Useful apps lists

Literacy, Numeracy, SESE, Arts Education

Literacy apps for ipads & iphones sorted by class group

Literacy apps for ipads & iphones Middle & Senior Classes

Numeracy apps for ipads & iphones Middle & Senior Classes

Numeracy apps for ipads & iphones sorted by class group

Literacy & Numeracy apps for Android devices

SESE apps for ipads & iphones Middle & Senior Classes

Creativity apps for ipads & iphones

 

Special educational needs

ipad & iphone apps for children with Dyslexia, Reading & Writing Difficulties

ipad & iphone apps for children with Dyscalculia/Numeracy difficulties

Android apps for children with Dyslexia, Reading and Writing difficulties

Android apps for Complex Communication Needs

ipad & iphone apps for Complex Communication Needs

 

Teach your monster to read…for free!

Teach your monster to read is a fantastic app and website for helping children to learn their letter sounds, blending sounds to make words as well as their high frequency (dolch) words. It comes highly recommended by teachers and students alike!

The award-winning phonics and reading games have been played over 160 million times and are used by thousands of teachers as part of their phonics and literacy education.

The app has recently been approved by the UK government Department for Education’s Hungry Little Minds campaign to help parents find high quality educational apps for kids.

**VERY LIMITED TIME SPECIAL OFFER – USUALLY £4.99 / $4.99**

The app (covering everything from letters and sounds to reading full sentences) is free on Apple today and Amazon from Thursday March 19.

It’s also free to play on laptops and PCs at teachyourmonstertoread.com.

It is just £0.99 / $0.99 on Google Play Store*.

It is usually £4.99 / $4.99 and it has no in-app purchases or adverts. The special offers will run until Monday March 23rd.

Once downloaded, it’s free to continue to use on that device even after the promotion has ended.

Apple (free now): apple.co/2V92VL5
Amazon UK (free Thursday): amzn.to/2PjLBiJ
Google (£0.99 / $0.99 now): bit.ly/2cohkeR

Share your creativity!

Lots of you will be enjoying some active learning experiences over the next few days.

Parents, if you would like to take a photograph of your child’s artwork, baking, lego creations, projects, handwriting, St Patrick’s Day creations etc please email it to marshalstownblog@gmail.com and we will upload the photo to our blog.

Let’s share and celebrate your child’s hard work and creativity! 🙂

Active learning ideas!

This list below includes some ideas for active learning experiences for your child to experience over the next few days.

If anyone wants to take a photo of their projects, pictures, lego creations etc please email them to marshalstownblog@gmail.com and we will upload them to our blog. 🙂

Useful websites and apps

Below is a list of suggested websites and apps which can be used during the current school closure.

See also disclaimer at the end of the post.

All Subject Areas

https://www.twinkl.ie/offer  – use code IRLTWINKLHELPS for one month’s free membership. Fantastic resources for every subject and learning needs

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ Excellent website for games, activities and resources for all subjects

http://www.coolappsforschools.com/ Useful links to apps for all subjects, searchable by class

 

English/Literacy

https://www.nessy.com/free-trial/signup – 8 week free trial for reading and spelling

https://www.borrowbox.com/  Online access to ebooks and audio books from your local library

https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/accounts/sign_up Excellent app for learning initial letter sounds, word blending, Dolch/Jollyphonics Tricky words

https://watch.vooks.com/checkout/subscribe/purchase?plan=monthly – one month free trial

https://www.storylineonline.net/ Free online videos of stories read by famous actors

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ Excellent free online ebooks and stories for ages 3-11 years

https://worldstories.org.uk/ Free online ebooks

https://www.storyberries.com/ Free ebooks and audiobooks, short stories and poems

https://www.starfall.com/h/ Excellent resource for learning initial letter sounds, word blending, and helping emerging readers develop their reading fluency

https://www.pdst.ie/sites/default/files/Literacy%20Apps.pdf Excellent list of literacy  apps for all ages

 

Maths

https://www.mathplayground.com/ Online games for revising and consolidating many areas of the Maths curriculum

https://xtramath.org/#/home/signup Great resource for revising times tables

https://www.khanacademy.org/signup?isparent=1 Personalise your child’s Maths revision

https://www.multiplication.com/games/all-games Don’t let the name fool you. This website has excellent games for addition, subtraction and division as well as multiplication

www.topmarks.co.uk Excellent resource for online games for all subjects, not just Maths. Maths games and activities can be filtered using your child’s age.

 

Gaeilge

https://www.duolingo.com Excellent app/website for beginner, intermediate and confident Irish speakers of all ages, not just children

http://www.nicurriculum.org.uk/microsite/pl/irish/index.asp Online gaeilge estories and games

http://resources.teachnet.ie/clane/2008/naionain.html Excellent resource containing most of the rhymes and songs that children learn in school. Rhymes are organised under different topic headings eg. Bia, Mé Féin etc.

https://www.cula4.com/en/ Great resource from TG4. Many cartoons and children’s programmes are dubbed in Gaeilge. Can also be downloaded as an app for free

https://www.cula4.com/en/games/ Online Gaeilge games

https://apps.apple.com/ie/app/saibhreas-na-gaeilge/id1080597425?ign-mpt=uo%3D8  Free-a great app to help develop vocabulary in a fun way. Students can learn nathanna cainte and seanfhocail in a fun and interactive way.

https://apps.apple.com/ie/app/briathra-na-gaeilge/id930872842?ign-mpt=uo%3D8 very useful app which uses characters to represent verbs that are Caol, Leathan and Neamhrialta. There are a number of ways that the app can be used including an A-U list of verbs which you can click to conjugate into different tenses. There is also a search function where you can search as Gaeilge or in English for a particular verb.

