Links
Here you will find Rocks Park's carefully selected choices from the world wide web. There are games to play, videos to watch and things to do - all to support learning. Plus the occasional one just for fun! Things will be added all the time! Make sure that you have permission to use the internet before you start.
Eight things you might not know about the Great Fire of London
In September 1666, the Great Fire of London consumed hundreds of acres of houses, shops, churches, and government buildings. But what effect did politics and memories of a recent civil war have on the spread of the fire, and the hunt for someone to blame? And once the flames had died down, how did the people of the city rebuild what they’d lost? All is answered in A Short History of the Great Fire of London, on BBC Sounds.
Witness history's most incredible moments and remarkable people https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0g76gfv
BBC's 500 Words, the UK's largest children's story writing competition for 5-11 year-olds is back!
500 Words is a story writing competition for children. This year the two age categories will be 5-7 and 8-11. To enter, children need to write a story that they would love to read which is no more than 500 words.
Children need to be the relevant age for the age category on the closing date 10 November 2023 and be living in the UK.
The stories, once written by the children, must be submitted by an adult using the entry form on the 500 Words website.
We all know competition means one thing… prizes, and there are some unbelievable prizes up for grabs. The grand final will take place in February 2024 at Buckingham Palace! The top 50 finalists will be invited, along with a parent or carer. The event will be featured in a special 500 Word programme with The One Show, on World Book Day on 7 March 2024.
Take a look at the link for more information about how to enter. Good Luck.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/500-words/about-500-words-collection/zj9b8p3
BBC Bitesize Parents' Toolkit is the place for mums, dads, carers, and the whole parenting community to find stories, expert advice and fun activities that will help you support your child in a changing world.
There are lots of tips to help you navigate back to school and the possible after school difficulties.
Cool places to visit:
We have some amazing museums in Sussex, take a look:
Newhaven Fort https://www.newhavenfort.org.uk/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gmb
Brighton Museum https://brightonmuseums.org.uk/brighton/ Booth Museum https://brightonmuseums.org.uk/booth/
The Observatory Science Centre https://www.the-observatory.org/
The Brighton Toy Museum https://www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk/
The Bluebell Railway https://www.bluebell-railway.com/the-stations/sheffield-park-station/
Science Museum https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/home
Some great Science at home ideas here: https://pstt.org.uk/resources/curriculum-materials/Science-Fun-at-Home
The National Gallery contains the story of European art, masterpiece by masterpiece.
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/
Natural History Museum https://www.nhm.ac.uk/
In massive news, London’s much-loved Natural History Museum is getting a model of the world’s largest dinosaur. Move over Dippy, a model skeleton of the largest creature known to walk the earth, a Patagotitan, is coming to the Natural History Museum from the 31st of March 2023. The Patagotitan weighed a colossal 60-70 tonnes and stood at about 35m from nose to tail.
Here's what you need to know: https://www.londonxlondon.com/natural-history-museum-new-dinosaur/
British Museum https://www.britishmuseum.org/
History for Kids is a free online history network. Enjoy and have fun exploring our history. The website is packed with articles, worksheets and even a quiz on each section. You will find cool games, videos, worksheets on many historical events that will help you understand those that have gone before us.
http://www.historyforkids.net/
Science and Space:
8-17th March 2024 British Science Week.
You can find lots of great science activities here: https://www.britishscienceweek.org/
Walrus are facing the reality of the climate crisis and we need to know more about how they are affected. WWF and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) are asking teachers and students to become ‘Walrus Detectives’ and help contribute to conservation science by searching for walrus in thousands of satellite images taken from space!
Take a look at their website and see if you can help: https://www.wwf.org.uk/get-involved/schools/walrus-from-space
Important: You must have permission from your parent before you register.
Fifty years after the Apollo Moon landings, the Artemis I unmanned lunar rocket lifted off from launch pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Nov. 16, 2022
The first step is the test flight of its colossal new rocket – the Space Launch System. The maiden flight of the mission – called Artemis I - will have no people onboard. But if it works, the next step will be to take astronauts along for the ride.
After splashing down safely in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida early Monday morning, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 completed the agency’s sixth commercial crew rotation mission to the International Space Station. The international crew of four spent 186 days in orbit.
Read all about their mission here: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-spacex-crew-6-safely-returns-to-earth-near-florida-coast
Engaging, accessible, and often explosive—Nanogirl Labs is on a mission to give ALL young people the opportunity to be blown away with science and engineering like never before!
Our classes love learning about space, take a look at some of these great sites.
The European Space Agency https://www.esa.int/
The International Space Station https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
You can follow all the space news as it happens here: https://www.nasa.gov/and https://www.nasa.gov/kidsclub/index.html
Mars 2020 is a Mars Rover mission by NASA's Exploration Programme launched on 30th July 2020, and touched down in Jezero crater on Mars on 18 February 2021
July 2019 marked an extremely important space anniversary, as the world remembered 50 years since man first walked on the Moon. The Apollo 11 Moon landing launched on 16 July 1969 and touched down on the Moon on 20 July 1969, four days later.
Neil Armstrong became the first human to step onto the moon. He said "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind".
Take a look at this link and you can follow the commentary between Apollo 11 and mission control as they land on the moon
http://www.firstmenonthemoon.com/ and watch as Neil Armstrong descends onto the lunar surface.
Learning:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround
A great place to find out what's going on in the world around you, explained in a much simpler way.
Practice your typing skills: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zf2f9j6/articles/z3c6tfr
Our classes have animal names; hedgehog, rabbit, squirrel, woodpecker, owl, fox and badger.
