As we get close to breaking up I hope you’ve had time to enjoy both our Christmas and Hanukkah resources in the last days of term.

I showed the Hanukkah animation to my two sons as my husband’s family are Jewish and I wanted them to give the boys an understanding of what the festival is all about. Following on from that I took my youngest son into Oxford at the start of the week to see the twelve foot high Hannukah menorah (sometimes called a hannukiah) that currently stands in Broad Street and is illuminated each evening up to the end of the eight night festival. I thought this was particularly impressive until I saw this one which is currently residing in Trafalgar Square.

Taking a closer look.....

My children are still quite young and there is a lot to understand so I asked members of our family what Hanukkah meant to them as children.

My husband took some time to recall and then came back with these thoughts:

The candelabra that remained unused all year suddenly became the centre of attention for those special eight days of the year, and as children we all wanted to do was light it each evening. The story of Hanukkah tells of resistance and bravery, what better way to celebrate this than with laktas (potato pancakes) and beef brisket. And most importantly Grandpa always left large bars of chocolate for all of us.

And my sister-in-law didn’t really have particular Hanukkah memories to draw on but is now celebrating the holiday with her own children over in Guernsey. Each night they light the candles and say the blessings. And every night there is a small present for each of them (although it is rumoured that the presents ran out by the third day…)

Well whatever festivals and celebrations you are enjoying as you count down to the end of term, on behalf of everyone here at KnowledgeBox I’d like to wish you a happy Hanukkah, a merry Christmas and I look forward to seeing you back here in the New Year.

Kate

Publisher

Chocolate for breakfast? That’s what it meant in my house this morning. For the first time ever I have given in and purchased Advent calendars that don’t have a nativity theme - this year we’ve got the character ones my boys really wanted. The truth is that I couldn’t find any representing the birth of Jesus – so we’ve got ones that count down until the time that Santa comes. I was slightly appeased however to find that the first chocolate was shaped like a carol singer….

Opening window number one.....

So what does Advent mean to the children in your class? A very useful starting point to your discussion could be the KnowledgeBox Advent Question Path – type ‘advent’ into the quick find to bring this up plus lots of useful photographs illustrating the different aspects of advent.

Also take a look at the different Advent customs and traditions from both a Christian and historical perspective.

I do have very happy memories from my teaching days of of lighting an Advent candle at the end of the school day and reading a Christmas-themed story by candle light. Someone always tried to blow it out whilst I wasn’t looking but it did give the room a magical atmosphere.

Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29766713@N00/3074691365/

But of course my favourite memory of Advent involves two wire coat hangers, some tinsel and four jam jar lids – here’s one I made earlier…

Let us know what you do to mark Advent, and enjoy those chocolates!

Kate

Just a quick post to remind you that this week (23rd-29th Nov) is Road Safety Week .

 Even if you haven’t the time to look at this in great detail in your classroom, it’s something that could be tackled in an assembly.
All you  need as a starting point is the KnowledgeBox Road Safety Week Question path. From this resource you can find out all about Road Safety Week, why it’s an important week, and how to keep safe on the roads. 

Road Safety Week Question path

In a week where it seems to be dark as early as 4 pm and the roads are covered in wet leaves, the importance of Road Safety becomes even more obvious.

If you do a have a bit more time to work with this theme, then you could use it as an opportunity to do some really interesting science work about forces and friction. Discuss the effect that wet leaves have on friction, experiment with different lubricants when trying to move objects down a slope, look at ways in which we try to increase friction ( e.g. car tyre treads) and situations where we want and don’t want friction.

Just type ‘Friction’ into KnowledgeBox Quick find and you’ll find plenty of resources to help you explain this force.

Have a safe week,

Catharine
Producer

This week (16-20th November) is Anti-Bullying week.

www.flickr.com/photos/bullyinguk/3566673322/

The theme for Anti-bullying week 2009 is Cyberbullying.

Remember to check out the great resources on KnowledgeBox: Teasing or Bullying? Interactive Photo Album KS1&2. Type bullying into Quick find or go to the Events and Occasions module in the contents panel and click on November.

