26 September – World Rivers Day

From Wikipedia:
World Rivers Day is a global celebration of the world’s waterways, observed every last Sunday in September. Established in 2005, it highlights the many values of rivers and strives to increase public awareness while encouraging the improved stewardship of rivers around the world. World Rivers Day occurs annually on the last Sunday in September.

… and from the RSPB ….

New lesson2go: Survey of Eye Colour

In this activity the teacher uses pictogram software to gather, record, display and discuss information
about the eye colours of children in the class. A writing frame worksheet is provided.

Please login first, then access the activities via the lessons2go tab. To see this lesson select ‘Latest items’.

Eco Bugs … get involved

From the Futurelab newsletter:

Help develop an exciting new mobile-based education game – Ecobugs!
We are looking for between four and six Key Stage 2 science teachers to attend a twilight workshop to help develop our exciting new education resource Ecobugs. Ecobugs is a mobile phone-based game aimed at 7-11 year olds, it encourages learners’ interest in the environment as they explore their surroundings to create, collect, and monitor the health of virtual ‘bug’ species. This is a great opportunity to play a key role in developing a new innovative resource.

The workshop will take place between 4:15pm and 6:30pm on Tuesday 28 September at the Futurelab offices in Bristol. It will be an open brainstorming session to shape the content of the game and to make sure it meets the needs of teachers. There may be further opportunities for participating teachers to become more involved in the development of the game after the workshop. We are able to pay £75 to each of the attendees to cover time and travel costs.

Please contact kieron.kirkland@futurelab.org.uk if you are interested in attending the event.

Becta

The latest news on the closure of Becta and the phased shutdown of the Becta web site:

‘This will be a staged process, involving the movement from the full web functionality, through an interim “holding site” stage to the final closure of all online activity in March 2011. Specifically, I would like to draw your attention that the ordering of publications (not downloads) will cease being available from 22nd October, and this will be flagged on the site from October 1st.’
If you require any hard-copy versions of Becta publications, you need to visit the site before October 22nd to order them. Printable downloads will still be available after this date.

Thanks to @dughall on Twitter for this information

Sharing Good Practice 101

In SGP97 we offered a number of TTS resources for review.
Here Lucy Garside tells how she got on with Sound Shuffle.
We also have an article from a proud grandma on using Bee-Bot with her grandson and a
piece about the Nature Detectives photo competition.
Next, Jim Merrett tells us about the National Digital Resource bank and finally there are a few ictopus news items that you may have missed over the holidays.

The magazine can be downloaded from here. Log-in first then go to the SGP tab.

Roald Dahl Day 13th Sept

I do hope that lots of teachers read to lots of children today. Great opportunity! Find out more … http://www.roalddahlday.info/

New lesson2go – Victorians

Continuing with our theme of Victorian history we have a lesson this week for the 9-10 age group in which children use a range of online resources to find out about working conditions for poor children living in Victorian times. Subsequently they will use the information as the basis for writing either a letter to a newspaper or an MP, or to write a speech expressing their views on child labour. This activity could lead to study about the social and industrial reformers of the Victorian period, for example the Earl of Shaftesbury and Doctor Barnardo.

Please login to ictopus first, then access the activities via the lessons2go tab. To see this lesson select ‘Latest items’.

Looking for web 2.0 tools ?

Looking for web 2.0 tools ? Then look no further … here is a superb list thanks to Primary Technology !

Olympic Dreams School Search

Check out the web site for more details about this 2012 Olympics project

BBC World Class and the British Council are looking for dozens of primary and secondary schools across the UK to twin with schools all over the world and to take part in a special project in the run-up to the London Olympics in 2012. We are looking for schools that want to link with others around the world or in the UK, and who are excited about 2012. We want to find inspiring teachers who can share creative work from their pupils with us via the web. Winning schools will be partnered with the schools attended by athletes who are part of the BBC’s World Olympic Dreams Project.

Centenary Sharing Good Practice

SGP100 is now ready for collection

We have a superb new resource for you this term to support teaching of the social history of the Victorian period and SGP100 tells you all about it. The Inveraray Jail database is a collection of the records of every prisoner admitted to this Scottish county jail from its opening in 1820 to its closure in 1888. These tell the stories of over 4000 ordinary people living in a time very different from today. The database has been painstakingly prepared for school use by our own Rhona Dick who, assisted by fellow ictopussies, has written support materials for teachers and for children. The database and supporting documents are available from a special area of the ictopus website marked by a tab at the top of the home page.

The magazine can be downloaded from http://www.ictopus.org.uk/
Log-in first then go to the SGP tab.