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English

Developing the ability to use language effectively is central to all our work at Lower Park. This entails providing structured programmes to develop Reading for meaning, for pleasure and for independent study, Writing for a variety of audiences and purposes, and Speaking and Listening in group and individual situations. Children learn and practise basic skills of English Grammar, spelling and Punctuation. They are stimulated to express themselves creatively in writing and drama. Above all, they are taught to appreciate the power and scope of the Language as the most important means of human communication. The school has successfully implemented the National Literacy Initiative.

Anne Frank Online
This is an American site dedicated to the famous and inspirational teenaged World War II diarist. There is information about her life and selected extracts from her diary in this attractive website. Some parts of the site are still under construction (May 2000), including an education section. The site is useful for history or literacy at Key Stage 2.

Ask the Author
Bringing interactivity to children's reading, this site offers the chance to ask questions of well-known children's writers. The authors featured change every couple of months and pupils can email questions they'd like to ask the author about their work. This might be a useful Literacy Hour activity. The site also features links to children's authors' homepages, such as Roald Dahl and Eric Carle.

Authors and Illustrators on the Web
This site contains information on authors of children's books, such as Dr Seuss, Lewis Carroll and C S Lewis, as well as people and places from children's books, such as Winnie the Pooh and the Land of Oz. A site full of valuable information that can inspire children beyond simply reading the story and a great resource for literacy teaching.

BookWorm - Great Books for Kids .
Part of the large Bonus.com site, BookWorm is a child-friendly book review area where Key Stage 2 and 3 pupils can browse through book reviews and summaries, as well as join book clubs and read interviews with their favourite authors.

Christmas Word Search
Choose from a selection of wordsearches of varying difficulty, all with a festive theme. The site is suitable at Key Stage 1 upwards for developing literacy skills. There are links to other sites, including Castle Oaks, where a sample puzzle-maker is available to download.

Concordances of Great Books
A no-frills site, this has full text, complete word indexes and full searchability for over 400 books. Included are a complete Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes, 55 Dickens works, 22 Wilkie Collins works, many other British and American authors, plus historical and other works. Advanced English students may find it of interest for research. There is also a dictionary and a cheat sheet for Scrabble fans which will list the best words and scores from any given letter combination.

Curriculum Crosswords
These crosswords are not interactive and need to be printed before use but are very useful. A very useful, differentiated cross-curricular resource covering a broad range of topics at Key Stage 2.

Daily Buzzword
A site for older Key Stage 2 children and those who would benefit from extending their vocabulary, the Daily Buzzword introduces a new word, gives a definition, explains how to use the word and then tests you to see if you have understood. Children using the site will need to be fluent readers but those who need extending can be challenged to use the Buzzwords within their work.

Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature
An excellent idea, this is useful for teachers, parents, librarians and pupils who are interested in finding the best titles in children's literature. The database asks the reader to complete a form stating age range, gender, genre and many other factors if you have preferences. It then compiles a reading list of good children's books, tailored to your needs.

English Activities for Kids
This is an excellent place to practise and build your child's vocabulary, spelling, grammar and reading skills. It provides online random tests and evaluation at a number of proficiency levels. Contains some commercial material but these free exercises are great for English at Key Stages 1 and 2.

Fun School Opposite Challenge
This site teaches young children about opposites through interactive games and animated pictures. Good quality graphics and clear picture clues make this engaging site a useful tool to motivate less able readers. This would be an excellent resource for children struggling with basic literacy at Key Stage 1.

Fun Zone
Choose from a wide variety of exciting puzzles and activities at this interactive website. 'Cook and Calculate' offers tasty fun with numbers whilst artists can create their own pictures in 'Draw with Booker'. There is also a Hangman online game. This site contains many literacy-based games providing useful Literacy Hour exercises for both Key Stages 1 and 2.

