Crickweb: free online education resources & games

More than 250 free educational interactive teaching resources and activities for Primary/ Elementary Schools. 84 free to use fun kids games/activities for kids aged 4 - 11. Links to free interactive teaching activities, educational games, image and software resources. 

Most are written with Adobe Flash and therefore can be used on any brand of interactive white board.

Subjects including: Maths, English, Science, History, Geography, R.E., D.T., I.C.T, French and Spanish. 

Available on: http://www.crickweb.co.uk/

Learn American Holidays. Christmas Day

Merry Christmas

Itellyouastory.com

Stories have an incredible educational value due to the their influence on memory, but also because they allow to face a wide variety of topics and contexts. Of course, this is very interesting when learning a new language.

On this page you will find a nice selection of tales and fables to read in English. The collection contains also audios and videos.

Webpage: http://www.itellyouastory.com/

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/itellyouastory

App available on the AppStore: 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/english-bedtime-stories/id595458766?l=it&ls=1&mt=8

Android App: 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.itellyouastory.android

Didapages

Didapages is a very useful tool for course authors. This software provides many opportunities, such as adding text, images, audio and video to create your own interactive book. It can be very interesting for self-study or distance learning, especially, I would say, for language learning.

Here you can see a selection of Didapages based resources to learn English:

As Christmas approaches...

http://chagall-col.spip.ac-rouen.fr/IMG/didapages/christmas/index.html

On vocabulary (French resource): 

http://histgeodaudet.free.fr/banque/didapages/site/didavocabulary.html

Symbaloo webmix on vocabulary and grammar:

http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/didapagesanglais1?searched=true

ChronoZoom. Visualize time from the Big Bang to the present day

ChronoZoom is a free open source project owned by the Outercurve Foundation that visualizes time on the broadest possible scale from the Big Bang to the present day. Conceived by Walter Alvarez and Roland Saekow, this project has been funded and supported by Microsoft Research Connections in collaboration with University California at Berkeley, Moscow State University and University of Washington Information School (iSchool), and The Center for Web and Data Science (WDS) departments.

ChronoZoom is inspired by the study of Big History, and it approaches the documentation and visualization of time and history in the same way that Google Earth deals with geography.

ChronoZoom allows users to see the true scale of time over cosmic, geologic, biological and social periods.

(From Wikipedia “ChronoZoom”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChronoZoom) 

History Teachers

Simply awesome! An approach to teaching History by reworking lyrics to popular songs. The videoclips are entertaining and instructive.

Amy Burvall teacher of Le Jardin Academy in Honolulu, Hawaii and Herb Mahelona, also a teacher, have narrated some of the greatest events in History by rewriting pop songs.

Webpage (lyrics available): http://historyteacherz.com/

On YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/user/historyteachers

On Twitter (hashtag): https://twitter.com/hashtag/historyteacherz

Amy Burvall: @amyburvall

Herb Mahelona: @HerbMahelona

An example:

Sesame Street. Sesame Playlists

Sesame Playlists are a collection of fun and educational games and videos organized around a curricular theme. Each playlist includes seven games and videos. You can choose a topic and age range in order to use this resource in a more individualised way.

http://www.sesamestreet.org/playlists#media/playlist_1204

Grammar Lessons With Food

Let’s learn a few important grammar lessons with the help of yummy, delicious food by Jeff Wysaski. More funny stuff on: http://www.pleated-jeans.com/

World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day was first conceived in August 1987 by James W. Bunn and Thomas Netter, two public information officers for the Global Programme on AIDS at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. It is observed on 1 December every year. This day is dedicated to raise awareness of the AIDS. As part of this effort, Education on AIDS prevention and control plays a fundamental role.

