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Literacy & Drama Links

General Literacy Sites
Communication (Speaking & Listening)
Books: Books On-Line to read for free!
General Literature Sites
About Books and Stories
Favourite Authors
Sites for and about Young Writers
Poetry
Reading
Structural (Word & Sentence level)
Drama

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General Literacy Sites  
BrainPop English primary.gif (1033 bytes)vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
BrainPop is an American education site for schoolchildren. It has information and short cartoon movies. You can join for a fee and get unlimited access or get a limited daily access for free.
The Children's Literature Web Guide
An excellent resource. Discussion boards, Reviews, References and loads of links.

DfEE Standards Site: Literacy
The National Strategies project has finished but this page has links to the materials that were produced and are now archived in the National Archives.
eTeachers' Portal vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
A sister site to Kids on the Net which provides support, advice and encouragement for using the internet to support children's writing. This site came out of the Writers for the Future project (see below)
The People's Dictionary
A simple on line dictionary that aims to track the way English words and meanings change and gives users an opportunity to add new words / meanings / uses.
FRET - Free Resources for English Teaching ks3_4.gif (1080 bytes)
This site has now become a membership site with a membership fee. The F part of FRET is not quite so true anymore. There is still a small selection of free resources. If they are the sort of thing you like then the £20 joining fee will be worth spending.
Hamilton Trust Save Our Sundays vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
Weekly plans for Literacy (and Maths, too) with support materials. This is a really useful site.
Handwriting for Windows
Kber sell a very useful piece of software that allows you to print using fonts that look like the sort of handwriting that we want our children to learn and use. We don't usually recommend commercial sites but so many people have told us how useful this is that we felt it worth stretching a point.
Lancashire Grid for Learning Literacy Activities and Resources vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
Just what it says on the packet! This site is packed full of useful stuff for anyone teaching Literacy to children between the ages of 3 and 16. There is a useful collection of files for use with TextEase.
Learn-a-lot primary.gif (1033 bytes)
This Canadian site sells books and games for teaching basic literacy skills. There is also a useful links page
My Home Library vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
The prime objective of this site is to provide freely downloadable bookplates, many of them designed by leading children's book illustrators. Many of them are in monochrome so that children can colour them as they like. The author Anne Fine is involved in this site and has written book reviews for children of varying ages. There is an area where children can submit their own book reviews and a page explaining the history of bookplates.
Mr Jennings'  Resources and plans
Exactly what it says - a useful site. This link will take you to "Mr Jennings" website - follow the links to Teachers' Resources.
The National Centre for Language and Literacy vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
Useful organisation, useful website. NCLL is based in (appropriately) Reading There are resources, courses, authors to visit schools and more..
National Literacy Trust
NLT an independent charity dedicated to building a literate nation and this is their website. Worth a look.
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Persuade Star
A free online tool to help pupils write persuasive essays. Children's writing can then be downloaded. Teachers must register (free). Could be useful.
The Pirate Ring
A useful site if you are preparing a unit of work about pirates. Lots of links to sites (of varying quality and probity - ie check sites yourself before suggesting them to children) all on the subject of these colourful characters.

Pitara
This is a site for kids which is based in India, which calls itself "the kid's Portal of Joy and Knowledge". It is full of interesting stuff with an Indian perspective. In particular there is a very useful section of Indian folktales and stories and poems.
Teaching Ideas for English
Lots of really useful downloadable from this excellent site. (Opens on the Reading page but links to other Literacy pages).
 Teachit's Free Literacy Resources ks3_4.gif (1080 bytes)
A collection of free resources for teachers of English. For a modest annual fee you can become a member and get access to editable content.
 Teddy Travels
Columbus Bear has been on a world tour. You can read his diary, see his photos and his scrapbook. The site has linked Art and Literacy activities for KS2 children. This is a nicely presented site which children will find very interesting.
Visual Literacy ks1_2.gif (1080 bytes) vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
Here's a great idea from Gary Chapman at Pennington Infant School (Lymington, Hants). A week's worth of planned literacy hours using artworks rather than text. The lessons here are aimed at infants but the ideas would be useful with KS2, too.
 Web Worksheet Wizard primary.gif (1033 bytes)
Create online worksheets, posters etc. for your children. I haven't actually tried it myself, but it looks like it could be useful.
WWWebster Dictionary
Online dictionary and thesaurus from Merriam-Webster, the premier American dictionary publishers.
David Wray primary.gif (1033 bytes) ks3.gif (965 bytes)
David Wray is professor of Literacy Education at Warwick University. His site has a useful Ideas & Resources section containing ideas on Thinking about Audience, Creating a Literary Environment, Technical Writing Skills and a range of sample Writing Frames.
Writing.com
A free to join online writers community. Based in America - well worth a look.
Writing Frames
Intended for use in secondary History, these  might be useful in a range of writing tasks at KS2 - 4.
Writing Frames for the Literacy Strategy
A great collection of writing frames from publishers, McGraw Hill.
 