Gaggle
Gaggle is a language game that teaches children the names for groups of animals. The new vocabulary is tested with a series of timed, quick-fire, multiple-choice questions. In addition to improving vocabulary, this English activity develops speed-reading skills like skimming and scanning. It is best suited to very able children who can compete to see who can get the best score in the least time; a potential Literacy Hour activity.

Giggle Poetry
This comical collection of poetry for kids covers numerous topics including a section devoted to school. Children are invited to participate in a limerick competition and to review some brand new poems. A fun and amusing Literacy Hour resource for Key Stage 2 English classes.

Greek Myths and Legends
This site can work on several levels in the Key Stage 2 classroom. As a reference section for teachers' subject knowledge it is a useful starting point, while it also works as a resoure of Greek myths that are presented in a format suitable for children to access. Additionally, the site provides practical examples (including photos and artwork) of how to use the these stories within the class.

Go to Sleep Now
Simple, fast-loading pages contain delightful stories for preschoolers and beginning readers. These are followed up with colouring pages and puzzles based on the stories. There are also some poems and hints for parents and teachers on encouraging reading skills in children. An excellent resource for Nursery and Key Stage 1 classes and for getting the nippers off to sleep at home.

Grammar Glamour
Grammar Glamour is a site full of examples of grammar facts and usage. There are sections on capitalisation, the sentence, subjects and predicates, verbs and the parts of speech. With a greater emphasis on grammar usage through the National Literacy Strategy, this site should prove useful to English teachers and all students.

The Grammar Gorillas
Special Needs pupils working on sentence construction will enjoy this playful site, which employs cute graphics in a game that tests knowledge of grammar terms and improves overall literacy. The game is helpfully differentiated into Beginners and Advanced stages, with pupils aiming to feed the Grammar Gorillas by correctly identifying nouns, verbs and other parts of speech.

Harper Collins Children's Site
A great educational site from this publishing company. There are sections on maths and reading both with activities, exercises and games to keep the user interested. There is a section on how books are made, and also teacher's guides to accompany most sections. A good Key Stage 1 resource for English and maths.

Just for Kids Who Love Books
Updated monthly, this site is aimed at young readers up to early teenage years. There's a massive database of information and book reviews of authors children enjoy, from Louisa May Alcott to Paul Zindel. Children can also submit their own book review and comment, so this site may come in useful for teachers in encouraging children to write about their reading.

KidsBookshelf
A great site for reference in the school library, English classroom or at home, KidsBookshelf aims to encourage children of all ages to read more widely. There are suggested books for holiday reading, guidelines for parents and teachers and fun activities for young people to do, such as poetry, story writing and drawing contests.

Language Live
Although these exercises are written by a primary school teacher, activities such as the 'Home for Abused Apostrophes' and 'Words at Work' will also come in handy for Key Stage 3 pupils brushing up on their grammar skills. The site is fun and attractive and could be used with the whole class in the IT room, or simply as enjoyable lesson ideas.

Listen & Write: Poetry
Join Wordz R. Wilde and friends for rhyming raps, Wonderwords and sizzling similes. Designed specifically for the Literacy Hour in the 9-11 age range, this colourful and lively BBC Education website makes good use of guided activities and audio technology to make poetry-writing a doddle. Children can have a go at making their own verse online which may even be put on the site in the Showcase. There's a section for parents and teachers too containing lesson plans and printable poems.

Longman Dictionaries
This is a massive site, fun for kids and useful for teachers, offering a variety of activities using dictionaries. Teachers can use the site's study exercises, word games and downloadable worksheets to encourage better research skills in the classroom. An ideal accompaniment to a research skills programme of study.

Look And Read - Spywatch
This is a stunning site and an invaluable resource for teaching literacy. It is based on the schools television series and children embark on an animated comic strip adventure with contextualised rhyming, phonic, dictionary and story-writing activities. The site could be used to motivate reluctant (or able) readers and to test and reinforce word and text level work. This is a must.