Visit these and other resources on AIDS and education available on the Internet:

Avert AIDS and HIV Education: 

http://www.avert.org/introduction-hiv-and-aids-education.htm

Students Stop AIDS Campaign:

http://students.stopaidscampaign.org/

HIV/AIDS Education/Awareness:

https://www.pinterest.com/liaac/hiv-aids-education-awareness/

Schools and Health:

http://www.schoolsandhealth.org/pages/hiveducation.aspx

Thanksgiving Day

Language is more than just the code. There is a fundamental relationship between language and culture. Maybe the best way to learn English is to be in frequent contact with English speakers' culture and learn to understand not only the code but the cultural significance.

Let me just take an example. We have seen in movies and on television how Thanksgiving Day is celebrated but, what do you know about this? How can we get the most out of it when teaching English?

Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. It is a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. Although several other places around the world observe similar celebrations, it is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November (by the way, it is TODAY!!!) in the United States and on the second Monday of October in Canada. Its historical roots are religious but it is nowadays celebrated in a secular manner as well. (Source Wikipedia: Thanksgiving)

Here you have some Pinterest boards on Thanksgiving Day:

https://www.pinterest.com/virginiababy/3thanksgiving-decormore/

https://es.pinterest.com/lyndawhite/thanksgiving-ideas-i-love/

The Story of Thanksgiving (video on YouTube): 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faUYJ9fMiGg

ReadWorks

ReadWorks provides research-based units, lessons, and authentic, leveled non-fiction and literary passages directly to educators online, for free, to be shared broadly. Over 800,000 educators use ReadWorks' research-based curriculum to improve their students' reading comprehension

The ReadWorks curriculum is based on the most highly regarded, proven research on reading instruction, and includes:

Informational and literary passages and question sets for grades K-8

Skill and Strategy lesson units for grades K-4

Comprehension (close reading) units for grades K-5

Novel study units for grades 5-6

You can follow ReadWorks:

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/readworks

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReadWorks?ref=ts

On Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/readworks/

(Source: http://www.readworks.org/)

The following video shows how to effectively use ReadWorks' research-based lessons and passages.

The Story of Stuff

Very interesting video on the consequences of our economic practices and their impact in environment. In English (subtitled in Spanish). A good proposal to encourage debate in the classroom

 

Profesores Visitantes en Estados Unidos y Canadá 2015-2016

El pasado martes 11 se publicó en el BOE la Resolución de 30 de octubre de 2014, de la Secretaría de Estado de Educación, Formación Profesional y Universidades, por la que se convocan plazas para profesores visitantes en centros educativos de Estados Unidos de América y Canadá para el curso académico 2015-2016. 

Toda la información necesaria para solicitar plazas (requisitos, preguntas frecuentes, texto de la resolución, guías sobre los distintos destinos, procesos de selección y fases de la convocatoria...) la podéis encontrar a través del siguiente enlace:

https://sede.educacion.gob.es/catalogo-tramites/profesores/convocatorias/espanoles/exterior/visitantes-EEUU-canada.html   

El plazo de solicitudes está abierto hasta el día 26 de noviembre.

The English Alley (revisited)

In May 2013 we published a post on The English Alley, a 100% free website designed to help improve your English vocabulary. Here you can find plenty of drawings that show the different vocabulary terms. Everything is organized in themes (house, park, school...) and when you put the cursor over the drawings you will hear the pronunciation of the words, and if you click on many of them it will give you access to a new vocabulary page.

TheEnglish Alley has since developed new contents and has become an amazing resource for teaching and learning ESL by means of an easy navigation and a very visually-pleasing interface.

http://www.theenglishalley.es/

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheEnglishAlley

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheEnglishAlley

On Google+: https://plus.google.com/101356800386076059512/posts

NASA Kid’s Club

NASA Kid’s Club offers information and resources about space science to the kids. It has activities and safe and funny educational games from the space agency. The website doesn’t require children to register or email address to post comment. 

Children can learn about math and science by playing and doing space-related games and activities. 

This webpage includes a section for educators with game descriptions and information about National Education Standards. 

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forkids/kidsclub/flash/index.html#.VCOYU2RdVnF

The Best Language Learning Apps for 2015

The Best Language Learning Apps For 2015

View more lists from Terry Heick

Useful Expressions in English

List of commonly used English expressions available for free to beginners up to advanced users by IH Bristol. 

