Many teachers take a thematic approach to teaching and like to plan a scheme of cross-curricular work around a particular topic. Similarly, many students teachers are asked to plan their lessons for teaching practice around a particular theme. Whatever your reason for planning classroom lessons around a theme, the hard work is always finding resources on the internet to assist in the teaching of the theme in the classroom. There are such a vast array of resources on the internet geared towards teachers and primary school pupils, a lot of planning time can be wasted looking for what is suitable, appropriate and works in the classroom.

Mash.ie, an Irish website, is a great place to begin your search for resources on the internet about a particular theme. The site is organised into themes and under each theme are a list of links to websites (known as a Mash) where resources for that theme can be found. This gives the teacher a great starting point when looking for resources on a theme. Most of the links provided in the themes have been submitted by practising teachers, so, in essence, they are tried and tested and come recommended by the teachers. At the moment there are 191 different themes on the site with almost 1,200 links to resources for those themes. The available themes include Autism, South Pole, Inventions, People that Help Us, Water, Recycling, Phonics, Gaeilge, IWB Resources, Explorers, Minibeasts, Space, World War II, Greece, Planets and lots more.

Teachers who have prepared a theme themselves and have accumulated some links to websites are also asked to share those links through the Mash.ie website so that all teachers can benefit from the collective wisdom. The site is blog-based, so you only need to register to upload your own links. If the theme you have researched is not on the website, then you can start off a brand new theme. This is a great time-saving website and deserves to be supported by teachers. This website is brought to you by Anseo.net

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