If you would like to find out a bit more about each animal take a look here:
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/animals/
Time Tables Rock Stars - the children have their own login. If you need help with your login, please contact the office. In either paper form or online, Times Tables Rock Stars is a carefully sequenced programme of daily times tables practice. Each week concentrates on a different times table, with a recommended consolidation week for rehearsing the tables that have recently been practised every third week or so.
Hit the button is a great site which the children use in school. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
History for kids is a wonderful collection of short funny rhyming poems for children, based on stories from days gone by – the California gold rush, the Boston tea party, Ancient Greece, Vikings, and Elmer the flying monk, among others.
The stories on history for kids have been written in such a way that the parent or teacher will enjoy reading them as much as the child enjoys hearing them, with the added bonus that the child (and maybe the adult) will learn something about history.
It is the most fun educational site for kids on the web!
Oxford Owl is an award-winning website from Oxford University Press, created to support children’s learning both at home and at school:
https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/
Stunning images and interactive games and colouring books. A lovely site for children to learn more about animals, wildlife and the world around them.
Play free games and quizzes, find art activities, explore homework help and share your art with Tate Kids.
Children can easily and intuitively navigate this colourful learning hub. Covering 14 main subjects including maths and English, as well as space and sports. There’s plenty to get stuck into, but best suited for children who are already confident, competent readers. Alternatively, this is a great resource for parents of younger children to explore together – you could get wonderfully lost here for hours, drinking in the history and heritage of the Incas or brushing up on the times tables. The images used are plentiful, bright and clear.
Welcome to I'm a Puzzle, where you can play thousands of online jigsaw puzzles for free. You can find picture puzzles of all types. Try the puzzle of the day or explore the categories of puzzles. To play, simply drag and drop the jigsaw puzzle pieces together.
A collection of educational video content brought to you by TedTalks. You’ve got a wealth of videos to watch – from a couple of minutes up to 20 minutes long, catering to all ages and covering all sorts of topics. At first glance, on the landing page you’ve got “the hidden life of Rosa Parks”; “the bug that poops candy” and “how to vaccines work?”. Each video is marked with its length and what area of learning it relates to from health to science and technology. While this is geared towards children, we bet parents and teachers will get just as much out of it.
Jump Start Jonny is on a mission to get kids fit! His fun workouts and chill-out videos are loved by over 250,000 Jumpsters in schools and homes worldwide! Get jumping today!
https://www.jumpstartjonny.co.uk/home
Helping children across the UK to get physically active with curriculum linked videos. There's everything from times tables, punctuation, languages, science and English. Take a look.
BBC Bitesize offers some great learning, everything from English and Maths to Science and Music. There are separate pages for KS1 and KS2.
Do you worry about the amount of plastic that we use everyday? This page can tell you all about ways that you can change things:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/11CnCQR0GJfkDgJs57sR5Ps/war-on-plastic
Would you like to know how to programme a robot or write computer code? You can find out more here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zvnrq6f There are also some great games to test your skills.
Watch UK school teacher Mr Thorne and Youtube sensation Geraldine the Giraffe take you on a learning journey through the world of phonics, grammar, spelling and punctuation, learning letters and sounds along the way
Numberblocks Sing along and learn all about numbers with the Numberblocks! www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/numberblocks
Phonics play is FREE to use https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/ user name: march20 password: home
Teach your monster to read
The groundbreaking game that makes learning to read fun. Covers everything from letters and sounds to reading full sentences. Designed in collaboration with leading academics. Compliments all synthetic phonics programmes used in schools. Computer version is 100% free.
The Harry Potter At Home hub where you’ll find all the latest magical treats to keep you occupied - including special contributions from Bloomsbury and Scholastic, nifty magical craft videos (teach your friends how to draw a Niffler!), fun articles, quizzes, puzzles and plenty more for first-time readers, as well as those already familiar with the wizarding world. We’re casting a Banishing Charm on boredom!
https://www.wizardingworld.com/collections/harry-potter-at-home
Thursday 7th March 2024 will be the next World Book Day.
Take a look: https://www.worldbookday.com/about-us/
Help and Support:
https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/
Children's Mental Health Week 5-11 February 2024.
Children’s Mental Health Resources
Home - e-wellbeing (e-wellbeing.co.uk) e-wellbeing is a shared platform between Sussex Partnership and the YMCA Downslink Group specifically for young people. On the landing page young people can access a series of questions to get directed to the right help for them
Families Under Pressure | Maudsley Charity. NHS charity Maudsley Charity have produced this website to support Families Under Pressure.
Info, advice and support -
online, on the phone, anytime.
Safer Internet Day 2024
Safer Internet Day 2024 will take place on the 6th of February 2024, with celebrations and learning based around the theme ‘Inspiring change? Making a difference, managing influence and navigating change online’.
Safer Internet Day is the UK’s biggest celebration of online safety. Each year they cover an online issue or theme that speaks to the things young people are seeing and experiencing online. Created in consultation with young people across the UK, this year Safer Internet Day will be focusing on change online, this includes covering:
Young people’s perspective on new and emerging technology
Using the internet to make change for the better
The changes young people want to see online
The things that can influence and change the way young people think, feel and act online and offline
Coordinated in the UK by the UK Safer Internet Centre, the celebration sees thousands of organisations get involved to promote the safe, responsible and positive use of digital technology for children and young people.
https://saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/safer-internet-day-2024
Take a look at our Safeguarding page for more tips and safety advice.