Communication (Speaking and Listening) top.gif (1541 bytes)
BT Learning & Skills vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
Excellent! Lots of free resources, all around the topic of communication in its varying forms. You have to join (don't worry, it's free). There is also a section for children, which includes games and activities.
 
Books: including Books On-Line to read for free! top.gif (1541 bytes)
Aesop's Fables
More than 655 of Aesop's fables on screen. Listed with title and moral. Click and find the whole story often illustrated and many with audio readings. Aesop with an American accent!
BAB Books Online Stories
Lots of online stories for small people.
The Book People
Good site offering every book you could want at very low prices. You can subscribe to their bulletin list to receive the latest titles, special offers and competitions.
BIBLIOMANIA, The Network Library
A very quick, well laid-out site for works of reference, poetry, non-fiction and fiction and an excellent way to get at those classic novels after the shops close!
Bibliomania - Fiction Library - Contents
This sites includes works by Shakespeare, Joyce, Dickens, Wilde, Austen and Kipling and many classic writers. These need to be read on-line.
Big Books from MAPE  primary.gif (1033 bytes)vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
Several illustrated big books to read online. Ideal for use with a data projector or for a group around the computer. The stories can be downloaded for use offline.
Children's Storybooks Online
A nice collection of online story books for a range of ages. They seem to have been produced especially for this site, mainly written by Carol Moore. Attractively presented.
Cool Reads ks3_4.gif (1080 bytes)vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
This is a site dedicated to publishing book reviews by 10-15 year olds. The reviews are categorised by genre and there are more than 2500 at the time of this review.
Dorling Kindersley for Schools
Well known publisher. Some free resources, including a very useful clip art collection.
Fairrosa Cyber Library vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
A tremendous site with all sorts of literacy goodies, from classics  to read on line through information about children's authors and illustrators to articles and reviews. A fascinating section on Lewis Carroll.
Fairytale Land ks1.gif (967 bytes)vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
Lots of resources and ideas, from Lancashire Grid for Learning, to support literacy work with KS1 children around the theme of fairy tales.
IPL2 Reading Zone ks1_2.gif (1080 bytes)
IPL stands for Internet Public Library, an American organisation. This section of their site has links to lots of on-line resources including lots of online books for children. Track back to the home page (click the IPL2 logo) to access other sections of their site, including an area for teens.
Lil'Fingers ks1.gif (967 bytes)
A number of simple stories, simply illustrated, for toddlers to read with an adult. Particularly useful to recommend to parents.
The Many Roads To Japan
You can download the whole text of this book (about 20000 words) and support materials to go with it. It is a text aimed at low intermediate and above ESL/EFL students and tells the story of a young man who refused to fight in Vietnam and the life journey which brings him to settle in Japan. The author, Robert W. Norris, is an associate professor at Fukuoka International University in Japan.
On-Line Books
News, features and archives....... look out for Charles Lamb's commentaries on Tales of Shakespeare for a quick synopsis of all the plots.
Puffin Books UK
Explore the house in this site. Stories for the fog of the bathroom, comfort in the bedroom or browse the living room full of an alphabet of pocket biographies of authors.
Project Gutenberg
The largest online repository of free to read books. Just search for the title / author and, if it's out of copyright, it's probably there.
Bullet1.gif (148 bytes) Stories for Kids 
A colourful French site (most of it is in English) that has lots of links to online books.
Tales to be Told
An online task for a group of pupils to use the internet to investigate folk tales.
Wired for Books - Kids' Corner
Lots of online audio stories - Lots of Beatrix Potter, also Lewis Carroll,C Dickens, Brothers Grimm ...
The Word Pool vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
This is great! It's a UK children's book site owned by author Diana Kimpton with book reviews, author profiles (including information about authors who will visit schools), ideas for reluctant readers and information for children's writers. There is a particular leaning towards encouraging reluctant readers but there is much much more. Go! Look! (There is also some useful stuff about Maths books).
 