DuoLingo is a free award winning app which can be used to help children learn Gaeilge. It assesses each users starting point and develops their language from there using a games based approach.

https://apps.apple.com/ie/app/nemo-irish-gaelic-free-language/id630242408 Also available in the Google Play store for android devices. Aims to teach the user the most essential words and phrases in the Irish language, covering topics such as food, shopping, conversation starters and travel. The most important sentence building blocks are also provided. Built in audio will allow kids to ensure they are pronouncing words correctly, allowing them to speak confidently in the language.

 

Arts Education

https://dabbledoomusic.com/p/parents-subscription-full-access/?product_id=1122889&coupon_code=12741L Free access to the Dabbledoo music programme used by teachers to help deliver the music curriculum in school

https://www.classicsforkids.com/games.html Great online resource where children can learn about instruments of the orchestra, composers

https://pbskids.org/games/music/ Similar resource to the one above

http://www.iamanartist.ie/ Great resource for art project ideas. Comprising 30 short TV programmes (each 6 minutes in length), an interactive website with slideshows, lessons, weblinks and interactive games, it provides a stimulating collection of curriculum-mapped resources for empowering and supporting the teacher and pupil.

http://www.quivervision.com/Bring your child’s colouring to life!

https://www.twinkl.ie/resource/cfe2-a-31-mime-differentiated-role-play-challenge-cards Great fun for all kids and adults alike!

https://www.twinkl.ie/resource/roi2-t-645-drama-activity-charades-game Great fun for all the family!

 

SPHE & PE

https://www.gonoodle.com/ Movement videos for active kids including dance, yoga, mindfulness,

https://www.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYoga  Yoga, Relaxation, Mindfulness

https://rtejr.rte.ie/10at10/  Get active and have fun for 10 minutes!

Mindful Moments Brain Break

https://www.twinkl.ie/resources/nutrition/food-drink-and-eating/healthy-eating Lots of activities and resources on the importance of healthy eating and good nutrition

 

Geography, History and Science

https://online.seterra.com/ Learn all about the countries of the world

https://world-geography-games.com/ Similar to the above website.

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/learning-zone/primary-students/subjects/geography/geography-full-story/ireland-my-home/the-counties-of-ireland-g/ Online game focusing on the location of the counties of Ireland

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/learning-zone/primary-students/ Great website for exploring Ireland’s past and present

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/ Fantastic online resource for children to reearch all about animals, countries and the world in general

http://presprimary.ie/the-learning-zone/history-geography-learning-zone/Provides useful links for children to research Ireland’s geography and history as well as on a global scale

https://schoolhistory.co.uk/games/ Educational games designed to test your knowledge of history

http://www.mountsandel.com/index.asp Explore Mesolithic and Neolithic life in Ireland through the eyes of an archaeologist excavating a site!

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/gamesactivities.html Free online activities and resources to try with something for everyone whether you’re interested in animals, plants, chemistry, biology, physics, space, magnets, electricity, forces, light, sounds, gases or other science related topics.

Please note that https://marshalstownns.edublogs.org does not maintain any of the web sites provided as links so it assumes no responsibility for their contents, nor does any link constitute an endorsement of any other site, its sponsor or its contents. These links are just suggestions of websites that parents or pupils may wish to visit. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of each individual parent to determine whether the links provided are suitable for children to visit. The links all worked at the time of publishing this post.

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How to talk to your child about Covid-19

It is highly likely that your child has heard some information about Covid-19 from friends, tv, radio and social media so it is important to ensure that they have the facts about the virus as well as how to protect themselves. Having the facts can often take away or allay children’s fears about a situation as they can frequently imagine or worry that things are worse than they are.

Image result for parent talking to child

If your child is anxious or worried, the two links below provide some practical and useful advice on how to speak to your child about Covid-19.

Dept. Education & Skills: Talking to children and young people about Covid 19

Barnardos-Guidance and support for parents

Dr Ronan Glynn answers children’s questions about Covid-19 on RTE News for Kids

Free access to Dabbledoo Music curriculum

Please click on the link below to access free lessons and resources for the music curriculum. This is used by class teachers throughout the school as part of our music curriculum lessons.

Dabbledoo music curriculum

 

DabbledooMusic makes music education more accessible, engaging and fun for teachers and students everywhere. Our resources have been developed to help teachers and schools cover all areas of the primary school curriculum, in a way that promotes creativity and collaboration and instills a life long love of music.

Music is a way for young people to learn through a unique shared experience, to develop their creativity and self-esteem while building skills that will help them in their school lives and beyond.

TWINKL free access

There is free access for a month to Twinkl

Teaching Resources, Primary Resources, Twinkl, Primary School Resources

This is a fantastic site with thousands of resources such as stories, projects, games, activities, worksheets etc for every subject in the curriculum.

Use the code IRLTWINKLHELPS to gain free access to all of the resources.