Guide to getting started with languages with younger pupils.

Languages Special

A letter which attempts to persuade the reader to write their own persuasive letter, and which highlights some of the main points to include.

A poster which lists adverbs to describe how something might have been said.

A great site for learning Mandarin with fun games. Some of the instructions are in Chinese.

A superb app for any one looking at learning basic Mandarin Chinese. Play the game to listen and see the language. There are many different types of questions, but most are multiple choice or click and drag from a selection of choices. Questions start out easy and there is support and 'hint' buttons to help you. You can download each lesson as you reach it, or download everything if you plan to use it offline. All the language you have met is stored in a word bank and use your microphone to compare your pronunciation to the recordings.

Lots of great ideas on how to be creative in the classroom

This is a beautifully designed resource for learning English through the learner's native language. Because the resources teach the same English, it is ideal for using with English classes with learners from all over the world. The flash resources are great and the lessons are arranged in categories. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English+As+An+Additional+Language

A lovely resource to learn and practise Chinese numbers by listening to the Mandarin and typing the correct answers on the keypad. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Mandarin+%26+Chinese+culture

This is a simple list of English to Chinese names which I've build up over the years when my students have been looking at Chinese New Year. You can contact me to add more names to the list. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Mandarin+%26+Chinese+culture

This is a great game app for learning Chinese Pinyin, simplified Chinese and Mandarin. Play the Scrabble-like game by arranging your tiles on the board to form Pinyin words. Choose a character and the correct meaning to gain extra points. Play against friends on the web. Download the app at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pinyinpal-only-free-mandarin/id573873383 http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Mandarin+%26+Chinese+culture

Create short animated films with audio, text, backgrounds and a 3D avatar on an Apple device, then share the video online. Ideal for sharing ideas, tasks or homework. Download the app at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gami/id572737805?ls=1&mt=8 http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Video%2C+animation%2C+film+%26+Webcams

This is a site full of fun ESL games to practise and improve English skills. Games including Hangman and a Spelling Bee and there are lots of topics to choose from. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English+As+An+Additional+Language

This is a great site for creating all sorts of online cloze text of missing words and sentence ordering activities. It's great for sentence and grammar work, as well as using text about topics from across the curriculum. Register for free to create text activities to share and embed. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Cross+Curricular

This is a useful news site which provides the same news story written at three different levels of English, making it a wonderful tool for ESL classes and differentiating for different age groups. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English+As+An+Additional+Language

The BBC Primary Mandarin site is a wonderful place to begin learning Mandarin Chinese with videos and other resources. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Mandarin+%26+Chinese+culture

This is a wonderfully designed site to learn Mandarin Chinese. It uses a huge collection of Chinese TV programmes and movie clips with interactive and dual-language subtitles. Click on a Chinese character is see the translation and hear the pronunciation. You can set your ability level and also what sort of media you are interested in. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Mandarin+%26+Chinese+culture

This is a fab literacy site where you can find interesting and rare English words. Browse for words to make children's work stand out from the crowd and play 'guess the meaning' with your class. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English

Keep your class motivated with this is behaviour management tool where teachers can award virtual badges for anything. Choose from a large collection of badge designs. The children can see their progress with their own personal login. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Management+%26+Rewards

This is a superb site for finding downloadable podcast for kids to learn Mandarin. Not all the resources are free, but there are lots of really useful resource that are, including over a hundred audio files lessons and for learning pinyin. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Mandarin+%26+Chinese+culture