Shake 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…]
The 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…]
Getting pupils blogging is a great dimension to add to the class dynamic. It is most rewarding for both the pupils and the teacher. I have written a previous post about commencing a class blog with my 6th class this year. It has been well received by pupils and parents alike. The pupils quite like getting work, including homework, to do on the blog and one of the aspects that they like is commenting on each other’s blog posts. [click to continue…]
I just came across this great new tool for the classroom on Russell Tarr’s Class Tools website. It is called an SMS Generator. This tool allows you to create a mock text message conversation within this free online tool. It is a really easy tool to use and so effective. To begin the conversation, you click on the speech bubble in the bottom left hand corner. A dialogue box opens up for you to type in the text. When you are finished, you click OK. To get the next person to reply, you click on the speech bubble on the bottom right hand corner this time and enter the reply. You can repeat this process as many times as you wish and there is no limit to the length of the text conversation. [click to continue…]
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 doing the book review in a copy, on a sheet or online.
When writing a Book Review, here are some things to keep in mind. Write an interesting starting sentence for your review. Some people like to start with a question. Other reviewers like to start with the book facts: author, illustrator, and publisher to make it easy for others to find the book. Essentially, the book review should contain two main elements: [click to continue…]
Making Blog Comments
by admin on 29/03/2013
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