Expressions to use in speaking and writing and how to use them properly.

http://www.ihbristol.com/useful-english-expressions

Supersimplelearning.com. Halloween

Enjoy Halloween at your school on Supersimplelearning.com: songs, games, ideas, lesson plans and resources to help you make Halloween fun and educational.

http://supersimplelearning.com/halloween/

Glean

Very interesting collection with hundreds of structured and organized videos, tagged by educational standards and wrapped in interactive tools. You can also assign video lessons to your students and follow their progress and viewing habits.

On Twitter: 
https://twitter.com/teamglean

On Facebook: 
https://www.facebook.com/teamglean

Visit: https://glean.co/

Recursos y propuestas para trabajar el inglés en infantil

Desde el pasado martes y hasta hoy se celebran en el CEIP El Romeral de Alcoi las jornadas Recursos y propuestas para trabajar el inglés en infantil.

La primera sesión estuvo protagonizada por Daniel Verdú, maestro del CEIP Doctor Calatayud de Aspe y por Isabel Coloma, del CEIP Costa Blanca de Alicante. Daniel ofreció una conferencia dinámica que desde un marco teórico propuso y ejemplificó numerosas actividades para motivar, enseñar y aprender inglés en edades tempranas. Isabel abordó el tema de la conciencia fonológica y el camino hacia la lectoescritura y aportó su amplia experiencia en la gestión de la clase de inglés de infantil.

Durante la segunda jornada contamos con Daniel Martínez, del CEIP Alfonso X de Novelda y con Jenny Davidson, estudiante de Filología hispánica y catalana de la Universidad de Sheffield y lectora de infantil en dicho colegio. Daniel cuestionó a las y los participantes a través de su reflexión sobre modelos de aprendizaje y adquisición de lenguas extranjeras. Se ofrecieron interesantes pistas para conseguir libros en inglés y recursos efectivos para la motivación y el comportamiento adecuado en el aula como Class Dojo además de algunos otros recursos interesantes: El blog de Espe, Englishtips.org, etc. Jenny comentó su experiencia como lectora y algunas diferencias entre los sistemas educativos en Inglaterra y en la Comunidad Valenciana.

El último día participaremos como ponentes Juan Rubio del Colegio Sagrada Familia de Elda y yo desde mi asesoría de plurilingüismo del CEFIRE de Elda. Por mi parte, presentaré algunos de los recursos interesantes para el profesorado de inglés de infantil que pueden encontrarse en la red, muchos reflejados en este blog, y Juan, después de sentar unos fundamentos y directrices sobre el aprendizaje del inglés en la etapa, mostrará diversos aspectos de su práctica en el aula.

Grammar.cl by Woodward

www.grammar.cl was created by Woodward Chile. The purpose of this site is to help English language students from around the world to improve their English for free.

It includes the following categories:

- Grammar rules.

- Grammar games.

- Student section (with notes, games, printable English exercises...).

- Teacher section (The resources are quite limited and not always free)

- Useful resources.

- English vocabulary.

http://www.grammar.cl/

On Twitter: 

https://twitter.com/WoodwardEnglish

On Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/WoodwardEnglish

On Google+: https://plus.google.com/app/basic/+WoodwardEnglish

On Pinterest:

https://www.pinterest.com/woodwardenglish/

Arcademic Skill Builders

Originally born as a side project in the research department of the University of Kansas School of Education, Arcademic Skill Builders are online educational video games that offer a powerful approach to learning basic math, language arts, vocabulary and thinking skills.

You can browse games by subject of by grade.

http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/

Also available

on Itunes: 

https://itunes.apple.com/app/arcademics/id655870953

on Google Play: 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.arcademics.Arcademics

Historypin

Historypin is a way for millions of people to come together, from across different generations, cultures and places, to share small glimpses of the past and to build up the huge story of human history. It has been developed by the not-for-profit company We Are What We Do, in partnership with Google. 

