Reading

Shake a Phrase App Competition

by admin on 14/05/2013

Shake a Phrase AppShake a Phrase is a language app for the development of reading, vocabulary, grammar and writing. The app presents the content under five different themes – Animals, Fairytale, Monsters, Sports and Shake Starter. Using these themes, there are three sections to the app – Shake It, Story Starter and Quiz Me.

I have previously reviewed the app HERE on this site, which also includes a demo video. Artgig Apps, the developers of the Shake a Phrase app based in New York, have kindly given me five free Promo Codes for the app [click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

The Sleeping Baobab Tree Competition

by admin on 13/05/2013

The Sleeping Baobab TreeTo coincide with the publication on this website of the Study Guide for “The Sleeping Baobab Tree” by Paula Leyden, the author and her publisher, Walker Books, have given us four copies of the book to give away on the site. “The Sleeping Baobab Tree”, like its predecessor The Butterfly Heart, is set in Zambia. One morning twelve-year-old Fred wakes up with an unaccountable sense of foreboding, which his friend Bul-Boo, one of the twins from next door, insists is just his imagination. [click to continue…]

{ 2 comments }

The Sleeping Baobab Tree Study Guide

by admin on 30/04/2013

The Sleeping Baobab TreeThe Sleeping Baobab Tree by Paula Leyden, like its predecessor The Butterfly Heart, is set in Zambia. One morning twelve-year-old Fred wakes up with an unaccountable sense of foreboding, which his friend Bul-Boo, one of the twins from next door, insists is just his imagination. However, the feeling persists – and grows stronger when Fred’s scary and extremely eccentric great-granny, Nokokulu, asks him to accompany her on a trip to an ancient burial site called Ng’ombe Ilede, a place described by their teacher, Sister Leonisa, as the Place of Death. [click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

Book Quiz

by admin on 15/04/2013

QuizzesThis is a short quiz on the theme of books. There are five rounds of six questions as well as a tie-break round. All answers are provided. There are some questions about books in general as well as questions about the novels Under the Hawthorn Tree, The Iron Man, War Horse and Narnia – The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Source: Kathleen Byrne [click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

Wildflower Girl Table Quiz

by admin on 14/04/2013

Wildflower Girl Table QuizTable Quiz based on the book “Wildflower Girl” by Marita Conlon Mc Kenna. It consists of 127 Powerpoint slides with all of the questions based on the book. There are eight rounds with six questions in each round. All of the answers, along with a Tie-Break round are provided. Hopefully, there is a mixture of easy enough questions and some to challenge the memory of the pupils. The aim really is that pupils should be able to get a good few correct with the harder ones there to sort out winners. [click to continue…]

{ 1 comment }

Word Mess App

March 29, 2013

Word Mess is a new app that I think pupils will love and it comes with a word of warning – it is quite addictive! If your pupils like word games like puzzles, wordsearches or crosswords, then they will love this app. It is a cross between a type of wordsearch and a word cloud. [...]

Read the full article →

The Irish in Stories iBook

March 17, 2013

The Irish in Stories is a new interactive iBook just released in the last couple of days. It is a 60 page book for the iPad which opens in the iBooks application. It aims to bring to readers the rich and varied history and mythology of ancient Ireland. It is full of beautiful illustrations, interactive [...]

Read the full article →

Book Review: SOS Lusitania

March 13, 2013

I just couldn’t put it down! The standard of writing is brilliant! I would absolutely recommend this book to my friends. Thirteen year old Finbar is from Queenstown, Co.Cork. His father is the staff captain of a huge liner called the Lusitania. Finbar’s father has to work all over the world and Finbar misses him [...]

Read the full article →

Doing a Book Review

March 6, 2013

Tomorrow, Thursday March 7th, is World Book Day so I thought I’d share some ideas about doing book reviews with your class. My pupils recently did book reviews on their blogs. The following are some guidelines I gave them for completing the exercise. You may find some tips that may be helpful for your pupils, whether they are [...]

Read the full article →

The Iron Man Workpack

February 28, 2013

This workpack for the novel “The Iron Man”, breaks the book into eighteen day’s work. There is an after-reading activity, homework activity and suggested vocabulary for each day. Key comprehension strategies are utilised to assess understanding of the reading. There is also a list of possible questions after each chapter.

Read the full article →

Tumble Books Cloud Service

February 28, 2013

South Dublin County Libraries have introduced Tumble Book Cloud Junior, which is an online collection of ebooks and read-along books, graphic novels, educational videos, and audio books. The service is designed specifically for ages 7-11 years. You get unlimited access, from any device with an internet connection. You don’t even need to be a member of South Dublin Libraries [...]

Read the full article →

Novels With Issues

January 29, 2013

Thanks to South Dublin County Council Libraries (SDCC) for providing me with this resource. It consists of a list of novels and books to help children cope with life’s challenges. A lot of research has obviously gone into the selection of these novels and it is a great list for teachers and schools who have [...]

Read the full article →

Classroom Novels

January 29, 2013

Thanks to South Dublin County Council Libraries (SDCC) for providing me with this resource. It consists of a list of novels suitable for literacy work in primary classrooms. SDCC has thirty copies of each of these novels available to loan to schools in their area for a three month period. This is a great service [...]

Read the full article →

In a World (Drama) App

January 25, 2013

The “In a World …Drama” app allows you to create a movie-type trailer. Download the app, which is available for free for iPod Touch and iPad, from the App Store. You select the script from the pre-determined template. The script is read by the well-known voice-over artist Jonathan Cook. You select images from your photo [...]

Read the full article →

The Book Shed Competition Winners

January 23, 2013

Many thanks to all of the teachers who entered our competition with The Book Shed for prizes of Usborne books. It was a great success. Many thanks to Luci Grimes from The Book Shed for sponsoring the prizes. Most people found the questions quite easy, but just to confirm, the answers were:

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries