Crick Software blog
Earlier this year, a BBC news item “Writing a Book in a Day” highlighted the work of a South African based charity called Book Dash that creates and publishes books for free, with the aim of enabling all children to “own a hundred books by the age of five”.
There has been a (much–needed) focus on developing early language skills recently. Through my research, I discovered that experts are talking about the power of nursery rhymes. Did you know that a child who knows eight nursery rhymes in their early years will be among the higher achievers in reading and spelling when they are eight years old?
Día de Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a celebration of life and death and takes place on November 1st and 2nd each year in Mexico. The holiday has roots back to rituals honouring the dead in Ancient Mesoamerica.
According to lecturer in education Dr Kirstin Mulholland, everyone needs a ‘stuck list’. She shared her advice in a recent article about classroom strategies to support pupils to work and tackle challenges in their learning independently, minimising the first port of call being to ask an adult for help.
Have you seen the 3-D Shape Hunt Clicker resources? These colourful sets are great for helping children to identify, name and write about shapes that can be spotted within everyday objects. Read on to see how this can be a fun activity to carry out during the school holidays.
Clicker is a great tool in supporting learners at all stages of their literacy journey. With lots of recent talk about cognitive load theory and its implications on learning, I wanted to explore some ideas about how Clicker can help.
Most of us write differently depending on what we are writing and, importantly, who we are writing for. While we regularly give children different writing tasks to develop their writing skills and to expose them to different genres, too often the only audience for their writing is their teacher.
LearningGrids is one of Clicker’s most popular features – teachers love having instant access to a free library of curriculum resources – at the time of writing there are over 3000 available! However, I am sometimes asked when training schools – “What if there aren’t any resources on my topic? Is it difficult to make your own?”
Recently, I read an article written by teacher, author, poet and playwright Michael Morpurgo. He wrote about why schools should move away from teaching writing through a grammar-focused approach and, instead, encourage creativity and children’s love of reading and writing. I believe Clicker can help in this mission! Read on to find out ways that Clicker can empower children to express their thoughts, develop ideas and discover the joy of writing.
Engaging children in topical debates and discussions is a great way to build their confidence and skills in speaking and writing.
I had a Customer Care meeting recently with a school who wanted to expand their use of Clicker across the curriculum. I showed them that we have lots of resources for cross-curriculum literacy on LearningGrids. Many of these can be found in the English subject area of LearningGrids.
Have you had a chance to look at all the Clicker resources on LearningGrids about the Moon?
Here at Crick, we’ve all been working hard to get ready for the launch of Clicker Books for iPad and Chromebook. Now it’s here with beautiful illustrations and a huge range of resources, I can’t wait to share what’s in store for you and your learners.
Carol Allen is an Education Advisor specialising in ICT and Inclusion, having taught in both mainstream schools and schools for students with severe, profound and multiple learning difficulties. In this powerful guest post, Carol explores the unique challenges that schools are currently facing, and what they can do to help everyone in their community flourish.
We have another full schedule of webinars lined up for you this term, including some great training sessions for Clicker users - read on to find out more!
