Mr P's ICT blog - Tech to raise standards!

I blogged about the app sentiopiary (now known as grow grammar) a while ago. This quick video explains how it works: Grow Grammar - Create - The Beautiful Apple from eeiioo on Vimeo . Now the app is priced at £4.99 and while it is a great way to revise SPaG, with school budgets tightening it may not be affordable for some. However, I have recently discovered a website that does a very similar thing. FoxType's Sentence Tree is a free website where you can type in a sentence and it will define every part, for example: Having this open on your laptop and checking the odd sentence as a quick reminder for children and can be a really useful revision tool. Visit the Sentence Tree Website Here .

I have previously blogged about some of the great apps from the team at Andrew Brodie. The Let's Do Mental Maths  and the Telling The Time apps are great consumer apps to use in the classroom. Now they have released the Let's Do Spelling Series with an app for every Year group from Year 1-6. The apps are all tailored to the English Curriculum and has plenty of activities to help children develop their spelling. With three different activities, including progress tests, the app is easy for children to navigate and use where they can challenge themselves to match their own ability. Their is even the option to create your own spelling lists and activities. I really like the audio element and how each word is put into a sentence and read aloud before the student then spells the word. The app uses the tried and test 'learn, write, check' approach in the practice section and each activity has three levels of difficulty. For a quick demo of some of the features, che...

To help everyone get back into the swing of things, myself and John are offering the two READWRITEPERFORM packs for half price when bought together until the end of August! For just £10 you get two units of English that cover every element of the English curriculum. The Battle Cry and Sports Manager pack has already had a massive impact on learning in classrooms all over the world. While John and I carry on creating more engaging packs, we want to help teachers hit the ground running in September! CLICK HERE TO BUY Each pack follows the following model: The pack consists of plans for the following: Comprehension lessons that integrate and develop core reading skills at Word, Sentence and Text Level. Contextualised SPaG within the texts means students not only learn what features are being used but why and to what effect.  Writing lessons that encourage collaborative learning and independent creative writing that embeds grammar in a  meaningful...

I am sure many of us will be planning and preparing for the upcoming SATs tests. While I am not in favour of the tests, I know ultimately children have to sit them and therefore teachers all over the country will be prepping their students to pass. One resource I love is the SATs pack from  @SparkyTeaching . They seem to echo my thoughts on the tests and so the pack tries to make the preparations more engaging and fun. This video sums it up - The following link will give you all the information about the pack including some free resources such as a video to share with your class and a letter for parents. THE SATs PACK from  @SparkyTeaching . The pack is priced at £37.99 and includes a range of ideas and resources supporting both English and Maths. There is also the Shine pack included which was designed to show your students that they are more than the sum of their test scores. It includes loads of resources and posters for you to use in class, for exampl...

It is my belief that wherever possible SPaG should be embedded in reading and writing. Sometimes, however, there maybe the odd five/ten minutes where the children can play a game to help practise spelling and build vocabulary. Here are some great apps and ideas that children can use as a quick mental starter for the day or lesson. 1 - Emoji Quiz  I have previously blogged about using Emojis in class, you can read this here.  This app challenges the children to guess the compound word from the emojis in the image. There are different categories to work through but be aware there are adverts and in-app purchases (put the iPad in airplane mode to stop these) - 2 - Spellfix  The first app in the list from Alan Peat is a great way for children to practise spelling and learn the definition of different words. I have previously blogged about this app, which you can read here.  View on Flipagram 3 - 1Pic8Words This new app is similar to the Emo...