Historypin is made up of photographic images, videos, audio clips and descriptive and narrative text.Photographic images can be pinned directly to the Historypin map by users. These images can be of any location - outdoors or indoors - at any time in the past. Some of these images, if they are taken outdoors, at street level and at certain angles, will be able to be layered onto Street View (this is a bonus, not a requirement). Audio and video content can be pinned to the map by users. These should be pinned to the location and date where they were recorded. 

It can be used as a PBL tool to explore time periods, the human experience and the passage of time... or to construct students' own narratives. 

Arkive.org. Education

ARKive is an initiative of Wildscreen, a UK registered charity, and is supported by Wildscreen USA, a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC. Their mission is to use the power of wildlife imagery to inspire the global community to discover, value and protect the natural world.

It offers free education resources for 5-18 year olds which can be used to teach a range of curriculum subjects including science, geography, English and art. Lots of fun educational games, quizzes, activities and examples of educational videos are available on ARKive. Education resources include classroom presentations, activities and teachers’ notes.

http://www.arkive.org/education/

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/Arkive

Blog: http://blog.arkive.org/

Lanternfish

Lanternfish ESL is maintained by a group of ESL teachers in Asia and North America. Their aim is to bring printable quality resources to teachers and parents. Lanternfish is used primarily by ESL and K7 teachers.

This webpage contains printable teaching resources for language arts, TESOL, TEFL and ESL (flashcards, crosswords, worksheets, song sheets, phonics, games and game boards, role-play, cloze activities, grammar, writing and reading skills, communicative and task-based approaches...)

Visit Lanternfish on: http://bogglesworldesl.com/

Math Ideas

Awesome Pinterest board by Sue Hills for Math teachers and elementary students with creative and innovative ideas to teach and to learn. It provides hundreds of pins with a wide variety of  activities, games, links, printables...

http://www.pinterest.com/suehills/math-ideas/

Science is fun

The master of chemical demonstrations and science policy advocate, University of Wisconsin-Madison Chemistry Professor Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, shares the fun of science through home science activities, public presentations, scholarship, and other programs of the Wisconsin Initiative for Science Literacy.

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/SciFunDotOrg

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SciFunDotOrg

On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/WISLscifun

http://scifun.org/

e-learning for Kids (EFK)

e-learning for Kids (EFK) is a non-profit organization (entirely funded by the donations of sponsors, organizantions and individuals) which designs and provides quality courseware education to children around the world.

The design and development of courses are guided by learning topics which are part of the International Baccalaureate curriculum which is used in 138 countries. In addition to this, they have developed a number of courses (there is also an offline version of its courseware) that supplement a typical primary school curriculum.

Hundreds of attractive resources on Math, Science, Environmental Skills, Computer Skills, Health, Language Arts and Life Skills are available.

Visit: http://www.e-learningforkids.org/

Seomra Ranga (Classroom)

The Seomra Ranga website was set up in September 2007 by Damien M. Quinn, a practising primary school teacher with many years of teaching experience.

Since then the site provides educational resources and makes them available to teachers. The resources on the site remain the copyright of Seomra Ranga. They are free for teachers to download for their personal or classroom use only and they are asked to respect this copyright.

You can find here many resources related to English language:

http://www.seomraranga.com/category/curriculum/english/

On this amazing site different types of resources are available: PowerPoint files, posters, lesson plans, videos... You can also share here your own resources.

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SeomraRanga

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/seomraranga

EnglishTenses.com

The purpose of EnglishTenses.com is to help support ESL students to be successful in studying verb tenses. The explanation of each tense includes uses, examples, animatiosns, forms and exercises to check your understanding. A very useful guide to learn and teach about verb tenses.

http://www.englishtenses.com/

English related WebQuests on Zunal

Zunal is a web-based software for creating WebQuests. It makes the creation process simple (in a short time and without writing any HTML codes). It also offers public URL for WebQuests grouped by topic.