Also visit the official site for some great free resouces and videos. The Beatbullying site is also worth a look, and finally Say No to Bullying includes material for lessons and ideas for a topical assembly.

I’m sure you’ll have noticed the banners on the KnowledgeBox home screen this week, announcing that BBC Active iPosters are now available on KnowledgeBox. This new series of resources are proving to be very popular and no doubt the amazingly good value, price tag of £39.99 (RRP)  is helping enormously!

The titles are:

Earth, Moon and Sun
Evacuees
Rainforests
Recycling
Being a Hindu
Being a Muslim

Speak to our friendly customer services team on 0800 587 8032 now, to trial or buy any of these titles for your KnowledgeBox.

Find out more

iPosters are a new range of interactive posters for your whiteboard, designed for whole class teaching and learning. Explore different aspects of the poster through a series of on-screen hot spots to create an active and engaging resource, perfect for a thematic approach to the curriculum.

Each hot spot leads through to carefully selected resources, including BBC video clips, interactive activities and audio and visual stimuli, all of which build skills and understanding.

Each iPoster covers a different topic and is designed to engage pupils and help you cover important curriculum objectives in a creative and stimulating way.

• A creative and dynamic approach to learning, which is simple and easy-to-use
• Child-friendly, curriculum-focused topics, including literacy skills, to engage your whole class
• The Teacher’s book and on-screen notes provide advice and support for making the most of the resource
• Accompanied by a printable  poster of the main screen for classroom display
• Excellent value for money – only £39.99

Earth, Moon and Sun

Earth, Moon and Sun (Age 7-11) is an invaluable resource for KS2 science. Watch and learn about all aspects of our planet, its Moon and the Sun. Examine themes including the phases of the Moon, ancient civilisations worshipping the Sun and Moon, and space exploration through time. A strong cross-curricular focus covers science, history and literacy.

Evacuees

Evacuees (Age 7-11) is the ideal resource when you are teaching about World War II. Watch and learn about the reasons for evacuation during the Second World War. Get an in-depth look at life of an evacuee, looking at where they went, what they took with them, daily life, and whether evacuation still happens in modern times. Get a true insight into life during the war with archive footage and audio and visual sources from the era.

Rainforests

Rainforests ( Age 7-11) is a great resource for teaching right across the curriculum and has particularly strong links to literacy and PSHE. Watch and learn about tropical rainforests, examining their unique ecosystem and inhabitants. Investigate what is happening to rainforests and why they’re under threat, and why their preservation is important to the planet. Help promote involvement in this topic through what can be done to help protect rainforests.

Recycling

Recycling ( Age 7-11) is the perfect resource to support the Eco-schools initiative.  Examine the impact of waste disposal on our environment, controversial aspect of recycling, and what we can do to reduce the waste we produce.  A cross-curricular focus makes this resource suitable for both geography and PSHE lessons. A citizenship theme runs throughout the resource, encouraging pupils to ‘Take action!’ and become active global citizens.

Being a Hindu

Being a Hindu ( Age 7-11)  has a strong focus on both RE attainment targets – learning from and learning about religion. Learn about the Hindu faith and explore living life as a Hindu. Looks at many key aspects including where and how Hindus pray, the circle of life, and important stories including Ganesh and Ram and Sita. Get a sensitive insight into the religion to enable you to teach this area with confidence.

Being a Muslim

Being a Muslim ( Age 7-11) also has a strong focus on both RE attainment targets – learning from and learning about religion. Learn about the Islamic faith and explore living life as a Muslim. Looks at many key aspects including daily prayer, places of worship, the importance of the Qur’an and the Hajj pilgrimage to Makkah. Get a sensitive insight into the religion to enable you to teach this area with confidence.

So why not arrange a trial of one of these titles for your school? Just speak to our friendly customer services team on 0800 587 8032 now and you could be using these resources in your classroom tomorrow!

Catharine
Producer

As you are probably aware, October is Black History Month. A time to celebrate the  African and Carribean heritage of the United Kingdom.

It looks like some schools have already been very busy with their celebrations, there are lots of different ways you can get the children in your school interested and involved.

Links with history could include looking at the life and work of Mary Seacole.