Mythweb
Mythweb is devoted to the heroes, gods and monsters of Greek mythology. Whether the class is studying the topic through history or is looking at the genre during Literacy, there is a wealth of information to be gleaned via an attractive and easy to navigate site. Key Stage 2 children will find it very useful.

Nursery Rhyme List
This is an alphabetical listing of nursery rhymes, some with their historical context given. It could be the basis of a project for pupils researching the origins of various nursery rhymes and discussing their findings as a group. An accessible way for children to study English language and a useful aid to the Literacy Hour.

Poetry4kids.com
Ken Nesbitt presents 'The Funny Forty'. This highly amusing collection of his most recent poems covers a wide variety of topics including 'Mashed Potatoes on the Ceiling', 'Mithing Tooth' and 'Spaghetti'. This hilarious literacy resource material will be much appreciated by Key Stage 1 and 2 pupils in their English and literacy lessons.

Puffin House
Navigate around this colourful house to find book reviews, jokes, games, puzzles and biographies, including top tips on writing from popular children's authors. With stimulating activity sheets, poems to finish, links to other sites and a teacher's section, this offers many fun suggestions for expanding literacy skills. It could be useful in Key Stage 2 classrooms and as resource material.

Reef of Lost Words
A series of online wordsearches using days of the week, names of months and the different seasons. There are lots of games and some interactive images. Intriguing animation and sound let the child know that the puzzle has been correctly completed. A useful resource for motivating reluctant readers which may be of value as part of the Literacy Hour.

Roald Dahl
A suberb site with animation. As well as games and Dahl information for children, the site contains downloadable teachers' lesson plans based around Dahl's popular stories.

Shakespeare 4 Kidz
This is a theatre group that focuses on performing Shakespeare to children and which produces material to help children to perform Shakespeare themselves. The site is mainly an advertisement for the theatre company and its innovative work, which it does very well. There is an online ordering and booking service, with details of the company's schedule, a competition and information on how their work will fit in with the Literacy Hour.

Telling Tales
'Welcome to the wonderful world of stories' begins this lively site. There are original tales to read in the 'Stories' section and 'Stuff to do' contains plenty of starter ideas for writing exercises that can be done in English lessons or as homework. Pupils can email their work to the site for others to read. A useful literacy resource for Key Stages 2 and 3.

The Wacky World of Words
Lots and lots of different word games can be found here which will be very useful for fun word level work. Oxymorons, mystery words, numbletters, rhyming buddies, anagrams, words within words - it's all here within one site. An excellent Literacy Hour resource.

Treasure Island
Designed with young readers in mind, this site offers interesting background information plus a variety of activities to develop children's understanding of the book and literacy skills. Pupils can follow the suggestions to write reviews, character studies and draw maps of the island, as well as check out links to other relevant sites.

Useless Knowledge.Com
A site that puts itself down in its title is actually a mine of interesting, if somewhat irrelevant, information. From the true meaning of unusual words (great for the Literacy Hour!) to explanations of eternal conundrums, pupils will be able to find out more than they will ever need to know. They can test themselves on science, geography, history and sport but beware the American bias. A must for Trivial Pursuit addicts!

What's the Difference?
A high-tech puzzle that allows young children to click on the differences between two pictures and rewards them with an animated message when the puzzle is correctly completed. If needed, the '?' button gives simple instructions. The activity can be done in small groups and the differences between pictures can then be discussed. A great aid to literacy teaching.

Word Detective
Key Stage 3 pupils working on spelling and vocabulary can find light relief at this site, which helps create wordsearches and puzzles. Pupils simply feed into the page the words they have been working with and the site builds it into a puzzle for others to solve. Useful for fun end-of-unit revision pieces and literacy teaching.

Words and Pictures
A fun and packed site that is a valuble aid to literacy learning for 5-7-year-olds. Take part in spelling games or practise long vowel sounds with the colourful and animated poems. Words and Pictures supports the Literacy Hour and is aligned to the BBC Schools TV series of the same name.