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Here is a beginner guide for Scratch. This is a great set of resources to help you get started with computer game production in Scratch. This was developed to cover the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence, Experience, and Outcome for Game Production. This is a fascinating way to start. I hope others will share their resources in the comments. I want to use Scratch in my classroom.

Scratch is a great free game-making animation-style program. This is a nice beginner guide teaching a beginner or students how to make a quiz in Scratch. I had some students in Scratch earlier in the year and am going to go back and give this to them.

So, I have been asked by a few people to provide a further update to the 'worklife balance' issue.  As many of you will now know, when I started my first headship (the one I'm currently in) just over two years ago, I started my first Inset day by te…

Here is an interesting point as I research inquiry based learning and move to look in a database that is largely built from overseas. Many places called "inquiry" "enquiry" so in this set of lessons across the curriculum, I have to search using the term "enquiry" to turn up what have been tagged as "inquiry based" lesson plans. There are many nuances like that as you start looking at best practices across the world to remember. Eventually, hopefully, language searches will translate between common languages (like English) to help us bridge best practices. If you're looking into inquiry-based learning (or equiry-based depending upon where you're from) - this is a database of lesson plans from Kindergarten up in different categories.

Parts of the site require a subscription, but the free parts are valuable none-the-less. The simple non-fiction book are read aloud.

A set of US department of energy lesson plans about energy, and many science topics. (72 lesson plans). There are many activities you can use organized by age.

If you're planning May and want to see the holidays and events along with lesson plans, you'll want to check out this list. Lots of events including a net one we should bring to the US called "Friendship Funday".

Here are some lesson plans for phonics and writing for younger students to use in your classroom. I've sorted it by the most popular first including some Outdoor ideas and some phonics games you could play.

There are many excellent interactive whiteboard resources on the web. In this one, students sequence the seasonal events in the year of a woodland habitat. The students click the picture to read and listen to explanations and drag them to put them in the correct order.

I share on this site but it is a great place to find resources. It is the largest network of English speaking teachers in the world and they are launching in the US this year. When I saw this, I thought some of you on break might like to share. I like the site because the resources are free and it is curated.

A ton of resources for the IBoard for these last few days before Christmas. Bookmark them and have them ready to go for next year. Meanwhile, parents at home with kids may find something for a child to play that reinforces a topic that kids are having trouble with at school. We always do math facts over break with my youngest.

Although this was designed for summer, the list has a lot of ideas that parents can do with children over the break. While I do leave time for my kids to have a break, I do try to find things that will encourage their love of learning that I sneak in there kind of like sneaking vegetables into things without them knowing. Have a great break! Teachers might want to download and share with parents headed on break.

As you think about next year, it is great to plan deep projects with historical meaning. As I was looking up things that happened 100 years a go in 1912, one jumped out at me. The Titanic Sunk on April 11, 1912. There are a ton of resources already available on this topic but it would make for an interesting project of some sort as the fascination with the event doesn't seem to have waned much.

This is a lesson plan that you can use as a starting point if you choose to involve your classrooms in the movement to end slavery in the world. Could you imagine if we could leave a legacy of this one thing. Our job is to speak for the helpless and to encourage empathy and understanding for others in this generation of children. It isn't all about what you can get, but about what you can give. This booklet is out of the UK. "The antislavery movement was the first major campaign in Britain to involve ordinary citizens across all classes (as well as the slaves themselves) in the struggle to end the practice. As such it is a good example of how change can come about when people work together for a just cause. This booklet More…intends inspire and equip young people to take a stand against the continuation of slavery and injustice in the world today."

Crosswords, scramblers, work to do in pairs or together. If you need just one more thing just in case, go here. Created by a teacher.

I love this lesson plan which includes algebra, ratios, angles, and stastics that most 9th and 10th graders I know could compute. This could be a very fund summary activity. Look at this PDF and powerpoint and create your own. If you do, please share it with me in the comments or email it to me, I'd like to share what you do.

Remember the old feltboards we used to use? Now, we have one for your Interactive whiteboard. Talk about the different words as you pull them into the tree. You could decorate the tree and have it on your board during your class party!

There are quite a few activities on this website around Hanukkah including a powerpoint presentation about Holidays around the world. It is a great time to talk about the holidays of many different faiths.