Use the KnowledgeBox Mary Seacole animation to find out about Mary Seacole’s life and the resources in the Question path for follow up activities. 

BBC Active’s new ‘Find Out About Famous Men, Women and Children‘ has a whole unit of resources about Mary Seacole. Here you’ll find dramatised video clips about her life plus drag and drop sequencing and labelling activities  – all ideal for your whiteboard.

There is also a whole unit about Nelson Mandela which could provide the stimulus and information for some Literacy and ICT work – perhaps a biography of the great leader?

Ideas from around the web include these assembly ideas to get your children thinking about the history of black people in Britain and a whole range of useful links from the DFES standards site.

Let us know how you marked Black History Month in your school.

Kate

Publisher

Just a quick reminder that The Emperor’s new clothes, the second animation in the Traditional stories module, is now available.  You’ll find this KS1 animation, pictures from the animation and Teacher notes in the folder in the Contents panel.

The Emperor's wardrobe from Traditional stories

There are some great cross-curricular ideas in the Teacher notes for things you might like to do with your children and here are just a few:

The Emperor’s wardrobe: Literacy opportunity
Pause on the section of the animation that shows the Emperor’s wardrobe. Look closely at the clothes in the wardrobe. What do they tell you about the Emperor? You could ask the children to choose one of the outfits and to imagine what happened the day it was worn by the Emperor.

Character passports: Literacy opportunity

Encourage children to brainstorm a list of words to describe each character from the story. Then ask the children to create a passport for one of the characters from the story. They should draw a picture of the character and fill in the following sections: Name, Age, Address, and Description.

Pretend to be tailors: Mathematics opportunity

Give the children measuring tapes and ask them to work in pairs (one is the tailor and the other is the Emperor) measuring each other. They should make accurate measurements of different body parts and should record and compare the measurements.

Being different: PSHE opportunity

• Ask the children if they have ever pretended to understand something because they didn’t want to stand out and be different. Discuss the disadvantages of doing this.
• Talk about how it feels to stand out from the crowd. Discuss situations where individual pupils have done this and how they have felt.
• How do they think the Emperor felt when the crowd was laughing at him? Talk about how it feels to be laughed at.
• Do the children think that what happened at the end of the story was fair?

And don’t forget to make the most of the pictures from the animation itself. You can use them for all sorts of activities on your whiteboard, for classroom displays, print activities and games.

And as always we would love to hear from you if you have used any of our resources successfully in your lessons.

Catharine
Producer

Catharine mentioned our new BBC Active titles in her ‘welcome’ blog post and hopefully you’ve already spotted them in your contents list.

Each of these BBC Active interactive resources is built around carefully selected BBC video clips, with dozens of activities for each topic to prompt discussion and engage all the children in your class, on and away from the whiteboard. So here’s a quick summary of what you can expect.

First up today is Find Out about Problem Solving for age 5-6 which uses clips from the popular BBC ‘Numbertime’ TV programme. The follow up to the same title for age 4-5, it helps you deliver the key aspects of the Primary Framework for Year 1. And it’s certainly easy to use, flexible and fun for the whole class.

Phonics Phase 5 can be challenging. So, in line with Letters and Sounds, Fun with Phonics Phase 5: Alternative Graphemes resources have been specially created to offer you fantastic support for planning and teaching. It helps pupils apply reading and writing, and speaking and listening skills. The BBC video clips, activities and stories all come together to make phonics enjoyable and memorable.

Find Out About: Beliefs and Belonging (age 5-7) is an invaluable resource, helping children to think about what it means and how it feels to belong to a family, friends and different groups. It helps you to teach with confidence a variety of faiths, and supports your school’s community cohesion programme.

Whiteboard Active: Mountains and Coasts (age 7-11) uses amazing BBC video clips so pupils can explore these geographical features, what has shaped and transformed them, and the people living there. It will add value to your lessons thanks to cross-curricular links to history, science, art and literacy.

Finally, Whiteboard Active: Ancient Greece (age 7-11) covers a range of topics, including the role of women, language, war and everyday life and how it still influences our lives today. With support materials, activities and literacy links, pupils can experience this fascinating period.