Here you have some English and Language Arts related Webquests:

http://zunal.com/index-matrix.php?Curriculum=103&Grade=101&page=1

CNN Student News

CNN Student News is a ten-minute, commercial-free, daily news program designed for middle and high school classes. It is produced by the journalists at CNN. This award-winning show and its companion website are available free of charge throughout the school year.

The show is available Monday through Friday during the school year. The program is free and accessible to anyone who wants to watch; there are no subscription charges, sign-ups, or contracts to complete.

Videos are available and downloadable as free podcasts on this website:

http://edition.cnn.com/studentnews/

Source http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/22/studentnews/sn-what-is-student-news/index.html

Oferta formativa del CEFIRE. Inglés

Imagen. Dibujo original de Vladi Monzó. Conserje del CEFIRE de Elda.

Inauguramos el blog por lo que se refiere al curso 2014-2015. 

En primer lugar esperamos que la vuelta a la actividad esté siendo positiva, a pesar del calor y que hayáis disfrutado de las vacaciones y recargado las pilas para el curso que se pone en marcha.

En segundo lugar, tenemos bastante interés en recordaros un par de actividades de formación en el ámbito del inglés, aparte de aquellas sobre competencia lingüística de alguna forma centralizadas a través del Servicio de Formación del Profesorado y que tendrán lugar en las distintas Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas.

La primera de estas acciones está orientada hacia el profesorado de infantil y consistirá en unas jornadas desarrolladas en Alcoi que intentarán reproducir los contenidos de las ya realizadas en Elda a principio del curso pasado. Estas contaron con una gran acogida y mucha gente expresó el deseo de repetir la experiencia en otras localidades del ámbito del CEFIRE. Tienen el código 14EL76EI268 y se denominan Recursos i propostes per a treballar l'anglés en infantil y tendrán lugar entre los días 21 y 23 de octubre de 2014.

El segundo curso, semipresencial, se titula Elaboració de materials AICLE. Educació Primaria y supondrá un acercamiento a la metodología y los recursos enfocado directamente a la elaboración de unidades didácticas AICLE para Ciencias Sociales, Ciencias Naturales, Educación Física y Educación Artística. El código del curso es 14EL76IN285.

Ambas propuestas todavía cuentan con plazas libres. Os invitamos a que os informéis sobre ellas en nuestra página y os inscribáis si las consideráis de interés.

MES-English

MES-English.com is a site by Mark Cox containing resources for teachers of young learners to be downloaded and used. These resources include:

• Printable flashcards.
• Worksheet templates (games, spelling, reading...).
• Games.
• Projects and lessons plans.
• Phonics flashcards.

and much more...

Visit: http://www.mes-english.com/

Fraze.it

With more than 100 millions phrases and sentences Fraze.it is one of the most advanced platforms for sentences on the Internet. Check it out for real-life examples of vocabulary in context, maybe the best way to learn and remember new words and phrases.

Fraze.it supports also these languages: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and German.

http://fraze.it/

KinderSay

KinderSay is a free online video website to help preschoolers or ESL children learn English. They can practice the alphabet and many English words, learn to recognize members of their families or their personal belongings by using pictures or even learn sign language.

http://kindersay.com/

Grammar Gamble

Grammar Gamble is an English grammar test that helps you learn English quicker and faster. Simply log in, answer 10 questions and build the highest score you can. At each question you can bet some of your 'money' on the answer. If you choose right, you win the money. If you choose wrong, you lose it!

Grammar Gamble is aimed at Intermediate English learners.

Source: http://www.grammargamble.com/about.phps

http://www.grammargamble.com/

Learning de cambridgeenglishtv

Lista de reproducción de Cambridge English TV con muy breves consejos en torno a cuestiones de evaluación (test, reading, writing, listening, speaking, preparación para pruebas de inglés...)

Podéis acceder a todos los vídeos de la lista a través de este enlace:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5146C9A4FD908B6D

Incrustamos uno de los vídeos a modo de ejemplo de lo que podéis encontrar en los 19 que integran la lista.

