the featured sites into two categories; 'Making Music' and 'Composers and Instruments'. If you know of any more great sites we would love to hear from you about them.

Additions to Our Search Engine

Maths - Key Stages 1 and 2, P2 - P7, Ages 6 - 10

Patty's Paints
Children can test their knowledge of multiplication tables and then try their hand at racing your car round a track. There is a facility for turning the music off if required.

Maths & Design Technology - Key Stages 3 and 4, S1 - S5, Ages 11 - 16

Yenka Home Licence for Teachers and Pupils
If you are a teacher register for a free home licence for yourself and your pupils to use Yenka products in maths and technology.

English - Early Years, Key Stage 1, P1 - P2, Ages 4 - 6

What's the difference
A lovely online sorting game intended to stimulate discussion between adult and young child to promote language development. It could also be used for sorting materials lessons.

Communication Cookbook
The Communication Cookbook is a selection of brilliant online or downloadable activities to support children’s language and communication.

English - Key Stage 3, S1, Ages 11 - 12

Basic Literacy Starters
A selection of PowerPoint presentations designed as lesson starters on basic skills. There are accompanying worksheets and teacher notes.

Biology/Science - Early Years, Key Stage 1, P1 - P2, Ages 3 - 6

Climbers and Creepers
Designed for 3 - 6 year olds this site has learning activities on plants and animals.

Biology/Science - Key Stages 2 and 3, P4 - S3, Ages 7 - 14

National Insect Week 2008
Though National Insect Week is over for this year this site is definitely worth a visit if you want to find out about insects. Check-out the small talk diaries in the fun section for close-up videos of insects which are amazing for minibeast topics.

Environment - Key Stage 4, S5, Ages 15 - 16

Operation Climate Control
Operation Climate Control is a scenarios-based climate change multi-player game for 15-16 year olds and designed for use in the classroom with a teacher. It is designed to educate about the elements and impact of climate policy.

ICT - Early Years, Key Stages 1 and 2, Ages 5 - 11

ITASS ICT Scheme Of Work
Here you will find ICT schemes of work from Foundation to Year 6 which include a variety of downloadable teaching resources. To access Promethean Flipcharts if you don't have that board you may like to download the ActivPrimary Viewer.

Music - Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 P2 - S3, Ages 6 - 14

Nashville Symphony Website for Kids
A fantastic website to learn about instruments of an orchestra. It has been designed especially for children and young people. Members of the orchestra talk about their work. Each instrument is featured and it explains where each fits in to the orchestra.

Look out for more new additions next month in my Best of November post.

I am often asked if I can let people know of new additions to Topmarks. I think an ideal way to do this will be to write a monthly blog post featuring a selection of the recent additions. I know this one is a little late, but in the future look out for my 'The Best of Topmarks' posts at the beginning of each month. 

Interactive Whiteboard Resources

We have redesigned our Interactive Whiteboard section, adding more than 700 new sites, and more subjects and age groups. We'd love to know what you think.

Topmarks Blog

A new introduction in September was of course this blog, which aims to give teaching ideas, highlight fantastic resources and let you know about Topmarks' news. Feel free to use the comments facility to share your views and ask us questions.

Additions to Our Search Engine

English - Key Stage 1, P2 - P3, Ages 5 - 7

The Three Little Pigs
A well animated story with text of the traditional tale 'The Three Little Pigs'. In this version the first two pigs get eaten and the wolf is boiled in the cooking pot. This site is a useful teaching aid as the animation can be paused.

Teaching Synthetic Phonics Phase 3
Video excerpts of a teacher delivering a 'Letters and Sounds' phase 3 Synthetic phonics session.

History - Key Stage 2 and 3, P4-S3, Ages 7 - 14

Making Mummies and Sarcophagi
A workshop designed to introduce children, from 6 to 12 years old, to simple sculpture processes. It involves making a Plasticine model of a mummy, wrapping it in modroc and then making a cast of the mummy to form the sarcophagus.

World War II
An amazing collection of interactive whiteboard resources about the Second World War. They have been created for use in Scotland but they are appropriate for other areas of the UK. They include topics such as evacuation, food rationing and more.

Hidden Lives
An archive of amazing documents and photographs where you can find out what it was like to be really poor in Victorian and Edwardian times. Target age range 10 to 15 years.

Art - Key Stages 1 - 4, P2 - S5, Ages 6 to 16

BRUSHster
BRUSHster is a painting machine for all ages. It has more than forty brushes, different stroke options and special effects. You can use it to draw pictures but the idea is to create Abstract art. This is a really powerful resource, which can be quite addictive. You can save your work and print out the best. For ideas scroll down the page to watch the slideshow.

Geography - Key Stages 1 - 4, P2 - S5, Ages 6 to 16

Geography Image Bank
Great copyright free images from Worcestershire LEA. Categories include: Human Geography, Physical Geography, Buildings (homes), Culture, Seaside and Transport. The photographs would be useful teaching aids on an interactive whiteboard. They could be used by pupils to illustrate their topic work or assignments.

Geography - Key Stages 2, P5 - P6, Ages 8 to 10

Grid References
A useful mapping teaching aid on grid references. This resource also covers basic Ordnance Survey symbols. It works well on an interactive whiteboard. Access the different sections through the drop-down list or download the lesson pack and use offline.

Biology/Science - Key Stage 3, S1 - S3, Ages 11 - 14

Population Size
A Flash lesson about populations, organisms of the same species that live together in the same habitat, and the factors such as space, disease and predators that can affect the size or survival of a population.

Smoking
A website which outlines the facts about smoking, how it affects the human body and the benefits of not smoking. Great on an interactive whiteboard and there are interactive diagrams on the respiratory system. There is a more detailed version on the Topmarks Search Engine for Key Stage 4 students.