So if you’re looking for a refreshing choice of resources, each of these BBC Active titles offers support for the creative curriculum, helps with the APP writing assessments and can be personalised to suit your teaching and your class.

Speak to our friendly customer services team on 0800 587 8032 now to access these titles on your KnowledgeBox. And if you order now, you can get 3 for 2 on all BBC Active titles, so buy 3 and get the cheapest absolutely free!

Keep your eyes open for another batch of BBC Active titles later this term.

Sarah, KnowledgeBox Publisher

Hades taking Persephone to the underworld

Great news! The  NEW Live! Traditional stories module is now available in the KnowledgeBox Contents panel. 

Currently it features the KS2 animated Greek myth of  ‘Persephone and how the seasons came to be’  – a timely resource as we move from summer to autumn. 
Five more animations will be added during the autumn term and here are the dates to look out for: 

September 14th: The Emporer’s new clothes (KS1)

October 12th: Romulus and Remus (KS2)

October 19th: The Boy who cried wolf (KS1)

November 2nd: Beowulf and Grendel (KS2)

November 23rd: The Creation of Mankind (KS2)

All of the stories  are great starting points for a range of activities across the curriculum and each is accompanied by a set of teacher notes full of ideas for creative classroom activities and a set of pictures, ready for you to download or use in your whiteboard presentations.

Grecian urn http://www.flickr.com/photos/sftrajan/)

The activity ideas for use with Persephone include:

• Settings-The underworld  Literacy and Art and design opportunity
  Ask pupils to brainstorm a list of words to describe the underworld. Encourage them to
  write a poem about this place or to paint a picture.
• Grecian urn: Art and design opportunity
  Draw a scene from the myth to illustrate the side of a Grecian urn.
• Gods and Goddesses in art Art and design opportunity
  Use books and the internet to research how the Gods and Goddesses who feature in this
  myth are represented in paintings and sculptures.
• Write a myth Literacy opportunity
  Encourage pupils to write their own myth to explain an aspect of nature e.g. how day
  and night came to be. Encourage them to use characters they already know from Greek
  mythology and to create characters of their own. 

The teacher notes also includes a list of useful web-links. Myths and legends  from the East of England’s Learning Grid is one of my favourites and is great inspiration for your pupils hwen writing myths of their own. 

As always, we’d love to hear how you’ve used the animations in your lessons and to see any of the work that your pupils do.

Catharine
KnowledgeBox Producer

Welcome back everyone.

I hope you had a great summer – not the BBQ one we were promised by the weather forecasters but a definite improvement on last year.

I thought I’d let you know about a few of the exciting things we have in store for you on KnowledgeBox this term:

Live! Traditional stories

Hades taking Persephone to the underworld from The story of Persephone and how the seasons came to be.

This brand new module provides you with a  set of high quality, animated tales for Key stage 1 and 2.

Each new resource will be announced on the Home screen so you will know when it is available. Go to the Traditional stories module in the Contents panel to find out more . Look out for next week’s blog post with ideas on how to use these resources your classroom.

The number of BBC Active modules on KnowledgeBox just keeps growing!

These NEW Key stage 1 modules are now available :

Words and Pictures Fun with Phonics Phase 5: 
All you need to teach Phase 5 of Letters and sounds. 

Find Out About Problem Solving: Age 5-6
Make Key stage 1 problem solving and numeracy fun with the BBC

Find Out About: Beliefs and Belonging
Introduce young children to the world of faith groups with the BBC 

 And NEW for Key stage 2 :

Whiteboard Active: Ancient Greece
Explore life in Ancient Greece with the BBC

Whiteboard Active: Mountains and Coasts
Explore the world’s fascinating landscapes with the BBC

Click here for more information about these titles. There’ll be a blog post about them in the next few weeks so look out for that as well.

If you’d like a FREE trial or you’d like to buy any of these resources just call the KnowledgeBox Team on 0800 587 8032.

Coming soon

Just a quick reminder to click on the Coming soon link on the Home screen for a list of KnowledgeBox resources that will help you to teach about topical events and festivals throughout the Autumn term.

Have a great start to the new term.

Catharine
KnowledgeBox Producer