Within the few days left before the summer break, teachers seeking to maintain their students occupied have a chance to expose them to the ever-growing menu of sophisticated as well as pleasant online games and activities, made to blend play with education and give a fun experience in class and also at house. Read more information click here
Friv 4 school
"Children are becoming more IT-conscious as well as at ever more tender years," tells Colum Davis of Holy Redeemer Catholic primary school in Worcestershire. He points to an increasing number of online actions providing "enjoyable ways for kids to test their science, literacy, modern foreign languages as well as numeracy expertise".
His best tip is Education City, (key stages 1-3, subscription service for schools; residence use 29.95 pa). It lets users save child's activities therefore allow teachers to test their success. "The children love being able to check themselves against others, such as their friends and also students at other schools." At Teynham CofE primary in Sittingbourne, Kent, year 3-four teacher Sonja Weed - inspired by a Tim Rylands seminar she a had went to (see "Educational games pioneer" link) - was judged "outstanding" in a recent inspection after bringing her Wii into school as well as loading it with the game, African Wildlife Safari. Sporting toy pith helmets, her kids went on a number of photographic missions in the African bush searching for shots of everything from elephants to dung beetles.
"The game changed their discussions and as well gave the kids that can problem because writers a true excuse to put pen to paper. At the end of one session they found they had filled pages with diary entries almost without realising." Next period, she needs to use another Wii game, Endless Ocean, to enrich work on the sea and exploration. Although these games are cheap to buy, she says, the same principle of using their immersive situations as powerful imaginative prompts can be applied to free internet games.
"I wish the current crop of Doctor Who games had been around a few years ago after I had a class that was obsessed with the system," she says. "The setting for City of the Daleks would have been fantastic for them to explore and also react to." (This official Dr Who site can be used at house but perfect understanding is completed at school.) Year 4 teacher Roger Billing at Wroxham primary, Potters Bar, Herts, is a fan of the vast range of games supplied because adjuncts to CBeebies and CBBC programmes, however the real hit with his class is an formally educational part of their key period two Bitesize. "They're hooked on Questionaut [free, KS2-3, home/school use], which is both addictive and also instructive - the world in which it is set is fantastic." Users journey through strange worlds and also check their knowledge of English, maths and science on a mission to recover a friend's hat. Read more information click here friv 4 school
Billing also proposes searching club-friv.net for free games (home/school use) as well as has had positive results getting kids to explore as well as describe some of the Guardian's Top 100 Eyewitness photographs available for free via an app on his iPad - "although there are vast libraries of images internet for kids to see on the Guardian's main site". The main images cache offers various educational applications to support talking and also listening.
At Phoenix high school in Shepherds Bush, London, science teacher Katherine Monaghan has simply spent the day helping the Science Museum film gameplay using Thingdom. "Frankly, teaching recessive and also dominant genes the traditional option can be a bit dull, however this game enables them to grasp the concepts involved in a highly interactive manner." James South is a history teacher at Rosebery School in Epsom in Surrey and is a fan of club-friv.net (generic games templates, priced for schools at 299,99 for a set of five) and classtools.net (free, customisable Flash templates). Here, besides games other teachers have created for subjects across the curriculum spectrum, you can add to the stock with games tailor-made to specific classes and also topics. "For past teachers, one of the most significant caches of free games connected with everything from medieval to modern history can be found on the National Archive education site," he says.
As national adviser for emerging technologies and also learning, Derek Robinson of Learning as well as Teaching Scotland (LTS) can suggest what on-line activities deserve classroom time. "Among primary kids, binweevils is a typical site for brain-gym type games and social networking.
"For secondary students I'd recommend a number of Channel 4 Education's current historic online games, including 303 Squadron [free, home/school, KS3-4], which focuses on the role of Polish pilots in the Battle of Britain and just how their unorthodox tactics were adopted successfully by the RAF and played a crucial role in the defeat of the Lutwaffe. It's actually subtext is a suitably multi-cultural one to set against contemporary xenophobia." There are also games on Tudor times and the first world war.
SuperMe (free, home/school, PSHE), other games cache from the same source and also due to launch this week, focuses on young people's emotional resilience. Various actions come heavily endorsed by leading campaigners in the field of child and adolescent mental health. "SuperMe makes use of films from real people, young celebrities and also experts talking about their own experiences," says Sarah Brennan, YoungMinds' chief executive. "It starts to break down these barriers and also shows teenagers that it is ok to talk about their emotions." Read more information click here
Friv 4 school