Glosario Inglés-Español para términos de turismo, derecho, economía y día a día

Interesante glosario de Ana Isabel Rodríguez Muñoz que agrupa términos correspondientes a los campos de la economía, el comercio, los negocios, los recursos humanos, la informática, el marketing, los transportes y la cocina.

La gran mayoría de terminos aparecen traducidos del inglés al español o bien se explican con el fin de que conozcamos su significado y su uso. También se acompañan de una transcripción fonética y de frases o contextos de uso.

Puede serviros de ayuda a quienes estáis implicados e implicadas en algunas familias profesionales o simplemente a quienes estáis aprendiendo inglés para usos algo más especializados de la lengua que no suelen constituir contenidos frecuentes desde una aproximación más general a la lengua.

http://www.tradserv.net/imagenes/Glosario%20A.%20Rodriguez%20Web.pdf

English Radio Stations

Listening to the radio can be a good way of improving your listening skills.

Here you have a very interesting list of English radio stations. Explore your interests and learn English at the same time.

http://www.zozanga.com/internetstuff/englishradiostations.htm

Unidades didácticas CLIL (CESIRE)

En la web de CESIRE (Àmbit lingüístic/ CIREL) del Departament d'Ensenyament de la Generalitat de Catalunya podéis encontrar diversas unidades didácticas CLIL agrupadas por materias y por su duración y, de forma secundaria por etapa educativa.

La mayoría se han concebido para el aprendizaje integrado de contenidos e inglés, pero también se recogen algunas unidades en francés.

Todos estos materiales se han desarrollado a partir de actividades de formación del profesorado en las que participaron sus creadores.

Consulta en el siguiente enlace:

http://srvcnpbs.xtec.cat/cirel/cirel/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=181&Itemid=212

Just English

Consultar los recursos que se ofrecen desde otros países para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de inglés puede en ocasiones suponer encontrar propuestas muy interesantes de las que también podemos aprovecharnos.

En este caso os queremos presentar la página Just English de educ.ar, portal del Ministerio de Educación de Argentina y del British Council.

Desde ella podemos acceder a dos secciones.

En Learn English Kids encontraremos juegos, canciones, historias y actividades para que niños y niñas aprendan de forma visual y divertida.

Learn English nos dará opción a entrar a otras secciones:

- Listen & Watch. Audio y vídeo con actividades posibles de imprimir.

- Quick Grammar. Un compendio de gramática con un práctico índice de búsqueda.

- Fun & Games. Juegos de todo tipo agrupados por su contenido.

- Business & Work. Apartado en el que se trabajan temas de actualidad, negocios, educación, etc. y una serie de podcast relacionados con estos temas con transcripciones y orientaciones para su utilización.

Merece la pena echarle un vistazo.

E-CLIL resource centre

The E-CLIL resource centre is a virtual European CLIL project with three objectives:

- It will provide support to current and future CLIL education programmes all over Europe.

- It will disseminate high quality and already proven materials and resources for content and language learning.

- It will enrich teachers’ and children’s knowledge of other European cultures.

It has been designed to link to:

- CLIL resource sites that either have more information on the use of CLIL or further links to more CLIL resources.

- Specific CLIL resources that can be used by teachers in the classroom.

Some of these resources have been further divided by language. The individual resources are categorised by subject area.

http://e-clil.uws.ac.uk/?option=com_content&view=article&id=47&Itemid=62

Learnex

Learnex is a part of Let's Talk Intitute. This Indian teaching intitution provides modern language classroom materials for students.

If you visit their webpage, you will find lots of videos organized by categories (accent, business, grammar, idioms...) that will help you improve your English language skills.

Also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/learnexmumbai/videos

Football vocabulary

The 2014 FIFA World Cup has come to an end. How well do you know football vocabulary?

You can also try this webpage 

http://premierskills.britishcouncil.org/en/on-the-pitch/football-vocabulary