Welcome to Seomra Ranga, the Hub for Primary School Resources. For the overseas visitors “Seomra Ranga” means “classroom” in the Irish language.
Seomra Ranga has been successfully providing tried and tested resources for primary school classrooms since 2007. Since that time, the site has gradually built up a strong following amongst educators as a repository of quality teacher-created resources. The resources on the site, which support all areas of the curriculum, are arranged in accordance with the curricular provisions of the Irish primary school….
New Wordle Resources
There are now some new Wordle resources added onto the Seomra Ranga website. I first heard about Wordle (http://www.wordle.net) at this years CESI conference and I’m only really now getting around to using it. Wordle is a very simple online piece of software which allows you to create “Word Clouds”. These word clouds display text in an interesting and unusual way that will be instantly visually appealing to pupils. The way the text is presented can be changed in many ways by choosing different fonts, layouts and colour schemes. Wordle is free to use and could not be more simple. You can create your own word clouds by visiting the site and clicking on “create” or you can view word clouds created by others by clicking on “gallery”. When you create a new word cloud, you save the image to the online gallery. All of the word cloud images are copyright and licenced by a Creative Commons licence. As far as I know, you cannot save the image to your own computer. However, you can copy and paste the link code to your web site or blog. Word clouds are a really easy way to make your own classroom resources. You could also get your pupils to make their own word clouds.
All of the Seomra Ranga Wordles can be viewed on the website HERE
You can also see the Seomra Ranga Wordles in the online gallery HERE
1500 Resources On Seomra Ranga
Seomra Ranga has reached another milestone with the recent addition of the 1,500th downloadable resource to the website. The resources cover all areas of the curriculum and are free to download. Most of the resources have been created by Seomra Ranga but some have been generously donated to the site by other teachers. You too can add to the resource bank by simply sending a resource that you have created as an attachment on an e-mail to info@seomraranga.com . I’ll upload the resource to the site so that it can be shared by everyone. Here’s to the next 1,500 resources!
Election Resources
Election time is fast approaching with the impending Local Elections, European Elections and the two Dublin By-Elections. This provides the teacher with a great opportunity to use the election atmosphere around us to teach about Ireland’s democracy and the electoral process. Seomra Ranga has produced some new resources to enable the teacher to effectively teach about the electoral process. The resources are contained in an “Elections” special page on the site. Some of the resources, which are free to download, include:
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flashcards of election vocabulary
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elections vocabulary word wall
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a booklet on Ireland’s Democracy
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flashcards of Official Offices that people can hold in Ireland
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posters of the leaders of the main political parties in Ireland at the moment
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flashcards with the names of the main political parties
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flashcards with vocabulary relating to political issues which may be heard during political discourse
Election Day is June 5th so it is opportune to discuss with middle and senior classes in the primary school all about elections and the voting system in Ireland. Why not try having a mock election in your school? Find out the names of all the candidates in your area, make up a ballot paper and hold the mock election. You could then set up a count centre and show how the system of proportional representation (PR) operates. I did this many years ago in a large school and it worked out really well.
Classroom Rules Rhyme
Nice colourful rhyme to teach pupils some classroom rules. Suitable to be displayed in the classroom.
(.doc file 158KB)
(Source: Ciara Mulcahy)
Website
Seomra Ranga recently reached another milestone in its development when the number of visitors to the site passed the 200,000 mark. This figure is even more remarkable considering the fact that the 100,000 mark was only passed towards the end of November 2008, meaning that another 100,000 have visited the site during the past three months.
Online since September 2007, Seomra Ranga has continued to develop and offer more and more free classroom resources for the primary school teacher. Developments during the past year include the range of new colourful posters across many curricular areas and the development of the “Christmas @ Seomra Ranga” website, both of which have attracted many visitors. The seasonal aspects of the site also attract many visitors depending on the time of the year.
I’ve had requests from some teachers to create specific resources for the classroom, and suggestions like this are always welcome. If you have a suggestion for a resource or a general suggestion for material that you think should be included on the site, please let me know (info@seomraranga.com) and I’ll do my best to oblige. Of course, I’m always appealing for new material that has been created by other teachers for the site. I’ve had donations of some really good and practical resources recently (the Naomh Pádraig Powerpoint and the Normans Powerpoint spring to mind) which I was delighted to receive and share on the site. I’d again appeal to teachers using the site, that if you download a free resource, that you return the favour and share a resource of your own through the site. The only requirement is that you have created the resource yourself, and that if you use material in the resource which was created by others, you should get their permission and/or acknowledge them in the resource.
Regards to all visitors to the site and hopefully we’ll have the next 100,000 visitors before the end of the year.
Resources For Easter
A number of classroom resources on the theme of Easter have now been uploaded onto the Seomra Ranga website. These resources include visual arts lessons; posters that detail the story of Easter; posters on the stations of the cross; posters giving the names of the different days during Holy Week; Easter worksheets; Easter word wall; flashcards with vocabulary about Easter; loop cards using Easter vocabulary; seasonal door signs for all class levels.
All the resources are free to download. However, I would ask that if you download a resource, that you upload another in return to share with others.
Quiz As Gaeilge
This week’s RTÉ Guide has a nice free CD-ROM of a “Quiz as Gaeilge” which is very appropriate for Seachtain na Gaeilge this week. The CD is appropriate for the senior end of the primary school or for a Gaelscoil. Instructions on how to use the CD are provided in Gaeilge and in Béarla. On the CD there are Ceisteanna Bunscoile (Leibhéal 1 & 2), and Ceisteanna Meánscoile. The ceisteanna are arranged in categories that you can choose: Teilifís & Scannáin, Eolas Ginearálta 1,2,3, Eolaíocht Ghinearálta, Tíreolaíocht Ghinearálta, Ceol. Alternatively, you can choose to answer Ceisteanna Fánacha (random questions) from all categories. It says that there are 100’s of questions on the CD.
This CD is suitable for use with senior pupils in the primary school either using a digital projector or running the CD on a PC. The answers have to be typed in and once you have entered an answer for all questions you can then choose to look at the correct answers to see how well you have done. This is a great resource for use in the primary school at any time during the year but especially during this week of Seachtain na Gaeilge.
St. Patrick’s Day Resources
New resources for the theme of St. Patrick in the classroom have been added to the Seomra Ranga site. There’s an excellent Powerpoint presentation telling the story of Naomh Pádraig as Gaeilge; there are flashcards to accompany the St. Patrick story and the scéal Naomh Paádraig; there are seasonal door signs for all class levels; St. Patrick Word Wall and three sets of St. Patrick Loop cards. All of these resources can be downloaded for free.