General Literature Sites top.gif (1541 bytes)
Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site
A useful American site. Featured books and reviews and more
Fablevision
A media company. This links to the free resources pages of their website which contain lots of fun stuff, some of it Literacy related. Children will enjoy it anyway.
Folklore, Myth and Legend vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
Online texts and useful weblinks for anyone "doing" traditional stories..
Mrs Mad's Bookarama
This is really a book sales site with links to Amazon, but Mrs Mad reviews loads of children's books and children can write their own reviews which are included with Mrs Mad's. A fun place for children to find out more about books.
Reading Online
An electronic journal of the International Reading Association.
Sebastian Swan vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)ks1.gif (967 bytes)
A literacy website designed for Reception and KS1 children and teachers by Kent LEA.  A collection of "Big Books" with supporting materials for teachers. Children can post comments on the books to Sebastian's Blog. Excellent.
Stories from the Web
Hosted by Stockport LEA this is a must for all interested in reading and writing. Full of great reads and information about authors. There are separate sections for different age groupsl. Children can also play games and write their own stories and reviews. Don't miss it!
Surfing with the Bard
Shakespeare classroom on the net. Dedicated to helping pupils learn about and enjoy Shakespeare's works. Fun.
Words and Pictures (BBC)
Linked to the children's TV series.
Wordsmith
Join this site and you can have a word-a-day, anagrams or dictionary definitions sent by email. Or don't join and simply look it up.
 
About Books and Stories top.gif (1541 bytes)
  Charlotte's Web ks1_2.gif (1080 bytes)
An excellent site produced by an American 2nd grade class. Pictures, chapter summaries, A-Z of names etc. from the book and much more. Recommended
The World of Peter Rabbit ks1_2.gif (1080 bytes)
A site dedicated to the work of Beatrice Potter. Pages about the characters and about the author. Wonderful animated potteresque graphics.
 
Favourite Authors top.gif (1541 bytes)
  The Complete Andersen
A huge collection of Hans Christian Andersen's stories on one site!
Into the Wardrobe: The C S Lewis Web Site
Judy Blume's Home Page
This is Judy Blume's own home page. There is lots here for both adults and children who have read and enjoyed her books.
The Roald Dahl Home Page
The Official Roald Dahl homepage. Music, graphics and... Information about the man and his works, information for teachers and a treats (for kids only) section.
Eric Carle Website
The official Eric Carle website.
The Dickens Page
Actually lots of pages containing all sorts of information about the great man.
Anne Fine
The official website about Anne Fine and her books.
Anthony Lishak
A children's writer who also specialises in visiting schools to inspire children's writing.
Michael Morpurgo's Official Website
Information about the writer and his works.
Philip Pullman
This is Philip Pullman's own website. There is information about him and his books.
Terry Pratchett
Lots of stuff about the man, his books and Discworld.
Michael Rosen
This is Michael Rosen's own website. Lots about him and his writing.
J K Rowling
Kids will love this one both for its content and its presentation.
UK Children's Books
A guide to the online world of children's literature. There are lists of dozens of authors, illustrators, (mostly those currently writing - no Enid Blyton, for example), publishers and organisations with links to their websites. This is an excellent place for children to find out about their favourite writers.
 
Sites for and about Young Writers top.gif (1541 bytes)
Adventure Island ks2.gif (967 bytes)vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
A c
ollaborative writing site from Kids on the Net. Adventure Island is a web-based tool for classes, schools and groups to create an interactive online island that other people are able to visit and explore.
Audrey Wood Clubhouse: Fun for Parents and Children ks1_2.gif (1080 bytes)
Audrey Wood is an illustrator of children's books. Her site is colourful and lively and concentrates of the way books are illustrated. Lots of encouragement and ideas for young writer/illustrators as well as a collection of activities.
Dragonsville vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
This stun
ning site is an online collaborative writing project created to provide an environment in which children can write and develop their writing. It came out of the Writers for the Future project and has to be seen to be believed. It is now part of Kids on the Net.
Kids on the Net ks2.gif (967 bytes)ks3.gif (965 bytes) vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
A superb website dedicated to publishing writing by children all over the world. Has stories, poems, opinions and much more as well as clear instructions to children about how to submit work. Kids will love it. There is a teachers' page with resources, education news, and links to web sites for the whole curriculum.
The Neverending Tale
ks2.gif (967 bytes)ks3.gif (965 bytes)
Wonderful idea! This is a collection of choose-your-own-path adventure stories. If you don't like the options you can add your own so that the stories grow and develop with time.
Stone Soup
Stone Soup is an American (printed) magazine whose content is written by children. The site contains lots of examples of quality children's writing.
 
Poetry top.gif (1541 bytes)

Poetry-archivevmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
 Hear poets read their own work (including Tennyson, himself, reading the Charge of the Light Brigade!) and there are links to a few other fun poetry related things such as visual poems. This was a BBC site.
Fizzy Funny Fuzzy vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
Poems for kids by the poet Gareth Lancaster. The name tells you all you need to know. There are hundreds of funny poems, each one illustrated with an amusing animation and space for reader's comments. Kids will love it.
Giggle Poetry vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
Another fun poetry site for kids.
Josie's Poems vmstar.gif (1122 bytes) primary.gif (1033 bytes)
Josie Whitehead writes poetry, mostly for children, and is an enthusiast teacher of poetry. Her website(s) are a great resource if your literacy lessons include poetry writing.
Low Probability of Racoons vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
Poet Peter Howard's site. Poems (some with sound), animated poetry, poetry for kids, links to poetry sites and more. Excellent.
Poem Hunter vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
This is the place to find that poem! The site has 35,461 poems by 5,205 poets that's another 2000 poems and 200 poets since I last edited this page!) . You can look them up by poet or by alphabetically by title. This is a really useful site!
Poetry Class vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
The Poetry Society and the DfES join together to take the fear out of teaching poetry.  There are lesson plans and ideas, resources, interviews with poets and more ... Looks good!
 

Word Level & Sentence Level top.gif (1541 bytes)
Big Dog's Grammar secondary.gif (1047 bytes)
A Bare Bones Guide to English. An American site that could be very useful to those who are a bit puzzled by grammar. Information, examples and online tests.
bullet1.gif (148 bytes) Daily Grammar
English grammar and new words. If you register (free) they send a daily email with daily words and pages for grammar...mind you it's as much for grown ups as children: fascinating the explanation of the grammar sometimes...
bullet1.gif (148 bytes) 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. ( It also has some maths games)
Grammar for Writing
ks2.gif (967 bytes)
Texts and activities from the DfES booklet made IWB friendly by Lancashire Grid for Learning.
Grammimes vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
Paul Hitchcock has come up with a great idea for teaching parts of speech. Paul says, "Grammimes offers a new practical system for teaching grammar skills within the classroom. The method supports games and activities that takes the teaching of grammar away from traditional pen and paper methods". Grammimes are hand signs that represent parts of speech and can be used in games and activities to add a physical component to language learning. The site includes information about the parts of speech and suggestions for many classroom  game activities.
Spelling It Right vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
Lots of good advice and common sense about spelling. Aimed mainly at parents and children (and adults who want to improve their spelling, too), I think that this site would be a really useful resource for teachers, as well. As well as general advice about how to improve spelling there are lots of freely downloadable worksheets and suggestions for suitable books (both for English and American spellings).
 
Drama top.gif (1541 bytes)
Kenneth Taylor's Drama in Education Site
Lots of links to sites and resources of interest to drama teachers. There is also a discussion group.
 
Reading    
Learn to Read at Starfall
An American site to support early phonic reading development. many children will enjoy this - it's very colourful.


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